Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

I intend to copy my se4 install to a single CD, as a backup of all the mods and races I've downloaded. It would also be handy for bringing my brother's (legit) installation of the game up to date.

The problem is, I have too much stuff installed. It won't all fit on one CD.

Therefore the purpose of this thread is to share hints and tips for reducing the footprint of an se4 installation:

Here is what I currently have:

Over 150 races
18 mods
7 "peripheral" programs (modders, gridders, drukman etc)
the neo-expansion pack
the full image mod
The extended sound pack

Here are the space-saving tricks I already know of:
-once the neo-expansion pack is installed, the proportions and devnullmod pictures/racegeneric folders become redundant. You can also afford to lose some of the P&N pictures/racegenerics.

-With the sound enhancement pack installed, I found I had all the game sounds twice. I deleted the old set and saved around 15 meg!

-I copied the TDM AIs over the default ones. I also copied the USM files over the defaults. If I ever wanted to go back (why?) I can just use my original game CD.

-Some mods (devnullmod, proportions) include whole race sets in their pictures/races folder. This can lead to duplication if you already have the race installed in your main pictures/races. Copy the graphics files over and just leave the mods with just the AI files.

-Similarly, some mods keep their own designname folders, which can lead to duplication. Consolidate these into the main game folders and let the mods default to them. In some cases it is approriate to do this with planetnames and system names files.

-Zip stuff up. I don't like to do this, because I want to just copy the CD onto my HD and go, but in theory you could probably halve the size of your game install, since most of the bulk is plain txt files and uncompressed bmps.

-reduce the colour depth of race graphics. This will make huge savings, but it would lead to lower quality graphics. I am reluctant to do this.

-I'd like to know if it is possible to delete the components, combat and planets folders from various mods (particularly P&N, Proportions & Devnullmod) if I have the full imagemod installed. If not, doesn't that make the imagemod kind of useless?

-I would be grateful for any more sace-saving tips, and I'm sure others would like to hear them. Please post them.

Finally, something else I'd like to do for this "ultimate CD" I'm preparing: Many (most?) of the races I have installed have old AIs that produce errors when I try to use them. I know there is an article around here somewhen describing how to update them, but I really don't want to check and correct all 150 races. Does anyone know of (or want to write) an auto-batch-AI-checker/updater? I imagine this would be fairly easy for clever ppl like you lot http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Heh- abilities.txt, didn't think of that. A quick sewarch showed up 15 copies of it=-)

*dogscoff deletes 14 of them and frees up a valuable 224k http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I've also gotten rid of the combat folders in my 2 P&N installations.

Now, let's see what else we have:

23 different systemnames files, totalling something like 1.70 meg. I think I'll lose most of those, keeping the half-meg file from FQM deluxe and Adamant (it appears to be the same file.)

We're getting there. Anyone got any more space-saving suggestions?

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Hmm, AIC mod - anyone know if I can remove the components, facilities and combat folders and still be OK under the imagemod?

Same question with proportions- I have 2 installs of this (well, one is the proportions+primitives mod) so I could double my saving here http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

I also just freed up several meg with some brutal rationalisation of the Adamant mod- I had the Taera and Puntherrians duplicated, as well as dozens of designname files!

I think I'll also take the manual out- I don't use it and it's 8 meg! I can always recover it from the game CD.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

As of the latest gold patch, you only need settings.txt in your data folder, IIRC.

You can probably consolidate your strategies, formations, and ship name files.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">As well it should, for the Adamant mod was built from FQM Deluxe! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

You could go buy some 850 MB CDs. Or just use 2 CDs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Can SEIV handle RLE (compressed) windows bitmaps?
Last year I was running short of disk space and tried to compress them, but I can't remember if it worked or not (I decided to buy a new hard disk http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Edit: yes, it can handle them. Anyway, they're limited to a palette of 256 colors, so you'll need to reduce color depth (but IMHO the game won't lose anything).

[ May 13, 2003, 23:04: Message edited by: Lisif Deoral ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

AIC mod uses its own graphics. so no you cannot delete them.
Edit> i have posted in AIC post asking JLS if he would mind having his pictures added to the others.

[ May 13, 2003, 23:05: Message edited by: DESDINOVA ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

*dances around and jumps on the bandwagon*

You can delete History.txt and save 115Kb. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Slick.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I can speak only for DNM here. It is imagemod compliant. If you have the latest imagemod installed, then the graphics (planets, components) that come with DNM are redundant and can be deleted to save disk space.
I only included the graphics that are needed for DNM to make installation easier.

