Save Game Size

I'm not sure why this is a concern. Do you have a hard drive that is almost maxed out? Please explain

That's interesting. I'm curious to know what bloats the save files as well. If I ever have performance issues, it would be a good experiment to tone down those areas to see if it makes a difference.

I play on a main save that I've had going for years so any info helps. I suspect that also having cluttered lots probably contributes to that as well. (Don't know for sure.) Especially for those who play rotationally and build a lot of them. I'm guilty of downloading many cluttered Gallery lots because they're so awesome and I fill my towns with them. I'll have to take a peek at my save file some time to see what the damage is, lol.

Just out of simple curiosity really.
I have a save file which is 5 years old which I played almost everything on, which is now about 11 MB & recently I started a new save where my sim is basically a photographer and that one is 24 MB within a few months what I did differently from the other save is that I took a lot of Digital photos (40-50) which is why I'm speculating that could be the reason for such an increase.
At the same time, I'm wondering if there are any other factors that can drastically increase a save file size.

"Nate_Whiplash1;c-17764574" wrote:
I'm not sure why this is a concern. Do you have a hard drive that is almost maxed out? Please explain

Well, since save files go to Documents, it may be an issue. I have the system drive on a 100GB SSD and even though I have only the basic stuff there, if W10 makes a 30GB backup on a major update, I get a 'disk nearly full' warning.
Though this is partly due to 5GB+ Mods file of TS4. I really hope EA makes the folder for mods and saves in the game directory instead of Documents for TS5.
As for photos, that probably goes to the point that TS4 uses PNG (uncompressed) instead of JPG (compressed). It's also what makes picture threads load for ages on slower internet because very few people convert screenshots to JPG before uploading them...

Interesting thread. I am on a low-end pc, regularly needing to clean up my disk to make the game run satisfyingly. I found that with less than 400 GB free disk I notice lag.

Re photos, I took lots of them, mostly the minimum size though. I found that even if taking the smallest version and using the "enlarge object" feature, the quality is still good enough to go quite large. Only downside is that frames get oversized. It could still save you from filling up the drive too quickly.

One other think I read we should avoid is to use the bb.moveobjects cheat too often. Assuming the lot might lag as the game will read the info in a different way. This should not make save file bigger though.

Did you run the game with the Father Winter glitch? On Winter Fest the game produced thousands of santas, making the save file quite big. You would have noticed by lag or crashing though. The glitch was introduced November(?) and was addressed in one of the latest patches.

PS; by save file, do you refer to the entire save file folder, or just one single file? Each save produces several files. My latest save file is 120 MB and this save is 6 years old and include most of the packs... I play 80-90 households and nearly all of them have minimum 5-10 photos or paintings - there must be minimum 50 large photos in my save. I don't have the M stuffpack though, did you use that new camera?

"Simmerville;c-17764664" wrote:
Interesting thread. I am on a low-end pc, regularly needing to clean up my disk to make the game run satisfyingly. I found that with less than 400 GB free disk I notice lag.

Re photos, I took lots of them, mostly the minimum size though. I found that even if taking the smallest version and using the "enlarge object" feature, the quality is still good enough to go quite large. Only downside is that frames get oversized. It could still save you from filling up the drive too quickly.

One other think I read we should avoid is to use the bb.moveobjects cheat too often. Assuming the lot might lag as the game will read the info in a different way. This should not make save file bigger though.

Did you run the game with the Father Winter glitch? On Winter Fest the game produced thousands of santas, making the save file quite big. You would have noticed by lag or crashing though. The glitch was introduced November(?) and was addressed in one of the latest patches.

PS; by save file, do you refer to the entire save file folder, or just one single file? Each save produces several files. My latest save file is 120 MB and this save is 6 years old and include most of the packs... I play 80-90 households and nearly all of them have minimum 5-10 photos or paintings - there must be minimum 50 large photos in my save. I don't have the M stuffpack though, did you use that new camera?

I didn't play the November patch so I don't reckon that's the reason but that sounds crazy tho.

By savefile, I mean just one savefile. Yeah, as I mentioned above, My 5-year-old savefile is 11 MB which still surprises me how it's so small even though I've played so many generations on it.
But this "photography sim" savefile was freshly created just for that and I'm only playing the 1st gen and the savefile size is 24 MB. I don't even have any community lots added everything is base sims 4 except my sims house and his "art gallery".
So the only explanation for the 24 MB file is the Large digital photos my sim has been taking and putting up the wall.

and Yes, I do have the Moschino SP and I use the Clickshot P10 camera from that pack (the holy grail of the sims 4 camera technology)

Finally, the only thing I need to test now is to try removing all the photos I've got on that save and see if it reduces the size drastically.

     

"Spar X;c-17764680" wrote:


Finally, the only thing I need to test now is to try removing all the photos I've got on that save and see if it reduces the size drastically.

Just did that, I deleted my sims residential house & art gallery (which had all the photos) the save game size has gone from 24 to 18 MB.
Which is a difference of 6 MB of which 5+ is definitely photos for sure but I'm surprised by the fact that it's only 6 MB I was expecting more like 14 MB.
Now I'm wondering what this remaining 18 MB worth of data is. Only because it's quite a recent save game file.

TS4 is a 64-bits software. If you have more than 4 GB should not have problems. Remember the error of TS3 when save files bigger than 2 GB?