S3PE Refuses to Import/Merge Hair Packages

[PlanetWalker]

I read about that wonderful trick where you could merge packages with S3PE to make your game load faster, and I've been doing that and it's worked fantastically. I've merged furniture, clutter, clothes, plants, etc., and cut down the number of packages from nearing 700 to less than 100. The biggest bulk of my packages are hairs, though, and now I'm trying to merge those, but S3PE is suddenly refusing to load them. At first I thought I was importing too many at once, so I did a few at a time and nothing changed. Doing one hair package at a time worked, but when I tried to save after about 7 packages, the program stopped responding. The merged package DID appear where I saved it, but trying to import it/merge it with more hairs caused the program to stop responding again.

I re-downloaded the program, but that didn't help. I didn't have this problem with the other things I was merging, so I'm not sure why I'm having the problem now. I'm no code/programming/computer expert, just some n00b following a simple guide, so it's very likely I'm doing something wrong, I'm just unsure what.

Any chance anyone knows what the problem might be? :/

Edit: It occurs to me now that this would be best posted at MATY where I first read about this trick, but I just can't seem to properly phrase "African or European?" for it to stop calling me a spammer. Any insight on that instead would also be appreciated. @__@

[Cocomama]

Planetwalker, did you check those packages before merging them?
It seems there often are troubles when trying to merge hairs.
You can use Delphy's Dashboard to identify problem content. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006

[Inge Jones]

Bettybrant, please start a new thread for a new problem.

[PlanetWalker]

Planetwalker, did you check those packages before merging them?
It seems there often are troubles when trying to merge hairs.
You can use Delphy's Dashboard to identify problem content. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=387006

I downloaded that right before I started merging everything, actually. I should have mentioned that. Great tool.

It found a few corrupt packages - mostly in clutter - but those were all fixed, merged, and show up perfectly in-game. The tool says nothing about any of the hairs being broken.

[Inge Jones]

Well we don't know why, we're awaiting an amended spec from the people who designed this feature, who are at MATY.

[PlanetWalker]

All right. Thanks very much, and I apologize for being too much of a derp to be able to ask the guys at MATY myself.

[Mekkiepoo]

To help ya get onto MATY, the answer is 11 meters per second for the swallow question. Be careful when asking them for help tho, they like to be rude and bite peoples heads off for not understanding modding stuff.

[PlanetWalker]

"11 meters per second" isn't working for me. ... Unless the capital of Assyria isn't "Nineveh" like Google told me it was.

I've been reading through their forum and, yeah. They're quite brusque; that's why I didn't attempt to register there right away. But I suppose if I really want this to work out for me so I can play my game without waiting ages and ages for it to load, it's worth risking losing my head to them. :P

Back on the main topic: I just tried to merge things that weren't hairs (some wall stuff, patterns, default body replacements, skins, etc.) and at first S3PE didn't respond, but after a minute it did and saved them as a new single package. I don't know if that means the failure to respond is a hair-only problem, or maybe I just need to wait a really long time for hairs to save as single package?

[Mekkiepoo]

Ive used the method, and had no problems merging all my hairs together... it does take a long time though, and if you dont have a lot of RAM it could take ages. You could try merging fewer at a time, keep it to 100-150mb worth or so, see if that helps.

Also when registerring for MATY make sure theres no extra spaces,.. might be case sensitive. I registerred just a few days ago with Nineveh and 11 meters per second, so not sure why it wouldn't work for you.

Anyway here's the merging tutorial I used, very helpful: http://club-crimsyn.dreamwidth.org/28336.html

[PlanetWalker]

Club Crimsyn was where I originally read about the method. Very helpful.

Maybe it is a RAM problem. When mass importing failed, I did a few at a time. They would import, but the saving always left me with "program not responding." Though maybe I just wasn't waiting long enough. How much RAM would you say I should have and how can I find out how much a actually have?

[Inge Jones]

You do need to wait a long time, that much is known! Yes try walking away and watch a movie. If it is still not responding after a movie it could be crashed lol

[Mekkiepoo]

How much RAM would you say I should have and how can I find out how much a actually have?

If you're on XP, just right click my computer and hit properties.. it will say in the list under "Computer".

Another thing you can do, is if its taking a long time, try going to the bare minimum. Merge 50 files or less together. Make a bunch of small bundles like that.. then when you're done, take 2 of the completed files and merge them together, etc. The bigger filesize you have, the longer it will take. If you get an unhandled exception error, it means you did too many. Close the program and start over with a smaller batch. Most important thing to remember is it's based on the size of the files you put in, not the quantity. Putting in 2x 200mb files will give you the same error as putting in 400 1mb files.