RE: Fragmentation was RE: [GD-General] Compile times

[Brian H. <bri...@py...>]

> Behalf Of Josiah Manson
> 
> If you are going to need a runtime of weeks or months, then 
> chances are that you are running a server. A server won't 
> need to ever load models, textures or sound.

No, but it will need to load (possibly):

- scripts
- collision data
- vis data

Which will also be variably sized.  The bigger problem is when you're
loading things like in an outdoor terrain engine, where you might bring
up 16km x 16km heightmaps at 1M resolution or something similarly
ridiculous but still entirely possible.

> I know that 
> often games such as quake will have a server that run 
> alongside of a graphical client, but those servers are only 
> going to be up for one game session, so they don't really 
> count for the same reason that the typical game run by a 
> typical user doesn't count in terms of fragmentation.

Actually, those servers often have up times of weeks if not longer.  The
servers at id were typically run for weeks at a time.  For most LAN
sessions the up time may be a few hours, but for those that host
internet servers, they often just keep 'em live 24/7.

> There are only so many hours that a person is going to play 
> in a stretch. And, as you already mentioned, games can often 
> "cheat" by purging level data.

This is a completely valid way of dodging the fragmentation bullet.  I
don't mean to imply that it's a BAD thing, only that it can't be done in
all cases.

Brian