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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 25th Nov 2017 at 12:23 AM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Supernatural, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise, Into the Future
Default World file keeps getting larger without any or few changes
Hi,
I am experiencing a strange problem with Roaring Heights Lite (only world, roads and paint) world I have downloaded from Cawster, a well-trusted CAW resource page I have read and experienced myself before. I have googled and tried to find out any answers or solutions but so far I have got nothing so I hope maybe I can get some help here (kind of a last stop on this truth-seeking road).
When I downloaded the file, the .world file was 72.4 MB large, I also checked the global layer to be empty and it was/is still. I started to rebuild the roads and added about 20 lots when I noticed the .world file has grown to about 79 MB. After adding a few more roads and in total 48 lots, 8 bridges and a distant terrain the file is 81 MB large (8.6 MB larger than in the start). I checked the unpopulated Roaring Heights world file what was also downloadable from Cawster just to see the size of it that was with all the non-lite content (plants, world objects, spawns, effects, lots, buildings etc) about 75.1 MB. It got me really scared that if I continue just adding lots, roads and objects and changing it, the world file will grow about 200 MB in just a few days and for no visible reason. I tried to "save as" to get the save as clean as possible and cleaned out all cache files from CAW User folders.

I also did some testing and found out that just adding a lot, deleting it and saving increases the size of the world about 1-2 MB when the result should be the same. No other world file has ever grown that rapidly with just so few changes and in the end it's already 4 times larger than all the non-lite content in unpopulated world.

To add even more fuel to the fire, I decided to strip the world from all the content I can while saving after deleting each one of them. I started with 81 MB with only the world itself, terrain paint, a few roads and 48 lots, 8 bridges and one distant terrain. After deleting all the terrain paints, the size shrink to 47.8 MB (33.2 MB terrain paint what is probably normal in a large world with about 6 terrain paints, right?). Then I deleted the roads, distant terrain, bridges and lots I got there and got the size of 45 MB (2.8 MB amazingly only when the world file grew 8.6 MB before with the same changes). So I ended up with a naked looking world that was 45 MB in size.
To get some comparison what that kind of a world should really be, I created a new world from Roaring Height's heightsmap, large 300 max height and the only thing I did more was to raise the water level to the same height. One thing though I didn't do was to add the Roaring Height's INI files to the world file, if I am getting technical. After saving the world it was only 22.7 MB large, so more than twice smaller.
Also I looked at the old backup files from my own world I am in the process of creating (large, 200 height) what only has terrain sculpting, 70 lots, 20 clusters of trees and 4 bridges and a distant terrain, and that is 42.9 MB large.

I have got some questions and worries I hope to find an answer/solution to:
Why is the world file getting so large? How can I prevent/fix that? Is that even a problem? And is the final size going to affect the gameplay even when the objects in the world are following the suggestions by EA (8 paints per chunk, 4 plant species per chunk, well-done routing ofc, not much deco etc)?
Are there some special rule or note that I have missed about recreating EA worlds?
What is the difference between a new world with RH heightsmap and the Lite one that has been stripped from all the content? Is some information still attached to the world file with no reason? Shouldn't cleaning the global layer get rid of all the old data of the population etc? Is there even any reason compare 2 worlds that look the same in the content level, have about the same options chosen and still for some reason are so different?
Where are the terrain paint layers "saved" - some specific package files in world file? Can these be imported from one CAW world to another with S3PE or another program? I am really disliking the idea of doing all the terrain paint from scratch when RH has such a great one done already.
And the most importantly - has anyone experienced the same problem and knows what is going on with all that?

I thank everyone who has the strength to read it all the way to the bottom!
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Top Secret Researcher
#2 Old 25th Nov 2017 at 6:52 AM
The terrain paint layers have greyscale "heightmaps" too. When you click on a terrain paint layer (as if changing the texture) you see an option for "export". This will export the greyscale png. Do this for all terrain paint layers, re-add them to your new version in the right order and with the respective textures and in theory, your world should be painted like the original.

How did you delete the terrain paints? Did you try this method? http://nornreads.tumblr.com/post/15...errain-textures
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retired moderator
#3 Old 25th Nov 2017 at 7:36 AM
Also, check whether there are any old textures like sim and lot thumbnails left in the world file.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#4 Old 25th Nov 2017 at 9:27 AM
Thank you Norn, that helps a lot! Terrain paints I deleted just by deleting them from the list except for the last one (base). Thank you for that tutorial, I will follow the instructions there when deleting paints from now on.

How do I check the sims/thumbnails to be cleared out? I did check the global layer but that's all I could figure out.
Top Secret Researcher
#5 Old 25th Nov 2017 at 10:06 AM Last edited by Norn : 25th Nov 2017 at 10:09 AM. Reason: Typos...
If you follow that tutorial all IMG files will be removed. Sim thumbnails have the SNAP tag in s3pe, lot thumbnails the ICON tag. Those will not be removed with the tutorial, you would have to remove them manually.
Deleting textures just from the list will not remove them from the world file unfortunately.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#6 Old 25th Nov 2017 at 10:17 AM
And removing them manually means deleting the corresponding SNAP and ICON files from the world file with S3PE, right?
Top Secret Researcher
#7 Old 25th Nov 2017 at 10:26 AM
Yes... I've never done this before but I would assume that the game re-generates the one it needs. Probably best to backup your world first ;-)
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