What's the size of your plugins folder?

[Sabretooth78 808]

Mine is about 1.15GB - 1,801 files, 518 folders.

I still have to load (when I will need it) files for creating seaports. I will probably also ad additional buildings for more variety within my regions.

I just recently attempted to understand how and what to datpack..Did a test on 2 folders and I was successful.

 

Now, just need to learn to datpack buildings and I should be able to maintain a reasonable size plugin folder.

 

At this time, it takes about 35-40 sec for a region to load. I am assuming it will be longer once the city reaches over 1M sims...

 

Depending on the DatPacking options you choose, it should be able to cut 5% or so off your folder size (on top of the savings inherent to loading fewer files).

 

It's also worth noting that depending on how you've structured your plugins folder, pay attention to your load order - I've noticed that wouanagaine's Sc4DatPacker seems to follow a slightly different order than the game itself.  In particular, I discovered that whereas I believe it has been noted that files/folders prefaced "_" will load after "z" in the game, in DatPacker they get packed first.  Little things you discover...  Personally I prefer to preface things with numbers - which is fine as long as you don't fall into the Windows idiocy of the 1, 10, 100, 2, 3, 4, ... numerical order.

 

Must have something to do with how Windoze loads programs.  I don't see this on Linux.

 

I'm guessing it's because you're running a fairly light installation.  I see a marked difference between initial vs. subsequent, and I'm running what should be for all intents and purposes (as far as SC4 sees it) essentially the same platform as yours.

[dogma555 187]

 

 

 

SC4 loads in ~6 minutes..

 

1 MIL population largest tiles load in about 10 minutes.. Fresh large tiles load in about 3 minutes.. Zooming out can take a minute and then another minute or two to "buffer" or whatever it's doing in my biggest areas too.

 

Landmarks menu takes about 3 minutes the first time, then about 45 seconds each other time..

 

But I really don't mind, as I am usually quadruple tasking when I play... I've got SC4 the PC, music playing on my audio system, a sports game on the TV, and a glass of wine or liquor in my hand

[Mymyjp 1,052]

Sabretooth78 - Thank you so much for the information.

 

 

Mine is about 1.15GB - 1,801 files, 518 folders.

I still have to load (when I will need it) files for creating seaports. I will probably also ad additional buildings for more variety within my regions.

I just recently attempted to understand how and what to datpack..Did a test on 2 folders and I was successful.

 

Now, just need to learn to datpack buildings and I should be able to maintain a reasonable size plugin folder.

 

At this time, it takes about 35-40 sec for a region to load. I am assuming it will be longer once the city reaches over 1M sims...

 

Depending on the DatPacking options you choose, it should be able to cut 5% or so off your folder size (on top of the savings inherent to loading fewer files).

 

It's also worth noting that depending on how you've structured your plugins folder, pay attention to your load order - I've noticed that wouanagaine's Sc4DatPacker seems to follow a slightly different order than the game itself.  In particular, I discovered that whereas I believe it has been noted that files/folders prefaced "_" will load after "z" in the game, in DatPacker they get packed first.  Little things you discover...  Personally I prefer to preface things with numbers - which is fine as long as you don't fall into the Windows idiocy of the 1, 10, 100, 2, 3, 4, ... numerical order.

 

Must have something to do with how Windoze loads programs.  I don't see this on Linux.

 

I'm guessing it's because you're running a fairly light installation.  I see a marked difference between initial vs. subsequent, and I'm running what should be for all intents and purposes (as far as SC4 sees it) essentially the same platform as yours.

 

Sabretooth78 - Thank you so much for this information. I am very nervous using such tools since I am not the most computer-savvy person on the planet.lol. I will make sure to avoid my z_files. My plugin folder is mostly arranged by creators, except for BSC, Pegprod, VIP, etc, to which I let it download with their default (me no touchy those lol)

 

dogma555 - that is insane! but I love the wine/liquor routine..lol

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

@mymyjp: Take a look at the program by ilive.  I use it to reduce the number of files when I get a massive BAT that contains a collection.  First I edit out the files I don't need, then shrink the whole works into a single DAT for each folder.  Helps a lot.

[Mymyjp 1,052]

T

 

@mymyjp: Take a look at the program by ilive.  I use it to reduce the number of files when I get a massive BAT that contains a collection.  First I edit out the files I don't need, then shrink the whole works into a single DAT for each folder.  Helps a lot.

