Space v Time

[wallace]

I have two saving / opening routines for Inspiration's sprites. One is really fast, but makes files 10x the size, the other makes tiny files, but takes 10x the time to open them.

[Anonymous]

may i ask, whats the difference?

I personally prefer speed over size though. Unless it's outrageous, that is.

[Ryan]

I usually get downloads around 500k/sec in the evening with my cable connection... so bloat it and I'll still download it in under a minute. And I'll be happier when it starts up real fast and play it more than once. 8)

[TheAdventMaster]

Bloat won't matter for hobbyists like us in a while. Internet speed is just so high. We have "average" internet (meaning highspeed lol) and I really don't care how big most things are...

[yetifoot]

Any game over 10Mb has to appear very good for me to download it. 10Mb is up to an hour and a half to me, if its a slow day (which it usually is)

I judge also on the type of game. Any tetris/breakout bigger than 100k will not be downloaded as i know its just full of bloat, and i can find a smaller/better one elsewhere.

However I accept that for some modern games like first persion shooters with loads of textures, and rich music may well require hundreds of MB

Also though, if a game takes ages to load, or makes me watch crappy long intros it will also get ditched.

I feel i can afford to be this choosy most of the time, because there is almost always a smaller/better version of just about any game you can think of.

[TheAdventMaster]

I feel i can afford to be this choosy most of the time.

You're going to wait until 56kb connections are FREE aren't you?

[yetifoot]

bleh

[Peter]

Once in about every 3 months i wish i had broadband, and then i realise i don't need it, so for me its a waste of money.

Is there that much of a price difference? In my area of NYC it's actually cheaper to have a DSL setup then to have a dial up line. When you factor in that it doesn't tie up my phone line and I thus don't need a second one it is a cost savings.

[wallace]

10MB? Dream on, not one of my games.

I'm talking like 70MB v 30MB. I think the folder I have right now is about 20MB, and thats really compressed and doesn't have nearly everything in it yet. There are thousands of 24 bit bitmaps in here.

[Anonymous]

ok, 70mb vs 30 mb is what i consider to be "outrageous".

Unless that is decompressed, which is still moderately outrageous

edit: i would suggest turning all those "1000's of files" into one large file, lots of the time for your loading is each individual "open, read, close, flush file buffer" rinse repeat 1000's x.

one file open, grab all, "parse" the data will be worlds faster.