What would be really great if there is ever a new Master Controller version (or something)...
Don't be sorry at all about the options. One thing that's great about the NRaas suite is that there are a lot of options. Unfortunately, if I have to move everybody there's no perfect one, but at least I can decide which weaknesses I'm willing to put up with.
On Dreamer, I don't think I installed that mod, because I also use Awesome and I've always thought it handled wants/dreams well. I also frequently use the console command it adds, "resetallwants," before saving. However, I'll install Dreamer and configure it to drop dreams when switching households. It's worth a shot to see if it makes things better.
I do have "show in compact form" in CAS only for hair with accessories. As I've referred to, I really love all the options when doing Everyday clothing, including seeing the different styles (including some I made). Maybe I should recheck it, because it might be worth compacting it for some categories, if I can for them and not others.
I know I'd end up having to redo lots and lots of categories if I use the MC->Add Sim or any other method that loses the category choices, because the default choices are awful, and very often sims end up in the nude "outfit" for non-Everyday clothing when the computer selects it. I have no problem with nude sims, and have a mod (not actually the one here, but one made from a tool that also let me eliminate most fairy wings) that eliminates the censor, but they should be nude when it makes sense, like showering or skinny dipping. They end up looking nude while the game thinks they're in an outfit (even Formal). NPC's and the relatively small number of selectable "immigrants" whose outfits are chosen by the computer often end up with that.
Also, little things bother me: As an example, for swimming outfits, male sims should always be topless (ever see a male adult wearing a shirt in a swimming pool in real life?) Females in bikinis shouldn't have a red top portion and a green bottom portion or something either, etc.. Needless to say, sims of both genders as in the above "nude outfit" issue will also sometimes end up looking like they're skinny dipping when that isn't what the game thinks is going on.
For some reason, as much as I mod the game with Awesome, NRaas, others' tools, other downloaded mods, downloaded CC, and homemade XML/ITUN tuning mods, I haven't gotten my head around how to blacklist outfits, even though I've seen on this site that there are tools for that, which might be very useful if I can get them to work. I've tried a couple of times and failed, despite that I've succeeded at more complex customization.
On Dreamer, I don't think I installed that mod, because I also use Awesome and I've always thought it handled wants/dreams well. I also frequently use the console command it adds, "resetallwants," before saving. However, I'll install Dreamer and configure it to drop dreams when switching households. It's worth a shot to see if it makes things better.
I do have "show in compact form" in CAS only for hair with accessories. As I've referred to, I really love all the options when doing Everyday clothing, including seeing the different styles (including some I made). Maybe I should recheck it, because it might be worth compacting it for some categories, if I can for them and not others.
I know I'd end up having to redo lots and lots of categories if I use the MC->Add Sim or any other method that loses the category choices, because the default choices are awful, and very often sims end up in the nude "outfit" for non-Everyday clothing when the computer selects it. I have no problem with nude sims, and have a mod (not actually the one here, but one made from a tool that also let me eliminate most fairy wings) that eliminates the censor, but they should be nude when it makes sense, like showering or skinny dipping. They end up looking nude while the game thinks they're in an outfit (even Formal). NPC's and the relatively small number of selectable "immigrants" whose outfits are chosen by the computer often end up with that.
Also, little things bother me: As an example, for swimming outfits, male sims should always be topless (ever see a male adult wearing a shirt in a swimming pool in real life?) Females in bikinis shouldn't have a red top portion and a green bottom portion or something either, etc.. Needless to say, sims of both genders as in the above "nude outfit" issue will also sometimes end up looking like they're skinny dipping when that isn't what the game thinks is going on.
For some reason, as much as I mod the game with Awesome, NRaas, others' tools, other downloaded mods, downloaded CC, and homemade XML/ITUN tuning mods, I haven't gotten my head around how to blacklist outfits, even though I've seen on this site that there are tools for that, which might be very useful if I can get them to work. I've tried a couple of times and failed, despite that I've succeeded at more complex customization.
