Hi, so recently I've unmerged my previously merged cc files to edit them to remove some swatches. I've finished editing the files, but I thought about how big my original merged files were. For example, when I first merged my female hair cc, the file was over 1 GB. I wanted to ask if it's better to separate specific cc into multiple merged files or does it not make a difference on loading in game and i should just keep merging the cc into just one single file. If I merged into multiple files, I'd make the max size of each file be <600 MB or <400 MB depending on what you guys say. (For a better example, let's say that instead of merging all the female hair cc into one single merged file that is 1 GB, I could merge them into separate files that have a certain max size.)

And just to be clear, I merge cc based on categories (like female hair, male clothes, children's room, etc.). I don't merge every single cc in my mods folders into one single merged file.

I'm not quite sure I understand your question? Do you mean you're combining different pieces of CC into one merged file, or do you mean they're the same basic thing but just different swatches/patterns merged together?

In general, I'd think having the same item, different swatches merged helps you keep track of them all, because if you had a lot that were separated, it could be tricky finding the right one if one decided to stop working for some reason. And if you were merging different items into one file, it might be better to leave them separated so you don't have to unzip everything and try to find what you're looking for if it stops working correctly. As for how it'd affect the game between the different ways, I'm afraid I don't know.

Just my personal thoughts based on how I organize my CC (sorted into different subfolders based on what they are)! Everyone has their own way of doing things, and something like this doesn't necessarily have a "right way" or a "wrong way". It's more personal preference and as long as you know what is what and where it is, you're good!

Asking about increasing performance? not really. Merged or not, the CC is still in your game, and must be loaded at boot up.

Keep in mind a merged package file of 1GIG, is surely tidy, but if that file was to ever to corrupt you will lose all the CC that was merged in that file.

Sorry, it took me a while to get back to this post. What I meant is that I was editing CC I previously downloaded to remove swatches that I didn't like in order to reduce the file sizes. When it came time to merge my files again, I just wanted to know if it would be better for me to merge them into smaller file sizes (for example, having a merged file be 500 MB instead of 1 GB) or just letting the merged file be whatever size. Also, I personally don't mind un-merging files to find any corrupt or unwanted cc; when I was removing swatches from the CC, I was also checking to see what CC i didn't like at all and which ones weren't working properly so that I could remove them from my mods folder

Thanks for the advice! I make sure to keep a backup of all my cc that is merged in case this problem was to occur