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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 30th Jul 2021 at 7:09 PM Last edited by Moname34 : 30th Jul 2021 at 10:10 PM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default How to startup TS2/Loading screens faster? (even with mods) SOLVED!
(I didn't know what category to put this in sorry if it's the wrong one)

Hello, I was wondering how yall are able to get your Sims 2 running faster on Windows 10. Gameplay seems to run smoothly, but startup and loading screens are taking much longer than they did before. Here are some things I've already tried to boost the speed:

Disk Cleanup
Deleting Cache Files
Turning off Windows special effects
Restarting Windows (not that effective)

What else could I try that could boost the speed of loading screens and startup? Also I have some mods installed but they're just skins and eyes so far so I wouldn't think those could slow the game down? Thank you for any help!
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Theorist
#2 Old 30th Jul 2021 at 7:42 PM
While deleting cache files resolves some issues that may arise with the use of custom content, having cache files speeds up the game. Think of it as getting tomatoes ready when making a salad. Sometimes already-chopped tomatoes go bad so you throw them out, but usually, making a salad is much faster if your tomatoes are already chopped to bite-size pieces. Chopping tomatoes would be the loose equivalent of caching.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 30th Jul 2021 at 7:59 PM
Turning off the CC splash window is also supposed to speed up loading (but make sure you don't turn off CC - loading will be much faster without CC, though ).

For files and folder names, only using simple A-Z letters, numbers and underscores (no special characters or spaces), plus as little subfoldering as possible (max 2-3 deep) and as short file paths as possible (never past 256 characters because this seems to be TS2's limit, but preferably much, much shorter) is also supposed to help a bit.

Avoiding putting other files than package files into the folders might be smart, too (the game doesn't read other files, but they can slow down the file loading due to being there).
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#4 Old 30th Jul 2021 at 8:04 PM
Quote: Originally posted by topp
While deleting cache files resolves some issues that may arise with the use of custom content, having cache files speeds up the game. Think of it as getting tomatoes ready when making a salad. Sometimes already-chopped tomatoes go bad so you throw them out, but usually, making a salad is much faster if your tomatoes are already chopped to bite-size pieces. Chopping tomatoes would be the loose equivalent of caching.



What I've been doing is just deleting the cache files before I startup the game. Like the group and accessory. That wouldn't be necessary then?
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 30th Jul 2021 at 8:06 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
Turning off the CC splash window is also supposed to speed up loading (but make sure you don't turn off CC - loading will be much faster without CC, though ).


How would I do that? I'd like to try to see if there would be a difference. I'm trying to find better cc that isn't so hard on my game. Most of the cc I have is eyes and skin in CAS.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 30th Jul 2021 at 8:08 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Moname34
What I've been doing is just deleting the cache files before I startup the game. Like the group and accessory. That wouldn't be necessary then?


^ It's only necessary to delete the cache files if the game starts crashing, throwing errors, won't start (Bodyshop too), or you add/remove/edit CC files and something seems off in your game.

It's also necessary if you edit Bodyshop files and you notice strange things happening to the edited meshes/recolors either in Bodyshop or ingame.

If your game works fine with the cache files in, you can keep them until they cause issues.

The Cigen file (if you use Bodyshop) is actually kinda useful - it's the thumbnail file for Bodyshop. I tend to keep it if I'm going through CC, for faster Bodyshop loading.

Quote: Originally posted by Moname34
How would I do that? I'd like to try to see if there would be a difference. I'm trying to find better cc that isn't so hard on my game. Most of the cc I have is eyes and skin in CAS.


There's a button ingame. "Game options" --> "Display Custom Content Dialog at startup" --> "Off" (it's the one in a box to itself with the picture of a custom star)

(the other one, "Catalogs Display Custom Content" should be set to "On")

https://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:GCCTSU2
(picture if you need it)
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 30th Jul 2021 at 8:31 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simmer22
^ It's only necessary to delete the cache files if the game starts crashing, throwing errors, won't start (Bodyshop too), -)


Okay thank you so much! I didn't delete the files this time and I turned off the cc window and it did speed things up a little bit faster! This is all super helpful!
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