Would extracting the .MEG files increase in-game performance ?

[Zenoth]

It's sort of off-topic, but I presume it has the potential to become a modification in the future if proven that it works.

 

I remember when Doom 3 was released, during its first weeks on the public scene, many users tried to modify it, and a group of people came with a very simple idea, but yet never done before for that game, to increase overall in-game performance by "helping" the CPU to do less extracting-processes, and focus more on actually processing the A.I and other things not being taken care of by the Graphics Processing Unit.

 

I'm talking here about the Data files.

 

I believe they were all compressed in .RAR formats, and they all contained the necessary files to run the game. Or one could simply have said that the whole game was contained within .RAR files.

 

So, to improve performance to some noticeable extent, what you had to do, was simply to extract all the files, from all the compressed Data ones, into specific folders, some of them non-existent upon a usual game installation.

 

Exactly like the XML folder for Empire at War.

 

By doing so, the CPU did not have to un-compress Data during game-play, and it increased the performance, perhaps not a lot, but it was noticeable in some situations. The method worked. But there was a down side to that. Someone who extracted the Data files and got rid of the original .RAR files, could not play Online, since the majority of users Online had the original files and they were not compatible with each others (their "versions" in other words).

 

But at least, Offline, for the story mode, it helped many players, especially those without high-end processors.

 

So, now that I have introduced the basic idea ...

 

In Star Wars: Empire at War, the necessary files are contained in a compressed file type, the .MEG files.

 

Those files contain all the needed XML files for the game. Or simply said, just like Doom 3, the game itself, the whole Data, is compressed.

 

So, I was wondering ... what if somebody extracts all the XML files contained in a compressed file, to a specific new folder (such as the XML folder) ... ?

 

Would it increase performance just like in Doom 3 ?

 

I'm willing to try it of course, since the procedure itself it quite simple (finding the MEG files and extracting their contents to the XML folder and voila !), unless I'm wrong or I am missing something important.

 

Just curious ...

 

What do you guys think about this ?

[swgbex]

if any of my previous experience can help me here.. my awnser is no

 

the reason is as follows

 

the files are not compresssed because i found out in generals extracting all the big files and putting them in their places did not increase performance at all

they are just placed together maybe so its easier for the engine to locate all the files needed

[Zenoth]

No indeed it doesn't work for all the games out there. But Doom 3 is one of the few exceptions, but as I said, it doesn't help everytime. It works under specific in-game conditions.

 

So of course, if it works, the improvements are minimal in terms of quantity, but it is noticeable, well at least according to what I've read on the subject.

 

That's why I was just curious if EaW could be affected by that, or not, or barely.

[jpinard]

Good thought, however there are many games that actually run slower when you do this.  I konw it goes against reason since they've got to extract the files, but apparently having them compressed and inside single files somehow helps many games perform better.  Probably because files can't get moved around so much, and there's less seeking.

[Dante_pff]

it is because the files for doom and other popular "pk3" or compressed file archives require decompression processing, rather then just grabbing the file.

 

with other types of files (such as the EAW .meg files) they are indexed files, and as long as you defrag your computer after installation, they will be as fast as they can be, and actually slightly faster then multiple files, as the files will be in the same sector range of the hard drive, rather then "fit" into small areas of the hard drive making the read process pick up different files at different locations.

 

all in all, if anything made this game faster with file IO, it would be one huge .meg with defrag, instead of extracting them all from the .meg files.