Data Usage (Is it worth it?)

[mattdraw]

I have a couple questions regarding the file size limits of a map in order to be played over the internet. How devastating imported features such as models, sounds, and music are to the file size of your map?

I wanted to know if sound effects that are directly from the game's engine make the file size of the map bigger. In other words, would using the Grunt's Warcry sound effect alter the file size of the map? Obviously sounds and pretty much all file-types that are imported into the map take up large amounts of space, custom sounds and music especially.

I was also wondering if having a good number of large arrays attached to your variables could effect the map's file size overall as well. How crucial is it to code with as little as them as possible?

How many custom models could a map being played over Battlenet have on average, and is it even worth trying to include them in your map in the first place?

 

[Chaosy]

well a map that can be played on battle.net must be under 8 mb.

using a warcraft3 sound that exists in game by default will not increase map size since it exists in the game's mpq files. (unless you count the sound variable as size it could increase the map size with a kb if youre unlucky.

If you want to reduce map size I would not do it by code, its rather pointless. You can re-save textures and lower the quality that will save a lot more space and its easier too.

and the number of custom stuff is different from map to map, RPGs tend to have a lot of imported models for terrain while campaigns dont.

 

[Adiktuz]

not just battle.net... maps higher than 8MB won't be playable in a LAN mode too

1 unit model will probably have the same size as maybe like a tens to hundreds of arrays? optimized codes do take less space, but the effect of that is so minimal compared to importing a single art or music resource

 

[sonofjay]

Well if you really want to use custom models, textures etc for your map then you can use this tools to optimize them.

Mdx Squisher for mdx files
blplab for blp, tga files
and for sounds I think winamp can reduce bitrate though custom sounds isn't really advisable for mutliplayer maps.


Custom resources always helps the map if used correctly.