Big Job: sorting my download files Tonight I am working on sorting my files so I can weed them out and then convert the recolors for S2U. I am running into some problems and learning some things. Thought I'd post some of this for discussion, to help everyone who's going to have to struggle with this. 1st some questions. 1. If I put my downloads into sub-folders, such as one for genetics, one for Homecrafter files, one for recolors, etc., is the game going to be able to find them next time I boot it up? 2. How do you tell what a file is if it has a name somthing like: 0a3b413803a12094550d4873987e3fb7. Now, some observations: 1. I have noticed that most of my clothing files are grouped together when I group them by name, and they start with a 7. 2. I also noticed that many of the recolors have real names, like, "bedding_baby_Strawberry_Shortcake_Collection". Now that I can identify and my Strawberry Shortcake crib. Those of you who name your recolors easy things like that, thank you thank you!!! 3. SimPE has a new version out, version 19, so update yours if you are trying this.
Not as bad as I thought. The new version of SimPE does it for you. Click on "Scan Folders" Then check "EP Ready", and have it scan your downloads folders, or the subfolder where you have moved your recolors. Then click on each recolor and tell the program to make it "EP Ready." It will change it's name. It takes a split-second.
It will do that with the new Expansion Pack? if not where do I go to get the thinng that cleans out the folders?
1. You can put any hacks, recolors, floors, tiles, custom careers in subfolders and sub-subfolders. (I haven't tested more than 2 level of subfolders). HOWEVER, you must keep everything related to the body in the root of your download folder. So eyes, skin, hair, makeup, clothes must be there, or the game will not find it. My folder is quite organized now. I have a folder called Sets and I created a sub folder for each set that I install. The folder contains everything in the set including walls and tiles. When I get tired of it, I can simply remove the entire folder. Question 2. You need to peek inside the file to determine what it is. The easiest way is to use the Clean pack installer. It lets you look inside .package files. You can also list the entire content of your download directory and it classifies everything by type. Wonderful tool to have. You can find it on modthesims2. You can also use SimPE to look inside a file, but that's more work, as every individual file needs to be opened. Oh there is one last tool that is a must. It's called the multi pack installer. It lets you extract wall and floor tiles and retain the original names. This way you don't end up with a zillion names like 0a3b413803a12094550d4873987e3fb7 in your download folder.
This may make me sound a bit dim, but oh well, !!! Does this re-color thing affect all downloaded skins, houses etc, or is it just one containing hacked objects or the like?? Because i ain't a clue! I apologize if i have made no sense!! mant Thanx if u can help!!
OK, so let me try and understand. I need to leave my genetics and clothing in the main "downloads" folder without a subfolder, but all of my homecrafter files, recolored furniture, etc. will work in a subfolder. That's good to know. I have the clean pack installer, and have been using it to check for things I downloaded accidently with community lots. I didn't know you could do that with it too, that's cool. Thanks so much, Angelyne!
The game does find the things which are in subfolders in the downloads file. (I was very happy to see that. It makes it much easier to figure out problems if they are not in one huge mass.) Some of my newer clothes, etc didn't start with 7. Some of them were as big as 21 for the first number. I guess it depends on how old your downloads are. (I've been a downloading fool and have a lot of new stuff.) It seems to me that they've been coming out with new versions of SimPE more than once a week. Shoot, I was ready to install .17 but had to look something else up on the ambertation site and noticed that .19 was out. So I spent most of yesterday figuring that out. Have you tried it yet? The batch fix program itself is pretty easy. However, now the challenge (at least for me) is to fix all the flashing blue it caused from the objects. Some of my favorite recolors are now failing to work. On MTS2 they said to change it back to the color you wanted using the design tool in the game. However, now those recolors are also doing the blue/black thing in the design tool as well. (I'm following a thread about the problem over there.) It really makes me miss the old Elisim that let you see what the texture looked like so you could tell better which file was which (and had the option to move them to another file so that you could work with it, as oppose to only having the delete option.) That way I could pull the flashing ones more easily and fix their problems (assuming I figure out how to do that with SimPE. I haven't gotten that far yet.) Supposedly there is a new tool coming out soon which supposedly is easier to work with than SimPE. It's called something like [font=Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif][font=Arial, Helvetica, Sans-serif]Datgen. I'm not sure when it's coming though although the rumor is some time next week. (It's made to work with gmax or 3dsmax.) [/font][/font]
Are you sure about that? I have all my clothes/body stuff in a folder and my Sims were dressed the way they usually are when I checked on them. (Although they were in other clothes when I had that folder removed.) I'm going to have to double check on that when I work on the game today. One of the things that surprised me, however, is that when I removed my wall/floor file, they were as I had left them when I went to sort through them using the catalog. I suspect that there may be a second place for them coded into the program files. Maybe there's something similar for the clothing.
