I only just looked at this thread for the first time. Been busy and all.

Anyway, a couple of things to note:

- Thanks to TickleOnTheTum for the ProcessMonitor link. I was quite suprised to see that link in post 240 ish, when it should have been said before. If people ARE saying that the game is "continuously loading packages" then that tool would confirm it.

- I looked at making the CC flag appear on package files OUTSIDE of the DCCache files, and basically gave it up as impossible. It's basically hard coded into the game code.

- A .package to .sims3pack convertor would actually be fairly trivial to do (1 package = 1 sims3pack) but you'd lack thumbnails, descriptions and so on.

- It's interesting that this seems to happen only with *some* custom content (and to some people) and not every piece.

I have to admit to skipping a fair few posts since they seem to be rehashing things.

Thanks Delphy, you gave me the clue!

I downloaded that program, Process Monitor, and started up my game. After some minutes I returned to windows, took a look at that program and that's what it said:


It was loading those files one time and another. So I went to my mods folder and deleted them:


Then I started up the game again and.... No more reloads!!!
The time of loading a family was still a bit laggy but I think better.
I do not have patches or WA, so I don't know if it is going to solve the problem at all but I will try in the future. Those having WA can test that and see if, luckily, they've got as good results as me.
Anyway, the program stills loads and loads 2 files coming from mydocuments but I don't know if it is normal or no, these two:


I really hope this helps!

Nadiah: Interesting results. Looks like it was just trying to load those 8 files over and over and over again.

Also, erm, this may be a stupid question but... FashionTwist_Skin_TFEveryday002_confide has a creation date of February 2009. The Sims 3 wasn't even out then. Additionally, the file labelled Outerwear makes me think that you actually have The Sims 2 package files lumped into your Sims 3 folder.

If so, then obviously this would cause the game to keep re-reading those files to attempt to load them, since they, well, aren't TS3 files.

Yes, I have just confirmed it Delphy, I downloaded those files from some finds I found somewhere else, but know I googled fashiontwist and entered the real website, and yes, some of them were sims 2 stuff, can you believe it? But other ones, were in fact sims 3 stuff and they were causing problems... So, the only thing I can recommend the others is to check with the program and see what happens, I can't really test with patches or WA because I do not have. And if any of you have a clue about why is loading the caches and the other stuff one time and another this would be helpful too.

Thanks again!

I'd be VERY interested in seeing what Process Monitor says for other people experiencing this issue. I found that FashionTwist_Skin_etc. stuff - it IS Sims 2 content:

http://www.fashiontwist.org/ (Content > The Sims 2 > Female Clothing > Teen > Everyday)

Verrrry interesting.

How To: Use Process Monitor to determine if your TS3 is "reloading" "bad" files all the time.

Step 1. Download and extract this file, to your desktop. http://download.sysinternals.com/Fi...cessMonitor.zip

Step 2. In the directory you extracted the above zip to, find and run the Procmon.exe file.

Step 3. Agree to the license and (optionally) click through the UAC prompt (if using Vista/Windows 7)

Step 4. Press Ctrl-L or click the Filter icon in the toolbar, or click Filter -> Filter

Step 5. Change the dialog to look like this:



(You'll have to type in the TS3.exe bit).

If you use World Adventures you'll need to put in TS3EP01.exe instead.

Step 6. Click Add, then OK.

Step 7. You should see a Process Monitor blank screen.

Step 8. Launch your game and go to a Lot. Play for a couple minutes at least.

Step 9. Close the game.

Step 10. Important: Scroll to the END of the list, then start scrolling up from there. You should see a lot of entries as in post #254.

Step 11. Post a screenshot of the Procmon window.

Optional:

If you see lots of entries that exist in the Mods\Packages folder, ie not My Documents, try doing the following: Locate these files and move them (cut, dont copy) to the Desktop. Repeat steps 7 to 12.

Nadiah: Let's get rid of the obvious causes first (ie the TS2 content). Anything left that it constantly tries to reload can be looked at individually. For example, that cfTop001 package.

