Trying to optimize the game fps in Uni hood which is a bit choppy. Using SP in that particular hood.

I've got 3GB+ CC in my mods folder and was wondering if SP is better at getting the game to work with one type over the other. For example, is it better to install all mods with .sims3pack file type using the Sims3Launcher/CC Magic? Or with direct .package files from mod sites? Which CC file type does SP more effectively interface with?

Also is it more efficient to go no deeper than root Mods folder i.e. The Sims 3\Mods\
Or is going no more than 1 directory below Mods folder OK with SP?

Also needed to associate all 3 WA hood with this Uni hood. Which makes for a 120MB size save given the total 4 hoods beside the SV home hood. Is there a save file size limit at which SP and other Nraas mod utilities stop working effectively? Haven't hit the dread Error 12 limit as yet. I tried increasing the Page File size to 9GB. Which is likely 100% pointless, because TS3 is still at it's core a 32bit game.

Also recently installed the TS3 Collection from Steam. So 100% of the EPs/SPs content were installed in the DCCache folder. Got a good amount of 3rd party CC content installed via launcher in sims3pack format. Rest of 3rd party CC is in mods folder as *.packages.

So given how Uni world is running a bit rough, is it easier for SP to read one file format over the other?

StoryProgression and CC don't really have anything to do with each other. There aren't really any instances where SP needs to 'read' other 3rd party content. It might roll into the outfits of townies, but that isn't governed by SP.

The game itself bears the burden of CC quantity, usually seen in loading times. I don't know if there is much difference in the access speeds of launcher vs .package, but .package tends to have a lot of benefits just from the amount of control you have over being move things in and out without the very unreliable launcher (un)install.

Merged packages do improve on performance, the fewer individual files the better. CCMagic can merge sets of CC, regardless of file format, into combined .package
You might have more luck focusing on what kinds of CC are in use, whether they are performance appropriate, population of sims, etc, and other topics covered in nraas - TIPS FOR BETTER GAME PERFORMANCE.

The EP/SP being in DCCache sounds strange to me, does anyone familiar with the Steam install know if that's normal?

No, EP and SP content does not get put into DCCache on a Steam install. Not sure, but it's possible that the OP is confusing pack content with EA Store content. And I'm not sure I agree that merged content performs really that much better than unmerged as I thought the benefit there was meant to be shorter startup times. But perhaps I never had "enough" CC in play, however we measure that, to reach some kind of performance tipping point.

My suggestions for improved play in Uni World are really the same as any other world. Use the NRaas mods we always talk about here like ErrorTrap, Overwatch, Traffic, GoHere, and MasterController (for world resets when needed) to preserve gameplay. And if SP is to be in play, which is typically fine, then perhaps try setting the overall progression speed down to one of the two slower ones and see if that improves things. Also take care to not impose things like career settings on the resident locals in the exact same way one might in a homeworld full of rabbitholes for workplaces as the results may be entirely unrealistic (like everyone and their grandmother suddenly working Level1 at the burger joint or something)..

Thank you both for the quick replies! To clarify: running the entire Nraas mod utility suite with exception of 3 non vital mods. So game performance affected by those mods isn't the performance issue. Which is why I thought it was the rate at which the game attempts to "read" aka access, it's instructions from the bin and mod folders which is necessary to simulate the game world. Since SP is the default for the vanilla one, I thought this would also take longer to process 3rd party mod content stored as individual *.packages vs the compacted *.sims3pack format.

Anyhow, Igazor could you please explain what you mean by this:

"not impose things like career settings on the resident locals in the exact same way one might in a homeworld full of rabbit holes for workplaces"

What do you mean by "impose"? Not to create social castes that exclude/include traits you'd associate with particular careers? My Uni hood has a lot of MissyHissy careers which I'm rapidly trying to get SP to fill. This creates a mix of traditional RH, role based (AMB stylist chair, tattoo artist, consignment/alchemy registers etc) and freelancer open world type job role vacancies all over the Uni hood. I've been trying to help SP in its mass importing immigrants by creating "Job Castes" for these 3 types of careers.

