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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 20th Oct 2018 at 9:32 AM
Default Sims 3 (possible fix) to the problem of Incredibly Awful Loading situations
I hope it is permitted for me to post this here. I was not entirely certain where to post this.
[[This is a (possible) fix to the problem of intensely horrible load times or just awful loading throughout the sims 3 game in general]]

I have been playing sims 3 with every expansion pack, tons of mods, cc, and store content for about 5 years now. Before then I did not use mods or anything other then the default game.
For the last 5 years I would wait around 30 minutes every time I loaded, saved, or quite my game. Also CAS was also super slow, buggy, and laggy. I tried for 5 years to figure out what was wrong with my game and now as of tonight 10/20/18 I have finally fixed my game and figured out to an extent what my problem was. Honestly I feel like a total dingus for not having realized it sooner.

My problems were:
1) severe mod conflicts
and
2) .package files other than TravelDB inside my individual save folders

I fixed all my mod conflicts using Delphy's Dashboard to disable all conflicting and corrupt mods
and
then I deleted the unneeded .package files in my saves.

My game loads within or under 7 minutes now! Also CAS runs fine and there are no more intense loading problems! :D
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Scholar
#2 Old 20th Oct 2018 at 10:24 AM
what are these "unneeded .package files"?

The drop off has been made. You've been warned.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 20th Oct 2018 at 12:46 PM
The other package files that should be in the Save folders themselves are the small ExportDB files associated with each world, there will be one for each nhd file. Can't tell if that's what the OP meant, but those are supposed to be there. I think they will respawn if removed and if the foreign world is traveled to again.

But if they mean something else entirely, I too am curious as to what else they found in there that doesn't belong.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 20th Oct 2018 at 12:58 PM
Problably to inform us and educate a fix that have been having the same/similar problem (?).

P.S. Sorry for my bad english.
Field Researcher
#6 Old 20th Oct 2018 at 4:59 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
They don't affect load time, not one bit. Though they might affect save time, depending on how long since they were updated from traveling. I've had one gone as long as 20 mins before during save.

As far as I can tell with loading, and I've spent a lot of time fixing my game's load time, if running on sufficient ram with a modern CPU, it shouldn't take anything more than 5-6 mins with any major mods etc... CCs don't actually get loaded during bootup, though they do get checked and busted CCs will stall load up. CCs are actually loading ingame dynamically as you play.

The only other factor that can force your load time to 10-20 or more is a corrupted save. I had mine gone as long as 60 min load time. Corrupted save can come from anything either from game itself, other mods, etc... Depending on what is causing it, it may be salvageable via any reset methods or object deletion via NRAAS MC. But worse case scenario is to port your households and lots and replant them in a refreshed world.

I'm actually doing that right now right at this minute. My Riverview got borked again, taking 20 mins to load and save. I've finished porting all my sims and houses, now planting them in a new Riverview. After I'm done, my load time will be reduced back down to 5 mins and save down to 3 mins.


^^This. I had to do the same with Twinbrook a few saves back. I ran reset methods, etc., and eventually I had to just replant all of my stuff in a fresh world. It runs much better now (and I have several backup saves of said new refreshed world for when it happens again.)

I also noticed that using MC in CAS to "compress" the clothing or "condense" them (so that you don't get a row of all of the recolors available.. forgive me, I've had only 2 cups of coffee this morning and I can't brain, I has the dumb) makes my loading time in CAS a lot quicker.

Compressing the CC into packages via CCMagic also reduces my load and save time, as well as using Save Cleaner when I'm done. It's just a matter of maintenance, honestly.

Dead Ringers
Discord: RedBaroness13
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 21st Oct 2018 at 12:04 AM
Honestly I think my biggest problem was that I thought 'because my game would still eventually load after around 30 minutes I wrongfully assumed it could not be do to mod problems.' But once I actually disabled all the stuff showing up orange in Delphy's Dashboard my game works soo much better. I was being super foolish assuming that it could not be mod conflicts. As for the package files I mentioned in the save folders I am not entirely sure that fixed much but I did notice a small difference in load time with this before I'd fixed the mod conflictions and gotten my game to load a lot faster.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#9 Old 21st Oct 2018 at 1:37 AM
My game now loads within or under 7 minutes, saves within around 5 or 6 minutes and CAS clothing and hair loads within 1 minute now. This is as of me fixing it last night and since then it's been running smoothly.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#10 Old 21st Oct 2018 at 1:41 AM
The only reason I posted this stuff is just in case there is someone else out there like me who did not know that mod conflicts were such a big problem.
Mad Poster
#11 Old 21st Oct 2018 at 9:54 AM Last edited by daisylee : 21st Oct 2018 at 11:44 AM.
I do not think there will be a problem if this gets buried. In the performance help threads where people have not already found the information here on the site people will be directed to it. MTS has an excellent amount of information on this topic and people who have not found it can be linked to it easily. Checking for conflicts is one of the things people are told to do if there are problems.