I read in a thread at MTS2 that if your sims are already wearing an item, the game will find them in a sub-folder. But then you won't be able to see them in CAS or (I assume) while shopping for clothes. Experience did bear this out when I moved my files to a clothing sub folder. But please check, it's good to have things confirmed true or false. I'd much prefer to have all my files sorted neatly in various sub-folders.
Kristalrose, I found out that the Sims2CleanInstaller lets you move the files as well as look at their file name and as well as a picture so you know what it looks like. You can find it here: http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/index.php?page=3 I thought I'd had already used it before, but it was the DJSims Sims2Pack Scanner I'd used (and didn't particularly find useful, but I knew what hacks I had already.)
NO!!!!! Yes, I sat for two hours last night and changed all my recolors with SimsPE. I was so happy, because v. 19 found the recolors for me, many of them that I had not moved into subfolders, even. It renamed them with just a click of the mouse. I haven't booted up the game yet. Thought I'd come by and check in 1st, which is my usual habit. When I went back into my folders and took another good look at the files (mainly to follow Angelyne's advice and move my body shop files back into the main folder) I noticed that there were TWO of each of my recolors. There was a normal file and a file with a new extention, .bak. Can I delete the old one? Or maybe hold on to them. Could this be causing your blinking blue objects, Kat?
The .bak file is a copy of your pre-changed one. And no, unfortunately, it's not the cause of the blue blinkers. Sigh. Those have to do with the way they were made originally. If they weren't made in Object workshop but the "long" way, they're more likely to blink. (I removed them all and saved them in another spot. No change in blinking.) However, if you have a file that is a problem, you can change the .bak file and get your old object back (but you'll need to remove it before you install TS2U since they still won't be EP ready.) And I just finished checking about the clothes, etc. Angelyne was correct, if they are in a subfolder, they don't work (unless they are also elsewhere such as part of a saved sim.) Did you try the Clean Installer? I just finished with it, and it was very helpful. I'm hoping to find my favorite non-flashing objects and see if I can use SimPE to fix them. But I need to figure out how to use SimPE better.
WAAAAA Now It Won't Load!! My game will not load! It just starts booting up (past the little video) and then it freezes for a few seconds, and then it crashes. I think I'm going to move my files out of the subfolders, run the clean installer, and try again. Yep, Kat, I had tried it before, but hadn't updated it. I just did, and it was very nice.
Ouch. I had that same thing happen (well, not exactly. I would have been happier with a crash rather than having to reboot the whole system to get it to work) when I was first messing with sorting. I copied the TS2 files from My Documents and then uninstalled and reinstalled the game. I thought it was because I had things in subfolders at first, but I still have them since then and I've had no problems after that. (I am taking the clothes and other Body Shop stuff out of there, though. I think I'll just set my "copy" file to go into a specific "new downloads" file initially.)
:bored: :bored: :bored: Well, I can't get the game to load with any of my downloads. I have worked on it all evening!! I finally decided that I was being a neglectful mother when I realized my baby was quiet for a long period of time, and when I checked on him, his sister had given him pudding!! Ever see what a 12 month old does to chocolate pudding? So now that I have bathed both of them, I'm going to take a break from Simming and give my kids some Mommy time. Wish I could take the day off tomorrow.
