[luws]

A long time ago, when the file limits for playing Sims 2 on a Mac were discovered, the brains here came up with a way to allow the Mac more files by creating an rc.local file that stipulated new maxfiles and maxfilesperproc limits. This information has been a lifesaver for Sims 2 download junkies everywhere. Not sure if as many people would have played the game if they had to stick with the limits decided by the game.

While this information has been invaluable, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart, recently the method no longer seems to work on Intel iMacs so I'm back to ask if you would possibly know why? I still play on my trusty G5, so don't know the inner workings of the Intel Macs or what might be the obstacle. And the stranger thing is, is that it's not all Intel Macs, but apparently iMacs only.

I've seen where more than one iMac user who has properly created the rc.local file (from all indications anyway) yet only one of the limits changes, the other does not. And it's not one lone simmer that this happens to. The pattern seems to be iMac users.

Or maybe it's Leopard. Although I run Leopard, my rc.local file was created pre-Leopard and is still intact so I don't know.

So I've been wondering if there needs now to be an additional step that iMac or iMac Leopard users might need to take to up the file limit.

Despite Sims 3 coming out soon, not everyone is going to switch, so the file limit is still a pretty important issue for Mac users. I would be grateful for any light you might be able to shed on the problem.

thanks!

[Tesseract]

luws, on May 23rd 2009, 01:49 AM, said:

Not sure if as many people would have played the game if they had to stick with the limits decided by the game.

The limits aren't set by the game, they're set by the OS. They wouldn't be an issue if the game closed files when it wasn't using them, though.

Anyway, the right place to set this stuff is not rc.local but /etc/sysctl.conf. The format is name=value, one per line.

[luws]

Thanks for the reply Tesseract. I personally don't have a sysctl.conf file in /etc that I can see, so in that case is it alright to create a file with that name?

[Brad Oliver]

Tesseract, on June 1st 2009, 10:24 AM, said:

The limits aren't set by the game, they're set by the OS. They wouldn't be an issue if the game closed files when it wasn't using them, though.

Yeah, but Sims 2 is designed on the PC such that it browses your entire installed base of files and opens them (as file-mapped, IIRC) at app launch for quicker access. It doesn't have any concept of load-on-demand.

[Tesseract]

luws, on June 3rd 2009, 03:30 PM, said:

I personally don't have a sysctl.conf file in /etc that I can see, so in that case is it alright to create a file with that name?

Yes. If you use TextEdit, make sure you create it as plain text.