Rollo

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Cool! That's another 6 meg trimmed off. Thanks Rollo.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Hmm, maybe I could add another download: DNM 1.70 Lite (requires imagemod) or would that be too confusing?

Rollo

[ May 13, 2003, 12:33: Message edited by: Rollo ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Doesn't sound too confusing to me.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

You can also delete all your savegames and autosaves. I imagine those would take a fair chunk of space in total, and you would be better off using a floppy disk for one or two. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

-----

P&N: not sure why I included the combat folder...

Any race shipsets which have duplicated images can be removed, although you will need to keep the modified AI files.

As for datafiles, the only major one that can be removed is abilities.txt
The various lost-of-names files could be removed too.

The AI folder had to be run through the AI patcher, so you need to keep at least the AI_general and AI_designcreation files.

-----

How about:
-> DNM_lite (requires imagemod)
-> DNM + Imagemod

[ May 13, 2003, 12:58: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Proportions has not been kept up to date with the image mod, even though the image mod has some of the Proportions images in it. There are a few of the first images which you might be able to delete, though, but not much - I think Proportions 1.0 was the Last Version to have everything in the image mod, and I think even then, it might have a thing or two that aren't in the image mod, or not in the same place.

PvK

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

So get those images in the Image mod! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif No more excuses. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

I am cleverly saving space for people who just use Proportions, Fryon - no need to download the Image Mod. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Personally, I think Dogscoff should bite the bullet, splurge, and use two CD's.

PvK

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Well obviously I could do that, but I hate wasting space and would have to fill the second CD completely, which would mean downloading the other hundred or so races listed on Sotas, the scifi crossover mod and AST mod (too big for me to download so far), but I'd probably still have 300 meg left over after that.

Which would mean me starting a thread about how to increase the amount of space taken up...

PvK- you don't need to force people to dl the whole image mod. Just make the images compatible, then distribute them with the mod in the normal way. Then ppl like me can delete any superfluous files if we want to. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif
Or you could do what Rollo is doing and a "lite" Version available if you want to.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Dogscoff http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Currently AI Campaign is not compatible with any other MOD.

Deleteing or adding any files and folders to any program, that has been produced; will or may break that program.
However deleteting redundant se4 info with-in your Mods, cleaning the save game, and se4 Temp folders can save a lot of space, as long as it is not your current saved game http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

I have spoken with SJ and when AIC is finished, we plan to do something towards adapting AIC to the Image Mod. Right now, we need to stay focused on finishing AI Campaign and then working with the specific designers in adapting AIC to their great add-ons and Mods; that we have, out there.

In regards to AI folders in AIC, for the most part every AI will always have their own individual Data files, and over time every file will change with each and every AI having its own tweak http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Also ALL/MOST the files in AIC; the Basic se4 descriptive info have been deleted, right from AIC’s very first Release.
This over all saves a very big chunk of space and reduces our download times, and if a player wants to see this redundant info data, he may go to any of the original se4 files.

[ May 14, 2003, 15:19: Message edited by: JLS ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Dogscoff, is your archive disk using compressed contents?

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Dogscoff there are several sizes of CD's, are you capable of using the 700Mb cd's vs the 640Mb ones? If so that's 60 MB right there.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Not sure. The blank CD I have here offers 702 meg.
If I look at the properties screen for my shrapnel dir, it says it takes up 741 meg (777,617,052 bytes), but that that's 786meg (825,196,544 bytes) on disk. Confusing. I assume the "size on disk" figure is a product of Windoze' bloaty file system, and that the former number is the one that would apply if I were to copy the files to a CD.

What I will probably do is leave out (or zip up) a number of the less-used races.

I just thought this would be an interesting thread for anyone trying to save a little space.

Also I think I have screwed up my sounds folder. :(Anyone know where I can download the enhanced sound mod? Doesn't seem to be on the Gold CD.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Quote:

Originally posted by dogscoff: Anyone know where I can download the enhanced sound mod? Doesn't seem to be on the Gold CD.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

This may be what you want, Dogscoff http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

MM Mod list

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">~~~~
<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">This is a very interesting thread; I just wish my CD burner received with my windows 98 Gateway Computer, were compatible with the new XP Windows I installed; so I can do what your doing http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

[ May 15, 2003, 15:11: Message edited by: JLS ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Thanks JLS. I think the problem may reside in the words "almost all " in that description. I deleted all my original sound files, not "almost all" of them.

Oops...

