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#1 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 11:25 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 9th Feb 2011 at 11:49 PM.
Default Sims2Pack Clean Installer Research
This thread is for research involving the Sims2Pack Clean Installer. While mostly for my own benefit, and for the benefit of anyone else who wants to do development on the Clean Installer, feel free to post if you have something to add to the discussion.
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#2 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 11:30 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 10th Feb 2011 at 5:09 AM.
Default Install family directly into the sim bin without the associated lot.
From: http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ad.php?tid=868:

Quote: Originally posted by lindawing
If you have already moved the Sims into their new homes, be SURE to package them that way, saving them to a FILE! You can also save them to the Bin, so you'll have them that way in your own game, to place anywhere you like.

Now, using Clean Installer, open the family-with-house that you saved-to-file. When CI opens the file, UNCLICK EVERYTHING EXCEPT the Family, any CC clothing you want left with them, and the individual Sims IN the family.

In other words, do NOT click anything to do with the house! Also do NOT click any FRIENDS who might happen to be showing in CI...those are just memories, and those are the things that can mess up entire hoods, if too many of them are installed.

Then (still in CI) look down in the corner to the right, and choose SAVE, and save the file over again, to whatever place you choose (make sure remember where that is!).

Voila! You can then share that family with no house--just Sims! Whe it is installed, the Sims will go into the Sims Bin, rather than the Lots Bin.
Interesting technique, but I'd like to test to see exactly what happens.

Question: The Lot Bin is shared between all neighborhoods, but the Sim Bin is specific to one neighborhood and its subhoods. How does the game decide which neighborhood will have the new sims?

[Update:]

Well, I tried selecting just the family and sims from a packaged occupied lot, but I wasn't able to find the sims in the sim bin of any of my neighborhoods. So I tried saving to a new Sims2Pack, as suggested, and tried again. Still no luck... Also looked in occupied lots and CAS.

I do not believe that this technique works. This doesn't surprise me... the Lot Bin and the Sim Bin are very different features. Lots and sims in the Lot Bin are stored in the LotCatalog folder and are not associated with a neighborhood. Sims in the Sim Bin are actually a part of your neighborhood; they are playable characters grouped into families who live in lot #0.

Note: Tested with all EPs and SPs. Also tried with old V1.5.1.4 Clean Installer.
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#3 Old 9th Feb 2011 at 11:45 PM Last edited by Mootilda : 10th Feb 2011 at 2:47 AM.
Default Safely removing extra sims packaged with a lot
I just found a group of people who are recommending a particular use of the Clean Installer to clean extra sims off of a packaged lot which has not been properly cleaned (per Game_Help:Moving_Simswiki). They insist that it creates a cleaner safer neighborhood, so I'm doing research to determine whether this method works and, if not, where it fails.

From http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ad.php?tid=780:
Quote: Originally posted by pattyheart
Every so often some one will express concern about downloading and using occupied homes. [...] Before installing a downloaded or saved to file lot the Clean Installer allows a player to remove any and all unwanted items - including any connections to other Sims.
From http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ad.php?tid=868:
Quote: Originally posted by lindawing
Now, using Clean Installer, open the family-with-house that you saved-to-file. [...] Also do NOT click any FRIENDS who might happen to be showing in CI...those are just memories, and those are the things that can mess up entire hoods, if too many of them are installed.
[Emphasis in the above quotes is mine, not the author's.]

When you uncheck a sim, you are telling the Clean Installer not to install that sim into your neighborhood. However, I can verify that the Clean Installer does not remove connections to that sim; specifically, it does not remove memories, family ties, relationships, wants and fears, etc. The concern is that removing these sims will leave dangling connections (to invalid sims) which will eventually corrupt your neighborhood. LindaWing insists that all of these connections are safely removed by the game.

Related discussions:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=228915
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...opic,158.0.html
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...pic,2566.0.html
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...ic,19966.0.html

First test:

1) Package the Mole family from Desiderata Valley using all EPs and SPs. This lot has (see attached):

One playable sim:
- John Mole

Four additional sims in Family Tree, all dead:
- Lucy and James Mole (parents)
- Becky and Alastair Provocateur (maternal grandparents)

A dozen or more additional sims who have Relationships with John; none are family.

Memories of many of the sims in both the Family Tree and Relationships panels.

2) The Clean Installer is run on this lot and only the family, lot and John are installed. This "cleaned" lot is then installed into a brand new neighborhood, using all EPs and SPs. Initial tests indicate the following:

3) Sims:

3.A) SimPE: The neighborhood package has five "unknown" sims with little data in the neighborhood package and no character file. The Sim IDs for these sims are not the IDs mentioned in the characterSegmentForUpload by the Clean Installer.

Question: Is this an artifact of the installed lot, or do these sims exist in a completely clean neighborhood?

Conclusion: No conclusion possible without further testing.

4) Sim Relationships:

4.A) TS2: No relationships are displayed.
4.B) SimPE: There is only one relationship: from John to himself.
4.C) HoodChecker: There is only one relationship: from John to himself.

Question: Does John have a relationship with himself in the original neighborhood?

Question: Is a relationship with oneself safe or unsafe?

Conclusion: The game seems to cleanly remove the relationships with the non-existent sims.

5) Family Ties:

5.A) TS2: The Family Tree is empty except for John.
5.B) SimPE: There are no family ties.
5.C) HoodChecker: There are no family ties.

Conclusion: The game seems to cleanly remove the family ties with non-existent sims.

6) Memories:

6.A) TS2: All memories which used to mention a real sim now mention $Subject.
6.B) SimPE: All memories which used to mention a real sim now have invalid Sim IDs. The Sim IDs are the IDs mentioned by the Clean Installer with the characterSegmentForUpload.
6.C) HoodChecker: The HoodChecker does not verify memories at this time.

Note: Unfortunately, I do not know of any way to check memories which are not associated with a specific sim. For example, NPCs are associated with the lot, rather than with a specific sim. Ref: NGBHwiki

Note: Many of these corrupted memories could be removed with the Lot Debugger from MATY, including Clear Gossip and Clear Trash. Removing unnecessary memories before packaging the lot would be the most logical approach, since it limits the number of extra sims packaged, as well as the number of memories which can be corrupted.

Conclusion: The game does not clean memories at all. This is a potential source of corruption.

Still to be tested:
- Pregnancy tokens, furious tokens, etc.
- NPCs associated with a lot. Other non-sim specific memories.
- Wants and fears which mention specific sims.
- Other configurations of EPs and SPs.
Screenshots
Test Subject
#4 Old 29th May 2011 at 2:55 AM
Default Clean Installer Helps Identify Files Shown Only As Numbers
Clean Installer has helped to organise my Downloads folder when files have only a series of numbers as names.

By calling up a folder containing numbers as file names, the name of the file appears and when highlited with cursor the file number which corresponds to the folder's files is revealed when in 'detail' view. I am then able to make folders of hairs, clothes by creator and type. The pictures Clean Installer often shows is further helpful.

This method has been much easier and faster than using SimPE to identify number series files.
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