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igazor
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Slight misunderstanding there. You probably don't need the Dreamer mod if you are running with Awesome. The part about Dream Catching active household switches just happens to be on its FAQ page, but the mod has nothing to do with that directly. Dreamer doesn't have any settings itself.
It depends on the method you are using to switch households. If you use MC to switch, the option to be Dream Catching or not is within MC. If you use SP to switch, the options is set within SP on the Town, Caste, Household, Sim levels. Each mod that is used to switch honors its own settings. Switching from Edit Town relies on Mover's settings (if you have Mover). You can also use an MC filter to see how many sims in town have Dream Manager running on them -- I was shocked recently to see I had it running on over 20 sims, that was a mistake on my part. And you can use MC > Town to stop the Manager on all of them at once to see if that improves performance. Not sure if Awesome's version of that command stops Dream Managers or if it just temporarily clears out the currently promised wishes.
On the CAS Compact View again, I usually keep it on but switch back to the annoying lag-inducing full view occasionally when I can't find just the outfit I am looking for. But I don't need the full category views on clothing just to fix something that looks ridiculous or quickly give a sim a new overcoat and gloves for the winter. In case you didn't know, you can get to MC options from within CAS without having to leave by right-clicking on the "..." button in the lower-left corner, the one that usually leads to Game Options, Save, etc.
It depends on the method you are using to switch households. If you use MC to switch, the option to be Dream Catching or not is within MC. If you use SP to switch, the options is set within SP on the Town, Caste, Household, Sim levels. Each mod that is used to switch honors its own settings. Switching from Edit Town relies on Mover's settings (if you have Mover). You can also use an MC filter to see how many sims in town have Dream Manager running on them -- I was shocked recently to see I had it running on over 20 sims, that was a mistake on my part. And you can use MC > Town to stop the Manager on all of them at once to see if that improves performance. Not sure if Awesome's version of that command stops Dream Managers or if it just temporarily clears out the currently promised wishes.
On the CAS Compact View again, I usually keep it on but switch back to the annoying lag-inducing full view occasionally when I can't find just the outfit I am looking for. But I don't need the full category views on clothing just to fix something that looks ridiculous or quickly give a sim a new overcoat and gloves for the winter. In case you didn't know, you can get to MC options from within CAS without having to leave by right-clicking on the "..." button in the lower-left corner, the one that usually leads to Game Options, Save, etc.
I didn't know that I could get to the MC in CAS that way. That's very useful to know. Thanks for that.
I'm wondering right now if there would be a reason that Plumbots would correlate with trouble saving and (due to) extra memory use, much more than sims. They probably aren't, but...
1) I really started having the E12 problems after visiting the future and a couple of households getting Plumbots. I thought it might have to do with having extra save requirements for the future worlds, but I deleted the future world from the save file and it really didn't make much difference.
2) I've learned to follow memory usage closely, as the E12 risk is infinitely higher when the TS3 process is using over about 3.3 GB of memory. If it's under 3 GB, I pretty much know a save will work. Over 3.5, it will almost certainly fail. 3.3 is about break even. With that in mind...
3) I had been playing a household with a Plumbot. It has 8 humans and the Plumbot, something that would be allowed even if I didn't have mods that allowed overstuffed houses. From when the game loaded, I was pushing 3 GB of RAM.
4) I switched households (not for any reason other than that I do rotate and felt like it). The household I just played is overstuffed, with 10 human sims. It also has three dogs (two dogs I created for it, and then they mated and had puppies, one of which I kept). It also has Bonehilda. Playing for almost 3 hours, it didn't hit 3 GB of RAM until the last save.
There are other explanations. I'd already put all my CC into merged files, but I've been merging the merged files. I didn't know if that could work, so of course I backed them up; but it can. I did some major merging of the merged files, and so even had I played the Plumbot household maybe the memory usage would have been lower in the way it was. Or...very possibly something else I haven't thought of.
