OrbWeaver on 12/11/2005 at 21:32
I would guess that PCTextures was a late addition to accommodate the PC/X-box dual release.
Presumably the "core" X-box code uses the default, Textures, so they added a separate folder to store higher-quality resources for the PC users.
Ziemanskye on 12/11/2005 at 21:48
Just a reminder to include only the totally uncompiled autosave versions of any unr's you pack - they're a lot smaller.
New Horizon on 13/11/2005 at 01:37
Quote Posted by Ziemanskye
Just a reminder to include only the totally uncompiled autosave versions of any unr's you pack - they're a lot smaller.
Yup, the map folder is only 800kb right now.
Latest build of the installer...minus compiled schemas is 760megs. So close. I'm going to take another stab at it now that I've gotten rid of the loading screen bitmaps. They were taking up over twenty megs. Just left a sample in there so people can make their own.
Question: Does anyone know if the UTX files are accessible to be edited in any way? Are they used in other unreal engines? I deleted them for fun and the smokeysoup no longer showed up in the briefing screen...instead, it was a bunch of odd shapes. Truly startling. LOL
Just curious as I'm wondering what other effects they may control...perhaps the frob effect could be edited through these to be more old school.
Rantako on 13/11/2005 at 10:00
So you're saying the installer is 400 megs bigger than the original editor package because you need to include either the new compiled metafiles, or all of the extracted sounds which can then be compiled by the user.
I evidently wasn't clear enough with what I was suggesting:
You don't need to include the metafiles or all the raw sounds, only the new / modified wave files and schemas (surely there can't be that many of them - less than 50 megs, I'm guessing). Why? Because the user already has the original T3 metafiles, which means they already have all the original sounds.
When the installer is run, it would need to:
* Put the new sounds in a different folder ('CustomSounds, or something - it doesn't matter since it will be deleted anyway), not the Sounds folder.
* Extract the contents of the original metafiles into the Sounds folder. The user now has the original metaflies and the original extracted sounds.
* Copy the new sounds from the 'CustomSounds' folder into the 'Sounds' folder, overwriting any necessary files. The user now has the original metafiles and the customized extracted sounds.
* Compile the contents of of the 'Sounds' folder into new metafiles. The user now has the customized metafiles and the customized extracted sounds.
So the user would now have the same as they would if you supplied just the raw sounds and compiled them, or if you just supplied the metafiles and extracted them, but you would only need to put a few sounds in the installer itself, thereby reducing the size drastically!
If it is too complicated to make the installer do all that itself, you could simply provide instructions for the user to do it manually. I mean, surely a little bit of work at the user's end is preferable to supplying them with 400 megs worth of files they already have? It would also make this package closer to the size of the original editor, which is good (for people's hard disks as well as for downloads).
...Sorry if that sounded a bit, er, heated.
Anyway, if you do decide to go with mailout, I think it would be useful if you put it up for download too, since those of us with broadband could get it much easier that way. I realise 700 megs (or 300 megs ;) ) is a huge download, but, well, so was T2X.
Good luck with whatever you decide to do :)
OrbWeaver on 13/11/2005 at 12:20
Quote Posted by Rantako
Extract the contents of the original metafiles into the Sounds folder. The user now has the original metaflies and the original extracted sounds.
The problem is that there is currently no way of automatically extracting the original metafiles without the creation of a custom tool.
Rantako on 13/11/2005 at 17:32
Quote:
The problem is that there is currently no way of automatically extracting the original metafiles without the creation of a custom tool.
You could have the user do it manually using Sound Drone - it might take a little while, but it would work.
New Horizon on 13/11/2005 at 23:05
Quote Posted by Rantako
* Put the new sounds in a different folder ('CustomSounds, or something - it doesn't matter since it will be deleted anyway),
not the Sounds folder.
* Extract the contents of the original metafiles into the Sounds folder. The user now has the original metaflies and the original extracted sounds.
* Copy the new sounds from the 'CustomSounds' folder into the 'Sounds' folder, overwriting any necessary files. The user now has the original metafiles and the customized extracted sounds.
* Compile the contents of of the 'Sounds' folder into new metafiles. The user now has the customized metafiles and the customized extracted sounds.
I would gladly do that but as has been stated, there is no utility that does this and I can't wait much longer for someone to commit to making one. :( I've dedicated over a year and a half of my life to tweaking T3 and I'm really beginning to lose the drive to continue. I've refined what I require such a program to do in order to make life as painless for the user as possible. So, if there are any programmers listening, please PM me. ;) If we could do it this way, without having to include 'any' of the sounds, I could easily get the installer down to 200megs...maybe 180. It would be great if someone could volunteer to do this as I am not a programmer at all. Just a lowly hack trying to get this out before Christmas. We're talking a major difference....1.5 gigs or 200 megs. Somebody must have some spare time. :) It just needs to be a completely automated executable that does the job on its own. Click it..or batch file execute it and pow. No GUI, nothing fancy.
Quote:
You could have the user do it manually using Sound Drone - it might take a little while, but it would work.
It's a complete pain in the ass and really wouldn't compliment the installer. :laff: In the long run, if I compile everything for the end user and mail out a 1.5 gig installer on DVD, it's going to be a lot faster than extracting all the files with Sound Drone, moving them into the correct folder, putting in the custom files and then compiling the whole thing. They would be looking at more than an hours work after running the T3EnhancED installer...why bother using it for all that? It might be huge and take a little longer to get in their hands but it will make life easier to have an installer that does it all for you in probably 5 minutes or less. :)
New Horizon on 14/11/2005 at 05:35
For anyone who volunteered to beta test. PM your mailing address to me as I'm nearing completion of the installer testing process. You must have a DVD player in your system as I'll be burning the editor to DVD.
Soon...very soon.
STiFU on 14/11/2005 at 21:10
Why DVD? Didnt you want to size it down rather than up?? :cheeky:
