Question (last one)
Re - Merged Files
Im considering merging a lot of my cc (clothing, that sort of thing) as I heard it improves load up performance and all that wonderful stuff - Question is, if I merge say, all my items from one creator and then down the road, I download and put a duplicate item in the mod folder, that is already in the merged file, will Wicked Whims Log show that I have a duplicate file? (asking so I know how to set up the merged files in the folder so clarification on this would be appreciated, ty)
First I didn't see anyone answer your first question, NO, you can't use ts3 items in 4. People convert those files by making a new mesh that uses the art or whatever of the old one (I'm not a modder nor an artist I don't know the terms for it). The game can't read the files, because it's a completely different engine. Just don't do it. You can try to ask someone to convert it, but that's it. No mod to put it through, no way to just drop it in.
As for merged files. Organizing by creator is for the best. Always keep a backup of the files you merged, and together in folders by what goes into each package, so you can easily find anything you want to remove or need to backup. If you download anything new of theirs, add to the backup folder, and remerge the folder, deleting the file from what you had previously merged. Just stay organized and you'll be fine. Just keep track of what is where. Merging is always a good option, your mod folder only care about the number of items in it, not how big they are. Also, deleting any spaces or not letter/number/period characters also speeds it up, since it takes longer to read those symbols in file names than the others for some reason.