I really like Plumbots...they can do some things humans can do, but are specifically limited. They're very interesting for game play. Though, obviously, if the game would run WAY better without them, it would be worth not using them. I'd hate to do that, but it would be less of a sacrifice than moving everyone to a new town....
I'm wondering right now if there would be a reason that Plumbots would correlate with trouble saving and (due to) extra memory use, much more than sims. They probably aren't, but...
1) I really started having the E12 problems after visiting the future and a couple of households getting Plumbots. I thought it might have to do with having extra save requirements for the future worlds, but I deleted the future world from the save file and it really didn't make much difference.
2) I've learned to follow memory usage closely, as the E12 risk is infinitely higher when the TS3 process is using over about 3.3 GB of memory. If it's under 3 GB, I pretty much know a save will work. Over 3.5, it will almost certainly fail. 3.3 is about break even. With that in mind...
3) I had been playing a household with a Plumbot. It has 8 humans and the Plumbot, something that would be allowed even if I didn't have mods that allowed overstuffed houses. From when the game loaded, I was pushing 3 GB of RAM.
4) I switched households (not for any reason other than that I do rotate and felt like it). The household I just played is overstuffed, with 10 human sims. It also has three dogs (two dogs I created for it, and then they mated and had puppies, one of which I kept). It also has Bonehilda. Playing for almost 3 hours, it didn't hit 3 GB of RAM until the last save.
There are other explanations. I'd already put all my CC into merged files, but I've been merging the merged files. I didn't know if that could work, so of course I backed them up; but it can. I did some major merging of the merged files, and so even had I played the Plumbot household maybe the memory usage would have been lower in the way it was. Or...very possibly something else I haven't thought of.
I really like Plumbots...they can do some things humans can do, but are specifically limited. They're very interesting for game play. Though, obviously, if the game would run WAY better without them, it would be worth not using them. I'd hate to do that, but it would be less of a sacrifice than moving everyone to a new town....
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igazor
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On (2), your observations with respect to RAM are right on the mark. The game's absolute upper limit (on Windows) is ~3.7GB. Most players find the real danger point is around 3.3 GB as you noticed. Some find it's a bit higher for them, some a bit lower. It only takes a single spike above the danger zone for a millisecond that would be easy to miss even while watching Task Manager for the current game session to become toast and/or prone to Error12s. My heaviest usually overstuffed household carrying many generations of data in their family trees in an admittedly overcrowded world levels off at around 2.9 GB when I play them, but to even get that I have to turn SP down to its Snail speed and dial back graphics settings in Game Options considerably. After a few (real time) hours of game play, I will easily see 3.1 or 3.2. Other smaller households, even within the same world, fare much better when I play them. I have some sims from this household in Oasis Landing right now and comparatively speaking, since that world is so much smaller and less in need of progression than homeworlds, RAM usage is practically trivial somewhere under 1.7 GB as I play them.
I don't believe carrying inactive worlds around in a game save adds much or anything at all to RAM usage. My ongoing game has 15 inter-connected worlds in it. Sure each save is well over 2 GB, but the currently inactive worlds don't get loaded into RAM, they just come along for the ride into Current Games and get saved back down again into Saves when saving. Same with the TravelDB.package file.
I haven't been playing ITF myself long enough to notice, but my sense is that Plumbots are sims like any other and do not add anything to the game's overhead any more than human sims do. Whether they work as the player expected or malfunction along the way is, of course, a different story.
On switching from a household of 9 sims to one of 13 and back as you have described, I would definitely save, exit, and reload very soon after making such an active switch pretty much out of reflex. Hilda doesn't really count as a full-fledged sim to me, but the dogs and plumbots do. Again, I would want to know if a non-Dream Catching switch and dropping all Dream Managers with MC makes any difference in performance over a Dream Catching one with that many sims involved.
