#program utility

[laurademelza]

Loooong Saving after using Regul Save Cleaner? Try Kuree's Save Cleaner 1.1

For any fellow Sims 3 oldheads, you may remember that the known save cleaner before Regul's tool was by Kuree.

While Regul's tool is effective and easy to use, I personally find it makes my first save after cleaning take aaaaages to the point where sometimes I just give up and have to force close the game. I've heard others have this issue so I thought I would re-remind everyone of this other tool, which I find to be almost as effective at cleaning as Regul's and not have the super long save issue.

It is called Kuree's Save Cleaner 1.1 and I have made a tutorial for you after the cut!

Part One - Downloading

What you'll find by Googling it is the link here to version 2.2 . I advise against this one. Not only did it stop working for me when the game updated to Patch 1.69 all those years ago, but others have reported issues too with it cleaning too much, such as paintings. I have no idea if it works with Macs and I have no idea if Steam users on 1.67 can use 2.2 since I don't use it.

Instead, I use version 1.1, which has been re-uploaded here by the queen of preserving sims content, Sweetdevil.

Part Two - Using It

As I mentioned, Regul's is very user friendly. This one is less so.

Unzip/unrar the Save Cleaner 1.1 file you downloaded from one of Sweetdevil's links.

Back up your save! Copy your save folder. It will be whatever you called it and located in My Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Saves > Your Save Folder Name. Paste it somewhere safe.

Open Save Cleaner 1.1 folder, then double click Save_Clean.exe and press "Choose Save"

Navigate in Windows Explorer to My Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Saves and choose the save you want to clean

It will only let you choose a file that has your "world name.nhd" so choose that one.

Then press "Start Cleaning", it will remind you again to do a backup, press yes to continue and then it will do its thing.

Done! You can check the save folder again if you want to see how much it cleaned since it won't give you the satisfying "this much cleaned!" like Regul's does but I find it more satisfying when my subsequent save actually finishes, personally.

Part Three - Cleaning Comparison

Here are the comparisons of how much each save cleaner cleans up the same save file:

Kuree Before:

Kuree After:

Regul Save Clean results:

As you can see, Regul does clean a bit more. But the substanial amount of cleaning is performed by both programmes, and I just find Kuree's to not cause the very long saves that Regul's does. Your mileage may vary, as always.

Whichever Save Cleaner you choose, it's a great practice to use one periodically. I typically use it when I notice my save games getting above 60mb but that's just me. It can really help your game load faster and remove some of the junk.

[wall-maria-around-ba-sing-se]

The fact HB just... tacks on the word "superior" to his attack names but then they work exactly the same as when other characters use the same attacks is so funny to me

It's an incredibly minor character detail that devs didn't have to do but they did and I'm so grateful for it

[kayleigh-83]

I updated my resources page to include a few programs & utilities I use that I think everyone would benefit from! Veteran players probably know at least a couple of these very well, but hopefully some players can benefit from this! Sharing the information here too so it can be saved more easily if anyone wants to. But the Resources link in my pinned post also has this section now.

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This isn’t a comprehensive list of all TS2 outside programs and utilities I use, as some are more infrequent and specialized, or tailored to CC makers or intermediate and advanced builders. These are ones I use regularly and would recommend for your average player. 

Hood Checker - checks your hood and cleans it up to prevent corruption. Thanks to April Black’s work we now know corruption is far less of a risk than once believed, but this tool is still totally worthwhile to use regularly to clean your hoods I think. As April mentions in her video, the main categories you should be worried about Hood Checker finding errors in are Family Ties and Sim Wants and Fears (I’ve never had it find errors there and my hood has currently been played for over 6 years).

Object Relocator - Easy to use tool so you can recategorize objects, re-price them, and move them easily between build and buy mode. All things you can do with SimPE but far less fussy and way faster.

Outfit Organizer - Another tool that simplifies an established SimPE capability, you can very quickly change which outfit categories clothing shows up in, which age groups (assuming body type compatibility, it will not magically morph an adult outfit to fit teens for example), which gender (again assuming body type compatibility, for example all ages up through child have identical body types for male and female) and even shoe sounds where applicable. Really great if you want that fancy dress to only show in formal and not everyday, or if you’ve got the Separates For All mod and you want to make that really casual t-shirt available in the pajamas and gym categories too.

Sims2Pack Clean Installer - Sims2Pack file types are used for lots and Sims. This tool lets you see any and all CC that got packaged with the Sim/lot and remove anything you don’t want to download with a simple tickbox. I especially like to use this when downloading Sims with CC if I prefer to have a CC free version of them (ie: only their facial structure) and layer in my own CC in game. Also useful for lots if you see that there is a bunch of CC included from a build set you already have, and you don’t want to download duplicate files, or you just aren’t interested in any of the custom wallpaper the builder put in the house and you’ll put your own in when you place in  your game.

[redrosecut]

I fear I will eventually have to learn how to convert accessoires and clothes from Sims 4 to the Sims 2.

