I have had general Windows-related issues with very long file paths, where programs I wrote for Windows could not read files in one location, but if I moved them such that they had a shorter path, they could be read. I wouldn't be surprised if Windows also had other issues with long file paths, too, because Windows.

There are in built limits in total length of the path (which is 260 characters for the path alone, see https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/wi...o/naming-a-file ) However, dashes vs underscores have zero effect on the loading of a file.  So long as the filename follows the conventions outlined in the document I just linked, it doesn't matter one iota.

To demonstrate this, I wrote a quick Python program (source inside spoiler) to showcase this.  The idea is to run 10 loops, each loop generating 10,000 files, writing something to them, closing the file, opening it again, reading something, then deleting the resulting file.  This means file creation, writing, reading and deletion are all tested.  Each file is randomly named using a UUID hash.

Here's the results (in seconds)

Run 1
-------------------
Underscores: 11.7965369225
Dashes:      11.6672339439

Run 2
-------------------
Underscores: 11.7260019779
Dashes:      11.9670159817

Run 3
-------------------
Underscores: 11.9341270924
Dashes:      11.7814688683

Run 4
-------------------
Underscores: 11.7524740696
Dashes:      11.80195117

Run 5
-------------------
Underscores: 11.8274271488
Dashes:      11.8827219009

Run 6
-------------------
Underscores: 11.8087661266
Dashes:      11.800962925

Run 7
-------------------
Underscores: 11.8369538784
Dashes:      11.7650990486

Run 8
-------------------
Underscores: 11.7195169926
Dashes:      11.9272921085

Run 9
-------------------
Underscores: 12.077671051
Dashes:      11.6824419498

Run 10
-------------------
Underscores: 12.0470459461
Dashes:      11.9617381096

You can see that it's usually 0.1 seconds out.  Sometimes a little more, sometimes less, but well within the margin of error.  Conclusion: Doesn't matter what you use.  All tests where done on a HDD, btw.

I'm really curious about this now, so let me clarify that it wasn't just the removal of spaces. I don't know how familiar you are with the current recommendations for running TS2, but the rumor in the community is that we shouldn't use [ ] ( ) { } ' @ & #. or nest the files into too many subfolders, so no maybe just have a clothing folder, instead of Downloads > Clothing > Male > Adult > Tops.

ETA: I see that there's a new link to read now so maybe my question has already been answered...

Nesting does make sense, to a degree.  It's always harder to glob() through multiple subfolders and find files rather than a single one, but it doesn't really affect performance per file since the actual IO is done by the underlying OS.  If you have a *lot* of deeply nested folders then sure, but I'd have to test this scenario.   However, collapsing the files does have another problem - you can run into the max directory entries per folder on older machines (set at 65,534 for FAT32 formatted and 4 billion on NTFS, which most disks are formatted to these days).  With FAT32 and longer filenames (aka anything above the 8.3 DOS convention), you could hit this limit much sooner as each LFN took up an entry in the directory table, as well as each folder.  So each file inside a folder on FAT32 takes up between 2 and 13 of the directory entries (since the filename is broken into 13 byte chunks)  So the practical limit depends on how long each filename is.  You could hit the limit with way fewer really long files (say, 20k files).  However, this ONLY affects FAT32 drives, which are typically much smaller in size than NTFS.

 The advice to not use characters does make sense but only the following list:

The following reserved characters:

• < (less than)
• > (greater than)
• : (colon)
• " (double quote)
• / (forward slash)
• \ (backslash)
• | (vertical bar or pipe)
• ? (question mark)
• * (asterisk)

None of the characters you mentioned are on that list, and they wont affect loading speeds.  This is due to the underlying OS itself, and how the filesystem actually loads files.  It really doesn't matter at all if the file is called ()[]{}'@&#.package - it'll still load fine.

^ Would this have anything to say for a game that's based on technology from roughly the Windows XP era (say, oh, I don't know, TS2)? Or does it pretty much only depend on the drive the game and files are installed on?

Earlier I have had issues with certain characters making files not show ingame, and I had some issues with long filenames getting cut off while I was using XP (that's where I ran into the issue first, and where I got to know this one ~ especially when backuping to some older drives) but I don't think that happened after I got 64-bit Vista and continued with 64-bit versions after that, so it was probably a 32-bit issue. Most likely the files weren't being read by the game, though... The "cutoff" of the files (once I realized what it meant) was actually quite handy, because it helped cut down on the folders a bit (I was a heavy subfolderer back then).

Windows will stop you from using the "reserved" characters in filenames. The list includes skipped lines, by the way (done that by accident a number of times, especially when copy/pasta text).

Anyway, I think just to be safe I'll remove special characters, but keep underscores and dashes.

Most Windows XP machines would probably use FAT32 drives so all the limitations I said above applied.  I'm not aware of specific characters not making CC show up in game, but file lengths and size of folders most definitely would have had more of an impact back in that era depending on how much CC you have. As you noted, once everything switched to 64 bit and NTFS, the problem pretty much goes away.

Thanks for the reply. I think I'll just move the graves from their lots to a community lot. That shouldn't cuase problems, right? I really don't want to mess up my 'hood since I plan to play this pleasantview for a couple of gens.

Does Simfileshare allow image files?

No, though you can zip the image and it'll work.

