Porting ProQuake To Flash in the blink of an eye

[Baker]

Interim source code update: (additions: rotation support, chase_active 2, sv_progs changing, other thigns I can't remember).

Also ... a look at Quake pak0.pak by the file sizes for ideas on how to minimize filesize for, say, a total conversion using a FlashQuake type of engine:

id1\gfx folder - 692 kb (small gains by having less menus)
id1\maps - 10.2 MB obviously a major component, a key to smaller filesize [smaller loading time] is likely sticking with a limited texture set of 40-50 textures.

id1\progs - 2.83 MB - With the shareware Quake monsters being 1.42 MB with the remaining being weapons models, armor and such.

id1\sound - 2.71 MB with monster related sounds being 1.14 MB

id1 1.01 MB - demos, progs.dat and such ...

FlashQuake uses the pak0.pak it is supplied in a compressed manner. The true size of pak0.pak is 17 MB but the compression process makes it 8MB.

As the compression ratio won't be the same, a general look at the compression ratio:

1. BSPs (maps) - get about 50-60%
2. MDL (monsters, weapons, ..) - get about 70-80%
3. LMP (2d gfx) - get about 75%
4. WAV (sounds) - get about 20-30%

So it would seem that a limited sound set of those that will actually be used and just in general using practices to keep the map size reasonable are the best strategies to get a low filesize.

My guess is that the biggest risk is #4.

[frag.machine]

[Baker]

Yeah the external .wad idea isn't really one I'm too fond of and would be rather cumbersome to implement except if supporting the Half-Life map format just because you'd have to do both engine and map compiler fussing around. [And I haven't added 24-bit color to Flash nor to a generic WinQuake yet, which means HL map format is out for now. Assuming that I can pull that off, not an absolute lock ... yet].

Still it could be a good fit a particular mod not intended for a larger broader audience that might include, say, QW or DP automatic map download (where if isolated from the .wad it needs would be bad) and maybe a good idea in some circumstances.

The Q3 zip support in THIS particular instance wouldn't help decrease file size as Rennie's implementation of Flash already compressed the pak0.pak using .zip compression.