Thank you A Noony Moose, I will definitely look into that tool as well!

[KonstantinII 1,106]

 

 

You gotta be kidding me!

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

deleted

[Sabretooth78 808]

After my indexing project, I'm at 3.8 GB compressed, down from 4.4 GB previously (4.13 GB raw).  The best part?  I now have more lots to go with fewer dependencies.  2,407 total packages.  I expect to gradually cull some more going forward and try to at least get the raw count down to 4.0 GB flat.

 

Mid-stream, it had gotten as high as 4.97 GB uncompressed but that was before I could "safely" delete the vestigial prop packs and otherwise bloat - as was a goal of the entire effort.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

1.0 GB 778 directories, 3956 files.  Time to do some pruning.  I am pretty lazy, but compressing some of these directories with Files2DAT will gain some small amount of space and reduce the number of files.  It will be a lot of grunt work.  Hope I get it done before NAM grows some more.

 

Its not that I'm short of disk.  I have 1.3 TB on-line and about 1.8 TB in total.  I just want to go faster with the game.

[New City Mayor Defacto 50]

i now have 10gb mods upgrading from previous 8gb mods game loads in about 3 minutes another 3 for a blank city tile

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

i now have 10gb mods upgrading from previous 8gb mods game loads in about 3 minutes another 3 for a blank city tile

Is that all data base files or does it contain the junk files that come with the downloads?  You should only have SC4LOT, SC4DESC, SC4MODEL, DAT, and DLL files in your plugins.  Stepping over the junk files means that the game has to read the first block of each one.

[Sabretooth78 808]

I remember when I eclipsed 3.0 GB, thinking it was a lot.  Then 4.0.  I can't even imagine 10 or 12.  That has to be a significant percentage of everything ever created!

 

Edit:  Upon revisiting a few of the SimGoober model packs I had forgotten about, I've kicked it down a peg to 3.79 GB.  We're rolling now!

[jstewartjr 0]

Morning all, making my 1st Post on here since becoming a member back in 2013. I myself was wondering if there was a limit to the size of the Plugins Folder...does anyone know? Mine is currently 5.05GB in size (10,518 Files). Does anyone have one bigger than that? :-)

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Welcome to the conversation.

 

You are in the middle of the pack.  Someone has one that is at least double that.

[New City Mayor Defacto 50]

 

 

 

SC4 loads in ~6 minutes..

 

1 MIL population largest tiles load in about 10 minutes.. Fresh large tiles load in about 3 minutes.. Zooming out can take a minute and then another minute or two to "buffer" or whatever it's doing in my biggest areas too.

 

Landmarks menu takes about 3 minutes the first time, then about 45 seconds each other time..

 

But I really don't mind, as I am usually quadruple tasking when I play... I've got SC4 the PC, music playing on my audio system, a sports game on the TV, and a glass of wine or liquor in my hand

[crishy 57]

With a few downloads now I am at 5 GB. Could be technically more since much of it is data packed. Still loads pretty fast and that is all that matters.

 

Considering that sometimes it takes forever to find things even at 5 GB I cannot imagine the pain at 12 GB, of course assuming the proportion of growables against propables remain the same.

 

I still remember when I had SC4 on a 512 MB RAM machine though. Good times...

[jmsepe 2,039]

Rechecking my plugin folder for this month:
 
OCTOBER Stats:
 
Size: 4.61 GB (4,959,258,733 bytes) [size on disk: 4.65 GB (4,996,435,968 bytes)] 
16,899 Files, 2,954 Folders
 
JUNE Stats:
 
Size: 3.79 GB (4,074,044,346 bytes) [size on disk: 3.81 GB (4,100,706,304 bytes)] 
12,250 Files, 2,394 Folders
 
Ok, my computer specs:

 

CPU: AMD A10-5800K APU (3.8GHz)

Memory: 8 GB

Video Card: AMD Radeon R7 200 Series

ROM: 1 TB

64-Bit Operating System

Windows 7 Ultimate

 

Time to load SimCity 4: Less than two minutes

Time to load Large Tile City: Less than two three minutes

No lags except opening landmarks menu and is very prone to CTD.   

[iLoveMusic 66]

582MB.....will grow more soon.

