New Horizon on 11/11/2005 at 14:35
Well, I'm still weighing the options. I would prefer not to have to include both the compiled schemameta files and the source oggs and wavs in the installer. Including both makes for a huge 1.3gig installer. I'm not too concerned about altering the way the perl script works though, between ascottk and I we've spent a fair amount of time making the dummy wav files, and I have them all converted to 1kb each now...so they take up no space at all.
Whichever function I go with, will have to be performed on the users computer when they install. I have the extracted files and the compiled meta files right here...but which way is the least intrusive way to do it? I would say including the compiled meta files would be best and then doing a simple extraction but we don't have a small app to extract them directly to the sound folder, only DXIW Sound Drone and it offers no control as to where the files get dumped.
The next option is to include the uncompressed files and compile them during installation for the user but this is more intrusive as we have to install perl on their system if they don't already have it and just makes for an overly complicated installer.
OrbWeaver on 11/11/2005 at 14:58
OK, so as I understand it: the end user needs both metafiles and sourcefiles on their system in order to use the editor properly, but you only want to package ONE of these, and create a script that generates the other on the destination machine.
My unfinished extraction script is written in Python, so if I do manage to finish it it will be necessary to have ActivePython installed (from the same makers as ActivePerl which you are probably using to compile the metafiles).
New Horizon on 11/11/2005 at 15:47
Quote Posted by OrbWeaver
OK, so as I understand it: the end user needs both metafiles and sourcefiles on their system in order to use the editor properly, but you only want to package ONE of these, and create a script that generates the other on the destination machine.
Yup, you nailed it. It would be much neater to only have one or the other in the installer but if it comes right down to it, I'll just include both. It almost doesn't make sense to bother leaving one of them out since it's not going to fit on a single CD anyway. Might as well package them both in the installer since it will have to go on a DVD.
It's looking like mailout only at this point but if someone wants to host a smaller version, I can package an installer without the metafiles and it would be around 780 megs. I'm happy mailing them out though.
Yeah, come to think of it. I'm just going to package the whole thing up and mail it out with everything. I just have to get this out the door and finished before I burn out. I've been working on this for far too long. :)
New Horizon on 11/11/2005 at 18:03
Hmm, come to think of it. I don't think I need to have the remaining wavs stripped down to windows PCM format because the versions I've put in the new schemafiles are already in that format.
So, if there are any interested programmers. This is what I am thinking.
Place a self contained extraction utility in the sounds folder. After the user installs the editor, they will be instructed to run this little utility. It will pull the wav and ogg files out of the schemameta file and place them in two folders...wav and ogg respectively. They don't need any sub folders as the schema browser already sorts them alphabetically with the .sch files.
Ideally, this utility would not require the use of any additional programs and can reside solely within the sounds folder of T3.
Rantako on 11/11/2005 at 19:56
I might be missing something obvious here, but are you planning on putting ALL of the 24000+ sound files in the installer? I take it the editor needs both the metafiles and the extracted sounds to work properly. Since anyone with T3 will have the metafiles anyway, why don't you just put your new/updated sounds in the installer, then have a program run at the user's end which will add those sounds to the metafiles, then extract the whole lot. That way you'd get updated metafiles and all the extracted sounds.
I don't know how easy something like that would be to implement, but it would sure cut down the download size. By the way, what else is in the installer that makes it so much bigger than the original 300 megs?
New Horizon on 11/11/2005 at 21:01
Quote Posted by Rantako
I might be missing something obvious here, but are you planning on putting ALL of the 24000+ sound files in the installer? I take it the editor needs both the metafiles and the extracted sounds to work properly. Since anyone with T3 will have the metafiles anyway, why don't you just put your new/updated sounds in the installer, then have a program run at the user's end which will add those sounds to the metafiles, then extract the whole lot. That way you'd get updated metafiles and all the extracted sounds.
I don't know how easy something like that would be to implement, but it would sure cut down the download size. By the way, what else is in the installer that makes it so much bigger than the original 300 megs?
There were only a handful of sounds included with the original editor, hence the additional size. It's easier to package either the sound files, the compiled meta files or both as the metafiles on the original install of Thief 3 won't match up because I've made changes to support things like the inventory lockpicking system. Won't get into it all right now. :laff:
I have considered doing what you're saying though...about recompiling the metafiles after installation. I think that might be the easiest route in the long run. Just have to install active perl if the user doesn't already have it installed.
At any rate, the hope is to make this as automated as possible with few or no extra steps after the installer runs. I'm actually worrying less and less about the download size and leaning towards setting up a mail out system. Send me a DVD - R and I'll burn the new editing package for you. In another year or two, the download size likely won't be too much of a problem if high speed connections reach more and more people. Maybe it will even make it to a magazine DVD....not that I'm aiming that high as Minimalist Project has never been mentioned in any magazines and I busted my gut for over a year on that. ;)
New Horizon on 12/11/2005 at 16:51
If there are no further objections/ suggestions, I'll go ahead and leave the compilation of the schema meta files up to the user. I'll have a nice pictorial on how to do this, so it shouldn't be a huge headache for people with very little experience.
New Horizon on 12/11/2005 at 21:06
I noticed, while doing some optimizing for the installer, that the content directory of the T3Ed install has 'Textures' and 'PCTextures' directories. I checked it out in the Default.ini and one is for the editor the other for PC...why there are two separate folders for the same thing, I have no idea...but I merged them and changed all the editor references to point to PCTextures instead. Works fine and shaves a good 80 megs off of the editor.
ascottk on 12/11/2005 at 21:11
Quote Posted by New Horizon
I noticed, while doing some optimizing for the installer, that the content directory of the T3Ed install has 'Textures' and 'PCTextures' directories. I checked it out in the Default.ini and one is for the editor the other for PC...why there are two separate folders for the same thing, I have no idea...but I merged them and changed all the editor references to point to PCTextures instead. Works fine and shaves a good 80 megs off of the editor.
I was wondering about that. That seemed a little redundant & a PITA to work with.
New Horizon on 12/11/2005 at 21:19
Quote Posted by ascottk
I was wondering about that. That seemed a little redundant & a PITA to work with.
:laff: Yeah, didn't make a lot of sense to me either. Doesn't seem to have cause any ill effects and it just might help to get the full installer down to a standard CD. :)
I'll have to prune a few more things out. I won't include the original .unr missions in this package..in order to save space. Hopefully someone will host them in the future. I think there are 20megs worth of loading screens from the original missions...I can remove those and leave a blank template in there. I want to include a demonstration level to show how things work ingame but that shouldn't take up a lot of space. In another week or two, this sucker should be ready for prime time. :)
