the stupid long story before the recipe that no one cares about:
sooooo the last time i posted was 2 years ago ALMOST TO THE DAY (i should have posted this yesterday 😭) about how it was going to take one million years to sort through hundreds… THOUSANDS of sims 3 .package files because i was apparently an idiot who had not learned my lesson regarding cc organization from sims 2 or 4.
and i was right! it did take one million years! or i guess 731 days. because it was SO annoying opening every file in s3pe to see how to categorize it and what subfolder to put it in. and i didn't want to just bring everything into cc magic and sort it that way, because i needed to sort my backup folders. so i gave up.
until this weekend where i smashed my keyboard (a lot), cried to my partner (a lot) who thank god knows C#, and now i have a lil' app i am calling Sims 3 Package Sorter, or S3PS!
you can run the executable from anywhere with the option to load in individual .package files, whole folders, and folders that include subfolders. there is even drag and drop functionality! once everything is loaded in it displays how each file is categorized in-game, and then you can click the Type column to sort by type, shift+click groups of similar items and move them wherever you want! if you have s3pe installed, you can link to its executable and then you can also right click to open any of the packages in s3pe.
it does not parse defaults (it just simply won't import them) or anything without a proper type id, and skips over anything else i didn't feel like including. i honestly made this for me, and it works exactly how i'd like it to and categorizes files the same way my folders are structured, so it is very unlikely to be updated unless there is something major that i overlooked.
but all that to say, i was able to move those 2,000+ unorganized files into my nice and neat folders in probably 10 minutes, and now i can FINALLY enjoy North Bend :''''-)
i have basically no following so i'm not sure who this will reach, but if you download way too much cc and feel overwhelmed by trying to put it where it needs to go, hopefully this can help! unless something like this has existed all along and my work was for naught!!
DOWNLOAD @ MTS
credits: Peter L Jones for s3pi
acknowledgements: my patient bf, and Delphy for Delphy's Download Organiser, because i kept shaking my fist to the sky crying "why can't this exist for sims 3!?!?"
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
i added a new randomizer to my nav page. i didn't advertise the ts4 ones i made forever ago, but it was fun trying to recreate ts2's UI for this one, esp the personality points, so i'm posting about it 😭
s3ps, a follow up or: regurgitating information that's already been shared and passing it off as my own (with credit)
tiny forward: thank uuu!!!! it feels nice to log in and see people still liking and sharing s3ps. i am too old / don't have time to edit and post my 1,000,000 screenshots that i've been sitting on for half a decade to try to have the ~kewl simblr~ i dreamed of when i made my account, so if creating and sharing s3ps is the only tiny mark i make on the simming world, i am content :-)
i've had some questions about s3ps' best use cases, or why it exists at all when cc magic is right there, so i wanted to share my sims 3 cc workflow. it's similar to gruesim's cc cleaning/sorting process, because that's what i used when i started playing, but with additional steps for s3ps.
i imagine every ts3 player knows these things already, but maybe this'll land in the hands of someone coming into sims 3 for the first time ...maybe jumping ship from ts4 teehee.
i download a lot of cc. too much cc. i dump everything lazily into a folder named something like "skjfslg".
if there are sims3pack files, they go into a backup folder and are converted to .package files using s3ce or delphy's sims 3 pack multi-extractor (except patterns. yes, i have tried following this tutorial. no, it has not worked. i am too tired and not smart enough to try again).¹
i use ReNamer² to remove special characters from all filenames. everything is alphanumeric: no punctuation, underscores, or hyphens. i do not add prefixes or any additional identifiers to tell me where files belong. that's what s3ps is for!
once everything has been converted and renamed, i open my "skjfslg" folder in s3ps and sort everything by category by clicking the Type column.
i keep a separate folder structure that is a 1:1 match of my cc magic folders/subfolders, so i bulk select files in s3ps by their category and move them into their respective backup folders.
i open a second explorer tab and navigate to the folder where i keep s3rc redux. in my first tab i go to a folder where i've moved new cc into and copy and paste³ the files into the second tab + drag and drop them onto s3rc / use a .cmd file to compress everything.
after compressing the duplicate files, i move them into a third tab where Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Downloads is open (where files go to be ingested by cc magic).
i open cc magic and import the files. i import one folder/category at a time because a) it doesn't overload the program, and b) i can shift+click to select all the newly imported files in cc magic and know exactly which folder to drag them to, rather than having to sort them a second time.
