I notice my game play is a little slower, load time is getting longer. So I am wondering ....

Does having more items in the Mod folder tax your game play? Or game performance just goes in parallel with whatever you have on your lot? (More items=more lag, less items=less lag).

Since I download a lot of mods from here and there, I like to organize them into different folders. I write down the URL in a .txt file, I download images that come along with that mod (so I know what it is), I keep the .zip file. I have all these along side with the .package files in my Mod folder. Would this impact my game load time when I have extra (unrelated to TS3) such as .jpg, .zip, .rar, etc.. files in that Mod folder?

Which part of the game costs more resources to run? Presume we have the same lot, 40x40. Bigger house with more walls? More items? More sims? I know they all cost memory, I just wonder which one cost lots more memory than others. For starter, I think wall cost little memory due to its low polygons. And I try to not paint any wall that is not in sight (the inner part of a 1x1 column for example) to save a little bit on memory.

Discussion please.

I know in my game the longer I played a specif neighborhood the longer the load times got. I attributed this to story progression and people dying. Even though the game has a limit on the number of sims in a neighborhood, it still keeps up with the info of dead sims in case you bring them back as a ghost. Not to mention all the neighbors that move and are left "homeless". The more you play the more the game has to remember.

As a programmer I disagree with that. You ever see while driving on the road the game loads the houses (from low res to hi res) as your car goes by? Loading game data is less taxing on performance than putting an object on view. Story Progression can happen in the background, but TS3 doesn't have to render any of that. I do agree that a more populated town requires more loading, but it should not be an impact on performance beside the longer load time.

If TS3 performs worse just because there are more sims in the neighborhood registered per house hold (not showing on screen), then I can say TS3 did a very bad job optimizing useless data: Why would it bother to render anything that will not be seen by the audiences (us players)?

Is there a cap on how many sims in a neighborhood? I know each lot has a cap of 8, and I have yet to fill every single lot with 8 sims to test this out. But I imagine this would be the soft cap for population.

The game tries to maintain about 100 sims of varying ages.

I was responding to the load times, not game-play lag. As a programmer I'm sure you know that certain graphics options can cause lag. Texture detail, advanced rendering options, and several others. I run my game a one group of setting for game-play and another to take pics of lots I'm planning on uploading. When I change certain options I get a warning that the higher setting may cause lag. If you have some of these specific options turned up and have a lot that has a high objects count (everything being an object) you will experience lags. When I have tried to run a game with higher settings lag is always a problem. As a side note I do not play the game with core mod and only have 2 scripted mods.

=S What are you guys talking about, I'm so lost. Are we still talking about load time or lag? Maybe it's your computer? Since you're putting everything into small folders it has to find them all and it takes longer. You could try saving more often or actually fixing your computer and not the game. Like defragmenting and deleting stuff you don't need.

100 sims per neighborhood? Really? But if most of my lots are empty (by my decree) then TS3 would still try to maintain 100 sims too? Hmmm, if so, I better fill the neighborhood up with more sims of my own.

Btw, lets not derail from the subject. I know more objects on screen = more lag. I was hoping to discuss on what type of objects cause more lag. I am looking at build mode: walls, wall paint, terrain paint, floor tiles. Build mode: all sort of furnitures, lights, cars, etc... And last but not least: sims and their elaborate hairdo and clothings. Which one is the major lagger? Maybe 1 sim = 10 average furnitures? Also, lights do cause more lag because of the lighting effect?

And also, 2nd topic to debate on: Would extra unrelated files in the mods folder hinder loading time for TS3? Files such as txt, jpg, zip, or anything for my personal record keeping that comes along with those "mysterious" .package files.

Let's discuss on those.

FlipGardian, I do exactly what your suggesting. I defrag regularly and I do not have that much cc. I keep it at a minimum, because of building lots. My computer is old, single core processor and I keep that in mind when I add to my game.

OP: I am not a programmer, but I'm not a noob either, but aside from that common sense says that if it is in the TS3 folder the game is going to check it, even if only trying to determine if it is needed. I will now opt out of this discussion and let others respond to the particulars you want to know about. I apologize if I mis-responded or misunderstood what you were inquiring about

No, files that aren't .package ones won't slow the game down. The game overlooks those as it doesn't recognize them.

In theory I would say that too. But I am hoping for more feedback on that statement. Who knows what TS3 think of! But it is reassuring to hear someone confirms it.

A larger lot of mine with many items will take longer (sometimes a looong long time) to render object textures and I just have to wait it out or I'll get some awful lag. This only started happening after placing a lot more furniture/objects in the house. I have bigger houses with more sims but less objects and they don't share this problem so it seems my game doesn't take to furniture much.

The game doesn't load txt files, image files, etc.. it only recognizes the package files. Usually images and text files that are included in the zip will just be stuff like images of the item you're downloading, install instructions, policies and so on.

