Does repacking addons still save time on loading?

[john374]

This is something I've been wondering for awhile since using TKVX because no one seems to really talk about it anymore. I'm used to cramming as many related addons as I can into a folder in order to save load time, but it makes it more difficult to remove and add them individually. With TKVX, addons are automatically converted to zip files which isn't really conducive to repacking, so did repacks become redundant? Do you guys repack your addons? Like I said, I don't really see anyone talking about it.

[aardy]

9 hours ago, john374 said:

This is something I've been wondering for awhile since using TKVX because no one seems to really talk about it anymore. I'm used to cramming as many related addons as I can into a folder in order to save load time, but it makes it more difficult to remove and add them individually. With TKVX, addons are automatically converted to zip files which isn't really conducive to repacking, so did repacks become redundant? Do you guys repack your addons? Like I said, I don't really see anyone talking about it.

I have almost 1400 items in my Addons as separate folders (some are combined 'sets').  There are times I need to test something where I use an otherwise empty Addons folder, and the loading time difference is just a few seconds.  And this is on an antique machine.

So I would say it probably doesn't make a lot of difference with VX.

I do use unzipped folders rather than zips - I don't know if that perceptibly improves loading time.  I do know it just gives me easier access to the content 

[ddman2]

run options manager and enable log for addons and there you see how much times it takes to load.

[Smoke]

To answer the repackage question and loading - No, repacking does NOT help with loading times. There was some test done and there really isn't any major benefits. Percentage wise, you are looking at 1% or less.

Also - I do believe it was mentioned that zip files should help out with load times, as a bonus for the files not being in t-x-x. But again, the percentage was some what low, perhaps similar to that in 7.5 - but IMO it could be a placebo effect.

The only reason why certain "repacks" are being done is because it makes your addon folder look less clutter-y. Hell, you can consider most on my addons as a minor repack - but the only reason why I'm doing that is to better organize the files. Imagine the clutter if I release each addon as its own entry.

But I can say that have a good CPU, can help you out with loading time. I had a intel CPU and load time was 5+ mins. Upgraded to the new Reyzen CPU and my load times are between 2-4 mins (Booting the game and selecting a room).

Another thing to take into consideration, It has been mentioned before but people ignore this - TOY! DONT NOT INSTALL ALL! Especially if you use Hook. The reason is simple, toys are loaded first, similar to room. So a bottleneck is created. Create a system and use toys that you are going to use. I don't like naming people because they might take it as attack but always check the size of the toy. For example: Gemini Kanon cars are optimized thus you can install them - the main .bs files is below the 100K range. But their are some user releasing some high poly cars (we are talking beyond 500K-1Million+). This will certain create a massive slow down and possibly crash your game. Again, create a system and cycle the toys that you are going to use.

[McKeu]

I have not seen any difference, either, to be fair.

I use all addons unpacked in folders and from clicking start in the launcher to pose edit in a medium cluttered h5 object room (like Pool H5 $) it takes me roundabout two minutes.

I don't really see how much faster it could be with the addons packed. 

And I have by no means a high end PC. IT's a Ryzen 7 2700 with 16 Gigs of RAM and a 1 TB SSD.

Tbf, I only have around 70 items in my addon folder atm, compared to 10x that in my activemod, as I am in the process of cleaning out all my 7.5 legacy stuff. Can't even get hook5 skin layers to work, because very likely some stupid mod from 7.5 (which I haven't identified yet) is fucking with it.

[MrOllyK]

Also @McKeu;

If your game is automatically creating zips from T X X, then look in Options Manager -> Addons tab and uncheck "Auto-convert".  You might want to use "Auto extract" instead, which will leave the result as folders.  I would have thought that combining addons as much as possible into one folder and zipping, subsequent game loads would be quicker, but that depends on your system, the cache, HD speed etc.  Something you need to test thoroughly for yourself.

But it's true what @Smoke says regarding toys.  Keep only the ones available you're going to use, especially if they're big and complex, instead of all.  The game loads all available toys just before loading a room:

"Loading Models..  Loading Sex Toys..  Loading Images..  Launching.."

Toys are a great memory hog.  Same with images.  If you have some massive 2048 or 4096 textures on tiny toys, convert them down, even to 8 bit PNG with Floyd dithering.  Bet you'd never see the difference and they'd use way less mem and load faster.  Bigger textures you'd keep for hi-res screens and larger objects like cars and rooms.

[McKeu]

14 minutes ago, MrOllyK said:

If your game is automatically creating zips from T X X, then look in Options Manager -> Addons tab and uncheck "Auto-convert".  You might want to use "Auto extract" instead, which will leave the result as folders.  I would have thought that combining addons as much as possible into one folder and zipping, subsequent game loads would be quicker, but that depends on your system, the cache, HD speed etc.  Something you need to test thoroughly for yourself.

