mini-seiv installation

[Makinus]

I´m trying to install SEIV in a 128mb PenDrive (flash drive) and i´m trying to reduce the installation size so it would fit.... i wish to make a installation with the Devnull Mod, so i already substituted the original files with the devnull files, excluded the Manual, Scenario and Sounds directories..... also i eliminated all readmes that i could found, but the installation size is still too big...

What i want to know is: in the planet/component pictures folder there is 2 types of files, a big file with all pictures and individual files with each picture.... are these 2 file types needed or i can exclude one of them?

And anyone can give me hints in how i can reduce the installation files even more?

Thanks

[Aiken]

Originally posted by geoschmo:
All the image files are needed. You can change the files so they are black and white bitmaps intead of color bitmaps and considerably reduce the file size, but it will also make the game look kind of crappy when you play it. If that's not a problem for you though it's a way to save a lot of space.

You could change the intro screen to black and white. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Imho, reduction of image's color depth to 2bit (BlackWhite) is too much. With 8bit (256 colors) bitmaps you still have pretty looking game and get 3x image size reduction.

If you're running 1024x768 or higher, delete your Pictures\Game\Screens\800X600\ folder with all bmps in it. Also delete Pictures\Systems\800X600\ folder with bmps. And if you're running 800x600 do opposite.

[ July 28, 2004, 13:19: Message edited by: aiken ]

[Gandalf Parker]

Hmmmm SEIV plays on lots of screens but the screens could be displayed one at a time. The shipbuilding screen is probably the busiest. I wonder if SEIV could be rewritten as PDA game. Or even a CellPhone game.

[dogscoff]

*rummage* *rummage*

... ah, found it...

take a look at this thread (http://www.shrapnelgames.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=23;t=009052;p=3) - there might be some handy hints in there.

[Makinus]

thanks Dogscoff! i found very helpful direction in the thread that you pointed...

I converted all SEIV bitmaps to RLE compressed 256-colors bitmaps and achieved a huge reduction in size with very few graphical differences (you can notice some degradation in the planets in the starmap screen but it isn´t nothing crappy)...

Now i have my SEIV+Devnull installation in a 52MB installatiom, that i´m transferred to my 128MB pendrive so i can have it always with me wherever i go, without needing to install it in any computer...

thanks everyone for your help!

BTW: batch processing is a must if you wish to do the same that i did...

[JLS]

Originally posted by Gandalf Parker:
Hmmmm SEIV plays on lots of screens but the screens could be displayed one at a time. The shipbuilding screen is probably the busiest. I wonder if SEIV could be rewritten as PDA game. Or even a CellPhone game. <font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif
THIS IS AN OUTSTANDING IDEA!!!

[Makinus]

now the next step: transfer SEIV to a CellPhone!

I have a Nokia 9210i Communicator and i already found a way to create a "Virtual MSDOS" console (using a program called XTM), now i will try to emulate Linux in the CellPhone, then, using Winex (a windows emulator) i´ll try to run SEIV in my Cellphone...

I´m only waiting my Winex to arrive by mail, so i can try it... but i already foresee a problem, the Nokia 9210i screen is only 640x200 pixels so i don´t know if SEIV will run in smaller resolutions...

If i do it i will post all the instructions in how to do it here...

[geoschmo]

They are working on a Version of Linux for pocket PC's due later this year. Not sure if WINE will work on it though. If there is some way to make it work now that would be great.

[geoschmo]

All the image files are needed. You can change the files so they are black and white bitmaps intead of color bitmaps and considerably reduce the file size, but it will also make the game look kind of crappy when you play it. If that's not a problem for you though it's a way to save a lot of space.

You could change the intro screen to black and white. It huge and only shows up once before you start the game anyway. You could also get rid of the screens that show up when you win or lose the game. You'll get a file not found error when it looks for them, but the game will be over then anyway. This will save you a few more MB.

How much smaller do you have to make it to fit?