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Sims 3 - Disabling vs uninstalling expansions (to improve load times)?
tripecac2
Posts: 17 Member
Hi, about a year ago, I bought a bunch of expansions for Sims 3. I think I have all but 1 or 2 now. Unfortunately, I installed *all* of them, and, as you can guess, Sims 3 is very slow to load, and occasionally laggy.
I've got the usual clean up mods installed (Overwatch, etc.), and they do seem to help. I also routinely delete cache files. So, I know those tricks to try to minimize the amount of clutter in the Sims 3 file system.
Even so, the Sims 3 takes so long to load that I rarely play it. Even if my kids are clamoring to play it with me, I think of the horrible load times, and groan, and try to recommend some other game to them. This is sad, because I spent a lot of money and time researching, obtaining, installing, configuring, and testing those expansions. It would be a shame to just let the Sims 3 sit there collecting dust for the next few years, after which I presume I will have a CPU and SSD fast enough to make the Sims 3 load times less painful.
So I'm back to considering other ways to make the Sims 3 load faster.
One thing I haven't tried yet is disabling or uninstalling a bunch of expansions and stuff packs to see if that will reduce load times significantly. It will have to be a significant difference, because I'd hate to lose my ability to access that extra content simultaneously, and I also would not like to lose the Sims 3 family I created with my kids (which uses expansion content).
However, there's no point waiting indefinitely, so I'm considering taking that next step: turning off some of the extra content.
My questions are these:
1) Is Sim Game Selector the cleanest way to disable expansions and stuff packs without uninstalling them?
2) Does using Sim Game Selector to disable expansions and stuff packs actually speed up load times significantly?
3) Would uninstalling expansions result in greater reduction in load times than using Sim Game Selector?
4) If I uninstall an expansion, will that break the mods I have installed (which are mostly NRaas): Master Controller, Overwatch, Saver, Taffic, Porter, Register, GoHere, ErrorTrap ?
5) Would uninstalling expansions individually result in the same load time reduction as uninstalling everything (all expansions, mods, and the base game) and then reinstalling from scratch?
6) Which expansions and stuff packs are the most "expensive" in terms of load times? Or are they all about the same?
Thanks a bunch!
I've got the usual clean up mods installed (Overwatch, etc.), and they do seem to help. I also routinely delete cache files. So, I know those tricks to try to minimize the amount of clutter in the Sims 3 file system.
Even so, the Sims 3 takes so long to load that I rarely play it. Even if my kids are clamoring to play it with me, I think of the horrible load times, and groan, and try to recommend some other game to them. This is sad, because I spent a lot of money and time researching, obtaining, installing, configuring, and testing those expansions. It would be a shame to just let the Sims 3 sit there collecting dust for the next few years, after which I presume I will have a CPU and SSD fast enough to make the Sims 3 load times less painful.
So I'm back to considering other ways to make the Sims 3 load faster.
One thing I haven't tried yet is disabling or uninstalling a bunch of expansions and stuff packs to see if that will reduce load times significantly. It will have to be a significant difference, because I'd hate to lose my ability to access that extra content simultaneously, and I also would not like to lose the Sims 3 family I created with my kids (which uses expansion content).
However, there's no point waiting indefinitely, so I'm considering taking that next step: turning off some of the extra content.
My questions are these:
1) Is Sim Game Selector the cleanest way to disable expansions and stuff packs without uninstalling them?
2) Does using Sim Game Selector to disable expansions and stuff packs actually speed up load times significantly?
3) Would uninstalling expansions result in greater reduction in load times than using Sim Game Selector?
4) If I uninstall an expansion, will that break the mods I have installed (which are mostly NRaas): Master Controller, Overwatch, Saver, Taffic, Porter, Register, GoHere, ErrorTrap ?
5) Would uninstalling expansions individually result in the same load time reduction as uninstalling everything (all expansions, mods, and the base game) and then reinstalling from scratch?
6) Which expansions and stuff packs are the most "expensive" in terms of load times? Or are they all about the same?
Thanks a bunch!
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Comments
Does that tool do what Sim Game Selector did? Has anyone tried it? Does it significantly reduce load times?
