SC4 Dat Packer

[wouanagaine]

Looks like you manually installed SC4DP ( maybe you copied it from another pc ? )

retry a SC4DP install

[mittfh]

Whatdayaknow?! Re-downloaded and re-installed DatPacker 2008, and Hey Presto! - it now works fine (in Wine!)

Now to see how fast 3.2 GB of Datpacked plugins (originals: 3.4 GB after Cleanitol's cleanup.txt has worked its magic) load

And since startup times are a frequent feature of this thread...
1 min 20 - Splash screen / 1 min 26 - Region view (i.e. 6 seconds later)

Loading a city - large, 220k residents: 15s - Loading screen / 1 min 40 - Done

Save + Exit to Region - 35s.

Computer spec: Athlon 64 X2 5000+, 3GB RAM, GeForce 6100 (onboard), SATA HDD, Mandriva Linux 2009.0.
N.B. With 'raw' plugins (i.e. not datpacked), the game would C2D as soon as it entered region view...

On the other hand, there is a disadvantage of DatPacker...in making the game more playable, it's very easy to lose track of 'real' time inside SC4...
i.e. it's now 3:30am and I've got work in the morning. Oops!

[diamon]

wouanagaine:

Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you!

I had so many CTD's recently and someone suggested I use DatPacker.  Initially I was disappointed with the, seemingly, small reduction in Plugins directory size (saved only about 6 Mbytes over  1.21 Gbytes), but boy it did the trick.

I've experienced NO CTD's since packing.  So, once again, I thank you from the heart of my bottom for your terrific application. 

On the other hand, there is a disadvantage of DatPacker...in making the game more playable, it's very easy to lose track of 'real' time inside SC4...
i.e. it's now 3:30am and I've got work in the morning. Oops!

I agree.  However there is a useful little mod that can remind you to save every 10 minutes, but also tells you the real time and how long you've been playing.  SaveAlarm by daeley, I believe it's called.  It's saved my job on many occasions as I, also, play into the very early hours without realising    I'm sure, without it, I'd have got the sack by now!

[cowcorn]

Quote from: mittfh on February 08, 2009, 05:36:00 PM

On the other hand, there is a disadvantage of DatPacker...in making the game more playable, it's very easy to lose track of 'real' time inside SC4...
i.e. it's now 3:30am and I've got work in the morning. Oops! [end quote]

I agree.  However there is a useful little mod that can remind you to save every 10 minutes, but also tells you the real time and how long you've been playing.  SaveAlarm by daeley, I believe it's called.  It's saved my job on many occasions as I, also, play into the very early hours without realising    I'm sure, without it, I'd have got the sack by now!

About that I developed the reflex to do a fast save (ctrl+alt+S) every time I'm about to build something important and when I'm finishing it. If your pluggins are packed it should be relatively fast even with a slower computer. At least it worked when I had a P4 at 3.2 ghz, without the datpacker however saving was a hassle...

[JoeBlow]

Is there anywhere the previous version of DP can be found? Version 2008 not only insist on listing a lot of absolutely necessary files as "useless"; but it utterly messes up the plugins folder by creating DAT file prefaced by "plugins" - and does not create - like the previous version - an orderly Plugins_Compressed folder

Any help would be appreciated.

[wouanagaine]

As I said in the other thread, the old version is not correct

If it says that some files are useless, they are. It means that all entries in those files are redefined by others files that are read after the one useless

The folder 'Plugins_compressed' is created if you enter it. make sure you use the '...' button near the top right and select the folder where you want SC4DatPacker to write your packed files

[JoeBlow]

As I said in the other thread, the old version is not correct

If it says that some files are useless, they are. It means that all entries in those files are redefined by others files that are read after the one useless

The folder 'Plugins_compressed' is created if you enter it. make sure you use the '...' button near the top right and select the folder where you want SC4DatPacker to write your packed files

Is it not a bit presumptious to declare files useless? Especially since the game either turns out brown boxes or even crashes when these files are excluded. And moreover: yes, I did use the the browse button, even manually created the folder, still DP decided to do it its own way. Well, a pity - luckily I have found the old version - which does work.

Apart from which: what does DP do with the "useless" files? It cannot possibly presume to delete them? Again,as luck had it I was able to restore five GB (all in folders the largest of which was 250mb) from backup.

[JoeST]

JoeBlow: when he said useless, he meant duplicate or unrecognised (things like readme's and images) , which would render the file in question useless. and it just ignores them, leaving them in the original set but not packing the data in with the new .dats. thus brown boxes shouldnt appear unless it wasnt included in the datpacking process

[wouanagaine]

So what are thoses files exactly ?
And no it is not presumptious, as I said the file is declared useless if all its entries has been superseed/redefined by others files. So I'm really interested in those files and wondering why removing them will cause a problem, please let me know which are they so I can fix any problem

And I'm warning you again, SC4DP old version is not correct, it is of course up to you to use it

[JoeBlow]

Here is what it does (and the results):

resulting - of course - in this:

Excerpt from the INI:
[Settings]
folder = C:\\Users\\DocRorlach\\Documents\\SimCity 4\\Plugins\\Plugins_Compressed
And all checkboxes were checked off during the second attempt - the results in both cases were the same. The original folders where moved (manually) to uncommpressed_plugins, as advised in the guid, and there was no folder called plugins_compressed, anywhere on the PC.
OS: Vista Ultimate
RAM: 2GB
Dual-Core Intel 2GHZ
1TB HDD
nVidia 8500
SC4 Deluxe & Rush Hour installed
Full admin rights

JoeB

[wouanagaine]

Hi Peter/HandsOn/JoeB

Can you please try to create the plugins_compressed folder yourself and see what happen ? I can't yet see the reason why it does not create it
Can you also try to add a \\ at the end of the path in settings.ini ?

