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Only Testing-Adding Lots When EIG Will Only Crash (from Store Limit)

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Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
edited March 8 in Nominated Threads
*Test for adding lots when EIG crashes from World Size and Store Stuff limit...

Hi :D
I would suggest to do this only for extreme cases. :)

*This isn't about how much Store Stuff you have installed while using EIG-
It's about BOTH how much Store is installed AND how many lots Which Use a lot of Store Stuff in them Together. If you have a lot of Store Stuff installed but not USED in the lots or you don't have many built lots with Store stuff in them- you won't have a problem in EIG.


A little back story? or tl;dr
I ran into a problem when my World got big. Once I added many built lots to my world, adding more lots would make EIG crash. Not only crashing when saving, EIG would not let me place any new lots; Open EIG- Bang! -It'd crash.

I searched all over for a way around this problem.
What I found was suggestions of cutting back on Store stuff; editing game files such as 4GB Patch; editing the DCCache to increase the save size; deleting cache files (of course; saving more; Using a batch file to start EIG; DEP for game exes; Edit my GraphicsCard/Rules.sgr files; etc…

Pretty much all I could find was telling me to not use much Store and reduce the world size. Best thing- not to use any Store Stuff or upload lots for people to add to an empty world.

Made me sad because that was what I wanted; A large world with a lot of the Store stuff, especially the PC stuff and themed to my world. Why buy the Store if we can’t use it?

For a time I gave up; Nothing was working to allow me to finish my world.
I decided to make my world smaller. This made me think of all the worlds I had backed up and restarted and how I could and did move layers.

Layers are fun and easy to move around in the same world files now that I understand them more; If there is only one layer in an old world save, we can move all our other layers from the newer to the old world. Once I found I didn’t have to use S3pe to read all the layers, it wasn’t much work- unless I was redoing my world to make it smaller.

Ah, but there’s the rub. Moving layers such as trees, runs into its own problems- which got me to thinking about the lots folder.

I can move the lots layer/folder with S3pe but then it kinda messes up all the lots. I don’t want to do that; mainly because I’d still have to redo each lot.
Which lead me to think about placed lots, they’re not only saved on the lots layer but their information is in the Lots folder…

Saved in the Lots folder… hmm… So, I moved lot information from one save to another, and it works!
As long as the lot is the same number in the layer of the world it can be changed in the lots folder; Nice, right? No S3pe, no hex numbers, just moving lot files.

If this was something a lot of people knew but didn’t tell me (like no one sharing the upload unlimiting program in 2010), then it’s sad that no one helped when asked…


.........Okay, Enough blah, blah stuff................tl;dr ;)


Let me try and explain the convoluted steps I do to get my lots past the size/Store limit… (the first time it seems complicated but it's not, just tedious). :)


1.Download the EIG batch Here
– follow instructions to extract it to your desktop and its use.

2.Delete cache files in The Sims 3 & CAW
CAW
Sims 3

3.Backup your CAW World file you plan on testing- the World Folder and .world file

4.Clean out your CAW folders to make it easier to work. Move your backups/world files you’re not using to Documents or Desktop.
One World Kept

5.Open CAW/Open world

6.If you don’t have a Lots layer, make one now. Name it Lots, name it Testing Lots, name it whatever you need to remember.

7.Rename the 10 lots you need to add in EIG (move them to Lots layer if you just made it). This will be the quick and easy way to test.
(do this by clicking on your lot and hitting the space bar- the option to show in layers will show up- click on it). Your lot will be highlighted, if not click on an open area on your layer box and it will show. Rename it on the Layers and not in the property box.
Choose Lot
Lot in Layer


8.Save/Close CAW …Delete cache files in The Sims 3 & CAW again (cause I like too)

9.Open CAW/World folder in Documents
*Make a New Folder- Call it Test A
*Copy your World folder and .world file and paste them into Test A folder
New Folder

10.Open Test A folder, Open the World Folder- inside there’s two Folder-Layers & Lots
*Open the Layers Folder and delete all layers but your Global Layer and Lots layer
*Open the Lots folder and delete all lots but the renamed lots
*Go back to Test A folder which holds your test world files…

11.Drag the .world file into the Batch file on your desktop
(having read the batch instructions)

12.Go into Edit Town and add lots slowly*and Move Slowly.* It's your partial world files, it can be delicate. (Don’t be scared at what you see, it should change to normal unless you enter a lot… XD )


13.When done, move view low to ground cause I like it. XD

14.Save then Quit

15.Go to Test A/Lots folder- Copy all lots

16.Open your main World Folder/Lots Folder: Delete only the renamed old lots (the one’s you just placed)- - then paste new lots

17.Open CAW; Open your Main World to check on the lots

18.Delete Test A folder

..... So, this is how I added about 50 lots, redid lots that were missing stuff, built later, new Expansions/Store lots, or had to be added later. :shock:

I’m also able to add Sims to a world with only the lots and Global layers… and place them into the main file.
The world won’t load to add Sims so I had to test because I was curious and maybe for future use/knowledge. 


