Advice on Organizing Plugin Folders

[simbox 0]

Hello guys,

I've been recently considering how to divide my plugin folder into various parts thematically grouped, etc. but I'm not sure how to go about it.

Say, for example, a folder just for rural BATs, which I would not need while building a city. But then, how about those big folders like BSC or LBT? Do I break those up and re-distribute them among the various folders?

If anyone has done this/is currently doing this, any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

[CaptCity 4,756]

simbox...

I've also recently begun to create a setup that sounds similar to what you are doing. I want to create large folders by themes that I could use with the Startup Manager tool. I've created large folders that I've called Rural Pack, Farm Pack, Seaport Pack, Urban Pack, etc. Some files that are common to most I've put in a folder called 'Common' and will always be loaded. Also, given the large number of files that I use which have dependencies, I have a 'Dependency' folder with the most common Mega Packs that is also always loaded. Other dependency files that are more lot specific, I put in the appropriate folders.

This was working fine until I got to those creators who make things fitting into different themes (as you mentioned - BSC, LBT, Simgoober, just to name a few). Well, like you, I had to decide how to organize them. I decided I would go through each download and decide which theme each would fit best. So, for instance, I might have a BSC-Rural in my Rural Pack, a BSC-Farm in my Farm Pack, and so on. This method is turning into quite a task in some cases (especially with all of the automatic installer downloads out there), but I think the end result will be worth it. Besides, this is the kind of nitpicky thing I enjoy  .

Just a couple of points... Be sure to be careful with any files that need to be loaded last - 'z-folders'. Those I've decided to keep in a separate folder and will probably be always loaded. Also, I plan on keeping terrain and water mods in idividual folders so I can have a choice which to use.

One more thing... I am doing all this with a backup coy of my plugins. That way if I feel I'm driving myself nuts with this, I can always take a beak by playing the game  .

Hope this gives you some ideas and, of course, I too am open to any ideas which could make this more efficient. Good luck.

CaptCity

 

[simbox 0]

Hey CaptCity,

Thanks for your reply! It seems we're both attempting the same thing, then. As you suggested, it's a great deal of work, and it is very time consuming, which for me are the biggest negatives.  I think I will work on it over a long period as a side project, and, like you, have a plugin I can use to play the game in the meantime.

I was thinking of dividing them according to functions as well. So, industrial, urban, etc. I think, given the wide variety of styles, it might be good to have subfolders as well for various building types per region. I mean, Asian, European, North American, etc.

An additional problem I have is the CAM mod, which I have installed. I mean, all the plugin folders and stuff, I'd have to delete previous buildings in the folders, right?

Cheers!

[bbfan02 23]

Hey there, click the link below to get some helpful info on what you should do.

https://www.simtropolis.com/forum/messageview.cfm?catid=24&threadid=81599&enterthread=y

Hope that helps!

-bbfan02-

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

The plugins folder is a mind training tool to prepare you for the patience needed for effective city planning and building.

I re-organized my plugins folder back in August when I created a new region to try out some new things. It took me about a week or more to get my plugins system together.

First I had to organize the folder I download the files to....which was also a task. I catagorized my download folder to make it easier to install the file in a specific order by theme focusing on one theme at a time. The worst thing I think anyone can do is get impatient and not stick to the rules of organization when installing files. No matter how long a name of a file is, do not cheat by not keeping files in folders that do not identify them.....name your folders accordingly so you can keep track of what's where. This is very time consuming but I just look at it as part of the game because without patience, you would suck at this game anyway.

BTW, The region I started in August is still my current project.

[City Planner 121]

I dread the thought of trying to organize my plugins but I do want to do it. Right now there are way too many files just sitting in the plugins folder as well as way too many individual folders named for the author of the plugin. Maybe I'll just go nappy instead and try to tackle it this weekend if I have the strength to sit here that long and it's looking like it will take a very long time at the moment.

I apploaud you Mr Maison for your patience, Im striving to play just one region right now (and it's absolutely a huge region, the largest I've ever seen) and am going to try to build up some sort of city on each city tile before moving on, it's no easy task and can see already that it takes a great deal of patience and desire to do so, it's so easy to have the feeling to just want to move onto another region and forget about the old one for me.

But... Does organizing the mods and files into specific folders do anything to organize them any better in the game? I didn't think that it does and its more for a piece of mind of knowing how to easily find a mod that I don't wish to keep at some future date to easily find it and get rid of it I think. At least that would be my reason for organizing the plugins folders, do people have other reasons for wanting to organize them (besides you know, getting rid of mods to lower overhead in the game and all).

[PogoTribal 1]

Trust me when I say that organizing folders is a great idea. If your city ever reaches a certain size and crashes, you will want to be able to put folders in one by one to isolate and find the problem plug-in.

As far as performance or anything, organization has no effect in-game for how mods work aside from the order in which their loaded.

Also, after getting a good set of plugins and having everything you want, I recommend using the SC4DatPacker program to compress the files, which decreases load times.

[City Planner 121]

Originally posted by: PogoTribal

Also, after getting a good set of plugins and having everything you want, I recommend using the SC4DatPacker program to compress the files, which decreases load times.quote>

 

And makes them easier to keep track of instead of having masses of individual files, right?  Yeah, I found that program in the wee hours of the morning today and have already put it to good use.