Resources are available here thanks to the hard work of the people who spent the time to input all the information. There are excellent resources here people can use regarding this and many other things. I have learned a lot about many things such as merging packages and so on over the years from the information provided here.

There is no reason to wait 5 years to make any easy fix when the information is available. The info. is here for our use.

People need to ask for help when a problem arises. Most of us here do not bite, most of the time. :D
Mad Poster
#12 Old 21st Oct 2018 at 11:01 AM
I suggest going over this:

http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?tit...ackage_File_Lag

Dashboard + Monitor = Godsend, I have fast load times now
Mad Poster
#13 Old 21st Oct 2018 at 11:15 AM
I would have to relearn process monitor now but used it in the past to find bad files. Very useful tool. I use the dashboard to clear caches and check CC almost every time before I open the game.
Forum Resident
#14 Old 21st Oct 2018 at 8:36 PM
Mine takes 10-20 min to load even for a new game, but I have a TON of CC so I figure that's probably why.
Test Subject
#15 Old 23rd Oct 2018 at 3:02 PM
Honestly, I think it's a matter of loading/creating cache files. if they are not existing, the game will have to create the cache files for the world in question. I actually think (my opinion) that it would be great if someone could share their CACHE files. So instead of creating some, we already got them.
Mad Poster
#16 Old 24th Oct 2018 at 12:23 AM
The general consensus is to clear caches. They regenerate very fast. I clear mine before almost every time I play. That has been advice given to players of the game almost since it was released.
Site Helper
#17 Old 24th Oct 2018 at 3:38 AM
Sharing caches would be like sharing a toothbrush. It's not something you would really want to do unless you know that you both have exactly the same things, and even then it's a bit weird.
Most people clear caches before starting the game, but there is no harm in not clearing your caches if you haven't added or removed anything and the game is running smoothly. It is important, however, that the caches get cleared any time you add or remove something from the game so that the new cache can properly reflect your setup.

I am Ghost. My husband is sidneydoj. I post, he downloads, and I wanted to keep my post count.
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Mad Poster
#19 Old 24th Oct 2018 at 7:56 AM
I use the dashboard to clean caches as easiest. I also nuke any errors or logs in my docs. I nuke the social cache, and other stuff I cannot think of at the moment as way too late. I houseclean a lot in Sims.
Mad Poster
#20 Old 24th Oct 2018 at 9:49 AM
Quick question- how useful is ErrorTrap?

I always seem to get some logs every few sessions, but nothing usually happens- I wonder if there's any way to disable the log and report system and have ErrorTrap work silently in the background.
Mad Poster
#21 Old 24th Oct 2018 at 12:30 PM
Quote: Originally posted by jje1000
Quick question- how useful is ErrorTrap?

I always seem to get some logs every few sessions, but nothing usually happens- I wonder if there's any way to disable the log and report system and have ErrorTrap work silently in the background.

NRaas ErrorTrap does a fair amount of garbage data collection along the way. I made the mistake once a while ago of disabling the Dereferencing logs by way of a tuning file since they never really gave me any useful information. What I found and confirmed with our developer is that stopped the process from happening, not just the logging, and my load times increased dramatically due to the extra weight the game was carrying. Now I just relax and let it log whatever it wants to.
Mad Poster
#22 Old 24th Oct 2018 at 1:19 PM
I do the same. I have it and ignore the logs.
Mad Poster
#23 Old 24th Oct 2018 at 10:53 PM
How do you deal with the occasional spaz-out that ErrorTrap occasionally does, where it tosses hundreds of meaningless notifications at once? Save and restart?
Mad Poster
#24 Old 24th Oct 2018 at 11:31 PM
Quote: Originally posted by jje1000
How do you deal with the occasional spaz-out that ErrorTrap occasionally does, where it tosses hundreds of meaningless notifications at once? Save and restart?

That's not something the average player should see every day, or even every month. It would indicate that one or more errors are being regenerated as fast as ErrorTrap is "trapping" them. The way to deal is to calmly attempt to analyze one of the repeated error logs to see what's giving things heartburn. If you are unable to do so, then bring them to us at NRaas and let us help interpret them. It's a huge part of what we are there for.

Correction and Deref logs may not make tremendous amounts of sense to most players (or us either, sometimes), but those don't run in loops. Something else must be happening there.
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