Pattern Hoarder Tutorial

I have all of my patterns installed via CC Magic, which merges the patterns together for playtime so that it doesn't bog down the loading too much, so I think they can be merged with other .package files just fine. ^-^

Hi, Ktarian. Thank you however for answer. :smile: Since 28 I was without I-net and till tomorrow sharing PC with my children. Till now I'm not having many not EA patterns in game, but if I'll find something new about merging patterns with objects, I'll share it with you.
Have a marvelous 3-simming!

Ktarian, just found this tutorial. Thank you for all the hard work! I have always converted my patterns into packages but because of that some of them don't work so I just deleted them. So I have a couple of questions. You said you have over 500 patterns. Does that cause a lot of lag when you are trying to load your patterns? Also once the package files have been edited using this method, would it then be possible to merge them using S3PE and gave then still work?

@Bily_jednorozec Thank you so much Bily! I'm so glad this was able to help you!

@ZeeGee I have over 800 patterns, actually. I converted them all to .package file. I'll try to answer your questions.

Categories that have a lot of patterns in them, or even have a lot of re-colorations of EA patterns saved, will take a minute or two to load. For me, Fabric and Themed categories have the most patterns, so these take a couple of minutes to finish loading. Wood I have a lot of also, so it takes about a minute. However, my Misc category has maybe 20 patterns, but TONS of individual color saves of default patterns... and so it -also- takes a bit to load. Basically the lag or loading time of a category depends not on the patterns themselves but on how many thumbnails the game needs to load. I've actually tried to cut back on saving a re-color of a pattern to the pattern category for that reason.

My patterns are all merged together with CC magic, and they work just fine. Bily's question was about merging a pattern together with an object, which I couldn't answer because I haven't tried putting patterns in the same merge package as an object, but merging all the patterns themselves together is definitely not a problem.

In case anyone is interested... I've also been posting the converted patterns on my Tumblr. You can find them here: https://ktarsims.tumblr.com/tagged/packagedpatterns

Additionally, I'm willing to take requests for converting patterns from the exchange. If the pattern creator is active, I'll generally ask permission before publicly sharing the package format, but I can always just convert something for you. Probably no more than about 12-20 patterns per request though. xD

Thank you @Ktarian for that tutorial. I've read, that patterns only converted (without editing) aren't not working correctly in game and I hope, that yours tutorial can help us - users, who prefers use CC in package form, to avoid those issues. I'm not good in creating my own patterns and for this reason I've avoided to use not-convertable CC in game (except TS3 worlds from trusted authors).
Saved whole page of Ktar'Simbler. :)

Hi, @Ktarian !
"I've only been playing for about a year and a half." Compliments, you've learned so much in so few time! For me S3PE seemed be scary at beginning, but now I love it, however I've still not learned to use all what that tool is able to do.
"Every time I start doing something to improve my game or make it run better, I discover there's still something else to do!" :smiley: For this reason I'm in game rarely! ;) Now I have spend time to re-link all mine storage chest-likes (those what were using before LorenRose13 script too) at Buzzler's and Treaq's storage - I love what those guys done: box of seeds can be even named and treeaq misc storage moves in it whole group of items (books, certificates) in one click only. When you let that use different CC item meshes, it is a dream! :love:
Thank you again for yours tutorial. I've tested this - with you for the 1st time - on http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9055455 . At 2nd attempt I've got it (1st attempt I've overlooked, that Fabric category was listed 2 times and it shown in both categories).
It was only one-layered pattern, now I'm searching for some seamless multilayered shell pattern, applied on objects it should look like this:

When I'll find something, I'll attempt to convert it in package with yours method.

Yes! This community is so creative! It's super awesome for that reason. I'm SO glad that worked for you! I actually discovered that it seems to be the PTRN tag that the game draws the category name from, and not the XML file... or at least it seems to be, but I decided to keep editing it in both places just to be sure, especially since I'm editing the XML anyways.

Good luck in pattern hunting! I don't think I've seen anything like that yet myself, but it would be awesome!

I'll continue too edit both resources, just to be sure (mine pedantic trait is token from RL :blush: )
Just made collection for whole TSR Mutske's Aria creations - it includes 2 one-layered patterns too: do you know, if now (when it has different resources) can I merge all Aria collection (with patterns) together without problems?

Thank you for the answer ... I'm using S3PE for it (not having experience with CCMagic) ... my question was about if I can have in the same package file par example counters with patterns (I've readed about patterns requiring to be in separated package long time ago, before I've learned yours method). But don't worry, for now I'm not lagging and I can let it stay. Have a marvelous simming!