Yeah, you can move the graves to a community lot, then when they move back in you can send one of them to that lot and pick the graves up again to carry them home.

Japanese locale does not go well with The Sims 2, so all files named in japanese locale will be ignored by TS2.

Is there an easy way to set heights for ever? Even in genetic way? We have a cheat that does not have any game, "stretchskeleton ", however we have not yet formalized any way to make it simple and for everyone. Personally I prefer to do 3 heights without much difference for each age cycle, to try to affect less posible in kissing animations or animations that require a lot of physical contact. Maybe: Small, Normal and large?

http://www.insimenator.org/index.php?topic=7548.0 - this is how to make it permanent. I don't think we're ever going to have formalized values, though since individual customization is kind of the draw of the game at this point.

Thanks, I'll save it to do it in the future. I suppose that anything that we want to formalize would be ideal if it was easy to erase and did not become mandatory.

It would be interesting to try to tie a toddler, child and teen's height to the number of days remaining in their age. As each day passed their stretch value would adjust a little so they would gradually "grow".

So a Sim with one day left in child age would be nearly the height of a teen. And similarly, a teen with one day left in teen age would be nearly the same height as an adult. Don't know if that would be possible or not though.

Dormies are generated when you add a Uni Subhood to your hood, if you don't have the nodormieregen mod.

Then, dormies are generated when you load a dorm and there are available rooms in it and no existing dormie that doesn't have his room in a dorm somewhere in the subhood. Note that if you do have nodormieregen, then dormies won't be generated and the empty room(s) will remain empty.

Dormies can also be generated when you visit a Secret Society and there aren't enough dormies to visit that lot (how many dormies visit the Secret Society while your sim is there depends on how many visitors are allowed on your community lots, in case you've modified that number with the maxNumOfVisitingSims in your userstartup cheat file).

That's strange because I have nodormieregen, but dormies still come to fill uni rooms. There are no new Sims created in SimPE before the baby boom, either. I guess since this Pleasantview doesn't allow mixing with townies, it wouldn't matter anyway.

Maybe I'm mistaken, but I'm pretty sure the mod prevents the generation of new dormies, even when there are empty rooms, I mean I'm pretty sure that's how it works in my game.
That's also what the mod description says: «Dormies no longer spawn when vacancies exist in dorms.»
Maybe one of us has a case of tight pants, a mod conflict.

Are you sure they're newly generated dormies and not the default Maxis dormies?

If you didn't use empty uni template, there will be 50 dormies already in the uni hood and each next uni adds 50 more (clones with different name). These existing ones will come and claim rooms, nodormieregen doesn't generate new dormies only.

Guess I'm safe then. Thanks!

Hi! Here's a stupid question for you: what's new and exciting around the Sims 2? I've been out of the loop for a couple of years, and just curious what noteworthy things might have happened. I guess a lot! I've heard about story progression mod, clean UI and thought - wow, sims 2 community never stops What else is cool? Any new tools? Any breakthroughs on how to improve graphics or performance on new machines?

I don't know if it's a good question, probably not, but maybe someone would want to share their favourite news.

My favourite recent discoveries - multi-category separates and CC merging.
For the first, in SimPE, you can set clothing to show up in multiple categories and then with pretty much any clothing mod, buy them for your sims. So now, you can use all your favourite jumpers and coats and trousers for outerwear, any of your t-shirts for gym or sleep or underwear, any of your top-only dresses for formal. It's so much easier to give Sims a unique look!
And for CC merging, this could already be done in SimPE, but mostly just Bodyshop stuff and recolours, and only up to a certain size before SimPE threw a tantrum and crashed, and you needed to give the recolour MMATs a unique instance, and if it was a recolour file you'd already merged once before and compressed, adding more could break it. But LazyDuchess (same person who created the Story Progression mod) released a tool to merge ALL THE THINGS without having to do any extra tinkering. The merged files can still be glitchy, so keep backups - I had a CC sofa that overwrote a game one when merged, and my CC computers wouldn't work, but almost everything else is merged. Like, I have a single file for adult female tops. It has more than 3000 tops in it. Now it's a single file and my game loads like lightning.

Welcome home, Lamare!

Possibly the biggest news is that Lazy Duchess (who I think is on Tumblr) has fixed the "firstborn syndrome". I honestly thought that was impossible without access to the source code and recompiling. So I'm rather impressed.

It really doesn't affect me, since it might need EPs I haven't got, and anyway I've got into the comfortable habit of going into CAS every time I start the game and generating a few random Sims. Quite often one generates that I like so much, that I just have to import them into my game. So, even if I don't use it, I'm impressed that Lazy Duchess has done what I thought couldn't be done.

Thanks guys! Looks like Lazy Duchess is on a roll That's some advanced stuff.

Took me a minute to get the multi-category separates one. I'm like, what? were we not able to wear coats for outerwear and t-shirts with underwear, what do you mean?! And then I remembered how restrictive the CAS is in the Sims 2. Would be great, if there was a way to organize things with tags, not strict categories.

Merging files impresses me the most. It is not easy, a lot can go wrong for some objects, unless they are created with consideration that they will be sharing one file. Just the thought scares me. And someone actually tried to solve it!

The firstborn syndrome fix seems really helpful. I used to forget to roll the pacifier more often than not :D