Example Freelancer based career(assumption is SP will push these sims to Town Hall & register them as self employed):

• Freelancer writers/artisans. Caste only requires sims have one or more of these traits: bookworm, hates outdoors, loner, perfectionist or any of the arts related traits.
• a Public Services caste to fill informal service careers. Job caste requires member sims (eg gardeners, anglers, trash/item collectors etc) have mandatory gatherer, loves outdoors, fishing gardener etc. traits. Which these sims can use to improve game performance by cleaning up the excess spawns of objects throughout the hood and/or sell them at consignment store for profit etc.

Example AMB community/role based career (same idea as Freelancer, but more stringent/mandatory trait based selection criteria):

• Firefighter station career sims have mandatory immunity and/or pyro, athletic traits, with optional loves outdoors.
• Saloon career sims: 1 tattoo artist and 2-3 stylist saloon role object vacancies. have mandatory traits like hates outdoors (differentiates them from Freelancer artisan sims), with other mandatory traits like artistic, avant garde, rebel, perfectionist, social butterfly etc. Which makes it easier for them to skill up in their AMB career role object jobs.

Traditional RH jobs have specific job traits castes. They're also the largest percent of job vacancies based on the RH career level progression. Not sure how many sims it takes to fill a base game RH But based on my Sim's coworkers portriats, this seems to be A LOT. Like as much as 20-30+ sims! So to guarantee SP filled these RH with highest priority, tweaked SP to create castes like these:

Example traditional RH based career (most rigid/constraining trait based criteria. Sims MUST have mandatory traits to work in these RH jobs to maintain economic stability in the hood):

• Criminal RH sims have mandatory klepto and/or pyro traits, and athletic. Optional mean spirited, genius, unlucky, rebellious, night owl etc.
• Restaurant/culinary RH sims have mandatory natural chef trait
• Entertainers/celeb RH sims have mandatory drama, social butterfly, charismatic, ambitious traits. Optional charismatic, gold digger etc.

So did these SP tweaks to create these career castes to better help the SP Personalities module i.e.

• Town Bike: a slut sim caste of socially climbing parasites with mandatory gold digging, schmoozer, romantic, charismatic etc. traits
• Kingpin: exclusively draws sims from the criminal career caste.
• Same for other sim human SP Personality module castes

For occults (and to make weather stone relevant in gameplay):

• Vamps: a Vegan Cullen Vamp society with mandatory vamp trait
• Werewolves: a carnivore Canine Jacobite wolf clan with mandatory wolf trait
• One caste each for the other magic wielding occult sims. So any occult sims the game imports will have at least 1 social caste they can belong to by default. But other than that, I've pretty much left all the defaults SP runs the game with.

Again, in order for SP to execute all the social caste requirements in the preceding wall of text, doesn't it have to "read" the Nraas *.package modules that are in the Mods folder? Because how else will SP know how to create townies for my Town Bike, Vamp etc. SP Progression and custom Firefighter type RH career castes?

The more loose file *.package format files you've got in the mod folder, the longer it would take SP to process this CC content right? This is based on the crudest assumption SP processes/executes 3rd party CC in sims3Pack & especially *.packages in an array structure fashion.

I switch off pretty much all SP settings in worlds like the WA ones or Uni. Those sims aren't allowed to move or get jobs, SP Money is turned off, no marriages, no children, nothing. Anything else is too much for my old computer.

I think the main issue that slows the game down is complex sim files. If they stay uneducated, don't know anyone and have a simple life, the inevitable bloat your sims drag with them when they return to their homeworlds stays mostly manageable. At least until you get several generations in and deal with byzantine family trees.

Regarding cc, yes, merging helps a lot during the start of the game. When I first did that (via CC Magic), it cut loading times roughly in half.

