User:K6ka/Sandbox11


 * This tutorial only applies to The Sims 3.

One common problem in The Sims 3 is save game bloat, where the size of save games grow to titanic proportions, to the point of causing save and load game errors. Even if no errors occur, large file sizes can increase the time it takes to save and load a game, and can cause a noticeable drop in game performance.

While save game file sizes are, in theory, a problem in all The Sims games, it became especially prominent in The Sims 3 with the release of the memories system in patch 22. Unlike the memory system in The Sims 2, a snapshot is taken when a memory is created, which is stored in the Sim's scrapbook. These snapshots take up a lot of space and quickly bloat save game file sizes. Worse off, even if the snapshots are deleted in-game, they are not actually removed from the game files, so they will continue to bloat the save files. Fortunately, disabling the memory system completely solves this problem, although it will not affect existing snapshots.

Even without the memory system, save game files will still naturally grow other time. The game keeps very small snapshots of Sim portrait poses in the game files, known as SNAP files. New SNAP resources are generated every time the CAS (Create a Sim) system does something (Which includes Create a Sim actions, as well as Sims changing appearances, changing clothes, change of mood, etc.), and are not removed when they are no longer needed; instead, new ones are simply generated. While SNAP resources are generally small, they can still build up over time.

In both situations, a third-party tool called S3PE is needed to remove these resources.