Reducing the SE4 footprint.

[dogscoff]

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

[Rollo]

Originally posted by dogscoff:
...
-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 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

[dogscoff]

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

[Rollo]

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 ]

[dogscoff]

Doesn't sound too confusing to me.

[Suicide Junkie]

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.

-----

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 ]