Props and Textures

[Madness 11]

Calm down with the props and textures guys, seriously I have way too many dependencies!

http://img427.imageshack.us/my.php?image=filesize6ti.jpg

[Voar Tok 4]

That's a whole lot of plugins dude.  Seriously though, if this really is a problem for you, you should probably trim it down some.  Otherwise, have some fun!

[Duke87 1,070]

I agree.

Always include all dependencies in the download. I hate having to download a whole pack of textures because a BAT uses one of them.

In fact, I've made it a point to stop downloading prop packs, in order to save space. I can deal with a lot being dotted with little packages as long as the building shows up. Worse comes to worse, I can just open it in the lot editor and remove the offending props.

[onlyplace4 603]

Exactly the reasons why I won't release a file that has any dependencies. Sure, I've uploaded a few props packs (4 I think to date), but they are usually at the request of someone, and are not dependencies for stuff I create. I believe in using what Maxis provided us with to the best advantage rather than overloading a system with props and textures that maybe only one lot will use!

[Madness 11]

The pic was of course photoshopped to get my point across.

There's no way I can "trim" the amount of dependencies that people release. In the 40 or so prop packs that I have each of my buildings uses at least one of the props. It's terribly annoying when a building uses only one prop out of the dozens that are in the pack, it takes useless space on my computer. It's starting to really bug me, I have to go through every lot I have and delete the custom props which are also available in the default Maxis ones half the time!

[cogeo 960]

Many prop and texture packs (mostly of the BSC Team) have been consolidated into "mega-packs". You should try to use meag-packs and delete the individual prop-pack files. This won't reduce the number of files too much though, as these individual prop-packs are amongst the mostly "consolidated" objects already. Eg you won't reduce your files a lot if you replace 8 prop-packs with 1 mega-pack. Just compare this witth RCI BATs/Lots. They usually contain one (or more) .SC4Model files on or more .SC4Lot files, and a number of .SC4Desc files, which are often unneeded. Recently, there are also some .sav files, these are backup files created by the SC4Tool, which the uploaders forgot to delete. These files are not only needless, they can also prove harmful. You can search your Plugins folder (incl subfolders) for .sav and .bak files; you can safely delete these filres.

But what can really help is move the documentation files under the STEX_Downloads subfolder. This is lately done by BSC installers, but for lots that do not come with an installer you should do this manually.

Search your Plugins folder for .doc, .txt, .rtf, .htm, .html, .jpeg, .jpg, .gif, .png and .bmp. and move all these files under STEX_Downloads. Better yet make subfolders so that you keep the folder structure well organised (ideally as a "mirror" to the Plugins folder. This little housekeeping work will result in a more organised and easy to browse catalog, and can gretaly reduce the game loading time.

[Hordijk 18]

I remember I came at the two gig's when I still played the game. Thought that was a lot.

[Madness 11]

Originally posted by: cogeo Many prop and texture packs [...]quote>

I've already done every single thing on that list. Unfortunately, the prop mega-packs provide me with needless volumes of unused props. I don't like getting building from ONLY NDEX, or BSC. This means that I might have one building from NDEX, and one building from BSC, but I will still need two or more mega-packs, in which the building only uses one prop from the pack.

Originally posted by: cogeo This little housekeeping work will result in a more organised and easy to browse catalog, and can gretaly reduce the game loading time.quote>

The last part is absolutely not true. SimCity 4 does not distinguish between your different folders. SimCity 4 reads your Plugins folder as a whole, then follows the rules set for each building (or mod).