Back with Part II of the "Package Compressing" tutorial. If you haven't prepared your package files yet, please check Part I for details.
Combining and compressing your (package-) files has as main benefit that you can have very much custom content in CAS & in game while the loading speed of the content remains within acceptable boundaries.
*** In order to get this to work, your Sims 3 game should be closed ***
Before compressing please download the program s3pe Package Editor and install this program on you computer. After preparing your files (Part I) and installing the program you can start the compressing process.
Rename your Packages folder to "Packages_s3pe" and create a new Packages folder. This is like your backup folder for your CC in case something goes wrong, you still have all your CC (click on the pics to enlarge).
I'll advise you not to compress all your Game Mods, Skins and Sliders; they are also small files in size, so you won't notice any performance difference, I think it's just 'safer' not to compress them. So you can either copy or move your Game Mods, Skins and Sliders from your Packages_s3pe folder to your (new) packages folder.
Run the program s3pe Package Editor and select "New"
Click Resource / Import and select "(EXPERIMENTAL) As Dbc..."
In the new version a pop up screen will emerge, please confirm that you're alright with this and click OK.
Got to your Packages_s3pe folder and select the package files you want to compress (per run).
Please note:
Don't select to many package files at once (advice per compressed file not more than 250-300 MB). What I did is compress a file per creator (and yes for some creators this will mean 2 or more compresses files, for instance LianaSims 3 compressed files or PeggyZone 4 compressed files). But you can combine files what ever the way you like (maybe like per sort custom content).
In my example these are 51 hair & accessories by Anubis (263 MB), so select all the files in the folder Packages_s3pe you want to compress and click .
This importing might take a while and confirm OK. Now you will see a screen like below. Please make sure the following options in the bar below in the screen are checked (see the red circles in the pic): Sort, Display Names and Display Tags.
Then sort by Instance, click on the sort box "Instance" (see below), click this 2 times !
Then sort by Tag, click on the sort box "Tag" (see below), click this 2 times !
Then scroll through the screen to find the Tag "_XML" and the Instance "0x0000000000000000" (because the imported files are all sorted now by Tag and Instance these will all be grouped by kind).
Then select all the instances with code "0x0000000000000000" AND Tag "_XML".
Right click in the selected instances and select "Deleted".
And all the selected instances will be "
Then save the file to your new Package folder (you can rename the file as you want, in this case I will name it "Anubis360 Hair s3pe" and click save.
After that you have to WAIT (!!), don't be alarmed this might take some time, maybe up to 5-10 minutes depending your computer.
When the program s3pe becomes 'active' again, you have combined and compressed your first file !! Click on close, followed by new to combine and compress your next file :D
Please check your game if the exercise did work ! After that you can keep the files in the Packages_s3pe folder as backup and leave them there or zip or delete them, what ever you want or like (but ONLY after you are comfortable the compressing has worked !!!).
Good luck with the compressing & Happy Simming !!
Groetjes, Cheers, Gruessen,
Eva
