How to DatPack Huge Collections of Plugins

[z1 566]

I recently returned to SC4 after being away for a number of years, and I went back to my old game files and attempted to DatPack my current file set the same way I had in the past.  Unfortunately, my plugins had grown substantially since I last DatPacked them, and my old layout no longer worked at all.  I kept getting "out of memory" errors, and then of course, DatPacker would quit.

If it keeps running out of memory, then I thought, why not apply the 4 GB patch to it - the same patch that fixes memory problems in SC4 itself.  So I applied the 4 GB patch and sure enough, I can now DatPack essentially any number of files of any size.  As a test, I DatPacked my entire 5.2 GB collection into three files, two of which were more than 2 GB size after compression.  This worked fine.  Then I went back to the strategy of using more numerous files, as this allows me to change just a small part of my Plugins_Compressed folder if I just need to make small changes to my plugins.

If you're using the current version of the NAM (NAM 42) or later, you can find the 4 GB patch in the top-level group of files you extract when preparing to install the NAM.  The file is called "4gb_patch.exe", and if you just run it on its own, it will ask you for an executable file name, and in this way you can use it to double the memory access of any 32-bit executable.  In the case of DatPacker, you would go to your SC4DatPacker folder and select the file "SC4DatPacker.exe".  A backup file is automatically created.

If you're not running the NAM, you can just download the 4GB Patch directly.

For further details on virtually all aspects of DatPacker use, please see the subforum dedicated to the DatPacker:  BSC NHP DatPacker.

[Whte_rbt 1,431]

It's a damn useful little program that Daniel Pistelli wrote. As an FYI to anyone else, it can also be used to patch Civ4 (and several other games), I can now play on larger maps than before and the game runs much further before it crashes from running out of RAM.