Difference between revisions of "Game Help:TS3 Organizing Custom Content"

Revision as of 06:13, 11 May 2010

Organizing Custom Content

This guide is meant to show how one can organize their custom content. It is STRONGLY advised you choose a method for organizing your custom content and stick to it religiously as you download. It makes finding problem files and removing unwanted content SO much easier.

Installing Custom Content

This guide does not explain how to install custom content and get it working in your game, nor does it explain all the little details about things you need to keep in mind when installing content - it is ONLY about organizing. For all information on installing content and getting it working in your game, see: [[ ]].

Methods for Organizing

Here are the different ways you can organize your content to make things easier to find.

Rename

Generally Sims 3 content may come with file names that are not really very descriptive. You can safely rename almost all Sims 3 content, changing the file names to something that is more descriptive and easier to identify.

Subfolder

Most, if not all, content can be placed in subfolders. Subfolders are folders within folders - a "Floors" subfolder of Packages would be C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages\Floors.

There does not seem to be a real limit to the amount of sub-sub-subfolders you can do (i.e. C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages\Hair\Female\Creator\) besides limits that may be imposed by your hard drive's file system and/or by the Game.

If you have an NTFS file system, you are limited to no more than 255 characters for the full path and filename of a file. You likely never hit this limit unless you are insanely anal about organizing.

Suggested Subfoldering Methods

Exactly what folders you create for yourself under Downloads is up to you, and a lot of it depends on how you play, and what you download. You can also combine some of these methods, too.

By creator/site:

• Each creator or site gets their own folder. Good if you have just a few creators you tend to stick to.

By type:

• Content is sorted into folders based on its type - all floors together, all makeup together, etc... You may wish main folders for Build, Buy, Body Shop, Hacks, and Defaults.

By download date:

• Folders are created based on date you download and install the content. Good if you tend to keep getting custom content conflicts and need to be able to remove most recently installed content often.

Organizing Later

While you REALLY should try to get organized to begin with and stay organized, at one point we've all been faced with a big pile of content in the Mods/Packages folder, with no idea what's what. What then?

The Quick Way

The absolute quickest way to organize all that custom content is to DELETE IT! If there are a couple really wonderful items that you cannot live without or couldn't get again, you can go in and find those to save, and then get rid of the rest! Especially if you have a lot, it's probably quicker, easier, and better to just delete the lot of it. Then you can start over, clean and fresh and ready to stay organized.

The Long Boring Way

If you just cannot stand to delete everything, or most of everything, then you're facing the long, hard, boring road of sorting through all your crap.

Unlike Sims 2, there aren't any programs like Delphy's Download Organiser, Clean Installer, or SimPE to easily look through files.
However there are some programs which may be of help to you as you sort through your content:

• Postal
• S3PE
• Sims 3 Package Explorer
• CAS Texture Unitool

Be Brutal!

When you're organizing, delete wildly! Get rid of everything you don't absolutely love. The number one contributor to long load times is sheer volume of custom content! Here's some tips:

• Get rid of duplicates - Not only true duplicate files (which you can do using Dashboard) but also duplicate types - you don't need
  five black versions of the same couch, or fifteen plain white tee shirts for men. Pick the best one and delete the rest.
• Be ruthless with quality - If there are imperfections, crunchy textures, seams don't match up, bump maps are wrong, delete it!
  There is enough good content available to put up with badly-made stuff!
• Get rid of stuff you won't use - You probably have a style you tend to use - if you don't ever build modern houses, get rid of those
  50 plain black and white vases.  If you don't play victorian sims, you don't need 30 bustle dresses.  If you haven't used it in the past few
  times you've played, delete it!

Credits

Thanks to Loverat for the original version of this FAQ, and Frumph for his tips on cleaning out your content.

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