So would we not be better off just not using any Package files?
Just stick to Sim3pak
If we do not know if some of the package files are going to slow down our game.
I had tons of them. Then got WA and game was so slow it was not playable.
Moved out all my Package files and now it runs fine. I do have allot of Sims3pak files
I guess what everyone is saying if you want to use them we just have to put in a few at a time and see how the game runs. If it is bad delete them and start again..
I am just frustrated had built allot of houses and Sims with Package files and now lost everything. I have no idea What EA did with World Adventures or the Patch.
But i wonder if they did it on purpose to force us all to use Sims3Pak

simangelgoth: No, thats not what we are saying at all. The whole idea "dont use package files, only use Sims3Packs" is taking a hammer to an issue that requires a scalpel.

My guess is that they changed some of the loading code so that it's "stricter", so packages that used to load ok (but where probably ignored or passed off as "broken"), in fact, now causes it to go into a load loop. Hence the slowdown - obviously checking for files multiple times a second is gonna slow down most peoples PCs -especially those who didn't have a powerful system in the first place.

Ooh. Just as a side note, I tried it and found a few files (one halfassed TS3 hair mesh I did myself and abandoned but forgot to delete and three that are probably TS2 content that got mixed in) Once deleted things load faster and feel quite zippy.

My Computer is newer and has more than required Power.
I Deleted all my Package files. And I have no other idea to try but to start Putting back in some at a time and see if they run. I don't know any other faster easier way of doing it.

simangelgoth - Pssst, read the last page about using Process Monitor, and Delphy's post about how to set it up.

Ta da...Here you are Delphy, our saviour. I was going to abandon CC, and now you come here like a Messiah to save our creativity. Thank to exist you and HP. Ok, now that we know how to check the behaviour of our game, maybe is there a solution to run the "bad" file in S3PE or something else to exorcize them? If not, don't worry I was just curious, but the saving you made is just enough for me.
PS: you frightened me, I thought nobody would have saved us...!
@ fluttereyes:
-the title of this thread is "Package files and WA slowdown". And we found at least an early solution so, other issues have to be treated in other threads. I don't want to be rude in no way, I just want to put in order all the problems.
-For blue lots there's customsims3 which have a thread that fully talk out of this problem and have a solution.
-For other issues about packages open another thread.

franziska: Running the package files through S3PE would immediately highlight the TS2 ones and any totally broken TS3 ones, yes. This would, I think, be the majority of files found, but we shall see.

I'm not really suggesting anything that a technical person would suggest, and indeed, TickleOnTheTum suggested using ProcessMonitor first. I don't really deserve credit for anything really.

You made a tutorial You made my day you made me happy
About the "broken TS3 file" is there a way to make them "good"?

franziska: Depends on whats broken about them. It's really hard to tell without actually looking at the specifics of whats inside it.

Ok that's enough for me. Thank you very much and I repeat: come here most often! bye

Franziska, you obviously haven't been reading the entire thread and my problem is to do with .packages and lag. I had thought the freexzing was related but as we do, I eliminated that as being part of the same issue. After all, if I didn't come back and say then others may have though thats what I meant.

Could you please post the solution you found here as I don't seem to see a solution as yet.

I do think you were rude there as I've been working for days trying everything in my power to help investigate this issue, which I am still having, which is totally related to this thread.

@Delphy. I do have WA installed, I also have the patches and I AM having the issue this thread is about. I will download the process monitor and post my findings here. To do so I would have to run it with the content I have in now that works, then add the other .packages that are causing me problems, and post those findings too.

I hope this will lead us to a solution to this issue that's been a hassle for a lot of us for over a week now.

Just one thing though, it would be good if a few people ran this test as some of us found that some .packages were working for one and not for others, that is the real problem in identifying the cause. Surely if it was broken .packages, then we would all have the exact same issues with the exact same packages. I hope you understand what I mean.

I'm confused as to what this is showing me.

--> Here <-- is my screenshot of what the Process Monitor is showing me.

I see the multiple loads that the mods are using, and I noticed how someone got rid of all of the ones that require multiple loads, but after skimming through I noticed that this applies to every file I have whether or not it's a mod. So does that mean I need to delete every mod I have?

I also have "FAST IO DISALLOWED" listed for some of them.

(Sorry, I don't know how to post images that automatically resize!)

Does that mean in-game?