There are so many tiaras and historical qnd fantasy dresses I see for the Sims 4 that I want in my game as well but I haven't seen anyone convert them yet. But am I ready to learn Blender and Milkshape? I don't know.

[quilleth]

If for no other reason, I'm glad I have headphones and a smartphone that I can blast music directly into my eardrums with so that I don't have to hear my coworkers rhapsodizing about AI. Again

[frostbite-the-bat]

sends my bat after u

[steevejr]

truly so baffling to me to hear people complain about their electronics like my coworker was complaining that her 2017 Mac was so slow its barely functional and it’s like what do you MEAN your 8 year old Mac is dead? mine is from 2013 and runs flawlessly?? what are you doing to your $1000 machine ??? filling it with peanut butter and TikTok viruses?????

[itshomobirb]

they should let me explode things with my mind. for enrichment.

[lordofthecoffee]

The food bank down the street shares very ...unusual items.

Like a metric fuck ton of bread, which is very standard food bank fair.

But last week we also got a giant thing of mushroom ravioli and little boxes of valentine's day chocolates.

This week, cake pops and (frozen) raw oysters and bunch of sliced provolone. We're talking almost 3 lbs?? I am cheese rich!

[seagull-support]

Freedom Through Code

People always tout the career-related benefits of learning to code, but something I've noticed in my years writing it is that there's a sense of freedom that comes with it. I can just like, do things that I want or need to do. Learning some basic Python opened up so many doors for me, if I wanted to know something or if I wanted to do something I could just do it myself. Some examples:

Need to rename a ton of files (like removing something that a converter added to the file name)? Just use a for loop!

Need to convert a list of text from one format to another? (like point form list to a CSV that excel can use) Just use string.split and some slicing to rejoin everything.

Writing a math proof and need to come up with a counterexample for something? Just brute-force it if the case is based on integers. (very helpful for modular arithmetic problems)

Need to do a task that's actually like 9 really different steps? You can usually just write a program to do it in 15 minutes.

Doing a really complicated math problem and want to be able to check you punched a number in? Desmos works great, but if you need to use custom functions that aren't supported, just write it all up in Python. You might run into some small floating point weirdness, but it'll be minor enough to ignore.

There are a TON of tools online that you can make yourself in the Python shell faster than you could google and find them. Even if you never want to touch the computer science space with a 10 foot pole, learning major skills like this grants you a unique kind of freedom that you can only achieve by turning an arcane space into one that's just foggy.

[tittyinfinity]

everyone wants disabled people to get a job but no one wants to give disabled people the ability to work a job

[aroaceleovaldez]

one day I'll figure out how to turn my manual godly parent quiz into a. not manual quiz.

[zoeythebee]

For quite literally no reason I modified my input system to use a 16 bit integer and binary.

It was pretty easy and a fun exercise, but on modern hardware there is truly no reason to do this.

Here is the logic, the INPUT_UP etc are just #defines for 1's and bitshifts to get 00000010 and 00000100 and so forth.

And if I want to check a parameter I just do

if (app.input & INPUT_UP)

[emi1y]

remember when the trend with ai used to be "i trained a bot on every seinfeld episode and then made it write a script" and it was cool because the program was only basing the results on the limited bank of knowledge you had given to it and so the output was able to be specialized to exactly what the creator was using it for. and now people are roleplaying with chatgpt and making characters say the most generic shit ever produced because it's pulling from the entire network of all the texts it's ever been given.

[ponyatowski]

so ive been to london for the (kindof) very first time as a conscious human being and man it is like. i can’t articulate all the feelings ive been having but its making me REALLY emo because Wow heres a city that seemingly works!

[improper-integral]

So... first of all, I swear when I posted this reblog, the first 2 options were tied 50/50, which is why I responded the way I did. I have no idea how it changed so that the 2nd option won?? How utterly embarrassing.

Anyway I should've listened to the majority opinion and rescheduled (or just straight up canceled) because I just took it and I actually did WAY WORSE on it than I thought I was going to.

On the Verbal section I got 160, which is according to this at the 84th percentile. A respectable score considering I didn't study for it at all, but when I did the GRE back in 2016 I got a 94th percentile score, so still worse than before.

Then, on the Quant section, the one I was worried about the most... I got 153. Which, going by the same source as above, is a 34th percentile score. In 2016 I did better and got a 59th percentile score, which would've been a major improvement to the score I just got.

So, if you've been thinking, Bri likes math, and has been doing well in her math classes, so surely she's good at math, right? Well, here's proof that's wrong. I have 0 talent for math whatsoever.

I keep having to tell myself over and over again that fucking up an exam like the GRE doesn't mean I'm stupid. Like I should've seen this coming honestly, I didn't study for it that much over the last few weeks, and especially in the past week I lost almost all motivation to keep studying because I stopped giving a shit. And I will eventually stop giving a shit that I bombed the GRE this badly, and maybe even find it funny. But not tonight.