Can you please tell us what the brown box is so I can download thoses files and see why it happens ?

One explanation of brown box is that as the packed files are not in the subfolder and hence the loading order is not respected, because it will load your regular files ( like the porkieprops-Vol1.dat ) in betweeen

Take care
Wouanagaine

[DilbertinMtl]

I click on the link to to download page and there is not a link to tbe found to download the actual program, help!  I tried it from several locations, even accessing it from another site's forum, but alas no luck tonight,

[Pat]

Hey there DilbertinMtl as it seems you need to register for the LEX here Linkie and that will take care of ya's!!!

[0rion79]

Hello,

I've just been succesfully able to datpack all of my plug-in files with datpacker 2008.
Still, a message has warned me that some files have not been packed because useless, and claiming something about superseed.
It was not very clean for me, so I have made a copy of those files: what do I have to do with them? Delete or keep into an additional directory?

They are:

2x2 Paloma Tower-0x6534284a-0x3227ba12-0x73f9aa1c
American Flag
BLS GA Farm Field Essentials_v2
BSC Textures JENX Gare_Du_Nord Vol01
BSC_DAE_DirtTrackTextures
BSC_PropPack_Pegasus_Vol01a
csx_FieldsUI
Enable SWAP Package Loading Center
IM$$6_4x2_jes_ReplogleGlobeFactory_CAM_5404ed41
NDEX Global Essentials
PEG_CDK-OWW_Ponds_205
PEG_CDK-OWW_Stream_205
PEG_Ponds_206
PEG_Ponds_Transparent_206
PEG_Pond-WF_Medium_206
PEG-CDK3-SP_Pier-One_LV_100
RTMTV3_APropBase_BusStop_SG
RTMTV3_APropBase_GLR_Modern
RTMTV3_APropBase_Subway_Mcdrye
RTMTV3_Prop_PhoneBooth_BlueYellow
Superstar's Key Tower [Model]-0x5ad0e817_0x102a45d9_0x30000

Also, I have another question: does the game see files or folders first? I ask because I have separately dat-packed also some folders as A-cam, or ZZ_PEG SEAPORTS, to preserve their order in the files queue, but I wonder if it is better to keep them into sub-folders with the same name or if I can keep them in the main plug-in folder.
Thank you a lot!!

[djp]

wouanagaine -Thanks for this valuable addition to SC4

I do have a couple of things that I need help with please

1. when packing my BSC folder gets split into 2 DAT files - BSC & BSC-001

what is the maximum folder size datapacker will allow before it splits them, I would prefer to manually re-do my BSC folder as it's the one I update the most.

2. The "useless file has been superseeded" message - although I understand why datapacker is doing this (another game file is being read and used after the first one?).

Is it possible to gain more information on which file is being replaced. I had about 20 NAM ones and further investigation found I had numerous "traffic plugin" files installed that were all overriding the last, I now don't have any NAM errors on packing. However I still have about 40 other various "useless file has been superseeded" messages whilst packing and would like to eliminate these but I need more information from datapacker!!!!!

Thanks for your help with the above

[0rion79]

D'oh! I was hoping that it was the answer to my questions and instead it was somebodyelse with MORE questions, LOL! 

[Jonathan]

I don't know much about your questions, but I just want to point out that it's best *not* to datpack the NAM (and CAM).

Jonathan

[BarbyW]

I am sorry but wouanagaine is very busy in RL at the moment but I am sure he will come along and answer your questions soon.
The maximum packed file size is about 383MB and so DatPacker will split anything over that into two files. I update my BSC folder frequently so just keep all the sub folders as normal in the BSC folder and pack the whole lot after updating.
I don't pack NAM or any special folders like a_CAM, X-Ports or z_CAM. These are generally single dats that SC4 will read happily.
As for the "superseed" files, I often see that message and have never lost files because of it.

[0rion79]

Hm this is interesting because it conflicts with other informations that I've got from other users.
Maybe I don't remember right, but I think that Z or Riplejet have told me, a lot of time ago, that there was no problem in packing NAM, cam & stuff *IF* they were packed separately, because they MUST respect a specific game order, and it is what I've done until now. Also, I have NOT packed the NAM because I'm not sure I've properly set Simulator Z.

Hope that wouanagaine will come back soon, because I don't want to start to play with an unstable version.

[JoeST]

yes, you can pack it. But it is ill advised because of the loading order. Because of this the NAM team will not support anyone with it packed.

Joe