Quick question about your downloads folder......

[SuzyFaeryGirl]

This has probably been asked before, but I'm taking the risk and posting anyway. Can your downloads folder be too big? Mine is currently 5.02 GB and I have over 18,000 files. While yes, I am on a laptop which has integrated graphics, the game has previously run pretty well. Now it takes over an hour just to get to the neighborhood screen. I've deleted almost a 1,000 files as is going back from the last time I played to what I've downloaded since. It ran slow even on my desktop which has a Pentium 4, 1 gb of RAM, and a GeForce 5400 video card, so I'm just wondering at this point if there's a "limit" on how much you can have in that folder before it just goes nuts. I appreciate the help in advance

Cheers ,

Suzanne

[MaryH]

There isn't a "limit" on the folder size-just on the amount of stuff your computer can carry for the game.
18,000 files? My god almighty, that is alot of stuff, and no wonder your game takes an hour to load! Of course if you have all the ep's, that is going to slow it down, but that much CC is definitely on the upper scale!
I would gently suggest that you do a very intensive scaling back on your files, and delete some of them-for me, I have no more than 850 MB in my computer, and it takes about 3 minutes to get to the main screen. Of course I only have the base and NL, so it does kinda disqualify me in a way..but still!
Do you really need all that CC? Honestly? If you take a very hard look at the CC you have, and just start cutting out what you don't really need in your game, you might find it improves game play and load time.

[jlw484]

Yeah, the size of your download folder can basically be as big as your computer can handle.  At one point I had around 6.5 GB of CC in mine but recently I've been seriously scaling back.  The game itself ran fine but I was having 5-8 minute load times.  Basically it all depends on how much time you're willing to waste waiting for the game and how important all the glorious CC is to you.

[adalita]

I had 14.0 GB on mine until the other day, I started anew.  I now have at last check 1.93GB.

[PegasusDiana]

I just did this. Deleting the 90 million recolors of everything, just keeping my favorite recolors took my DL folder from 3 1/2 gigs down to a little over 2. Then I went through and anything no matter how much I loved it that I haven't ever used, or have only used once went. Then I went through and deleted everything that didn't include the new skills, etc..for freetime. Anything I thought might cause a problem. The modders or creators have said there is a problem with. Now it's down to less than a gig. It took me about 2 days to do it all, I did it one sub-folder at a time. In the long run it was well worth it. I haven't missed anything because I never used it. I still have my favorite recolors of the things I kept and freed up a ton of room by getting rid of the ones I didn't. I'm in the game quickly, haven't had anymore crashes or freezing. I'm going to keep it that way. I now added a Temporary folder. Anything new I think I just have to have is going in there, and what I haven't used in a weeks time is going. What I have used will go into the right subfolder.

[Theraven]

well, I've had over 11 GB in my DL folder, and with all games up to either BV or seasons installed. the game went slowly, but it worked. took me almost 1 1/2 hour from putting the CD in, to actually being able to play on a lot. I kept getting warnings about "too little memory", but it worked fine anyway. how much you put in your DL folder, is more about how patient you are, and how much memory your computer has got. (mine has 512 MB, so that message has a tendency to pop up a lot, but only once per game. my comp is filled with a lot of stuff, so I don't have a lot of room left on the hard drive either...)

[Tenshii~Akari]

You know, I realized something:  CC is like unwanted belly fat.  Some people manage to cut it down and keep it off... while others tend to gain it right back, sometimes adding on more than before.  I seem to be in that second category, because I'm right back to where I started with the amount of custom downloads I have... leading me to 45 minute loading times once more.  :oops:

Anyways, before I had started looking for content for contests again, the best way that helped me cut back on what was/wasn't needed was all the extra "clutter" objects and odd object/clothing recolors I didn't want.  There's also the fact that I have a heck of a lot of personal/upcoming Bodyshop projects I'm working on or have already finished.  I've really got to stick to it and re-clean my DL folder once more.  :?

[Theraven]

that's a really good description, Tenshii

[lglblnd66]

Just a quick question for those of you who "cut back"; how did you do it? Was there a program you used? Were you in game? Is there a program that will actually show you what you are looking for rather than the object it may have been cloned from? I have a lot of CC and really want to get things organized but, it is such a pain to try and figure out what things are if you aren't actually looking at them! I don't necessarily want to delete files, maybe just remove them temporarily; that way I can kind of mix things up once in a while!

[BeosBoxBoy]

OK - here is where we move off into that strange world of "experience" and not hard science.  In my experience, the game begins to star showing serious drop off in reliability of the custom content catalogue as you approach 16384 items.

The way I have seen it happen is this:

up to 2048 items in downloads, still loads damned zippy and no buggy lost content

at 4096 items in downloads, game starts fairly fast, but the load time is noticably longer

at 8192 items in downloads, game load-time is longer than I like and stuff may start going missing from the catalogue

past 16384 items in downloads, the load time is hateful and the catalogue begins showing serious signs of catastrophic loss

past 32768 items in downloads, if the game loads without crashing, it's a miracle, if anything shows up in the catalogue with the right description and thumbnail, it's a miracle.

Now - some people have better systems, some don't, some have bugs galore with no CC, some have no bugs at all with 25 GB of downloads - so it's a matter of experience not hard science.

[PegasusDiana]

I think that should read it's a matter of patience, you have to have the patience of a saint to load 32768 items. lol I think a lot depends on you PC also. My magic number was 2 gigs. As long as I kept it around 2 gigs I was in the game quick, if I went over 2 gigs by just a tad loading time started going up. Ex: at 2 gigs from the time I clicked on the icon till I was in a house ready to play was about 2/3 minutes. Soon as I crossed the line it was 4/5 minutes. A had a little over 3 gigs when I went in for my deep cleaning and it was about 6/7 minutes from first click.