Daedric Prince Nocturnal wrote: ↑

January 24th, 2024, 12:00 pm

Anyhow, Igazor could you please explain what you mean by this:

"not impose things like career settings on the resident locals in the exact same way one might in a homeworld full of rabbit holes for workplaces"

In my previous comment as referenced, I was referring to a stock Uni World that has no City Hall and no more than one or two rabbitholes that could possibly host careers. If you block the burger place from hosting jobs for all local residents but later add a hospital for example, with typical SP settings as would be used in a homeworld, you may find that all inactive residents flock to the hospital and become bedpan cleaners (or whatever Level 1 is) as there's no place else for SP to push them to work.

This is not the scenario you are working with so my comment isn't really relevant.

However, I think I can see where lag could be coming from. Uni World is designed to host university students and push them through a semester, then (except for a small number of townies) send them away. It's not designed to behave like a homeworld does. I've found that it's fine to add some homeworld type attributes here and there and that makes the uni semesters more fun, as does putting SP onto the locals so they show some forms of progression. But what you are structuring isn't really meant to happen there and could be overwhelming the game engine as it works to process the uni term and local resident progression at the same time. The only way to tell for sure is to try some of these ideas out, not necessarily all at once, and see what happens.

I still don't understand this connection between SP and the types of CC used. SP doesn't access or have anything to do with CC directly. If the game is instructed to create a sim or provide new outfits for them, it's going to react the same way no matter where that instruction comes from.

Daedric Prince Nocturnal wrote: ↑

January 24th, 2024, 12:13 pm

Again, in order for SP to execute all the social caste requirements in the preceding wall of text, doesn't it have to "read" the Nraas *.package modules that are in the Mods folder?

All of the game data including CC is accessed on startup, which is why number of mods + merged files effects load times and little else. Your custom settings are stored in your save itself.
StoryProgression is scripted and doesn't interface with 3rd party CC. It doesn't have to scan through the totality of your Mods folder to find the data it uses, either.

" But what you are structuring isn't really meant to happen there and could be overwhelming the game engine as it works to process the uni term and local resident progression at the same time. "
Oh dear. I was afraid of this. It's also most likely where the performance stuttering is coming from.
I haven't played vanilla game since SP came out lol. So I can't remember what the vanilla SP version of the game does with the non student Uni townies.

To clarify: what jobs does the vanilla SP push non Uni student townies to take in the vanilla progression? Is it the PT rabbit holes like the bookstore? And role objects like the Nerd shop registers etc? If so, then it's best to remove as many non essential custom career RHs (like the Realtor etc). And leave basic ones like the hospital. Because for some reason, the dev team decided to add contagious illnesses to the base game. Even overhauled the medical career. Then opted NOT to add a hospital anywhere in the Uni hood. Which provides the necessary immunization/flu shots that let you remove that virally annoying sickness moodlet.

Ani's ginseng broth mod for the canning station doesn't completely fix this moodlet issue. While it makes for interesting game play, EVERY sim within a light year of a sick sim on the lot will automatically become infected. And there aren't any cheats/Ctrl shift clicking that will temporarily suspend it for the semester. Moodlet immediately returns after a few mins or so. So only way is by medical center flu shot. Consequently the need for a Hospital RH. Which led to another health service Spa RH (for SP purposes) and then another and another. Until the stuttering game happened.

Anyways, I assumed SP had to be turned on in the Uni hood (whenever you loaded the Uni world for the first time). That this was necessary for the game progression to work properly. But per Turjan post, you can get away with playing a vanilla Uni aka WA tourist world with no SP. Which actually makes a ton of sense from past experience with SP in all 3 WA game worlds. Rapid save game bloat within 2nd gen or so. Even with SP turned off when my sims left the WA worlds. Guess Uni will have to be a bland experience then.

Ok. Time to downgrade the hood. Thanks again to everyone for helping me clarify this issue.

OK. I'm an idiot. Wait. If it's necessary to disable Nraas SP in Uni hood, then aren't I going to be stuck with having to rely on EA's SP to graduate my sims? Is there any way to disable the Personality/career progression part of the mod without unistalling any of these?