How often should you use save cleaner?

xitneverendss

I have save cleaner by kuree and I'm curious if there's any sort of rule of thumb as to how often you should use it? Before, I was using it before every time I would boot the game but I'm wondering if that's overkill. Curious to know how often some of you guys use it.

TreyNutz

Whenever my game seemed to get laggy or the homeworld .nhd file size in the save folder got above 200+ MB. So, not very often.

Every time you boot the game is overkill, IMO. And before moved I to an SSD it always took a few minutes for my game to regenerate the sim portraits, which I didn't like waiting for.

I use MasterController's Reset Everything command on the town more frequently than I used Save Cleaner.

Note: now that I'm on patch 1.69 I remove SNAP resources manually with S3PE since Save Cleaner 2.x doesn't work with 1.69. I've heard the earlier versions work though. I just haven't gotten around to trying it.

SimplyJen

I want to say I did it every 2-4 sim weeks and I usually have a mod in to extend the days. Like TreyNutz I reset the town more often. I do that every sim week or less if needed.

I'm also on patch 1.69 so I have to do it myself now through S3PE but I never get around to doing it. I did try an earlier version of Save Cleaner but I don't know the differences.

SimplyJen

@xitneverendss
I really like your avatar sim btw. Which defaults do you use (if any)?

xitneverendss

@TreyNutz That seems like a pretty reasonable standard to stick by. And I figured cleaning them every time I played was a bit much. Thanks for the tip Oh and I actually use the older version of save cleaner because I read the newer one deletes photos and stuff and I can confirm it works fine!

@Simasaurus09 Yeah, I think I read one of your comments elsewhere that you reset your town every sim week so I've started doing that now too. Really makes a difference!

Aw, thanks Though I can't take all the credit, she's a premade in Hidden Springs lol. I DO use defaults. For the skin I'm using Mango Smoothie Skinblend by Neiuro. It's one of the only ones I really like that keeps the EA eyelashes too. And the eyes are Oh My Eyes by Escand.

abe

Sorry to jump in here - what is the save cleaner? I was just thinking about my game has become fairly laggy, would that fix it?

Also, "Reset Everything" what does that do and does that improve how much a game lags? I do have master controller installed.

Thanks!

TreyNutz

abe wrote: »

Sorry to jump in here - what is the save cleaner? I was just thinking about my game has become fairly laggy, would that fix it?

Save Cleaner is a program written to remove SNAP resources which the game generates. The game generates some of these because it needs them, but generates too many (every time you do something in CAS, for example) which it doesn't use. Those just bloat save games and take up RAM. I'm not sure removing them helps with lag so much as it does with keeping RAM usage down. More information:

The first section of this page: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Deleting+SNAP+resources+FAQ

Instructions on using Save Cleaner: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Kuree's+Save+Cleaner

v2.x of Save Cleaner also removes custom images created in the game (photos, prom photos, still life and portrait paintings). If you want to keep those there are some hoops to jump through (see the link above). I haven't used v1 of the program but I hear it doesn't delete photos.

Also, "Reset Everything" what does that do and does that improve how much a game lags? I do have master controller installed.

Thanks!

Resetting everything literally resets everything in the world you are playing. All objects and sims get reset. This can fix objects in use, stuck doors, etc. The MasterController reset of sims is more in depth than the resetsim cheat; it rebuilds the sim. I'm not sure what all resetting everything does, but in my games it usually reduces lag for a while, and in some games it has dramatically shortened the time it takes that save to load (I have no idea why). Resetting everything can help with lag, but it's not a cure all; it won't fix routing issues, for example, nor will it reduce save game bloat.

Resetting everything is disruptive to gameplay. Sims get reset to their home lot, usually with motives altered (but not wishes). I plan ahead and choose a time when the entire household is home and is about to go to bed. I tend to save before; use MC to reset everything, then wait until MC is finished. And then send everyone to bed because their energy bar is usually empty.

abe

@TreyNutz awesome, thank you so much!

Pary

I also use it almost every time I finish a play session. Its just one of those "voodoo" things I do, like deleting my caches after every play session as well. My game runs nicely, I rarely have issues, so I keep on appeasing the sim gods

I don't really think you can hurt your game by using it every play session.

abe

@Pary And you would reccomend version 1, because it doesn't delete family photos and such? My game is patched to 1.69 I believe, so does it matter if i'm using the earlier version?

Thanks for all the help!

igazor

Patch level doesn't matter for Save Cleaner to be safe to run as technically it's not a mod. The reason that versions 2.x of Save Cleaner doesn't work for 1.69 players is that EA changed the exe file that the game runs under, so such external utilities that expect to find ts3w.exe (with the "w") running instead of ts3.exe get confused and don't know what to do. Versions 2.x are not unsafe on 1.69, they just error out and don't work.

I may be not remembering this right, but am pretty sure I've gotten the photos and paintings blanking out issue on version 1 as well. One solution is to put such items, these would be photos and paintings of actual sims and in-game landscapes not the generic paintings that sims make, into sims' inventories for protection before running Save Cleaner.

For the record, I never run Save Cleaner until my individual nhd file(s) go above 400 MB, for the TravelDB file until it gets to around 1.0 GB though I have let that one get much larger. An entire single instance of one of my ongoing game's saves is around 2.4 GB now but that's also because I am carrying 15 Traveler mod connected worlds in it. Maybe I need to be less of a slob about this myself; my game is fine but I might need a larger hard drive to support it soon.

SimplyJen

@igazor Is there anything different Save Cleaner V2 does that the original does not? Besides the executable.

igazor

Simasaurus09 wrote: »

@igazor Is there anything different Save Cleaner V2 does that the original does not? Besides the executable.

As I recall (possibly incorrectly), v2 does a "better" job in that it deletes more kinds of files than v1 did hence more of the reputation for blanking out wanted photos and paintings that v1 has. Also, v2 is more convenient though less flexible; it will clean all nhd files and the TravelDB in a single saved game folder without asking. On v1, you have to point it at the particular files you want cleaned one at a time. So if you have multiple worlds in there, even without Traveler such as the WA worlds, Uni, and Oasis, it takes more steps to get them all done.

I think they also require different versions of .NET, so some never could get one version or the other to work anyway since they get confused as to which .NETs they have activated in Windows.

SimplyJen

@igazor Thank you for the info.

Pary

I rarely, if ever, take family photo's or anything like that, so I haven't had experience with the disappearing stuff sorry.

abe

I'm a little confused on where to place the program/how to use it - is there a certain file I'm supposed to place it in? Do I use it in game, or is it something I use after I've closed my game.

Thanks!

TreyNutz

abe wrote: »

I'm a little confused on where to place the program/how to use it - is there a certain file I'm supposed to place it in? Do I use it in game, or is it something I use after I've closed my game.

Thanks!

It doesn't matter where the folder goes. I unzip the file inside a folder dedicated to TS3 things, then double click on the executable. You use the program when the game is not running.

abe

@TreyNutz Okay, thanks so much for clarifying!