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60MB of save file for Sim Settlements?

Cranky Cat

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My save file has been steadily growing since I installed Sim Settlements and I'm wondering if there is some underlying issue using too many resources and not cleaning up after itself.

Just as a test I used the autodestruct and then uninstalled Sim Settlements.

With Sim Settlements and 13 active settlements:

Save file size: 94.3 MB
Script Instances: 258,037
Changeforms: 519,617
Arrays: 91,947

Now Fallrim Tools relates only 7698 script instances and 267 change forms to SS.

After uninstalling Sim Settlements:

Save file size: 34.2 MB
Script Instances: 155,135
Changeforms: 260,127
Arrays: 6,301

So, 64% of my save is for Sim Settlements content.

That is obviously a massive use of resources. Is this expected or is something running out of control? It seems to be working fine but my concern is there is a problem with garbage collection somewhere which makes my save file constantly grow and grow which will continue until my save fails. I started Sim Settlements after the beta with the "The Water's Fine" release.

Most of the scripts were WorkshopObject and WorkshopObjectScript.

So, 64% of my save file is related to SimSettlements. I actually have 13 active settlements plus the extra empty ones where I claimed the workshop.

Edit: I checked the addon counts and none of them used enough resources to account for the total as far as I can see. Still looking.
 
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My save file has been steadily growing since I

Still looking.

Cranky Cat, that does seem really big?

Watching thread also - as that seems about x2 of what I would expect?

Someone else reported similar a while back but they never posted of they got to a conclusion.

All I am saying is this isn't the first time someone has posted the problem.

Hopefully, some good information can get generated here.
 
@RayBo At least I'm not definitely the only person. It does seem to be working fine on 3.3 with the performance settings at 20 threads and maxed quality settings. I just have visitors off still. Performance is still good generally.

I'm not even using all the settlements but I did self-destruct Red Rocket and its level 3 city plan on 3.21 or so when it seemed Sanctuary and RR both together were too much right in that area. I've probably refreshed plots more than most.
 
Hi Cranky Cat/ RayBo,

I was one of the people who had this issue when version 3.0 of Sim Settlements dropped back in January. We had both been using the mod "Build and Scrap Beyond Workshop Boundaries" (https://www.nexusmods.com/fallout4/mods/12099/?tab=description), which allowed the invisible markers Sim Settlements uses to track the space of a settlement to generate across the entire worldspace and caused the save file to rapidly grow out of control. Uninstalling that mod and starting a new game fixed the issue for me. Also, there were some issues with the SetupCurrentMaintenanceCosts script that would cause it not to complete, and to generate a new instance whenever you loaded the save which caused ActiveScripts to grow rapidly out of control with similar effect. That issue was fixed with version 3.0.3b.

Hopefully that helps somewhat.
 
@snarkywriter I remember that. I use All Settlements Extended and Scrap Everything. The active scripts are what I'd expect. If SS isn't busy then it's usually 4. Do you recall if there was a way to see the world marker information in a tool like FallrimTools without editing the model of the marker to make it visible in the game?
 
@Cranky Cat There unfortunately wasn't one that I remember, and I don't know the FormID of the edge markers he was using. A cursory check in FO4Edit didn't reveal anything that looked relevant. Kinggath assigned them a visible model (likely in the Creation Kit) when he checked the other user, Wizard70's, save file. I'm not sure if he developed a new way to detect settlement edges since then. I ~can~ say that I am also using All Settlements Extended and Scrap Everything myself, but I haven't seen the same save file size increase so far.

I've been working this week and haven't had a chance to play more than about 10 minutes since version 3.3 dropped. I'm going to boot the game up here in a moment and let it run for a bit to see if my save file size starts growing. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
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My save was this big before 3.3. I haven't had any sudden increases; it just slowly accumulates over time.
 
94 MB is pretty massive - if your script instances and changeforms drop in half after uninstalling SS, your save almost certainly has some sort of runaway issue.

Might be worth downloading and end-game save from nexus, load it up with your current mod load and start a bunch of city plans. Then check and see if your save file is bloating still. If so, there's probably some sort of conflict causing things to run amok. If not, it could be that your save file had a bug from an earlier version.

How long have you been running that save?
 
Ah, gotcha. Yeah, that is oddly massive for a single save file. Does spark a few questions:

1) How many NPCs do you have per settlement?
2) How many plots per settlement, and total?
3) Do you run a lot of mods which use 4K plus textures, and if so are they vanilla texture replacers?
4) Are you using the Industrial City add-on's alternate recruiting function?
5) What level is your character, and how many settlements have you claimed?
6) Do you use any mods that add new settlement locations, and have you built them up with plots?

