Creating a Torque Game with a small download size
by Jesse Hammons · in Technical Issues · 08/16/2006 (1:32 am) · 6 replies
Hello,
I have some basic questions about the size of Torque executable binaries. How large is a basic torque game on windows (windows 2000 or windows XP) and on Mac OS X? (just the code, not including artwork, sounds, etc)
I need to be able to create games that are 1-4MB in size, and I am wondering how easy it would be to do that with the Torque engine. Any ideas how I could find this information?
Thanks!
-Jesse
I have some basic questions about the size of Torque executable binaries. How large is a basic torque game on windows (windows 2000 or windows XP) and on Mac OS X? (just the code, not including artwork, sounds, etc)
I need to be able to create games that are 1-4MB in size, and I am wondering how easy it would be to do that with the Torque engine. Any ideas how I could find this information?
Thanks!
-Jesse
#2
08/16/2006 (4:05 am)
If you use UPX on a Win release tge.exe it will shrink to around 1.2 mb without any engine stripping.
#3
08/16/2006 (11:13 am)
There are also better exe-packers available. MEW seems to be about the best. 
#4
Also note that many compilers (VS for example) have an option to "Optimize for Size".
08/16/2006 (11:14 am)
If you're putting all the files into a .zip or installer, does an exe-packer help ?Also note that many compilers (VS for example) have an option to "Optimize for Size".
#5
Thing is, trimming the base executables through optimization will also result in zip not compressing it as much, so in the end you'll get the same result - but an exe-packer is likely to be one of the most cost effective solutions from the perspective of development effort.
As far as Optimize for Size goes, it helps a little but the difference is nothing compared to exe-packers or even zip compression.
08/16/2006 (11:24 am)
Orion - The exe-packer will still keep them smaller on the user's disk. Most of the exe-packers also actually have higher compression ratios than zip is capable of so you're still going to gain some in the download size by using a good one.Thing is, trimming the base executables through optimization will also result in zip not compressing it as much, so in the end you'll get the same result - but an exe-packer is likely to be one of the most cost effective solutions from the perspective of development effort.
As far as Optimize for Size goes, it helps a little but the difference is nothing compared to exe-packers or even zip compression.
Torque Owner Philip Mansfield
Default Studio Name
The base Windows TGB executable is around 2.7MB. You can probably trim it a bit if you remcompile the engine and remove stuff you don't need. By the time you add in the supporting .dll files, you're upto around 3.3MB.
IIRC the Mac stuff is much larger. I know there was a .plan posted by someone that went into how a lot of the Mac code was duplicated and they had to spend some time stripping out all the stuff they didn't need.
Ofcourse, this all requires a Pro license.
I don't own TGE or TSE so can't comment directly on those, but the demos should give you a good idea.