Ah, no. I unpack them from the get-go. I want to edit stuff, which is simply easier when everything is unpacked.

[x17]

Never noticed any increase ... seems like it is, what Smoke pointed, mainly only for cleaning up the clutter and keeping things in one place.

I keep all my files unpacked in folders as they are - mainly because I mod many things, and want to have easy access.

Yeah, too many toys are definitely not a good idea. Separating them into smaller packs (well, that truly depends on individual approach) as one user sees fit is advisable. I do wonder about potential difference (and if any) between few toys with dynamic morphs and more toys. Seems to me like there could be a gain there, but unsure, would need to test it properly.

[McKeu]

My bottle neck has never been addons. Toys I do not have enough to worry about.

An excessive amount of poses does impact room loading tremendously, though, so I always have to keep a good amount of my collection vaulted.

Otherwise the black screen can last for some good minutes when firing up a room.

[MrOllyK]

3 hours ago, McKeu said:

My bottle neck has never been addons. Toys I do not have enough to worry about.

An excessive amount of poses does impact room loading tremendously, though, so I always have to keep a good amount of my collection vaulted.

Otherwise the black screen can last for some good minutes when firing up a room.

I converted all my pose icons to 64 x 64 x 8 bit.  Never see them bigger than that on game screen anyway and can't tell the difference.  IrfanView is free and can do them all in a batch operation.  Seems to be a lot quicker and would use a lot less mem.

[HDiddy]

8 hours ago, McKeu said:

My bottle neck has never been addons. Toys I do not have enough to worry about.

An excessive amount of poses does impact room loading tremendously, though, so I always have to keep a good amount of my collection vaulted.

Otherwise the black screen can last for some good minutes when firing up a room.

Poses IMO is the #1 Impact to loading times.  Even if you reduce the images to 64 x 64 (which I do) the loading time is still going to fairly long as all poses need to be added at launch.  Example if your working with 15-20k in poses expect a 4-6 minute launch time

I have packed things before fort this game as when I played SIMS 4 packing content had a significant positive impact on loading times.  Here with TK17 not so much.  In addition packing addons sometimes give issues for certain items.  Specifically Hairworks.  Not a good idea to pack hair related to anything hair...you might get weird issues.

[john374]

Thanks all for the replies. I did not know that about toys. My game loads fairly fast as it is, but I'm just very finnicky with addons, wanting to add and remove them a lot in order to preview them and declutter them respectively. so now i know i can just add them as needed instead of repacking

[McKeu]

On 2/7/2022 at 4:43 AM, HDiddy said:

Poses IMO is the #1 Impact to loading times.  Even if you reduce the images to 64 x 64 (which I do) the loading time is still going to fairly long as all poses need to be added at launch.  Example if your working with 15-20k in poses expect a 4-6 minute launch time

I have packed things before fort this game as when I played SIMS 4 packing content had a significant positive impact on loading times.  Here with TK17 not so much.  In addition packing addons sometimes give issues for certain items.  Specifically Hairworks.  Not a good idea to pack hair related to anything hair...you might get weird issues.

Not to mention that with 20k+ poses I can only load a room once, due to the game's horrible memory management. Do I exit that room and try to load the same or another room, you can bet your ass the loading is not gonna be finished before next morning. The RAM usage stacks. Faster to exit the game and reload completely. At least that clears the memory.

I could not load a second room in one session, until I removed a folder with 5k poses from the poses directory. After that, no more issues.

[Smoke]

On 2/6/2022 at 10:08 AM, McKeu said:

My bottle neck has never been addons. Toys I do not have enough to worry about.

An excessive amount of poses does impact room loading tremendously, though, so I always have to keep a good amount of my collection vaulted.

Otherwise the black screen can last for some good minutes when firing up a room.

I would still keep that in mind. I too didn't think much about toys. Than I started installing all cars/vehicles. I noticed a issue, game took longer, crashes was high, and the high crash rate if I tried to load 3+ models.

Than I started opening certain vehicles files and saw the problem. As mentioned, certain toys was high poly. There is no need for 1 toy to have the same or more amount of polys as a high detailed room. My advise, common sense. 1 car toy should not be 20MB - Sweet spot is around 5-10MB. A simple toy like a gun should not exceed 5MB.

But as pointed out by HDiddy, poses to can contribute to load times. Again, create a system. Keep in mind, this game is full of unwanted surprises lol

[onevision]

I prefer zipped addons without compression ("Storage" option in 7zip) to loose files, to keep things compact and fast at the same time.

The performance boost using repacks is questionable, and generally I avoid repacking addons to make troubleshooting easier in case of conflicts/other problems.