If you are on the new Origin for Windows delivered Patch 1.69 or about to be, you have no choice. The Sim Game Selector mod will not work and you have to use the built-in EP/SP Manager whether you want to or not. The patch is not removable unless you uninstall your base game and have a pre-2012 disc to re-install from. Which, even if you do, is hardly as convenient as uninstalling the Game Selector mod.
The answer to most of your questions is that everyone's experience varies depending on their computer system. In my case, the EPs add to overhead the game has to carry while running, maybe some but not much to load time. But how long are these load times you are talking about, generally? Any huge difference between a game that has been ongoing for generations with a heavy world population vs. a relatively new one? And how large are the nhd files in MBs within the Save folders for the homeworlds in ongoing games that seem to take the longest to load?
As for #4, the only NRaas mods that are EP specific are Consigner as it requires Ambitions and Tempest which requires Seasons. Of course, you can't use Traveler to travel to WA worlds, Uni, or Oasis Landing if the associated EPs aren't there, but the mod would still work in other ways. And there are a couple that are EA Store content specific mods like Cupcake and PocketProtector. None of the NRaas mods you listed out depend on an EP being there, though.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
1) It takes about 15 seconds from when I click the desktop icon until I the launcher window is fully loaded.
2) After I click the play button in the launcher, the screen goes black. I then have to alt-tab to see a warning message about outdated mods, and I can quit or continue. I have updated my nraas mods today; how can I get this confirmation prompt to go away?
3) After I click "continue", it takes a little more than a minute until I get to the screen which shows my family (and a popup showing the list of mod installed).
4) After I continue from there, it takes a little more than 3 minutes to get through the interactive loading screen (where you click on things while you wait).
So, in all, it's about 5 minutes, from when I click on the desktop icon, until when the game actually starts. I've read about people with far worse load times, but, it's all relative; compared to the other games I could play, 5 minutes is painfully long time to wait, especially with 2 little girls anxiously circling me.
So, which patch level are you currently playing on?
Those times are for a well progressed already in progress save? I know that everything is relative, but sorry. Your startup times are not excessive. Though your game will start out using less RAM and should take less time to load if you switch off the interactive hidden object "game" that plays during loadup in Game Options.
Without knowing more about your computer system, I predict the best you are going to get by removing or disallowing EPs by any method would be shaving maybe 45-60 seconds, if that, off of your total startup time. And even that is not guaranteed. It's the nature of the game. I tend to do other things while mine is starting up (and it takes much longer than that for most of my saves), but thankfully I don't usually have 2 little girls doing the anxious circle thing.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
I often get load times of 5-10 min from the save game chooser screen. That depends on the age of the town and size of my lot/household. Getting 5 min load times from the launcher icon on the desktop to complete load of a game is really good IMO. For the Sims 3, of course. Compared to other games I play, the load times for TS3 are abysmal. I have no idea if you can do better. You might have to install the Game Selector mod and do some testing.
One thing you can do if you're still on version 1.67 is to bypass the launcher all together and just go straight to the game's executable file. You can also download a mod from MTS that will stop the intro movie from playing and get straight into the process of loading without having to click it away.
A few other things you can do to help with load times is to make sure your DCBackup folder is empty and move out excess screenshots, .sim files and lot files. Since the game can't read them I keep files I don't want to delete but don't necessarily want for the save I'm playing in sub-folders inside the main folders. I usually have a bunch of lots for a particular purpose so if I don't need those lots in my game when I'm playing I stick them in their own sub-folder in the library and so on. If I'm not planning on putting new Sims into a game all of my custom Sims can go into a sub-folder in the SavedSims folder. This makes just that much less content the game has to load.
I also found years and years ago it really helps to start the game then go off and do something else while it loads. Since my computer can handle it sometimes (once I get past the black screen) I minimize the game and read a few headlines on a news site, then after a couple of minutes check back and it's usually ready to load my save so I start that and go back to the news. Up until the last week or two I didn't even realize the game will still load in full screen if I minimize it. Sometimes I play the mini-game while my save loads. It's silly but it beats watching the load screen and reading through the tips for the umpteenth time.
I decided to run a stopwatch on my load time after reading this thread.
Starting up directly from TS3EP11.exe and including the latency of my finger clicking the checkbox for my mods notification and selecting the game I want to load up my stopwatch recorded 01:56.18 from clicking on the .exe to current selected game fully loaded. Starting up from the launcher felt like an eternity but when put to the stopwatch test and including the latency of my finger clicking on the start button in the launcher only 8.5 seconds was added to that load time.