[bitsaul 9]

Plugins folder reads:

3,805,256,441 bytes (3.83 GB on disk) for 11,895 items

 

I add about a MB or so to that daily since I started a few months ago.  The funny thing is I have yet to fill a city tile!!  As soon as I discovered what the modders have done with this game I stopped playing and started collecting a library of every decent BAT, LOT, Mod, etc I could find.  I've been testing and modding all lots as I download them so when I do get around to finally making an actual city I should have everything I could possibly ever want ready and working at my fingertips.  I plan to start a CJ soon and working on my first custom region.

 

I play on a Mac and I had a few problems with congesting my plugins folder about a month ago, but I read that deleting redundant and nested folders from your plugins fixes it and I've had no problems now that I started trimming all the fat from my downloads.  It was quite a project going through 10K folders and deleting extras and moving files safely!  I think I'm having as much if not more fun just collecting all the beautiful creations from the modders as I've had playing the game.  Some truly great art is being done in this medium.

[trar 336]

Some truly great art is being done in this medium.

 

I'll say.

 

I've been cleaning out and revamping my plugins folder on and off for the past month, and I've more or less finished. Total size is 4.87 gigabytes with a good portion of it datpacked. I expected it to be a bit larger, around 5.5, and it was a pleasant surprise to see it wasn't as big even with the additions I've made.

[timmie 988]

My plugins folder is now almost 4 GB. Thanks to my new SSD, the game loads in less than 10 seconds, it used to be several minutes

 

[nathanthemayor 1,263]

As of right now, mine is 717 mb

[CahosRahneVeloza 385]

Now currently at:

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

In spite of some selected additions, still holding at 1 GB.

[Sabretooth78 808]

Did some whittling and I'm down to 3.62 GB datpacked and without my "Airport Pack" (which adds another 66 MB at the moment but doesn't need to be loaded in every city).  3.99 GB unpacked.  I think we're finally in a good place now; loading in under a minute thanks to the new SSD.  Over time I might expect it to creep downward slightly as I put the stuff to the test of "real world" use.

 

My actual MyDocs plugins folder resides on my old HDD and consists of 26 KB, being symlinks to the real dat files sitting on my SSD.  I've learned that the game will follow symlinks to individual files but not of folders.  Took me a little while to figure out why my slope mod wasn't working, as I give it its own folder but don't datpack it (for ease of changing it out if necessary).

 

Incidentally, such a configuration makes it real easy to "disconnect" the links by just moving out the small "actual" plugins folder when I want to test things on an empty setup.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Despite care and some maintenance, I've leaked over into 1.1GB.

[MushyMushy 3,618]

I've recently lost myself in some huge downloading sprees, so I'm up to 4.26GB. That number will likely increase greatly again because I'm planning to download a bunch of Japanese content.

[A Nonny Moose 8,262]

Take a few minutes to clean out the non-plugin pieces and you'll be amazed how much it will go down.

[T Wrecks 10,210]

Just FYI, lot files usually contain a PNG image of the lot. I guess this was originally implemented as a kind of automatic preview thumbnail for the Maxis Exchange on the old EA homepage. Now this can be helpful if you are in the Reader and want to have a quick impression of what it is you're looking at. I also believe that wouanagaine has written a tool that automatically browses and lists your plugins. This tool also relies on the PNGs in the lot file.

 

However, when you use lot files as a mere override (for example to block certain stuff from growing if you want to), these PNGs are not necessary at all, and boy, do they amount to disk space! I found that out yesterday when a blocker file containing 130 lot copies went down from 4.62 megabytes (with PNGs) to 95.4 kilobytes (without PNGs).

 

That made me wonder... if you ran a script to open all files and remove all PNG files from lot exemplars, how small would your plugins folder become? It's not feasible, though, because the menu icons for ploppable lots are also PNGs, and you certainly wouldn't want to lose them. However, imagine the above shrink effect on the scale of a 1+ GB plugins folder...

[cardiomonkey 32]

I am fairly new to simcity 4 and I am running the steam version on Mac.

 

I am surprised I have a plugin that is 700MB and I get no issues at present (all .png and .txt files taken out). Having said that, some .dat files don't always work and I take those out. 

 

I dont do any data packing, maybe I should? I am not sure how to approach it on the MAC though I have to admit, but until I get issues I am happy