RE: Fragmentation was RE: [GD-General] Compile times
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From: Brian H. <bri...@py...> - 2002-12-19 02:02:35
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> 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 |