Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Cleaning Up

Been doing some cleaning up in Apple Valley. Got the downloads folder down to 1.99 GB. I noticed that my Sims 2 folder is 2.90GB, so over half of the space was the download folder.

My downloads are sorted by the following:
Downloads/
-Body Shop
---Accessories -> Type
---Beards
---Clothes -> Male/Female/Mesh -> Age Group (Adult/Child/Etc)
---Eyes / -> Default
---Eyebrows
---Hair/-> Creator
---Make-up/-> Type
---Skintones/ -> Default
-Build Mode ->
-Buy Mode -> Creator
-Hacks and Mods -> Creator
-Temporary (all files being tested)

Once I realized that most of my Sims 2 folder was devoted to downloads, then I got on the clean up vibe pretty quickly-amazingly it also spilled over into real life so I'm multi-tasking by cleaning the house, blogging and loading up the game. :)

So far I culled it from 2.28 GB to 1.99 GB, but you won't believe what actually took up the most space! Those lot packages that you have to click and then they load. Well, you better delete those things afterwards since those lots are now in your game. Those files were HUGE! I'm talking thousands of megabytes! Then the next largest is a MAXIS file from the EA Store. That's right-one file! It's a hefty 10,000 KB !!! Yikes!

My goal now is 1GB for downloads. That would mean I will have to be pretty harsh when it comes to downloads and subsequent storytelling. Those themed lots-like Fish & Chips resturaunt, might have to be conveyed via Maxis objects. I'll also have to stay away from all those beautiful websites with WCIF info on yummy objects!

Speaking of yummy objects, what CC is a MUST keep for you? I vote for my blakeboy modular seating and a very beautiful modern chair from Bella Forum-I think.

Does anyone know how big the Sims 2 is without any CC, saved sims or uploaded lots? Basically the memory stats for the game only. I guess that's not quite true since I also deleted the shipped neighborhoods (Pleasentview, Strangetown, etc).

How does that reflect on game time. I have a very basic desktop-Compaq Presario with 1GB of memory, 250GB Hard Drive and AMD Athlon processor.

13 mins for game to load to start-up screen

1 min to load neighborhood of choice

slight lag of 4 min when click apartment lot and for family choice to load (not sure if this is because I'm on the net at the same time)

3 min to load family

So about 20 minutes to load and start playing. Not bad since it used to take a good 35 minutes to load. I want to get my load time back down to 10 minutes, I downloaded something recently that really lags the system. I have some clues as to what it might be, so I'm off to cull some more.

7 comments:

  1. My game takes around 6 minutes to load and then it takes about 3 minutes to load a family, including loading the (very empty) neighborhood. I have around 2.5 GB in my Downloads folder. My computer has 1.5GB memory and a 2GHz processor. I also got a new graphics card for Christmas which rendered my vanilla game smoother. It was great but I didn't want to play the game without my CC :). With that in mind, I'd say that load times mainly depend on the amount of CC and memory.

    I like my Build and Bodyshop content the most. I have the polished floorboards from Holy Simoly that I use on almost every lot. I like walls and floors in general because they take up little space and can really make a room.

    Basically, my CC is organized the same way as yours but I have a lot more subfolders. For example I have a subfolder for every individual mesh in my Bodyshop folder. It takes some time to organize, but it makes it easier to find orphaned meshes.

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  2. My computer -lovingly called Ole' Bertha- recently got a tune-up, so the loading time takes about two minutes to start the game, a minute to load the neighborhood, and about another minute to get into a family. Before I added another two gigs to my computer, my wait time was something like fifteen or twenty minutes. I'll be eating Ramen noodles for the next month or so to compensate for the cost, but playing is soooo much easier with more RAM!

    As for CC I simply can't live without, I love blakeboy's seating, too! Also, the new Shakerlicious Kitchen Set from Mod is in *every* single one of my sims' houses. I also tend to go hog-wild with custom plants (So *that's* where Neeve gets it from! :)), so there's plethora of Macarossi's stuff in my DL folder.

    And oh my goodness, your method of organization is meticulous! I would love to have my 1.63gig CC folder organized like that, but I don't have the patience. Kudos to you though!

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  3. Gosh, your load times make me so jealous! Perhaps I can get an upgrade as well, I would love a 2min load time!

    -yokihi, I LOVE those polished floors as well and have been building my floors/walls files. I personally like walls/floors that don't require multiple parts (ie 2 pieces of a wall to make a window), but a lot of the wonderful buildings out there use that.

    -simberry fields, I am going to have to get more RAM-did you take your computer to a pro or go the DIY route for the upgrade?

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  4. I think I need to do the same, my DL folder is getting closet to 2 GB and I don't want to go over. Hell most of my files are compressed which saves a lot of space since uncompressed my DL is about 3 GBS.

    My must haves are Blakeboy's seating and the Kitchen Basic set by BB I think. Those are my loves right there

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  5. -heredonecove, I love the kitchen basic set too, I want to find a few more recolors-like bright green, pink and orange, and pretty soon it will be the default kitchen set for my simmies :)

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  6. I have a computer guy in my hometown I've trusted with my machine for years. I recommend going to a smaller shop and having it done professionally, especially if you have an older machine (like I do). The peace of mind of knowing that the professionals aren't going to ruin anything, in my opinion, is worth a little extra cost.

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  7. -simberry, thanks. I finally got my RAM upgraded from 1GB to 3GB, it would have been easy to do myself, but I brough the wrong RAM at first :( So a waste of $40 :\

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Thanks for reading and commenting!

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