SC4 Dat Packer

[wouanagaine]

shanghai kid => I'm sure at 99% of the load order of files in SC4. What you describe seems to be that the 1% is still there and that there is maybe a special case. I don't know what kind of examplar or data change the speed of the traffic game, I just want to be sure it is only cosmetic and that it does not wreck your game
Or it can be what soulstealer pointed, ie you have a mod that change that and this mod does not end in .SC4Desc/.SC4Lot/.SC4Models/.DAT, these are the only files I scan; but SC4 will scan all files.
I personally vote the 2nd explanation

soulstealer, Can I have your permission to take your post in the next readme  as jeroni/besk suggested ?

Just want to point that duplication files is resolved by how the SC4DatPacker works, but removing yourself duplicated files will at least save you some HD space

[soulstealer]

sure wouanagaine use it as you please. It is my intention to help those who encounter problems with this great tool. TY for making it. 

[BourneID]

I am in the process of going back and repacking my dats... (I forgot to take some out that need to be separate) and was unsure of the name of the BSC data tracker dat... it needs to be left by itself... But I dont know the name?

[snorrelli]

I am in the process of going back and repacking my dats... (I forgot to take some out that need to be separate) and was unsure of the name of the BSC data tracker dat... it needs to be left by itself... But I dont know the name?

BSC_RegionalCounter.dat

[shanghai kid]

i've tested a little and the speed thing also affects the day/night shifting as this also goes faster then normal(day - night - day -- as if it's on full speed).

i'll try and test some more next weekend.

[wouanagaine]

shanghai kid => After digging into the reader, I spot an examplar that control the game speed and night/day cycle. My best bet is that you have a mod that change this, but that mod is for some reasons not included in the packaged file ( not the correct extension ? )

soulstealer, thx

BourneID, if the file pointed by snorrelli is kept on the root of the plugins folder, I see no reasons why packed files can change the behavior of the mod, as files in root are not packed and you should not move them out of the plugins folder

[NikNik]

Wouanagaine, I finally installed the dat packer.......



Cries of joy that is.
The zoom is now stable, the speed of loading has increased,  INCREADIBLE!!

I noticed while running the programm that it crashed (the datpacker program) while trying to pack a few empty directories (yes, yes I am very shabby in my folders). After removing these it went like an angel.

Great stuff Dr. Wou!

Nik-Nik

[Menotyou]

wouanagaine, thank you for this wonderful tool. I just have one thing. So I used it and the game loaded up in about 20 seconds, which is much faster than the three minutes that it usually takes. But for some reason, some of my houses disappered, and even when I went back to the uncompressed plug-ins the house were still gone. I'll edit the post later with the name of the houses.

[wouanagaine]

Thx, NiKNiK, i will add that kind of crash to the fix

Menotyou, Weird . by disappered do you mean, only the building disappered or the whole lot ?

I still don't understadn why putting your uncompressed files back does not solve the problem

[Menotyou]

Only the building disappears. The lot is still there.

[dioangel]

BourneID - remember you told me me to the sub folder in ABC order.. tried it and still crash!  /sad¬¬

[Owen Luby]

Oh man! You're amazing Wouanagaine!
I am just about to test it out now, and I can already tell that it will work like a charm!

Thank you so much!

[Giligone]

Ok, So I read like 4 pages of people saying how amazing this is and how their games don't crash anymore. My game never crashes **knocks on wood** So I dont know what thats all about. My game has been slowing up with the increase in plugins. But what exactly is this 'dat packer' and what does it do?

[wouanagaine]

Giligone, DatPacker is a tool that will take your plugins subfolder and create a huge mega pack for each of those subfolder

Experiments and now users feedback have prove that this will certainly speedup your initial loading time as well as loading between city switch

The speed up is made possible because with the huge mega pack
you will not have redondant/conflicting TGI ( at least in the same subfodlers ),
you won't have any unneeded files ( png, jpeg etc.. ) all over your plugins folders
you have the option to pack only the game data, ie removing anything that is needed for LE or PIM
SC4 will have only a few files to read instead of thousand

The difference is the same as copying 2gb with 30000 files, or 2gb within 1 file, the later is way faster

To all
I'm working on fixes regarding the corrupted files
here is a preview pic of the progress dialog

What you see as invalid on the above pic, is that I left jpeg into my folder
I hope that it will help you find which file is problematic
I have also added the 'scan all files' not only SC4Desc/SC4Models/SC4Lot/DAT extension
I do not have the 'empty folder' bug with this version
I also change how the program react to problematic files, with the public version, if part of a file is corrupted, the whole data of the file are thrown away. With the new version, only the corrupted part with be thrown apart.

The new version will be available soon, I need more testing and find a way to use less RAM.


Take care

[dioangel]

Oh this is going to exellent!! 

[shanghai kid]

wouanagaine => i've fixed the problem(i couldn't wait to test again ), the problem was that i had to restart the computer for some reason, after i tried this the traffic is at normal speed and the day/night cycle is normal(longer night and longer day, as it should be)

ps: thanks again for a great program

[Menotyou]

Okay, forget my other two posts. I tried the compression again and it works perfectly now. Thank you wouanagaine for this amazing tool!

[wouanagaine]

dioangel => check your inbox
shangaikid => I'm glad you have solved your problem and that it was not on my fault
Menotyou => ( lol I've just get the meaning of your nick ) Thx

To All
I'm looking for 2 beta testers that have some corrupted files on their systems that make the current version crash.
PM me if you are interested

[dioangel]

I just did! :-) Can't wait to try it at home! 

[Menotyou]

I would love to be a beta tester, but your tool is so good, it works perfectly.

No corrupted files.