Size Matters... (How do I reduce the filesize of my graphic intensive game?)

[The_Creep]

Hi there, I am a 3d animator by trade, and decided to use 2d rendered sprites and backgrounds for my game. I'm using ags 2.71 at 800X600 and 32 bit color, however, with 5 rooms completed, I took a look at my compile folder and just about choked, not even 20% completed the game was sitting at 45 megs! so this has raised several questions for me. so I'm going to have to scrap this version of the game and start from scratch *sigh* but before I did that I would to learn some more

1. Which would reduce the filesize more, reducing the the resoluotion or the colour depth? (Trying to strike a balance between good graphics, and downloadability)
2. What exactly does the sprite compression checkbox do? I checked it, recompiled, and noticed no discernible difference in the file size
3. Does anyone have any useful tips for high-end graphics, keeping file size down, or 3D rendered images (I have searched the forums for these, and have found nothing I did'nt already know, so hoping someone will put something new here)

[Scummbuddy]

Don't scrap the game...
The compiled folder may be large, but you should see how a zipped file of the executable of the game brings it down to.

[The_Creep]

I am aware of this, I zipped the folder down to 10 megs, the problem, as I worked out, I did a room count (of the ones I have not yet prodoced,) characters I have'nt yet made, etc etc, the installed game is going to end up being over 500 meg, meaning the zipped install would probably be over 120 meg! as I've browsed the games in the AGS I'm always a little more reluctant to download a game thats overly big, the largest one I've downloaded yet was 90 megs zipped, and the game seriosly was'nt worth the effort. I want to avoid this with my game.

[Scummbuddy]

So prepare a demo, and people can decide whether they want to download your full game.   I think the most recent Bone game is like 100MB's and its only a couple rooms, I believe. Don't let this hampen your game design. Sometimes it's alright to design around a low download, but if it's something you really want to do, your dream game, then go all out. Be proud of it.

[Scorpiorus]

1. Which would reduce the filesize more, reducing the the resoluotion or the colour depth? (Trying to strike a balance between good graphics, and downloadability)

You can use the following formula:

size_in_megabytes = (width * height * color_depth) / (8 * 1024 * 1024)

where:

width ---- image width
height ---- image height
color_depth ---- colour depth (16, 24, 32).

And it's for an uncompressed image.

To compare:

800x600x32bit (with alpha channel) => 1.8 Mb

800x600x16bit => 0.9Mb
640x480x32bit => 1.2Mb


Paletted images (8bit, 256colors) on the other hand would take less of the space and their color range is greater than for 16bit images: ~262,000 vs ~65,000 (only 256 of which can be displayed at a time though).

2. What exactly does the sprite compression checkbox do? I checked it, recompiled, and noticed no discernible difference in the file size

It just does a basic compression as a compromise with size over perfomance at run-time. So do use Zip or whatever for distribution, as Scummbuddy suggests.

3. Does anyone have any useful tips for high-end graphics, keeping file size down, or 3D rendered images (I have searched the forums for these, and have found nothing I did'nt already know, so hoping someone will put something new here)

I believe a little we can do about this. AGS doesn't support any image formats with data losses (eg. jpg).

An ordinarry compression may not work very well with graphically rich images (such as photos), where there is greater range of colors used in the image.

[The_Creep]

Thanks Scorpius that formulae is incredibly useful, and in reply to scummbuddys post, I fear I may have given you the wrong impression, I am by no means abandoning the concept of the games, I'm just scrapping what I have so far, (which is not a lot, and the essential purpose of which was to re-teach myself AGS since I last used it in 2004) and starting from the beggining, however, what you say is good advice, and I will upload a demo, and will edit this thread as soon as thats done,

It's also a relief to see that It's probably a better idea to keep my current resoloution and re-import things as 16 bit as oppose to re-rendering my work at 640X480, I will lose far less quality than I initially feared.

Thanks to both of you for the input, I will let you know when "Our Darkest Hour" demo is available (sometime later today)

EDIT:I posted the link, and have been told that the damned thing is corrupt, when I get a working copy online, I will post the link within the critics loungs and be sure to drop a link to that thread, please bear with me. oh and forgive my awful grammar and spelling tonight, I dont know whats wrong with me (You'd swear english was'nt my first language)

please let me know what you think on all counts, its bassicly the result of me reteching myself AGS after 2 years