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

What if you were to zip up the entire thing, and just put an autorun file in there. You could have the thing automatically unpack to the HD when you throw in the disk!

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Hey dogscoff. I really like what you're doing. I'm too lazy to do it myself. Could you put your "optimized" cd image up for download when you're done?

*minus "se4.exe" of course*

[ May 15, 2003, 18:38: Message edited by: Urendi Maleldil ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Good idea Urendi, except I'm on dialup and a 800 meg upload would not be fun.

I guess I could send you a CD by snail mail though, if you PM me your address. I think I'll probably "make the burn" next week, after I've spent the weekend on the KanesS images.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Lessee, 800 MB at ~3.5KB upload per second (pretty generous with my ISP), it would take...

*taps calculator keys furiously*

...approximately 3900 minutes, or 65 hours, or 2.7 days. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/shock.gif That's assuming, of course, that you remembered to turn off call waiting so you didn't get disconnected halfway through.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Also, my dialup kicks me off every 2 or 3 hours. Barbaric or what?

I suppose I could plug my laptop into my mobile phone and use GPRS, that doesn't kick me off. However, it does charge me £7.50 per meg. So for an 800 meg upload that would be something like £6000 sterling.

Nice.

EDIT: The other option is to take my laptop, my wireless networking card, my copy of netstumbler, go for a drive and see if I can borrow *cough*steal*cough* me some free bandwidth courtesy of an unsuspecting corporate HQ somewhere...

[ May 16, 2003, 14:53: Message edited by: dogscoff ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

D, are you still trying to find ways to save space or did you get it all straight? I have some suggestions. I may have missed them, but I don't see these listed in the thread.

You can remove the manual directory entirely. Only used if you ever hit the help screens during the game. > 7meg (EDIT: Oops, you did have this one already.)

If all the pc's you are going to use the game on are the same display size ie, 800x600, or 1024x768, then reducing the color depth of the system bitmaps for the size you aren't going to use will free a TON of space with no change in game image quality. > 2 Meg

You can reduce the color depth of the intro and finale bitmaps. Those a few for the biggest files in the Se4 install, and are only used for a few seconds of the game. Lower quality for those wouldn't really detract from game play. Heck, you might never even see the finale screens. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif > 1 - 3 Meg

Many mods have customized intro screens. Nice for their ego, but totally unneccesary if you are tight on space. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif > 1 Meg

Hope these help.

Geoschmo

[ May 16, 2003, 15:10: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Thanks Geo, good suggestions.

Actually, since starting this thread I've installed several new shipsets and mods, so I think it is impossible for Se4 to ever get any smaller. I'm going to have to just give in and burn myself 2 CDs. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

Still, this thread might turn out to be useful to someone, somewhen.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">D, you didn't comment on this one, not sure if you saw it. I tested too and the only difference in the images I can see is a slight increase in graininess. And unless you have the before and after images side by side it's not even perceptable. Although, I didn't try every race pic. Some may be more obvious then others.

Reducing the image files from 24-bit to 256 color reduces their files size by a little more than half. That's like one Meg per race. That might get you one one CD.

There are utilities that can batch convert those files too. Doing it by hand would take years. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif Irfanview is one.

Geoschmo

EDIT: Actuallly I am not sure I did the same thing as him. I am not sure what RLE compressed is. I jsut opened the image in paint and "saved as" 256 color. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ May 16, 2003, 15:26: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

RLE encoding reduces bmp sizes much more than just 256 colors.
I used paint shop pro to batch convert most pictures. Unless those pics with many minis (planets, comps, facilities, ect) and the main background, all other pictures look fine when reduced to 256 colors, some can even be reduced to 16 colors with little noticeable difference.

Edit: Pictures of the shipsets I'm uploading now to KDY are RLE encoded. Check the unzipped sizes.

[ May 17, 2003, 03:40: Message edited by: Andres ]

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

I forgot not all of us have a broadband connection.

Don't bother sending me a CD. I live in the states. Postage is probably too much. I'll just do most of this myself.

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh, to live in such a state of blissful forgetfulness... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">You ought to experiment with it a bit. You might be suprised at how little difference it makes. I know I was. And the space savings would be tremendous.

Geoschmo

Re: Reducing the SE4 footprint.
 

Yeah, I saw the Posts about redusing colour depth but I wouldn't want to do that- that's just not how the race authors wanted them to look.

as to mailing a CD to the states- I doubt it would be expensive, (the price of a pint, probably) so I'm happy to do it.