Game file sizes - 50MB too much?

[HillBilly]

Well, the 50 MB to 7 MB seems a bit over-optimistic.

Not really. When Barbarian zipped down the newest version of our ATC game(which was 58,6 MB), it was only 7,48 MB.  :o

[Haddas]

[quote author=HowStuffWorks.com]
The file-reduction ratio depends on a number of factors, including file type, file size and compression scheme. In most languages of the world, certain letters and words often appear together in the same pattern. Because of this high rate of redundancy, text files compress very well. A reduction of 50 percent or more is typical for a good-sized text file. Most programming languages are also very redundant because they use a relatively small collection of commands, which frequently go together in a set pattern. Files that include a lot of unique information, such as graphics or MP3 files, cannot be compressed much with this system because they don't repeat many patterns
[/quote]

[quote author=HowStuffWorks.com]
This efficiency also depends on the specific algorithm used by the compression program. Some programs are particularly suited to picking up patterns in certain types of files, and so may compress them more succinctly. Others have dictionaries within dictionaries, which might compress efficiently for larger files but not for smaller ones. While all compression programs of this sort work with the same basic idea, there is actually a good deal of variation in the manner of execution.
[/quote

For other information about compression, and comparrison of different formats and software, see this page:

http://compression.ca/act/act-win.html

Quick links for what we need working with and outside AGS:

http://compression.ca/act/act-executable.html
http://compression.ca/act/act-graphics.html
http://compression.ca/act/act-sound.html
http://compression.ca/act/act-text.html
[/quote]

[SSH]

I did some experiments with a few popular AGS games that I had on my disk and found that 7zip seems to give the best compression on average for AGS games (excluding sound packs, of course, which tend not to compress very well). 7zip also can create a self-extracter, which is a small percentage overhead on a big download, on the other hand, that often made the 7zip result abou thte same as a RAR, so there's not much in it.

[DystopianRhetoric]

Just wondering, is there a particular game file size that would put you off downloading a game? The Apprentice II was about 40MB or so... how many people didn't download it because of that? I ask because my game is looking to be about 50meg (maybe more), and I don't want this to stop too many people from being able to download it. I understand the pain of being on dial-up ^_^

My game is looking to be that sort of size unfortunately, despite being graphically simple and with little music. For reasons I fail to grasp, whenever I import an image file it is bloated up to many times its actual file size. 5KB graphics have jumped to 200KB ones. It is... odd.

[scotch]

7Zip was best for me too, but the difference is small. John Stickman currently compresses from 15mb down to 2mb, depending on how much of your filesize is sprites you can get great compression.
Anyway, 50mb isn't a lot, I'd download that without too much hesitation when I was on dialup, and most people are on broadband these days, and most of those have no problem downloading multi gigabyte files.

DystopianR - the jump is probable because AGS compression is pretty basic compared to the files you import, like png, (or non existant in the case of sprites), this is mostly for speed.

[Pelican]

Even though I have broadband now, I would still hesitate before downloading a game of 50MB (or over). I would have to hear good things about it, or at least see some interesting screenshots and a detailed description.

[BerserkerTails]

If some new member were to post a game that was even 20 MBs, without screenshots or anything, I wouldn't download it. But if a game looks good (Description, screenshots), i wouldn't bat an eye at downloading a file up to 150 MBs large.

Your game looks amazing Kinoko, don't comprise it's amazingness just because you're worried about file size.

[Kinoko]

Aww, shucks *^_^*

[MrColossal]

Kinok0 iz dum!!1

[sorry, just had to even it out so you didn't get a big head!]

[Kinoko]

Phew, thanks... back on the ground now.

[Ponch]

Personally, I would balk at a 50mb download in the days before I got a cable connection. Splitting a big file into several chunks sounds like a good idea for people who still use dial up (and let's face it - that's still the majority of the people on the net).

Of course, if a game looked really, really cool then I would have probably just used a download manager before I went to bed.

But with good compression, AGS really seems to squeeze down to a tiny nugget of downloadable goodness. Part two of my much-too-long-in-the-works game The Forever Friday is 181 megs, but WinRar crunched it down to 7.5 megs. Of course, all the music is in MIDI format, otherwise it would be a lot larger. So don't scale back your cool looking vision, Kinoko. Cirque de Zale was super cool and it would be a shame to scale back your plans solely over the concern of bandwidth.

-Ponch

[hedgefield]

That's good to hear. All in all my game will be roughly the same size as Kinoko's I guess, so I'll do everything to zip it down. Personally I use UHarc GUI for file compression. It also has self-extracting archives, and a lot more options than anything I've seen in other file compression programs. It zipped a 700 mb cd-rom ISO into a 200 mb SFX! For my demo it just about halved the filesize.

ORRR, if you want to please everyone, you could start a 'store' where people with a 56k connection can order the deluxe version of your game for a dollar. Burn the files on disk, throw in some extras, make a nice cover and mail it out. That's what I'm gonna do...