Space Saver and more

[Neutrino]

Greetings.

I am currently in the process of refining the first part of my game, thus to create the standard for all future parts (improving graphic, simplifing scripts and so forth).

But as I checked the folder size, I found out that it is nearly 8MB.  Now, it is at the most 1/10 of the game, and I haven't added music yet, and I use less than 10 sounds.  So far the game includes:  198 spirits; 98 dialog options; 7 rooms (image size ~250kb); 8 sounds (less than 2 seconds each); 43 GUI labels.

1) What AGS features take more space:
1a.   Global and dialog messages or "display" Script command.

1b. Is there a way to create a shortcut to a certain script, wirthout having to rewrite it for every hotspot or object.
like entering a room filled with various things that if you do something specific, the same script run (other action do different outcomes).

2) When I import a spirit do I still need the original image file or can I put it somewhere else (maybe even DELETE it).

3) When I import a spirit, there is the option of importing it in 640x400 format.  I couldn't quite understand what it means(yes, I checked the help), when I tested the game the spirit looked smaller.  Is it to create graphic with better resolution?

Thank You for your time, Oh, Merry Chrismas,

Neutrino

[Scorpiorus]

hello,

But as I checked the folder size, I found out that it is nearly 8MB.  Now, it is at the most 1/10 of the game, and I haven't added music yet, and I use less than 10 sounds.  So far the game includes:  198 spirits; 98 dialog options; 7 rooms (image size ~250kb); 8 sounds (less than 2 seconds each); 43 GUI labels.

Check your game\compiled folder size. It's the ready to play game there and it's the files in the compiled directory that you should distribute.

1) What AGS features take more space:

Backgrounds & Sprites take up the most space, the last aren't compressed at all.

1b. Is there a way to create a shortcut to a certain script, wirthout having to rewrite it for every hotspot or object.
like entering a room filled with various things that if you do something specific, the same script run (other action do different outcomes).

You can make a separate function and call it from wherever you want:

function do() {
//some general code here
}

on interact hotspot :
do();

on look at object:
do();

2) When I import a spirit do I still need the original image file or can I put it somewhere else (maybe even DELETE it).

You do not need the original file, but I'd highly recomended do not delete  but save it in archive, so you could always get it back.

3) When I import a spirit, there is the option of importing it in 640x400 format.  I couldn't quite understand what it means(yes, I checked the help), when I tested the game the spirit looked smaller.  Is it to create graphic with better resolution?

It is the resolution your sprite is drawn for. Yes, if you are making a 640x480 resolution game you probably may want to tick the option in order for the sprite to look correct, otherwise it get stretched and will look blocky.

~Cheers

[Barcik]

First of all, it's called a 'sprite', not a 'spirit'.  

1b. You can write functions in the global script for some basic script portions that repeat frequently in your game. Don't forget to include them in the script header.

2. You do not need the original image after importing the file.

3. As far as I understand, you need to check it if you have drawn your character for a 640X480 res.

Also, do know that AGS files are compressed very well. An ordinary zip can shrink it to as much as a quarter of its original size.

Edit: Bah, a couple of seconds too late. Well, it can still help.

[Neutrino]

Hmm, I see...
So the Background and spRITE (thanks for the spelling  ) take most space. I am fanatically using PCX files for the graphics, any more I can do to?
I know, I'm a bit obssessive about Hard Disk space.

Of course, thanks for the tips on Q 2 and 3.

Neutrino

[Scummbuddy]

I am fanatically using PCX files for the graphics, any more I can do to?
I know, I'm a bit obssessive about Hard Disk space.

I hope you know whatever graphics extension you import into AGS, AGS uses its own compression methods, so it doesnt matter if they are put in as bitmaps or jpegs

[scotch]

Sprites are the biggest space concern if you have a lot of animations and a big character.  The Jon Stickman demo is 8mb uncompressed even though it is 256 (more like 32) colours and only a few rooms because it has a lot of animations and the sprites are stored uncompressed, in the exe.  When zipped it goes down to 1mb which is not bad at all.. I wouldn't worry too much about uncompressed filesize, that's not what people will be downloading and almost all users will have plenty of hard drive space to unzip.

To save a bit more space you could compress the sounds into mp3 or ogg (if they aren't already).  Aside from that you can't really do a lot.

[Timosity]

Yes what everyone said is right, Just an example of how good compression can be, my current project in 640 by 400 high colour is 47.6MB uncompressed but when I zip it up, it gets reduced to 3.82MB, much easier to distribute a file this size.

[TheQisSilent]

Yes what everyone said is right, Just an example of how good compression can be, my current project in 640 by 400 high colour is 47.6MB uncompressed but when I zip it up, it gets reduced to 3.82MB, much easier to distribute a file this size.

:o 3.82 MB?   :o

What are you using to zip it? That's how big my 8 MB game is zipped!

[Timosity]

I'm using Powerarchiver to zip at the highest compression, but it's probably more the fact that I could have done it as an 8bit colour game, but wanted some of the high colour features, It does have about 100 backgrounds and over 3500 sprites so far, I'd say it's the sprites that compress really well, but they too haven't got many colours. But still, the compression still impresses me.

[Ishmael]

A 100MB game can comress down to a few megs, which consists of the code of the game, and the well-compressed graphics inside the exe file, me thinks.