2010-09-12, 07:22 PM
RAD - what you're saying may be true for sound files, but it is not true for the graphical files. If you were to store all of the graphical files on your computer in separate files, it would consume 4x the amount of space on the disk due to clustering (I have done this myself - and I still do it). Not to mention that parsing the WZ files and unpacking everything is extremely fast as it is. Even in Python, I can read and decompress all files in about 10 minutes (that's every graphic in the game). The language they're using, C++, is several orders of magnitude (15 - 20x) faster than python.
There's also a problem of installation. The number of PNGs that I use numbers around 600,000 files. When I copy them from one location to another on my hard drive, it's super slow - on the order of 200 files/second. Having everything unpacked would greatly increase the install time and uninstall time and would greatly increase the amount of disk space it takes on the hard drive. When everything is combined into one large file, though, you can write at the full speed of the disk which is 8 - 10x faster - even on solid state drives.
Also, you're trading one problem for another. Now instead of having 8 file handles to control everything in the game, the system must handle several thousand file handles to read small files from the hard disk. Hard disks absolutely BLOW when it comes to reading small files. I say that from years of experience.
Small files are not the way to go. Hard disks simply can't handle them well enough for it to be worth it.
There's also a problem of installation. The number of PNGs that I use numbers around 600,000 files. When I copy them from one location to another on my hard drive, it's super slow - on the order of 200 files/second. Having everything unpacked would greatly increase the install time and uninstall time and would greatly increase the amount of disk space it takes on the hard drive. When everything is combined into one large file, though, you can write at the full speed of the disk which is 8 - 10x faster - even on solid state drives.
Also, you're trading one problem for another. Now instead of having 8 file handles to control everything in the game, the system must handle several thousand file handles to read small files from the hard disk. Hard disks absolutely BLOW when it comes to reading small files. I say that from years of experience.
Small files are not the way to go. Hard disks simply can't handle them well enough for it to be worth it.