Testing comments? Who's got time to try it?

*I know this isn't only me. Everywhere but one I read there are problems with Store installed and world lots/EIG crashing. Not using EIG with Store installed but having a certain amount of Built lots in the world and trying to add more.
I can use EIG with all the Store installed when my world has only a few placed built lots... That's not the problem.

*If your computer can't run CAW and EIG without much Store (1GB) then I don't think you should try this.


Be careful... I take no responsibility if you didn't back up your world files. :shock:
Post edited by EA_Solaire on

Comments

  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited January 2014
    LOL~ I was still editing the post. I didn't know it had posted. :lol:

    *You have to designate empty lots as No Visitors and then no townies will hang out there. If they do then something's wrong.

    *I also find comments and critiques will give ideas and expand the world- usually for the better. Some of my best worlds were made better from comments about what to add, what doesn't work, and even what others might or might not want. Some I might not have even thought about. :D
    I make them cause it's fun and this is the game to me; I share because it's wonderful to know others are having fun with the worlds I make. And I must make them as good as I can or it's not worth doing. Never perfect, presentable is more like it. :)
  • tammyjo329tammyjo329 Posts: 2,747 Member
    edited January 2014
    wow RF! This is awesome and I will start moving all my world files to my back up drive and I should be able to give this a start tomorrow afternoon (got a movie date with my sister tomorrow morning 10am showing-but I am all yours for testing this after)

    Thanks for all the hard work you put into this ... I promise to give it good testing, everything I read above sounds like it should work :D
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited January 2014
    Hi, Tammyjo :D

    Thanks! Have fun at the movies. :mrgreen:
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited January 2014
    Oh, I agree about the constructive criticism making it a better world but I've also seen some requests which seem out of the norm (like asking a world build to do a "non-Ambitions" version). That's what I meant.

    I suppose we all build for different reasons. Personally, I burn out on CAW so plan a vacation world but after that, who knows? Technical support is a bear. :)

    Thanks for the "No visitors" info. Didn't think of that. :)

    Also, I just remembered you saying you leave a lot of area open and unrouted for players to place lots- The in game World Editor is known for messing up world routing. It will and does cause freezing and lagging. The more they add the higher the chances of it breaking the save file. :(

    We, the players, are the Technical support for CAW. :)

    My next world will be on a large map but with island - a rotation world for my game. One island per Expansion. I expect to have fun. :D
    ~and it will have Store stuff with me keeping better records of what I use. :lol:
  • tammyjo329tammyjo329 Posts: 2,747 Member
    edited January 2014
    Good morning Rf!

    I woke up early, and decided to go ahead and try this out (before going to the movies), and it worked perfectly.

    You have written an excellent step by step tutorial with visual aids (pics), showing us exactly how to add lots with this procedure. I was easily able to follow your instructions and when it did not look right, I simply retraced and reread to see what I did wrong (oops my ADHD kicked in and I accidentally skipped a step LOL). After retracing my steps and going back to your instructions, viola it worked! :D

    The only thing I might suggest is that you stress the "add lots SLOWLY". I found if you plop them down too quickly it will crash, but when I waited ohh maybe 30 seconds between placing lots I had no problems .... I placed 5 lots and saved and it only took a few minutes.

    I give your tutorial 5 out of 5 thumbs up! :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited January 2014
    Hi, Tammyjo :D

    Thanks so much for testing my test. :mrgreen:

    Glad it worked- yes!
    I would forget now and then to move slow, too and -Bang- it would crash. :)
  • kmcekmce Posts: 1,150 Member
    edited January 2014
    Ive tried this and now when i get to step 5 CAW crashes, i cant get any of my worlds to load, any idea how to fix
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited January 2014
    kmce wrote:
    Ive tried this and now when i get to step 5 CAW crashes, i cant get any of my worlds to load, any idea how to fix

