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Remove Tutorial and Beta Images - To attempt to reduce RAM load
Remove Tutorial and Beta Images - To attempt to reduce RAM load
Remove Tutorial Images cover image.png - width=800 height=600
Remove Tutorial Images image 2.png - width=800 height=640
Remove Tutorial Images image 3.png - width=1025 height=1342
Uploaded: 26th Sep 2024 at 3:53 PM
Updated: 26th Sep 2024 at 4:06 PM
Updated: 26th Sep 2024 at 4:06 PM
I noticed during various testing of system graphics options that gameplay and framerate slowdowns were somewhat proportional to how much RAM that Windows Control Panel showed that the game was using. In detailed worlds the game can hit 2.9 GB RAM use, at which point the game begins struggling more than usual with Error 12, astoundingly long loading/saving times, or simply crashing to desktop.
So I began pondering, how would it be possible to try to reduce the heavy taxing on the RAM allocations? I landed on trying to remove images (by creating 1x1px transparent images to override them) that would be unnecessary for core gameplay by expert Sims 3 players, mostly across 2 categories:
• Images used in the "Tutorials" menu, as they accounted for around 100 MB in total.
• Beta build images and placeholder images for vanilla Sims 3 that were still present in the release version's "FullBuild0" assets. Accounts for around 25 MB.
So in theory this would reduce the RAM load by approximately 0.12 GB, whether it'd be to reduce the load outright, or so the game could use the safe-ish 2.8 GB it can use on other aspects of the game.
Will it have any effect on game performance at all? Probably not.
Is it worth trying? Probably.
I tried to pick images based on ones that I felt would be very unlikely to conflict with any other gamemods, though 100.0% guarantee on that is of course hard to give. The total tally ended up on 1,015 emptied images.
The gamemod was worked on for more than 1½ years, as I had to figure out exactly which images to handle and in which ways.
Tested with Patch 67 (along with NVIDIA Control Panel set to "Image Scaling: 100%", and a DX9-to-Vulkan .ini), almost certainly also works with Patch 69. Hard to tell if it would be needed for Patch 70. The gamemod should in theory be able to retroactively function with earlier patches, but anything before approximately Patch 36 would likely end up with strange results.
So I began pondering, how would it be possible to try to reduce the heavy taxing on the RAM allocations? I landed on trying to remove images (by creating 1x1px transparent images to override them) that would be unnecessary for core gameplay by expert Sims 3 players, mostly across 2 categories:
• Images used in the "Tutorials" menu, as they accounted for around 100 MB in total.
• Beta build images and placeholder images for vanilla Sims 3 that were still present in the release version's "FullBuild0" assets. Accounts for around 25 MB.
So in theory this would reduce the RAM load by approximately 0.12 GB, whether it'd be to reduce the load outright, or so the game could use the safe-ish 2.8 GB it can use on other aspects of the game.
Will it have any effect on game performance at all? Probably not.
Is it worth trying? Probably.
I tried to pick images based on ones that I felt would be very unlikely to conflict with any other gamemods, though 100.0% guarantee on that is of course hard to give. The total tally ended up on 1,015 emptied images.
The gamemod was worked on for more than 1½ years, as I had to figure out exactly which images to handle and in which ways.
Tested with Patch 67 (along with NVIDIA Control Panel set to "Image Scaling: 100%", and a DX9-to-Vulkan .ini), almost certainly also works with Patch 69. Hard to tell if it would be needed for Patch 70. The gamemod should in theory be able to retroactively function with earlier patches, but anything before approximately Patch 36 would likely end up with strange results.