PBEM game sizes IN 1.02J

[Marshall Ellis]

Hey guys:

I have seen an issue in 1.02j where the game turn files and game save files grow VERY large. This is due to the fact that any AI players in the PBEM game are sending ALL log text in each of their turns. I am testing a fix and hope to post another quick BETA. This should not affect any existing games.

[julien]

Hello Marshall,

Just a suggestion...
Put Rar/Unrar in your program... It's always compress your pbm files at 7% or less of there original size.
I know that everyone is using Zip or Rar as they play EIA. But sometime player didn't know about file compressor, especialy for Unrar.
I think it should be easy to put a line for compression when the file is created and the same when the file was read.

Goodluck.

Julien.

[Marshall Ellis]

Julien:
 
Yea, all my files are raw and uncompressed. This would certainly help, I know. I will add this to my list.
Appreciate the tip.
 

[mr.godo]

I've been struggling with this for two days. We have three people. It is taking between a several hours to load some of the files and my save game/backup files were 140 MB when I last checked. zipping the files is not the solution. I post the files to a google group and there is a 10MB max on file size. Eventually these files will be too large even zipped. They are currently zipping down to 6MB.

[Marshall Ellis]

Mr godo:
 
I am testing the fix for this. I hope to post another BETA to fix this problem today.
 
 

[Jimmer]

ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

Hey guys:

I have seen an issue in 1.02j where the game turn files and game save files grow VERY large. This is due to the fact that any AI players in the PBEM game are sending ALL log text in each of their turns. I am testing a fix and hope to post another quick BETA. This should not affect any existing games.

IMO,

Don't put it into 1.02. The game files still zip up with 99+% compression, so even at 100 MB, it would still be small.

Don't risk 1.02 slipping again just for this.

Further, it's only a problem in PBEM games that have an AI player.

[Jimmer]

ORIGINAL: Marshall Ellis

Julien:

Yea, all my files are raw and uncompressed. This would certainly help, I know. I will add this to my list.
Appreciate the tip.

Be careful you don't cross a line regarding licensing. Most likely, the reason Microsoft doesn't have command-line interfaces that work with compressed files for a reason: They couldn't afford the license.

While rar may be free, it may not be if used commercially. Same with ZIP, etc.

The problem with freeware is that your product now becomes dependent upon software that you can't fix if it causes a problem. I would guess getting a tailored version of PKware's product to insert into the game may very well turn out to be cost-competitive.

[Marshall Ellis]

Jimmer:
 
Oh, yea. I'm not going down that road. I don't like re-inventing the wheel but I like control of ALL MY CODE elements for support / longevity reasons. Companies  / software can disappear quickly without warning leaving you out to hang not to mention violating licensing will get you in trouble!
 
These files are flat enough that even a basic compression routine would help.