@ fluttereyes:I followed the tutorial by Delphy, for me it was simple... I've put in my game all my packages and started the game with the process monitor running in background. After few minute of (impossible) playing, I checked back what the program said and deleted all the files that were "re-loading". When I played againg, no more lag!
Anyway, spending several days doesn't make sense! I mean there was a problem with some packages, now we know for sure. Doing attempts would never give us the solution. This is the right way to find out the "bad" files. So, what is the diffuculty now? Was I rude because I understood Delphy's words? Or because that worked for me? Anyway sorry, I don't meant to be rude, I don't meant to hurt anybody, I had an issue which I solved in the way Delphy said. Now if you want to keep saying here that a package doesn't show in your game or "the file doesn't work" (I don't understand what you meant) or someone never had succes with packages (I don't understand twice) is your choice. This is a free community and if the mods don't tell anything, do it. Sorry again! PS:I'm sincere! Sorry...

I've seen the same results, as I wrote on my previous post it seems that game load load and load again .package files.

Btw, follow some trials. I've notice that on each subfolder appear an instance of "Resource.cfg". I've just one and it isn't in the Mods/Packages folder. But it appears that game search a resource file for each subfolder.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7201/process2gz.jpg

I think is better save the report as csv, because on a screen just few entries appears, really they appear again and again.

After this, I tried with only a few patterns, without subfolder. I tried with 21 patterns, created with Delphy Pattern Packager, all in Mods/Packages. The game load, load and load them... In this way game is fast to load, I haven't problem (there only few files), but is clear that something is wrong.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/5604/process1s.jpg
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/442/process3j.jpg

I've seen almost all file load and load again in the first attempt with furnishing, hair, default replacement and so, I can't think that all are bad files, I suppose that something is wrong with package. My game is not so slow, but I'm trying to understand what is the better way to follow. End-users don't read instructions and don't make trials... as a site manager I won't cause problems to people for stupid cc.

well I most certainly won't be doing that again. The first image is the image of the working ones that I've been playing with, I cut it short as there was nothing unusual.

The second one made my pc go kablooey. It went haywire and the game just wouldn't fully load. I got past the WA screen but when I tried to load my hood it just chucked a mental and sat there not loading at all. You'll see why from the image, the same thing loading over and over just as Christina says above.

One thing, it seems to be hair that's a big issue in my test. I put mango sims stuff in there that doesn't work in the game and doesn't show in game, yet it loaded only once and said a success.

Time for me to step back now and wait to see what happens

TickleOnTheTum should get 8 gold stars for suggesting Process Monitor. That was a great idea.

I fired up my game (I have WA, so the process name changed to TS3EP01.exe), and after playing two minutes I had 1.7 million, yes million, filtered events. It would have been too huge a task for me to go through all of them, but I did as much as I could, and immediately noticed that almost all of them were calls to one file: Mutske from TSR's cactus04 (I convert all my stuff to .package format).

Please note here that I'm mentioning the file name and creator just to provide helpful info, so I hope that zero drama comes from that. Not my intent.

Anyway, I removed that file, and the next time I loaded the game my log had decreased to a little under 140k entries. A big, big, big difference. And one in performance too -- I've been running at about 15fps with constant stuttering, and now am at more like 22fps with infrequent stuttering. Seriously, wow.

I also noticed that when the .package content starts to show up in Process Monitor, the game seems to call each file four times. The first call is labeled under "result" as FAST IO DISALLOWED, and the following three are labeled SUCCESS. I don't pretend to know what I should expect to see out of Process Monitor, but thought I'd mention that.

I'd be really interested to know how many events in Process Monitor people are getting from a two minute playtime, because I'm curious if even my 140k list is "normal". Possibly I still have some other files in there that aren't causing me to have a blue lot, but are being called again and again and are slowing me down.

And I'm also curious if anyone who has that same plant has my first result with a million+ log entries. Who knows, the problem's so weird that maybe it's just that one plant interacting with my video drivers or something.

Anyway, big ups on Process Monitor. Making progress.

Big thumbs up to TicleOnTheTum for suggesting that program. I tracked down one errant package file and my game is running a little better now.

I also noticed this error popping up hundreds of times in about 20 minutes of play. I think it's an error with the sound.

TS3EP01.exe 3812 RegOpenKey HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\DeviceClasses\{EC87F1E3-C13B-4100-B5F7-8B84D54260CB} NAME NOT FOUND Desired Access: Read