That's very strange Crystal, since even if you completely remove the download folder, your game should still load. I've done it many times. So I doubt that it's the absence of a file that's doing the problem. Have you added any new files in your cleanup process? First thing I would do is rename my The Sims 2 folder in my documents to something like The Sims 2.old. Then I would start the game. The game will create a brand new The Sims 2 folder. If the game loads, then you know it's a problem with your saved files. If it doesn't, then it's a problem with the game itself and it needs to be reinstalled. If you eliminated the game itself being the problem (the game loads with a new The Sims 2. Then your problem is within your saved game. I'd get rid of the new The Sims 2 you just created and rename The Sims 2.old back to The Sims 2. This time I would move the download folder and put it somewhere else like your desktop. Try launching the game. If it works, then there is *something* in your download folder that's causing havoc. If that's the case I'd try creating a new download folder and gradually adding items back. Start with what you consider important like maybe genetic files or favorite items and load the game. If it loads, then add more. Don't add too many at once or it will be hard to pinpoint the problem. That's the approach I'd use, since I don't know what you have done. But you might be able to adopt a more specific approach since you have an idea of what you did. I do know however that removing files from the download folder or moving them around should not prevent your game from loading as they are no critical file in the download folder. However a bad file COULD potentially cause a problem.
Another ouch. I noticed your note on MTS2 last night. You can switch back everything you did with the batch fix thing by changing all the .bak files back to .package files. You'll have to have them separate and then when you move them back in it will ask if you want to replace the (bad ones) in the file. Just click "yes to all" and it will be back to the way they were before the batch fix. And the way I know that is that I did it to my favorite loveseat and couch to check. (It's a lovely pink flowered pattern.) I'm going to try to figure out how to fix it so that it no longer blinks (since it's a very old TSR which I suspect they won't fix and post anytime soon.) But that means I have to figure out how to make recolored objects. Also, the *only* things you should batch fix are the recolored objects. It sounded like you did the clothing, etc stuff too, which is not something you want to do. Perhaps that's where the crashing is from. Unfortunately, the tutorial that we have on here (somewhere, but I couldn't find it yesterday when I was looking for it. I have a hard copy of it but there are some links I'd like to check) doesn't use Object Workshop. And if you don't use Object workshop, that's where problems can occur unfortunately. Most of the blinking ones are probably from the "before Object Workshop" era when they had to do it "the long way" which was difficult and often caused problems with blinking. I suspect that the "fix integrity" plugin (which I can't find and which is greyed out on my version 0.19) is what I need for doing that. But I'll let you know as soon as I find out. I actually have wanted to know how to do this anyway. I want to fix what I have now, but I'd also like to make some of my own. My only reservation about doing it now is that supposedly DatGen is supposed to be easier "and safer" than SimPE. (I found their website yesterday. If you're interested it's: http://www.datgen.info/) See you after the "mommy time."
LoveRat from MTS2 has produced a very informative guide on organizing your download folder. Check it out : http://forums.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=46633
Despite the fact that MTS2 has been peddling this entire matter as if it were fact, and, in fact, has altered the procedure several times now, I highly recommend that you take no drastic actions, such as this one. Frankly, the peddling of objects as "EP compatible" or not is purely hubris. Interrogation of the people involved, quite naturally, reveals that this procedure has never actually been *TESTED* with the expansion pack. So what you are doing is performing a completely untested procedure to solve something that may or may not be a problem. Sure, the rumors may be true, but that is no reason for premature panic. When the expansion pack actually EXISTS, *THEN* worry about this. In any case, you cannot possibly come to any harm by waiting, but going into a panic and using a untested and admittedly unreliable conversion process to solve a conjectural problem is highly unwise. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Excellent advice, as always, JMP. I've been wondering about this myself and concluded pretty much the same thing. I have decided that I'll probably begin a completely new neighborhood when I get the EP. I'll then be able to remove my downloads folder to the desktop and then reload them a few at a time until I have the ones I want and can the lose the crud that I wish I never bothered with. My first 2 hoods have been learning experiences and I never actually got emotionally attached to my sims, more often than not I get bored with them instead. Mostly I seem to get bored because my households keep ending up with unspendable amounts of cash ...