Why do you need more feedback on that issue? If the game doesn't recognise it, that's not going to be reason you're game is going slow. It is most likely show because of the CC you've already got (yes, having a lot will slow it down), having big lots (that takes ages to render, as has already been established in this thread), having big families can at times cause lag. The big one, though, is your computer specs. You can have thousands of CC files, a giant mansion and a huge family, but if you've got a high-end computer it won't cause terrible lag. Same goes for having a tiny lot, a single sim and no CC - if you're computer isn't meeting the system requirements, or it *just* reaching them, then this is where issues with lagging, loading times and crashes come into it. I've no doubt individual pieces of the lots can cause more lag than others, but if you're seriously considering not using walls or something just so you're game isn't so slow, then maybe you'd also consider that your computer needs updating. I'm not saying that to be rude, it's just how it is.

On your first lot with long load time, how big is the lot? And how elaborate are the decorations? And on your second, supposedly even bigger lot, with more sims and less objects, how big is that one and how many sims did you put on?

I am just comparing data.

The decorations are really quite elaborate in the first lot, it has 5 sims on it and the lot size is about 50x50. The latter is sparsely furnished, has 7 sims on it and is 60x60. They are about both the same landscape wise although I think the first may have more trees.

I can't even comprehend that you're keeping all the extra files: the original zipfiles, .jpg etc. inside your game in the Mods folder. Move all this stuff somewhere else outside the Sims3 game, download new CC and unzip it somewhere else and move/install the .packages into the Mods/Packages alone. It's fine if the game isn't reading these files as others state; it's simply Bad Computer File Management to keep this extra stuff inside the game folder. This applies to all computer games ever made in history, not just Sims3.

Personally I think that the more .package file CC that players install will be the largest single factor as far as loading/saving time, game lag etc., but I can't prove it in any way. One thing to look at (maybe you already do this all the time) is the size of your savegame files, they grow and grow as you play; useful to check the size for monitoring purposes. My load and save times have increased as these files increase in size (maybe this is obvious lol).

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While the game may not technically read anything other than .package files, the application needs to read each file in the folder to determine file type. It's not magical, it needs to read the first bits to determine file type and the decide to move on. So yes that will slow it down, but whether or not it is noticeable will depend on many factors. Move excess stuff out to a backup folder along with the original zips.

I agree with Shimrod that it is bad file management. Your putting a ton of extra stuff in your Program Files folder. Which I think was poor design on EA to begin with to add stuff to that folder, but that's not the discussion. Don't add to their insanity.

Memory (main as well as video) is likely the main factor. Keep in mind, models and textures have to fit into video memory, otherwise it will constantly have to be swapped back and forth between main and video RAM in order to get everything rendered. The same thing goes for main memory and harddisk. If you hear a lot of disk activity while playing the game, then you need to either add some RAM to your system or lower the detail settings. The result is that swapping is reduced greatly and the game runs much smoother.

I only just got a new PC. On the old one, my game ran very slow and would often sit there for a minute until all the gray models had been textured. It improved very much by lowering texture size and tree/sim details. I could finally make use of the open NH without worrying about scrolling off my home lot and having to load it again a few seconds later.

OP, I apologize if someone else said this and I missed it while skimming through the replies ...

I just wanted to make a quick reference to the mention above somewhere about the possibility of having additional files in separate folders slowing your game down.

That doesn't happen. I currently have about 14 sub folders within my packages folder and my game is not at all slowed down.

I have no answer for which files causes the most lag (I'd assume file size would have something to do with it) but I wanted to let you know, sub folders have no bearing.

Good luck!

HugeLunatic: "needs to read the first bits to determine file type"? Thats wrong. This is why file name masks where invented. A mask of *.package wont bother even doing any File IO on a file that doesn't match *.package. Therefore the only possible slowdown could be caused by the underlying OS when presented with file io operations in directories with hundreds of thousands of files, but even then, thats not that much of a delay.

Sorry, Sookie. I was telling the OP that she should clean up her computer once in a while if she already doesn't. I wanna know what the specs are. Since we don't know how good her computer is, how can we give advice.



Lol I said that. And don't you have a god-like computer?

Well... if this helps, an empty lot loads faster and doesn't lag >>Flabaliki's Empty lots and new neighbourhoods. So, I guess you're right that having cc in different folders doesn't slow the game down. The only thing I can really think of saying is save your game more often and clean up your computer.

Btw S3, I just reinstalled my game and I can now use CC. It's probably cuz I screwed it up and put Resource.cfg in My Documents first.

FG, my computer is just standard. It's only a 3.0ghz, dual core, 4 gig of ram machine.

The reason I say the sub folders doesn't slow it down is because I recently organized all of my cc into sub folders, whereas before, it was all just in the default folder. Since moving it all into many subs, I've had no difference in game-play whatsoever and I play on the maximum settings. I also most often, have the game running in windowed version for hours and hours on end. It's just left going, while I am online or afk and it doesn't lag for me so I'm positive the CC organization doesn't have anything to do with the OP's issue.

I agree about cleaning up your computer. That should be done regularly, with or without the Sims installed.

And yay, on the CC! I'm glad you got it working FG!

On the contrary, it is a better method. First, I created a "Download" folder to correspond with the "Mods" folder. But it proves to be extremely inconvenient as each time I download a mod, not only I have to create folder, .txt file for URL and note, unzip, save pictures, I have to create them in 2 different locations. And when it is time to look them up, it is even harder.

At current time, in order to find mods, I either browse by Windows Explorer, or by Picasa where I can scan through mods as pictures, recognize mods along with their pictures. Otherwise, it is impossible to search through mods quickly.