    I have no idea. Is there a message when it crashes?
  • kmcekmce Posts: 1,150 Member
    edited January 2014
    Its ok, i uninstalled and installed again and seems to be working now
  • Bily_jednorozecBily_jednorozec Posts: 1,574 Member
    edited May 2014
    Hi, RFlong7!
    You are so much precious for TS3 community. I won't bumping old topic, but I'm missing here "Thank You" button. This topic I've read months a go, but when I've searched this information now, it was driving me crazy for cca 4 days.
    Beginning from today - I'll collect all yours tuts in my PC (as I've beginned again to search create something with CAW).
    Sorry for bumping old topic, but this one I was realy serching and I don't know another way how to say Thank You for yours tutorials too - not "only" for worlds (but there is Rc button and I'm using it) :oops:
    "My Studio" on thesims3.com "My Blog" on thesims3.com
    Sorry for editing my comments frequently, in most cases I'm doing this due language issues (english isn't my native language, but I'm using english, because most used by people, with who I want to communicate).
  • MadGazMadGaz Posts: 124 New Member
    edited June 2014
    Hi Rflong7

    I just wanted to say a huge Thank You for this! I've been growing more and more frustrated with the lack of EiG with my world. I then chanced upon this indispensable gold nugget of information!
    Now I feel like I'm slowly getting back on track, and it's all down to you!
    Your advice is invaluable, in much the same way as I believe is your own contribution to the Sims 3 forums!

    So once again, thank you for providing inspiration, humour and CAW wizardry :)

    All the best
    Gaz
  • niac1234niac1234 Posts: 6,735 Member
    edited June 2014
    Thanks Rflong! I've been having this problem for a long time now. I'll try it out when I get home from work today and give you feedback. You're a lifesaver as usual! :mrgreen:

    Let me get this straight. So you're basically building the lots in regular game and importing them into your bin. Then you kinda create a blank world with your lots, but none of the store content that's causing you issues. Then you trick CAW into letting your lots into your world without having to save by moving those saved lots into your world file. I like it! It's basically like you're giving the middle finger to CAW, which I've been wanting to do for years. :wink:
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited June 2014
    Hi :D

    Sorry I haven't been checking up on this topic.

    @kmce - Wonderful! Any way you can get it working. :D

    @Bily_jednorozec- Thank you, thats so cool of you to say. :mrgreen:
    I hope you have lots of fun in CAW!

    @MadGaz- So, glad it could help. I know I was pulling my hair out for months trying to get lots added to Beach City. 8)

    @niac1234- No; if you're using Store stuff keep it installed. You have to have it installed or it will be removed from the lots in EIG.
    Mostly pare your Store stuff down to what you need installed so it's easier on EIG/CAW programs. Then use these steps.
    I so hope it helps you. :D
  • niac1234niac1234 Posts: 6,735 Member
    edited June 2014
    Hey Rflong, could you help me. I'm at the point where I open edit in game using the batch files, but the lots that I want to add, the ones that I moved to the lots layer, are not showing up. :(

    Screenshot-115_zpsbbd693b7.jpg
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited June 2014
    Hi :)

    Did you keep the lots layer and the Global layer?

    10.Open Test A folder, Open the World Folder- inside there’s two Folder-Layers & Lots
    *Open the Layers Folder and delete all layers but your Global Layer and Lots layer
    *Open the Lots folder and delete all lots but the renamed lots
    *Go back to Test A folder which holds your test world files…
  • niac1234niac1234 Posts: 6,735 Member
    edited June 2014
    Rflong7 wrote:
    Hi :)

    Did you keep the lots layer and the Global layer?

    10.Open Test A folder, Open the World Folder- inside there’s two Folder-Layers & Lots
    *Open the Layers Folder and delete all layers but your Global Layer and Lots layer
    *Open the Lots folder and delete all lots but the renamed lots
    *Go back to Test A folder which holds your test world files…

    I double checked. And yes for both of them. I did have a layer for houseboat lots, but I don't think that should matter right? I checked to make sure that the lots were kept too. They were. I could even tell that they were the right lots because the lot sizes corresponded up perfectly to the file sizes. :XD:
  • niac1234niac1234 Posts: 6,735 Member
    edited June 2014
    I figured out how to make it work. What happened was that I added a layer within the lot layer that held the testing lots. I figured that it would act like a folder and would be part of the lot layer as a whole, but as it turned out, it created a whole new layer and I deleted that layer. So I had to go through the whole process again, (thank god for backups) and it worked! I'm so glad it's an issue with the game. I thought it was an issue with my computer and I was going to have to re install the game. *wipes forehead*
  • niac1234niac1234 Posts: 6,735 Member
    edited June 2014
    Alright. Now I have another issue. How do you place dive lots in edit in game?
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited June 2014
    Hi, Niac :D

    So glad you figured it out. :D

    ... dive lots work the same as any other lots. :D
  • niac1234niac1234 Posts: 6,735 Member
    edited June 2014
    Rflong7 wrote:
    Hi, Niac :D

    So glad you figured it out. :D

    ... dive lots work the same as any other lots. :D

    Whenever I place them into an empty lot, all of the objects move up a level and the lot type changes to visitors allowed.

