Merging mods to increase Performance!
J. M. Pescado:
Quote from: Inge on 2010 January 03, 15:26:04
Edit: This is all very well but wtf is a .dbc and where does it go? I only have .ebc's
A dbc is a package. They appear to be functionally indistinguishable in every way.
Inge:
http://sf.net/projects/sims3tools/files/s3pe/1001-03-1524/ start New file then use Resource/Import/as dbc. Choose multiple packages.
Isn't the idea that you put the file into the DCCCache folder?
Klinn:
Quote from: Anach on 2010 January 02, 12:47:33
I found quite a lot of mods, even those from popular sites contain a multitude of errors, and this has been a major factor of errors while saving, CTDs, black textures and slow-downs. I'm now quite careful which mods I install.
Anach, if you have the time and inclination, could you describe the types of errors you've found? Not in any great detail or necessarily naming the mods, just in point form, perhaps in a new thread.
This could serve as a handy "things to watch out for" checklist for new Sims modders such as myself. It seems every game develops some modding folklore concerning potential pitfalls to avoid.
Thanks!
Anach:
Quote from: Klinn on 2010 January 03, 18:46:36
Quote from: Anach on 2010 January 02, 12:47:33
I found quite a lot of mods, even those from popular sites contain a multitude of errors, and this has been a major factor of errors while saving, CTDs, black textures and slow-downs. I'm now quite careful which mods I install.
Anach, if you have the time and inclination, could you describe the types of errors you've found? Not in any great detail or necessarily naming the mods, just in point form, perhaps in a new thread.
This could serve as a handy "things to watch out for" checklist for new Sims modders such as myself. It seems every game develops some modding folklore concerning potential pitfalls to avoid.
Thanks!
I don't exactly have the patience for writing lengthy detailed and pretty looking tutorials, as you can probably tell from the above posts. The best advice I can give in that scenario, without having to document everything I install, is this;
1. Install everything as a package first (even unpack custom sims3pack content), and put it in a probation folder within your mods/packages, so you can easily keep track of the latest content you install.
2. Run process monitor (check above posts for mts links of tutorials) and check the "count" of the file access. Often you will find a file that is well above everything else, and usually this is a troublesome file.
3. Open every package you download in s3pe or other relevent editor to see if it pops up for errors (s3pe, or delphy's CTU, etc). Many mods out there were made before tools were working correctly, while others simply havent been made correctly. If they error in the tools used to create them, then I tend not to trust them.
The better one is at knowing how mods are made (there are lots of tutorials available), the easier it is to work out what is dodgy. I certainly know a lot more than I did when I started playing Sims 3, but there is still a lot i'm unsure about when it comes to troubleshooting and merging mods (such as those 0x000000000000000 xml files), but there are a lot less mods installed now and I have far fewer issues. If I keep a clean game, Its often quite easy to tell when I've installed something dodgy, as suddenly I'll start seeing issues within game;
1. Sudden framerate drop.
2. Black (missing) textures on objects, sims or UI.
3. Crashes, freezing and very slow loading.
I do the same sort of troubleshooting for mods I use in Oblivion and Fallout3. Often you simply find stuff that is broken when opened in editors, or simply the modder doesn't know how to use the tools correctly, or is too lazy to bother. Similarly in those two games, mod merging is also very important for performance and reliability.
The good thing about this recent patch, with all it's issues, is it's forced me to have a good clean-out, and I must say, my game hasn't run this smooth and crash free since I first started playing. My Wife has also taken to reading tutorials to learn how to make mods, mainly so she can fix the broken stuff that she really likes.
Quote from: Inge on 2010 January 03, 17:52:44
http://sf.net/projects/sims3tools/files/s3pe/1001-03-1524/ start New file then use Resource/Import/as dbc. Choose multiple packages.
Isn't the idea that you put the file into the DCCCache folder?
That is certainly an option, which I didnt actually try. Be interesting to see how it works. The limiting factor is whether the DCCache folder supports sub-folders for easier management. It's unlikely there will be any further performance increase by having a large .dbc in your DCCache folder rather than a large .package in your mods folder, as from what I can tell its purely about minimizing the sheer amount of files, and not about location or file type.
It also seems that when importing as .dbc within the new s3pe, it now merges the _key files correctly. As for the 0x00000000000000 xml files, it's possible those arent even needed? so I'm going to see how it goes with them removed.
*edit*
Seems custom .dbc within the my documents aren't supported, or at least I couldn't get them to show in-game. So there doesnt seem to be any benefit to the .dbc format at all. Saving them as merged .package files should be enough.
Klinn:
Thanks for the quick response and info Anach.
Sorry, but I wasn't very clear in my post -- I wasn't looking for a description of how to tell when a mod is causing problems and isolating it, but the errors in the mods themselves that you happen to have come across. For example, if you've found a number of them with missing textures, or links to other components that don't exist, or whatever. Those examples are just guesses on my part, since I'm not too familar with Sims mods yet.
On the other hand, maybe it's too early to try to build up that Sims3 modding folklore, or things creators should keep in mind while building mods, since the tools may still be in a state of flux. As you mentioned:
Quote from: Anach on 2010 January 03, 23:27:22
Many mods out there were made before tools were working correctly, while others simply havent been made correctly.
I don't have any background in previous Sims games, but have dabbled in various areas of Sims3 modding, some retexturing, tweaking some meshes, some XML tuning, and some core modding, and I didn't want to accidentally repeat some typical noob errors you might have seen while examing other mods. If you happen to think of any common mod creation problems, great. If not, no worries, I'll continue to lurk & learn. ;-)
Back on topic, thanks for clearly describing how to combine packages into a .dbc file, I'm sure I'll find useful as I accumulate more mods.
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