Ummm, just thinking outloud here, but if you compress the individual files into the .dat file then doesn't it make it rather difficult to try to eliminate the offending file if there is a problem since they are now all compressed into the .dat files from when they were in individual folders with masses of files in them?  I mean I suppose you can then narrow down any problems to a particular dat file but better make sure that you kept those original files uncompressed in their regular state so that you can then rebuild the dat file minus the offending plugins I think.  Again, just something thats come to my mind about storing the plugins in that compressed state.  Or does it uncompress them when needed as well?

[LarksTonguesInAspic 28]

I also had to do a complete breakdown and re-assembly of my plugins folder recently. I found the SUM caused an excessive amount of crash-iness, so I don't use it often, except to rename cities and regions and the like.

I found also that Cleanitol can do more harm than good (another story for another time) but that keeping everything in its own folder increases the likelihood of redundant dependency files, thus I use just a few file divisions for props, another for textures, etc.

Keeping add-ons to a previous set (like Simgoober's and Oppie's canals and the various lots related to them) together makes them easy to find if there is a problem. The odd loose files, such as 1 file standalone .dats, i keep in a folder entitled 'everything else'.

[SC4BOY 20]

Your folder organization has absolutely nothing to do in terms of game play.. perhaps in some tertiary effect, but no. However, as many have said.. the USE and MAINTENANCE of the region may be greatly affected by your organization. MOST people don't play putting stuff in and taking em out all the time.. that is a specialized group.. often CJ'ers, etc.. What you can do WRONG with it is by moving stuff around, you can make maintenance USING INSTALLERS more difficult as they "want to see" the organization they have built into the installer.. By and large, unless you are the type to do a LOT of shufflinig around with mods and lots, etc you're probably MOSTLY wasting your time.. You are really the one to be the judge.. but it will have little to nothing to do with the actual game play.

[CaptCity 4,756]

A few more thoughts on this...

As several have stated, plugin organization really does not affect how the game works. But, in my case, I found myself with many plugins that I really liked but didn't need for a particular city or region. These 'extra' plugins would, of course, could and did cause the game to slow. So for my own peace of mind I wanted to start thinking 'regionally' and came up with the idea of thematic regions rather than moving plugins in and out as needed.

simbox...

I like your word 'function' rather than 'theme'. I guess, in my case, that is what I'm actually doing. For instance, I have an Industrial - Mining folder, an Industrial - Seaport folder, a Commercial - Restaurant folder, a Commercial - DeptStore folder, etc. This might not be for everyone, but it works to help me stay clear headed when planning. I like your idea of building styles, too. I hadn't considered that.

You also mentioned CAM. I also have CAM, but I've decided to keep it and any CAMpatable files totally separate (in my 'CAM' folder) to run in regions soley devoted to CAM. You asked if you need to delete previous buildings - do you mean if a building has been updated to run with CAM do you need to delete the original? Well, yes. An original wouldn't function appropriately in a CAM environment. This is why I keep CAM separate. I can use the original in the standard regions and the CAMpatable one in CAM regions. This means, of course, I might have two copies of the same building in two different places (because of dependencies), but since they will never be loaded at the same time, the game isn't affected (just uses up a bit of drive space). Hope this all makes sense.

SC4DatPacker...

I do plan to 'DatPack' my large 'theme' folders once I get everything like I want it. For sure I will have the unpacked files as a back up (as CityPlanner mentioned.)

To all here...

Thanks for the very useful advice and suggestions... My wheels are spinning all ready

CaptCity

[Mr_Maison 2,426]

One of  the affects that the organization of the plugins folder have on the game is when it becomes very large, it slows the game to a crawl. In a lot of cases,  jpegs and readme files are installed  into the plugins folder along with the downloads. Deleting these useless files out of the plugins makes a difference. I keep the readme and jpeg files in my original download folder either in the zipped or unzipped folders of the downloads incase I need to get quick info on dependencies, stats, etc.

So I would have to say, if you are downloading a lot of mods and Lots, the plugins folder is definitely a part of the game, and affects game play.

[Intrepid 20]

My method is to organise my folder structure as follows:

a_DEPENDENCIES

b_BSC NO Maxis Files

b_CAM

b_Network Addon Mod

BSC

CAM

CIVIC

Misc

MODDS

PARKS AND RECREATION

PEGPROD

REWARDS

SFBT

Simgoober

STANDARD RCI GROWABLES

UTILITY

z_CAM

z_Euro Road Textures Mod

zz

ZZZ-MTP

ZZZZ_PEG SEAPORTS

In addition, all of the essential.dat files are kept in the main plugins folder.

The folders are then compressed with Sc4 Dat Packer and then these are moved from my plugins folder to a folder on another drive called "uncompressed plugins".

This works for me because whenever I install a new bit of custom content, I simply move the relevant folder that I want to put it into back into the plugin folder, install, datpack and then move back to uncompressed plugins. This way I allways have a backup and if anything goes wrong I can easily find the culprit.

Of course everyone has their own idea of how to organise their plugins folder so I don't regard my method as the best, but I hope this might help somebody, and as others have said; it is a very time consuming thing to do, but once you have your own system sorted out it will save you a lot of work in the long run.

Just be prepared to spend about a week doing it, as sorting 3GB+ of stuff takes a long time and patience.

PS. Mr_maison, give the BSC cleanitol program a try, its over at the LEX. It will remove all of those pesky readme's and jpgs as well as a lot of other junk that isn't needed in your plugins folder.