repeat steps 6-8 for each folder/category that contains new cc.
and that's it! i throw everything into cc magic except mods + counters. i have read that adding (non-script) mods to cc magic is fine, but i prefer to keep them separate. i don't delete duplicate images or sort every single piece of cc in s3pe, but gruesim's post has more info if you want to go the extra mile.
the main benefit of using s3ps over cc magic to organize custom content is that you can categorize your cc backups before importing files to be merged. and you absolutely should keep backups, because show me a sims game that hasn't borked something somewhere. i've also had issues with cc magic not showing correct categories or not showing categories at all.
there's a tiny update i've been wanting to make to s3ps that i've been dragging my feet on, and i'd love to work on a version for mac! but i take so long to do anything, so the best i can do is spend an unreasonable amount of time writing this post instead. goodbye!
footnotes beneath the cut, i've gone on long enough
¹ lots and worlds: for lots, i extract the sims3pack into a folder and then run that folder through delphy's dashboard to find the lot file. if using sims 3 pack multi-extractor, make sure 'Rename files on Save' is checked. if the lot has no cc, the .package file will have the same name as the sims3pack. bonus: s3ps strikes again! a bug feature can help you find the lot file (shoutout to the evil writer on MTS for discovering this):
When you drag files into [s3ps], it doesn't accept lots. So you can move all those files it does take into a subfolder, and the lone file in your original folder is the lot.
there are a different ways to convert worlds, but i just run the world file through s3ce/multi-extractor the same way i would with any sims3pack. 99% of the time the largest .package file in the conversion output folder is the world file, but not always! best to double check in s3pe. if it has a WPID resource, you're golden. rename the file to match the original sims3pack and change the .package extension to .world. then move it to The Sims 3 > GameData > Shared > NonPackaged > Worlds. not your Mods or InstalledWorlds folder! the folder you're looking for will be in a different location depending on your install:
ea app: Program Files > EA Games
steam: Program Files (x86) > Steam > steamapps > common
disc: Program files (x86) > Electronic Arts
² Bulk Rename Utility is another great program with a more user friendly approach to renaming rules if you're less familiar with using regex or pascal scripts. too many drop downs and text fields for me though. you can grab the pascal script i use to rename my ts3 cc here.
³ copying and pasting keeps the original/uncompressed files as backups as in case anything goes wrong.
last bit: how i organize my cc in cc magic. this structure influenced how i prioritized categorization within s3ps.
for whatever reason i reinstalled sims 3. and then, again, for whatever reason decided to spend a week making an entire notion database planning out a cute lil 90s pnw inspired world + all its inhabitants + its story. and... yet AGAIN for whatever reason spent three whole days in CAW trying (see: failing miserably) to make said world...
luckily nostalgic twin peaks vibes seem to be en vogue because i found @eisfee's North Bend!! i am never opening CAW ever again and i am so excited to flesh out this world, it's so perfect ♡ (also shoutout to @simswithoutacause who popped up on my tumblr feed because i wouldn't have found it otherwise... and also has the prettiest shots)
ofc i installed too much cc though so i have spent every day this week after work sorting, cleaning, renaming, and funnelling everything into cc magic because my load time jumped from 2 minutes to 20 and everything is a disaster now so now i must return to ts4
for whatever reason i reinstalled sims 3. and then, again, for whatever reason decided to spend a week making an entire notion database planning out a cute lil 90s pnw inspired world + all its inhabitants + its story. and... yet AGAIN for whatever reason spent three whole days in CAW trying (see: failing miserably) to make said world...
luckily nostalgic twin peaks vibes seem to be en vogue because i found @eisfee's North Bend!! i am never opening CAW ever again and i am so excited to flesh out this world, it's so perfect ♡ (also shoutout to @simswithoutacause who popped up on my tumblr feed because i wouldn't have found it otherwise... and also has the prettiest shots)
ofc i installed too much cc though so i have spent every day this week after work sorting, cleaning, renaming, and funnelling everything into cc magic because my load time jumped from 2 minutes to 20 and everything is a disaster now so now i must return to ts4
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
✓ Live Streaming✓ Interactive Chat✓ Private Shows✓ HD Quality
Anya is LIVE right now
FREE
Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
lol when you take so many nice screenshots with reshade looking 🔥 but you’re tired so you were actually pressing c every time instead of the reshade screenshot shortcut