After reading other people's experience I would say I have nothing to complain about. I have all expansions, most stuff packs, and a large ammount of store content including all the store worlds. I have no CC. I attribute my load speeds to the fact that I have installed Windows and the game on 2 1TB SSD's in Raid 1 (for mirroring not speed). However, my saved games still get loaded from 7200RPM Western Digital mechanical HDD.
If you have a reasonable processor, plenty of memory, and your Windows system is not overloaded with too much overhead from background tasks I would say your best bet to pick up speeds on game load is to move to SSD's.
I think you forgot one thing in this equation: money. They seem to be coming down in price but adding a couple of SSDs to a computer is still going to run into hundreds of dollars.
You are right but I didn't forget it so much as ignore it. It's just the way I think. What are the ways to solve a problem? The cost is the secondary consideration after you know what the available options are. Get all possible solutions on a list then check them off until you reach the one you can afford.
Quite frankly, I believe the most "low/no cost" solution to this is not upgrading to the latest patch. If you have a PC that isn't too powerful the best solution is to install as little on your Windows system as possible thereby cutting down on overhead. The less Windows has to do the best performance you can pull out of the machine. The best no cost solution for improved performance is not install everything in the first place but just the subset of expansions you think you want.
I created a new family (with only 1 person), with none of the expansion packs installed. I played for about half an hour, buying some furniture, starting a career, etc. I then saved and quit, and started up the game again to see how the load times are affected.
It took 1 minute to go from the desktop to the save file selector, so that's a tiny bit better than before. I think what helped is that I disabled the ErrorTrap mod, which was causing that warning message to appear.
To go from the save file selector to the game itself took 25 seconds! This is the part that took 3 minutes with my other family (with all expansions installed).
I suppose the next test would be to enable all the expansions, and see how much that affects load time for the new family. This is because there could be some other contributions to load time: family size, amount of stuff in the house, neighborhood, historical details, etc.
When I have time, I'll try doing that.
Another thing that can make load times of saves shorter is to use the Save As feature once in a while instead of always saving over a previous save. The reason for this is because as saves progress they hold a lot of information that after time becomes irrelevant. Using Save As makes a fresh save without the irrelevant info so it's smaller and takes less time to save and load.
There's an updated version for those on 1.69. The version of Error Trap that you use must match your patch level since Error Trap is a core mod.
Shoot, I was going to say that and forgot to! See what happens when I try to think about multiple things at once? It never goes well, never well at all.
It took about 1:20 to reach the save file selector, and, about 50 seconds to load the save file. I repeated the process, and got around the same times.
I then disabled all the expansions, and got these times: 1:10 to get to the save file selector, about 30 seconds to load the save file.
So, having lots of expansions installed seems to add around 10 seconds to get to the save file selector, and another extra 20 seconds or so to load the save file.
I just loaded up the old family again, with all expansions installed, and it took about 1 minute 20 seconds to load the save file. That's a lot better than the 3+ minutes it was taking before (and I have no idea what changed, since I have not saved that game since last time). However, 1:20 to load the old family's ave file is still greater than 0:30 for the new save file. I'm guessing the extra 50 seconds is to load the stuff that has accumulated for the old family: neighborhood details, furniture, relationships, etc.
Is this why people recommend moving your family to new neighborhoods (and clearing out inventories)?
Save file sizes vary from 20MB to 60MB per neighborhood. The old family has 3 neighborhoods (sunset valley, egypy, university). The new family just has one (riverview).
It's my understanding that too many items in Sims' inventories can cause lag and a lot of times people end up moving families to different towns because of Error 12 or 13 when they're trying to save. The Save As function will help to reduce those as well, so thereby helping slow down the need to move families.
I declare, trying to get this game to run well and keep it running well is like trying to keep a cantankerous car on the road.
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
Store Install
Unlocked Stencils
random legacy
You're right, I totally forgot about that despite looking at that folder today. They all (and if a person uses CAW there's even one in there) need made Read-only so all those pesky images can't get saved there.
I also disable all the online stuff within my game but I've noticed after I clear cache files it needs disabled again. I don't clear those files every time I play as I tend to go more on file size and it takes a while for them to get to the size of needing deleted.