I don't believe carrying inactive worlds around in a game save adds much or anything at all to RAM usage. My ongoing game has 15 inter-connected worlds in it. Sure each save is well over 2 GB, but the currently inactive worlds don't get loaded into RAM, they just come along for the ride into Current Games and get saved back down again into Saves when saving. Same with the TravelDB.package file.
I haven't been playing ITF myself long enough to notice, but my sense is that Plumbots are sims like any other and do not add anything to the game's overhead any more than human sims do. Whether they work as the player expected or malfunction along the way is, of course, a different story.
On switching from a household of 9 sims to one of 13 and back as you have described, I would definitely save, exit, and reload very soon after making such an active switch pretty much out of reflex. Hilda doesn't really count as a full-fledged sim to me, but the dogs and plumbots do. Again, I would want to know if a non-Dream Catching switch and dropping all Dream Managers with MC makes any difference in performance over a Dream Catching one with that many sims involved.
Having removed the future save weeks ago with no real effect, I agree that it wasn't what caused E12 to begin.
However, you missed what I was trying to say about the two households: When the household with the 13 sims is active, I can play for hours before I hit the danger zone. The 9 sim household, however, is around 3 GB when it loads. The reason I (wrongly) thought the future-world save might have been the problem was that E12 became a real issue only after visiting the future.
I'm now wondering if Plumbots are much worse for memory than regular sims, for whatever reason. Having Plumbots was another significant change after I visited the future. The 10 person/3 pet household stays under the danger zone long enough to be playable, and is at about 2.6 GB when first loaded. The 8 person/1 plumbot household starts close to 3 GB when first loaded, so there's very little margin for error.
I'm not saying it's due to the Plumbot. I don't want it to be, because I think they're fun. I'm hypothesizing that it could be, however. I don't know why else the household with more sims is using less memory.
However, you missed what I was trying to say about the two households: When the household with the 13 sims is active, I can play for hours before I hit the danger zone. The 9 sim household, however, is around 3 GB when it loads. The reason I (wrongly) thought the future-world save might have been the problem was that E12 became a real issue only after visiting the future.
I'm now wondering if Plumbots are much worse for memory than regular sims, for whatever reason. Having Plumbots was another significant change after I visited the future. The 10 person/3 pet household stays under the danger zone long enough to be playable, and is at about 2.6 GB when first loaded. The 8 person/1 plumbot household starts close to 3 GB when first loaded, so there's very little margin for error.
I'm not saying it's due to the Plumbot. I don't want it to be, because I think they're fun. I'm hypothesizing that it could be, however. I don't know why else the household with more sims is using less memory.
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igazor
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Because possibly the Dream Managers are still running on 13 inactive sims whereas before they were active? But I'll stop saying this now since you are likely tired of hearing it.
Might the smaller but heavier household be much heavier in objects than the larger one, thus causing the game to have to work harder when it's active and constantly being rendered? A garden with hundreds of plants would do it, as might overly intricate house/lot design. Or sims overly burdened with inventory items. Or much more complicated and longer family trees. And probably dozens of other things like that to account for the difference.
Might the smaller but heavier household be much heavier in objects than the larger one, thus causing the game to have to work harder when it's active and constantly being rendered? A garden with hundreds of plants would do it, as might overly intricate house/lot design. Or sims overly burdened with inventory items. Or much more complicated and longer family trees. And probably dozens of other things like that to account for the difference.
I've checked about the Dream Managers and MC definitely is set to "False" for "retain dreams and opportunities." It is very possible there's something with that household. In my rotational play I've been playing the third of my three favorite households lately. That household has a Plumbot, as well as 8 humans and 2 cats. Saving is a little iffy with that household at times, such as yesterday when much of the household was at a hotspot so there were a lot of sims around. That cut the real-life time between having to exit and restart to under 2 hours, which is a problem (especially given the over 15 minutes it generally takes to load regardless of household). But it generally can go a reasonable enough length between saves with that household so as not to ruin the fun. So, there easily could be a specific problem with the other Plumbot household (especially since no one else seems to experience Plumbots as especially significant to save problems).