EDIT: Nevermind, the man himself is on it. :)
 
This is my original save so I've been playing it for about a year now :) I haven't always had much time to play. I don't remember which version of Sim Settlements but it was version 2 around last September.

It was already 75MB back in April on 3.2 and hasn't grown suddenly since then. It's just a little bit at a time as I play. So, I suspect whatever issue occurred was a long time ago and has just left lots of junk in the save. I don't have any saves from before 3.2.1 or so in April. That was when I couldn't enter Red Rocket after the level 3 city build and I scrapped out Red Rocket and reduced Sanctuary.

What happens with a "Clean Save" where you just disable Sim Settlements, load/save the game, and then re-enable the mods? Do the original plots still exist but just clean up the script references are would things pretty much be hosed?
 
I would bet you got hit by the never-ending marker bug. There are probably thousands of invisible markers all over your game world. They won't hurt anything, but they do crank up the file size!

Clean saving out the mod would wipe out everything and probably leave some corruption in your save... so I wouldn't do that!
 
@kinggath I thought I never loaded 3.0.3 before the patch though but I could be wrong! Is there any way to tell short of editing the object to make them visible?

@snarkywriter
1. I have about 319 settlers in 13 settlements. They're all pretty much fully upgraded with no new recruiting.
2. Generally 2 plots per settler but some extra recreational plots.
3. I redid my textures after performance went south for me in 3.2. I created my own texture pack and repacked the main fallout ba2 files so I could get rid of all those loose files. That really helped and it looks nice. :) Originally I did the whole everything-at-max-resolution but use 2k or 1k now generally.
4. I do use alt recruiting but until I start building more settlements I'm not growing anymore.
5. I'm at level 100 now. I really go out of my way to visit every freaking point of interest like a tourist. I still haven't gone back to see Nick Valentine.
6. I haven't added any new settlement locations.

I'm determined to finish the main quest before getting side tracked again (or having the game blow up and become unplayable) ... Like with modular buildings with furnishing and interior plots which can be plopped down as prefabs. (Basically really complicated foundations for interior plots!) Crap, I really need to wait until I finish my first freaking playthrough.
 
Actually, I can see what the items left over after uninstalling are by simply looking at the unattached instances after uninstalling SS. They're a bunch of workshopobjectscripts attached to plants, soundscape emitters, cooking stoves, etc. All the types of things created with plots.

That's about only about 9MB of the 60 MB associated with Sim Settlements though. I wouldn't be surprised if those were all the things left behind after I did a remote destruction of all the plots.

The other 51 MB or so were removed when I saved without the mods installed so still could be those invisible markers.

@kinggath Do you remember what that base object id was where you made it visible to test?
 
Soundscape emitters were the problem children. I used those to simultaneously control the dynamic soundscape and map out a grid of the settlement bounds so I can detect where plots are relative to the edge of a settlement. If something prevented them from detecting the edge of a settlement, they would continue to build forever until they reach the edge of the game world...

The base ID is XX01930E
 
I think I only have 4530 instances of that if I'm reading the save right. Oh well, in the future if someone else has this issue and you need a comparison then I guess I can help.
 
Actually, the extra instances are mostly references to sim settlement objects like pallets, plants, etc.

I played with clutter and the other performance options off alot when first having issues and noticed that when plots refreshed many objects would briefly display and then disappear. If they are being disabled then I wonder if those could be orphaned if the plot is deleted or upgraded; or could have been at one time. After using the global self destruct the size of the save didn't shrink significantly.

Edit: I still had the city plan builds and you can't destroy those globally as far as I can tell. That's about 9MB of it though I think.

Does the new cleanup option remove more than orphaned smoke effects?
 
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Hm, my save is over 70MB right now. I assumed it was pretty much normal.
And ReSaver no longer works for me :/

I do have a sh*tload of settlements, though. Recently I've looked at the list of teleporters I have, there were 51. Now I do have 5 of them at vault88, and two at some other settlements, but it still puts the number of settlements I have at about 40.
 
yes. Someone in the comments posted that I can just run the jar directly and give it more ram, that worked.

I ended up killing all those SS threads. This fixed a seemingly unrelated crash for me, so...
 
However, the process seems to have broken tech trees. The green window just stays empty. Can I trigger the relevant functions manually?
 
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