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ZeeGee1's avatar
ZeeGee1
Seasoned Ace
6 years ago

Blanks in cc names

Saw something recently (can't remember where) that said you shouldn't leave blanks in cc names cause it makes it hard for the game to read, which is why most cc creators use so many underscores. I've just checked my cc and I do have a lot with blanks in the name. Is this really an issue? Cause I'd hate to have to go through and change all those names but will if it's necessary.

8 Replies

  • ZeeGee1's avatar
    ZeeGee1
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @Me1620 Jodi, would you try your magical google skills on this? I've googled every combination of things I can think of and can't find anything but a lot of cc that absolutely needs downloading. :unamused:
  • For whatever it's worth, I've never heard of this. Just checked and while it's not the most common thing in the world, plenty of my mods and package based CC from all different kinds of developers do have spaces in their names and I've never detected a problem. So do my InstalledWorlds files, including those from EA. What I do recall quite a while ago is being warned against spaces in save names, so since that is so easy to fix I've stopped using those and long since renamed any saves I might ever want to load up.

    The compressed files we tend to download (the zips, rars, 7zs) wouldn't have spaces in them because files in webspace can't handle those, but the files inside can of course go either way.
  • ZeeGee1's avatar
    ZeeGee1
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @igazor Thanks so much for answering. I trust your opinion.
  • me1620's avatar
    me1620
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    "ZeeGee;c-17053057" wrote:
    @igazor Thanks so much for answering. I trust your opinion.

    @ZeeGee - I trust igazor too.

    However, I was curious to see what a Google search would turn up. I did not find anything for Sims 3, but I did find a discussion relating to Sims 2 on Mod The Sims from 2015. modthesims.info/t/546736 The OP asked "I read somewhere that if we have special characters in the CC file names, like "-", "_", etc , loading time will suffer. is it true?" A few people posted that after removing special characters and spaces, they found the game loading time was reduced. However, others did not agree. I think post 19 in the thread sums it up best

    I'm afraid I stick by my original observation: I don't imagine, UNLESS YOU HAVE PILES OF THE THINGS, that removing spaces and odd characters will make much difference' and would also add 'and be aware that there are reported cases where it makes loading a little worse'.

    I think the problem with a blanket statement about this technique helping is that we know very well that every person's game, every person's rig, responds differently to loading demands. ... I do, as a matter of routine, change the really silly names and also rename stuff (the long indecipherable) willy-nilly to something I will remember and recognise. I've been collecting CC for a long time though and there are quite a few files in my DL folder which have spaces and odd characters. However, not as many as others I suspect. So it didn't make much difference and, tbh, I'm going to stick with the unaltered files and work on them as I usually do - when I come across stuff, I'll alter names and manage the input of new names as I have been doing.


    I then decided to search the Sims forum. I found this post for Sims 3 from 2017.
    "ZeeGee;d-958814" wrote:
    Saw something recently (can't remember where) that said you shouldn't leave blanks in cc names cause it makes it hard for the game to read,

    Possibly, this is where you read about the spaces in file names. The original question was "I was wondering ,I read somewhere about this but don't know if it applies to sims 3,if special characters and spaces in cc names make the load times longer ." Many people commented including igazor :)

    I don't think including spaces in CC file names matters based on this comment
    "TreyNutz;c-15869454" wrote:
    I heard this too and one day sat down with Bulk Rename Utility and removed all spaces and special characters leaving only dashes and underscores from all package files. Well, maybe I got rid of the dashes too. Then I remerged all my CC (I save the package files of everything I merge). Didn't make any difference. Loading time was the same. I felt it was a waste of my time.

  • I also read not to leave spaces in filenames for package files. I got rid of the spaces and hyphens but dont think it made any difference. However, i do kmnow from m y compter programming days that I had to write special extra code to handle spaces in file names so the i dea seemed reasonable to me at the time.
  • ZeeGee1's avatar
    ZeeGee1
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    @Me1620 How DO you do it?! You found the exact thread on MTS. :neutral: At the time I read it I had everything merged but since I'm going through a systematic 'get rid of all the cc I have and don't use' phase and have everything unmerged at the mo, I had a vague memory of that thread and wondered if it was accurate. Didn't realize it was Sims 2. Seeing the opinions on the thread here was helpful too. Thank you so much!

    I started out renaming all my cc with my own special organized names; however, a couple of years later realized I was downloading the same stuff and didn't recognize it cause I'd changed the names. :lol:

    @Karritz Thanks for your input. :)
  • me1620's avatar
    me1620
    Seasoned Ace
    6 years ago
    "ZeeGee;c-17054326" wrote:
    I started out renaming all my cc with my own special organized names; however, a couple of years later realized I was downloading the same stuff and didn't recognize it cause I'd changed the names. :lol:

    @ZeeGee - That's a good point for not renaming or to just rename with slight adjustments such as adding the name of the creator

    @Karritz - You had also posted in the 2017 thread. Your post was marked as "insightful" :)

    I remember back in the days of DOS and the early days of Windows that we had to create short file names with no spaces. While doing the current search, I found many websites where the organization discouraged using spaces depending on the software, server or computer program.

    And further for @Karritz - I see your signature promotes your YouTube channel. I subscribed to your channel a few days ago. I was watching your tutorials last night. I was so glad to learn how to fix lots that sit either too high above or too low below the surrounding land. That happens to me so often.
  • @Me1620 thank you for subscribing to my YouTube channel. I'm glad the tutorial was helpful. I'm currently making another one but it's slow going. This new tutorial is on building a multi story build into the side of a steep hill. The original build into the side of a hill tutorial covered a single story build into the side of a gentle slope. This one's a bit more complicated but I do it often in my own games so decided to make a tutorial on it.

    I hope you enjoy some of the stories too.

    I haven't done any programming for a couple of years - but as far as I know it is still necessary to handle spaces. Long file names are a different issue and I never had to worry about them.

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