13 replies to this topic

[Ringwraith Captain]

How big (in megabytes) do you expect the mod to be upon release?

My gaming comp doesn't have internet access, so I'm relying on a USB device to get stuff to it from a computer that can get to the internet. My USB drive has like 240 MB of memory...is that enough (I doubt it)? I just need to know if I should invest in a larger USB drive - or WiFi.

[Lauri]

You'll need a larger one yes
I can't really guess how large it will be when it's finished, but atm, I think it's 500mbs, if I remember correct

[Ringwraith Captain]

Yeah I kinda figured.
Mods I've downloaded recently, like S.E.E for example, have stretched the capacity of my USB drive even though they're compressed. I've been meaning to get a bigger drive, or better yet, internet access to my gaming comp. I actually did a little math, made some educated guesses, and came up with a rough estimate of about 500-700 mbs.
Looks like you're combining immense quantity with incredible quality! Keep up the good great work!

[Lauri]

okay, so...

I checked, and the latest installer (which is quite old I believe) is actually 226 mbs..
So, you could have gotten the current version..
However, that's not the finished mod, and you'd expect a larger version when finished

Edited by Lauri, 20 October 2008 - 09:03 PM.

[ched]

You can't compress it into a .zip (well you can but it'd be useless), since the .exe is already compressed.

ATM it's around 250 mb, and I expect it to double by the end of the project.

[Lauri]

Ah, I knew it was something about that

[{IRS}Athos]

@ Ringwraith Captain

You can get a 2 gig USB for a reasonable price at most electronics stores, and that would probably be the best option if you're going to put more than one mod on it (One for BFME I, One for BFME II, and the third for RotWK )

[Foe-of-the-Nine]

You can't compress it into a .zip (well you can but it'd be useless), since the .exe is already compressed.

ATM it's around 250 mb, and I expect it to double by the end of the project.

Wow... I have no clue when it comes to modding... How does the size increase so rapidly? I figured you guys had 2/3 to 3/4 of the "meat" of the game (just assuming) and were working mainly on reskinning everything and implementing your countless tweaks... Do you just not have anything going for a lot of the factions at present or does polishing require that much space? like what takes up so much space that you don't have in there yet? Pardon the curiosity of the ignorant...

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

Teehee
Mine is bigger then yours
Mine is around 500mb+
But that shouldn't be a problem to download when finished.
From my experience Textures take up the most space followed by audio.

[Lauri]

There isn't really anything good about having the biggest size possible for a mod
It's better to keep it as low as possible...

*Rant starts*

T4A - ca 300MB file size (when installed)
277MBs of that is textures...
14MBS is w3ds...
The rest is codes, maps, bases and small stuff (I don't have audio though)


So yeah, the thing that takes most space is textures
On the vanilla game though, the textures.big is half the size of w3d.big (containing the models and animations)
The texture.big is actually 210MBs, and that is ALL the textures in the game!
I only have for a few buildings, and all new units.. Not props and most buildings, animals and the like

When I release my mod, I'll try to get all the textures in a dds format... why?
Because the same texture is 245kbs in tga, and 86kbs in dds

*Rant never stops*

[Nertea]

Sounds generally take up more room per unit that textures. Reason being is that for one unit you have (for RA)

-1 w3d file @ ~ 10-50 kbs
-1-2 dds files at ~ 80 kb each
-at least 10 wavs for sounds, maybe >20 kbs each

If a unit has new animations it might take up more space, but in general sounds will probably be the contributing factor.

[m@tt]

There is a good amount of stuff that isn't in the beta though (loads of Erebor, Dale and Harad) which probably would add 50MB plus.

Btw the installer is 250MB, unpacked and installed it's 700MB

[Radspakr Wolfbane]

Mine won't be that big hopefully but I spent a long time clearing out the obsolete textures.
That is some good compression.
So will RA have a Elvenstar style installation or is it a normal type?.

[ched]

We install the files in a separate directory. Working with a -mod structure was just impossible considering the size of the mod and how much of a pain updating would have been!