File sizes

by Wrinkly Ninja on 04/16/2007 17:34, 20 messages, last message: 04/19/2007 02:59, 1498 views, last view: 04/19/2024 08:29

Hi, I just realised after downloading the latest release, that the file sizes are getting really large.

I mean, its not much for such a great game, but it still makes it a pain to download at slower speeds, and with sizes set to only increase dramatically ( I believe that the last release was around 100MB at the new one is around 180MB), I for one would like the sizes to be as small as possible.

When i see a new version of sauerbraten is out, i want to quickly download it and start having fun. Unfortunately, I have to wait over 2 hours for it to download. This is quite offputting, especially if some one who has never heard of sauer before comes across it, they might blanch at the size and not download it.

So what i would like to see is some sort of compression being used to limit the file sizes (mabye 7zip or .rar) or archives, but that would affect performance. So if you compressed the downloaded file, be it a disk image or installer, that would be great.

Is this possible, or am I being naive and forgetting something?

( i dont know much about installers and stuff like that and how they handle compression.)

   Board Index   

#1: ..

by eihrul on 04/16/2007 18:01

It is already compressed.

reply to this message

#2: Re: ..

by Max of S2D [Fr] on 04/16/2007 18:55, refers to #1

Yep, i guess it's ~200 mb in ~140 mb...

reply to this message

#3: ..

by Quin on 04/16/2007 21:04

Not to mention that Sauerbraten is about the size of most game demos and offers a full (and free) game plus engine.

reply to this message

#4: ..

by enigma_0Z on 04/16/2007 21:11

Well, the size is somewhat of a bugger... It may be too much trouble, but could we make a "patch" release with every new update that includes only the new binaries & content?

Just an idea...

reply to this message

#5: ..

by absinth_nocookie on 04/16/2007 21:47

you could use CVS with maximum compression and update on release dates

reply to this message

#6: ..

by Drakas on 04/16/2007 22:08

This is not the old light Cube. Upgrade your connection. The game is not a game without the media. And the new media kicks ass!

reply to this message

#7: ..

by w4 on 04/16/2007 23:57

my download took less then 5 minute with the unzip.

reply to this message

#8: ..

by Wrinkly Ninja on 04/18/2007 07:39

Ok i realise it is a reasonable size, seeing as it is already compressed apparently, I'l just have to work something out myself.

Thanks for the replies

reply to this message

#9: ..

by mitto_mors on 04/18/2007 11:10

without the packages folder sauerbraten zipped up is ~10MB. I think that an update patch release as well as the full download would be a great idea, also maybe a no-content version without the packages folder or with minimal packages, ie 2 sets of textures and maybe 5 maps might be a good idea for the high speed net depraved people.

reply to this message

#10: Re: ..

by {LiD}CC_machine_atschool on 04/18/2007 11:12, refers to #4

how about a "cube-like" release that was smaller with not _as much_ content, for lower connections?

reply to this message

#11: ..

by tentus_ on 04/18/2007 16:18

The content is too cross connected. Just adding two texturesets would end up with having just two maps in all likelyhood. There are bits of media that are used by a single map ATM, but that never lasts long- people use what's available.

A more reasonable suggestion would be to put the music in a separate download- Marc's 31 songs take up about 26 and a half megs that could be removed without breaking any maps visually. A lot people play their own music while gaming anyways, so this solution would have the fewest upset people.

(Sorry Marc, nothing against your music... it's just an observation as a gamer, people prefer their favorite bands. I quite enjoy the music from fanaticalproductions)

reply to this message

#12: Re: ..

by rpointon on 04/18/2007 17:10, refers to #11

Well, if you're in for a laugh and really want to save lots of space...

Delete everything in the pakages directory, leaving only the maps in packages/base/

Then replace the crosshair.png in the data directory with something more colorful.

You can still play saue okay - i.e. no models, no sound, and all textures are crosshair.png being shaded by the baked light info in the maps... kinda fun.. for the first 30secs...

reply to this message

#13: Re: ..

by rpointon on 04/18/2007 17:53, refers to #12

oh, and with an additional one-line tweak to the source then you too can have all you maps looking like this... ahhh, bless :-)

http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~rpointon/saue/flowers.jpg

reply to this message

#14: Re: ..

by sinsky on 04/18/2007 18:05, refers to #13

OMG you made Orb II :)

reply to this message

#15: Re: ..

by absinth on 04/18/2007 18:18, refers to #13

it's only missing the ponys now ;->

reply to this message

#16: Re: ..

by rpointon on 04/18/2007 18:41, refers to #15

On a more serious note... yes, it is possible to strip out all the music and most of the textures and still have something that is very usable to play, witnesss:

http://www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~rpointon/saue/simple.jpg

But then newcomers would be far less impressed by sauerbraten, and then would be less inclined to download the full textureset and music.

reply to this message

#17: ..

by CrazyTB on 04/18/2007 18:49

I agree with content-less download, or joining all three binaries (MacOSX, Linux and Windows) into only one package.

Reason: if I want to install sauer in more than one system, I must redownload about 160MB of redundant data.



BTW, the download package is already compressed (using zip or bzip2), but media files (ogg, jpg, png) are already compact enough, and can't be noticeably compressed.

Also, maps are stored in OGZ format, where Z does mean it is already compressed.

reply to this message

#18: Re: ..

by absinth on 04/18/2007 19:02, refers to #17

>Reason: if I want to install sauer in more than one system,
> I must redownload about 160MB of redundant data.

you could just download the mac package once and obtain linux and win binaries through cvsweb

reply to this message

#19: Re: ..

by Drakas on 04/18/2007 19:35, refers to #18

You should've given the link to this guy too... Most people are unable to search: http://sauerbraten.cvs.sourceforge.net/sauerbraten/sauerbraten/

CrazyTB: Can't you just just copy over all the media using a USB flash disk or something still?;-)
You can compile from source too, it's cross-platform.

reply to this message

#20: ..

by CrazyTB on 04/19/2007 02:59

Yes, I've once downloaded the CVS. Also, I know how to compile under Linux (I don't have Windows or Mac, so I can't compile there).

However, old cube releases got all binaries at only one package. Since the other binaries should add just 10 or 20 MB, it might be worthy to have them at one package.

OR, it would be nice to do something other games do: have binaries packages without any data at all, and one big data-only package. So, people must download one data package plus at least one binary package.

However, I understand this would be too much confusing for most people...

reply to this message

   Board Index