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Jaletu's avatar
Jaletu
New Ace
5 years ago

Something that helped my game

Some of you probably know all about this :p but I am a dunderhead when it comes to dealing with computer issues and Sims 3. I know to clear out my cache files and the promotional items file from the store and do so religiously before starting a new game session.
Still, my game had been lagging, freezing for quite a few seconds around 3AM simtime, the launcher refusing to close without help, etc. - just some annoying glitchy things for quite a while. So I got to reading about cleaning up PC clutter and suddenly realized that I hadn't cleaned my temp files for quite a while - about 4 years!
So I get rid of my temp files and to my surprise, the next time I played, my game was working without freezing at 3AM and no lag as far as I can tell. And the launcher closed by itself when I quit the game which was very refreshing.

So for some who may be having freezing, lagging, launching problems, have you cleaned your temp files? Am I the only dunderhead here? :D

9 Replies

  • ZeeGee1's avatar
    ZeeGee1
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    Are you talking about the tmp files in your dccache folder that copy your ebc files and double your store content? If so, they will regenerate when you open the launcher.
  • No those aren't the temp files I mean. I delete those before each session - if you're talking about the file that has all the pictures of store items, that is. I don't touch any other files in the Sims 3 for fear of deleting something vital.
    My AVG has me scan my computer ever so often and it is always telling me to upgrade to delete unwanted temp files and clean up my cluttered PC. It was up to about 10 GB! Instead of paying for something, I googled how to delete temp files for my Windows to get rid of clutter. After doing that (was very easy), I loaded my Sims 3 game and was shocked at how much better my game was running and how fast it loaded. And when I saved and quit, my launcher shut down properly.
    Did that have something to do with it? I don't know.
  • ZeeGee1's avatar
    ZeeGee1
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    Since your game is working better it may have had something to do with it. Thanks for the tip.

    I was talking about the tmp files that the launcher generates in your dccache folder, effectively DOUBLING your store content. That always made my game lag. Deleting them doesn’t help because when you start the launcher they regenerate. That’s why I’m still on 1.67, there’s no way to avoid this on 1.69 so the only way to cut the lag is to reduce your store content.

    Also you can right click on that featured items folder and deny permissions so those pictures of store content don’t regenerate if you’re interested.

    One more thing. My game does a little lag sometimes at 3 am because that’s the time that NRaas errortrap does a clean up. Or is it overwatch? Anyway, one of those cleans up cars and turns off TVs. Mostly it’s seamless but if it has a lot to clean up I might notice a little jump.
  • "ZeeGee;c-17568860" wrote:
    One more thing. My game does a little lag sometimes at 3 am because that’s the time that NRaas errortrap does a clean up. Or is it overwatch? Anyway, one of those cleans up cars and turns off TVs. Mostly it’s seamless but if it has a lot to clean up I might notice a little jump.

    It's Overwatch. For urban types of worlds many of us change the time that happens to 5 am because at 3 there are still so many sims out and about enjoying or just returning home from the late night venues and the resulting elevator resets can interfere with too many of them at that hour.

    A huge part of the stress during the 3 (or 5) am cleanup is unowned/abandoned vehicle removal, but many of us get relief from that by having NRaas Traffic in play and changing the default option setting so that there are no longer tens of thousands of unnecessary performance career limos that no one needs generated behind the scenes for OW to have to cleanup all at once and so that the inactives who do not own or cannot find their own cars are no longer issued free, cheap ones for one time use that then become abandoned. The mod makes them use taxis or some other form of transport instead.

    But @jaletu2005 is talking about operating system temporary files and yes, those should certainly be cleaned out by a program or manually, one way or another, as part of routine computer system maintenance. I would have to say that 10 GB of them would be very excessive.
  • I had 1,3gb of temp files :/ It looks like plenty get deleted by themselves, but some clearly don't
  • ZeeGee1's avatar
    ZeeGee1
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    Are y'all talking about what CCleaner does? I do that occasionally. Wouldn't know how to do it manually.
  • ZeeGee thanks for the tip about that featured folder. I keep meaning to try that. Alas, the joy was shortlived. The launcher is acting up again and minor freezing is occuring. I definitely need to install those NRass mods - at least overwatch. I wish I wasn't so chicken about it.
  • The way I cope with the featured items folder is I save a txt file in the same folder as the featured items folder. Then I give the text file exactly the same name as the Featured Items folder. Then I delete the featured items folder. Then I remove the .txt ending from the text file I just made. The game can’t have two files with exactly the same name in the same folder so it can’t generate a new Featured Items folder.
  • ZeeGee1's avatar
    ZeeGee1
    Seasoned Ace
    5 years ago
    @jaletu2005 No need to be chicken. NRaas mods are perfectly safe and have saved many a simmers games! In my mind they’re not even mods, they’re coding that SHOULD be in the game anyway.

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