c. 250 mb save files?

[Morat]

A couple of threads have mentioned that TF save files are approximately 250mb and that the game creates one of these monster files per game-year autosave.

Can the devs confirm what the intended behaviour at launch will be, because in the era of SSDs proliferating quarter gig save files is not really acceptable.

[jm764]

Don’t worry it will be optimized later, it’s just untill the pre release versions that they said they’ll focus more on optimizing the game instead of content

[Morat]

I’d like the devs to say something official about it rather than have guesses. A 250 mb save file doesn’t just restrict the number of saves for SSD users – churning that size file is going to cause serious drive wear if the game’s autosaving 250 mb every year of in-game time.

If it’s 250 mb that suggests the entire terrain elevation data is being saved in each file. If that’s the case then splitting that into a base generated mesh, deltas and other save data might not be a trivial task that they’re going to achieve in the next two weeks.

[Mansen]

I’m sure they can cut some of the fat away from the saves – I have my savegames folder compressed and it takes it down to about half alone. Definitely a lot of plaintext in there capable of being fixed. I’ve raised the issue with the devs though, suggesting a player defined number of autosave slots to their own liking.

(The game does overwrite old savegames – But due to the way they are named, you’ll still get one for every year of the game)

 

Drive wear really isn’t that bad though – Why you’d need to run this off of an SSD is a bit beyond me, but to each his own. 🙂

[Stonelouse]

don’t forget that TF does not have any pre-built maps, but instead the maps are procedurally created. that means that all the map data has to be stored inside the save files, so the savegames need to be fairly large.

[Morat]

It will be large if every single file contains the terrain repeatedly, but that wouldn’t be a great data design. The terrain should be split out to a separate file and only deltas (cuts and embankments etc.) stored in individual save files.

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