SC4 Dat Packer

[klaascornelis]

Wel do you want to give me a complete list?
The folder is over 1 gb 
Ok i ran a search over it, this is the result

In my Pluginsfolder i have 6 Folders.
Essentials
Mods
Lots
Props
Textures
RRP
As told before i exclude the essentials and mods folders for datpacking.

In these folders i have loads of subsubfolders which contain these file types
Sc4model
Sc4lot
Sc4DESC
The files can open with wmp i presume these are dat. files

And i see 2 files which purpose is not clear to me but they are supposedly needed
Sav
IIT

[wouanagaine]

Please reread my post, I want your plugins_compressed folder listing

[klaascornelis]

Oh sorry man i mis interpret your last post

I have 4 .dat files
Lots 440.261kb
Props 798.945kb
RRP 4.118kb
Textures 51.380kb

Greetings
Kc

[dragonshardz]

KC: I have also datpacked my plugins folder, which is around 2 GB. What ahppens to me is the same. The picture of the bridge comes up, and then the game goes to a black screen. It usually takes about 3 minutes for it to head into the opening intro. As far as i can tell, going into the black screen is NORMAL. The black screen shows up because the game is loading ALL necessary files, including the intro. When you start the game, give it about 5 minutes to load the game files.

I reiterate: The black screen and inability to do anything for a few minutes is NORMAL, this is simply a side effect of having more plugins than the game expects and having to load the .dat files. Be patient and give the game time to load.

Beleive me, the first time I started the game I panicked but I know that since computers are just computers that giving it a little time to fix itself may work better than hard-resetting it. Sure enough my game came up just fine!

~~Dragonshardz~~

[klaascornelis]

Its true that the loading of simcity was already very long.
But with the data packed i suspected that it would go faster.
But instead it take a lot more time then normal
Thats why i presumed after 5 minutes that the game had crashed.
I'm going to try to stay away from my laptop until its (hopefully) loaded

Greetings
KC

[wouanagaine]

If it is longer, then I highly recommend you run any good ( ie not the one provided with window ) defragmenter

[klaascornelis]

Ok it works but i didn't notice any different in loading speed it still is slow
and wouanagaine i recently formated my hard disk and reinstalled windows so i highly doubt it that defragmanting is really needed.

Greetings
Klaas

[SC4BOY]

Just curious if you have updated a confident build from v6. I used to use the Anniversary Ed, but was told to stop so I reverted to v6. However I miss having the "superceed" notes that show dup files in the window going by as packing goes on. I used that list to help me "proof" my installation and monitor for any problems that might creep in as I add custom material. (PS: Only curious.. not complaining.. I LOVE datpacker )

Also I'm missing info on the following: "Missing directory entry for entries in "..RitzCarlton.dat" What does this mean? There doesn't seem to be a problem, but I'm curious as to what it means.

[k808j]

I believe SimGoober pulled RitzCarlton.dat cuz it was causing a conflict and also to wouanagaine, I've been using V8.0 with no problems for months now.

[SC4BOY]

I believe SimGoober pulled RitzCarlton.dat cuz it was causing a conflict and also to wouanagaine, I've been using V8.0 with no problems for months now.

I've already updated the Ritz with the newest release as soon as it came out.. in fact that message didn't appear before I updated, so it may even relate in some way to the update.

... and no other than Wou himself was the one advising me to go back to v6     I also had been using v8 for many months until I had an issue (documented previously HERE) The current word is that the v8 (also known as the "anniversary edition" I think) is judged "unsupported" .. you can read the thread for all the nitty gritty..

[Cockatoo-210893]

Just thought I'd stop by and give this thing some well deserved appreciation.
I've been using the DAT packer for about 9 months now, and if it wasn't for it, I'd be screwed.
When it comes to organising your plugins, it just makes things so much easier for me and the improvement in game speed is incredible. It makes SC4 with gigabytes of plugins bearable.
Well done wouanagaine, you rock. I'm sure all that stuff about you in 'The legend of wouanagaine' is probably true if this is anything to go by!

[pagenotfound]

Is this normal? I have the compressed files in My Documents/SC4/plugins folder. But I still have the same 3.6 GB i started out with?
Have they been copied manipulated in some way? Or is it me just being a newb?

[JoeST]

pagenotfound: all that happens is that all the single records in each file get moved into one big one, so it is perfectly possible that no compression takes place.

Joe

[pagenotfound]

So... is that good or bad??

I packed NAM to I think. Was I supposed to do that? (I still have the original unpacked NAM, so can I fix it?)
Oh and A lot of the auxillery NAM files were packed. Sorry for being a newb. 

[JoeST]

pagenotfound, don't apologise, tho shouldnt all the NAM plugins be in the NAM folder?... and no dont pack the NAM folder just delete the packed file and keep the old folder

and the packing is a good thing as it means the game doesnt have to open each and every file, it just needs to open one

Joe

[Pat]

Rob its so OK to ask questions so no needs to worry at all OK!!! The one thing I suggest to you is break down the folders and seperate groups.... Also is to never pack NAM as that can possibly lead to some problems.... What I mean about breaking things down is simple IE.......

• Airport Files
• Sea Port Files
• BSC
• SNM
• Terrain
• Misc Lotters and Batters
• ITC
• LBT
• BLAM
• CAM

that is a rough idea how I got my folder structer...  I didnt compress BSC or NAM... But I do have all the respective downloads in each and every folder and then compressed them... My list does go on a bit more but that like I said is a general Idea....

I have found out that Packing all the folder down to one singular dat doesnt work well... I do keep my un compressed folders seperate and that way if I go on a downloading spree I just remove selected folder and update and then re compress that folder and then throw out the old dat....  I hope this helps you out and any other questions dont hesitate to ask!!!

Pat

[pagenotfound]

 


I didnt pack the NAM but now theres is no Plugins_compressed foler.

[SC4BOY]

From what you are describing, you are not taking the plugins_compressed folder and using only it (plus uncompressed content) for running.. Don't leave the old uncompressed files in the folder after getting the new folder  If this is not what you're doing, I appologize, but from your descriptions it sounds like you are.

[Nardo69]

Maybe a stupid question: Does Dat packer runs under win2k, too or do I need XP?

after some troubles with my old xp installations and a damaged xp installation I went back to old Win2000.

Whenever I start Dat Packer I got an error message that an error occured pointing to the log-file.

The log file always shows the following:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "datPacker.py", line 2, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "datPackerApp.pyo", line 2, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "wx\__init__.pyo", line 45, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 82, in load_module
  File "wx\_core.pyo", line 4, in ?
  File "zipextimporter.pyo", line 98, in load_module
ImportError: MemoryLoadLibrary failed loading wx\_core_.pyd

Is it a Win2000 problenm or do I need to download a library? I installed Win2000 just 2 weeks ago on a fresh new harddisk ...

Thanks in advcance

Bernhard 

[Andreas]

Did you install the gdiplus.dll and mscvp71.dll, as advised in the readme file?