    Also, I have an idea as to an alternative for this way. Instead of doing this, what if you copy your world to another folder, and bulldoze all of the lots from that file. You will then be able to work on the lots in EIG and save successfully, then transfer all of those files to the global CAW file which is also where you do all of the CAW work.
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited June 2014
    niac1234 wrote:
    Rflong7 wrote:
    Hi, Niac :D

    So glad you figured it out. :D

    ... dive lots work the same as any other lots. :D

    Whenever I place them into an empty lot, all of the objects move up a level and the lot type changes to visitors allowed.

    Also, I have an idea as to an alternative for this way. Instead of doing this, what if you copy your world to another folder, and bulldoze all of the lots from that file. You will then be able to work on the lots in EIG and save successfully, then transfer all of those files to the global CAW file which is also where you do all of the CAW work.

    Hi :D

    Placing the lot and making it a Dive lot in CAW and having the lot built as a Dive lot in the bin- placing the dive lot in a dive lot shouldn't make it raise up at all. At least it never did for me. :(

    Yes, you can work on lots in EIG without any built lots- no problem. This is only for when adding more built lots in EIG make it crash or EIG won't open with all the lots and store stuff.

    Building in an empty world is fine- you'll still have to transfer them and hit the point of crashing, if you had that problem. :D
  • kellycot1kellycot1 Posts: 2,226 Member
    Hi @Rflong7! I just wanted to bump this thread to make sure the wave of Simmers now able to use EIG see it AND to thank you for figuring this all out on your own and sharing it.

    I had this problem a long time ago, when my addiction to the Sims 3 Store began. You were such a huge help then, but it took me forever to set aside the time to reinstall just the build/buy items I needed—I wasn't able to open EIG at all, since I owned just about the whole Store. I finally cut my DCCache down to 2.19 GB (an exhausting feat!) and was thrilled to finally have EIG load. But, the excitement was short-lived when I found out that I could load EIG with that much Store content, but not save in a built-up world. I had two options: try to install even less content next time OR give your method a try. I don't mind poking around in my game files, but this was a bit scary—but your tutorial made it so easy! It took me all of five minutes to sit down with my saves and a back-up, and go through your steps.

    I've only added two lots (so far), but I take that as a huge victory! This is the first time I've ever successfully used EIG, and it's all thanks to you. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

    So, for the Simmers out there having trouble with EIG even after the new patch, I highly recommend looking at the amount of Store content you have installed and following Rflong's tutorial—it is surprisingly easy to do! I didn't even rename any layers or lots—I just made a note of what I had already called things and that was it. Took me maybe 10 seconds to save in EIG!
    a.k.a. Erin
    Check out The Simdex—my PDF guide to all of the Sims 3 Store content (last updated September 2015)
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    Hi @kellycot1 :mrgreen:

    Woot! Thanks- I'm so glad it could help. I'm always nervous about writing these- especially this one.

    I remember how frustrating it was to get stuck and having EIG crash just because of the Store content. :D
  • SeriphinaFyieSeriphinaFyie Posts: 3,506 Member
    First, you're amazing. Second, you're amazing.

    Quick questions for you... With adding in the Sims, obviously you can't do complex connections such as grandma in another house, but do they have to be fresh out of CaS? Or can you give them a few inventory items (like canes and backpacks) that will impact the player's view of the townies? I'm guessing to accomplish this, the house that you're substituting is occupied rather than empty?

    As always, you're amazing. Thank you for all that you do to support this community.
  • Rflong7Rflong7 Posts: 36,583 Member
    edited May 2016
    Hi, @SeriphinaFyie :)

    Lol~I wish but Thanks! :mrgreen:

    You can do complex connections such as grandma in anther house. The mods set it all up. You can even have them all in one lot and then separate them to different houses in Neighborhood view. :)

    They Do have to be fresh from CAS and no, nothing added to their inventory that the game doesn't put there on it's own- such as the seeds when giving them the skills points.

    No occupied houses added in EIG. They just don't show, either.

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