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Vienna IGDA Chapter Meeting

By codemonkey uk (Wed Mar 17, 2004 at 11:27:33 PM EST) (all tags)

On Tuesday I gave the talk I wrote (photos, slides) for the ACCU Conference for the first time at the IGDA Vienna Chapter meeting.

The talk was planned for 45 minutes, and took about 30min, plus some questions at the end. It mostly went okay, I lost my place in my notes, and felt like I was stuggling for what to say a couple of times, but over all I think it went quite well.

Jurie has some more about the meeting on his website.

In unrelated news, I am seriosly considering signing up for a .mac account.

< He-he. | BBC White season: 'Rivers of Blood' >

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Vienna IGDA Chapter Meeting | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback

That second picture by TPD

(5.00 / 2) #1 Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 12:05:37 AM EST

Looks like a promo Pic for dawn of the dead....

When exactly was the last time you slept?

Rock Hard Abs are just a sw-sw-swivel away!

I always look like that by codemonkey uk (5.00 / 1) #3 Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 12:56:35 AM EST

I used to get taken aside at school and asked if everything was okay at home. I just look tired all the time. Always have done.

--- Thad ---
Growing a mustache for charity.
[ Parent ]

: Then I appologise for any offence by TPD (5.00 / 1) #4 Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 01:17:36 AM EST

I'd assumed it was having to create an entire new talk at short notice!
Was interesting slides, and if nothing else has given me some thoughts about some things I am working on (it's not just gamers who like fast loading).
It might be less glamouress than what you had planned, but I would be willing to bet it's of more use to most of the Attendees.

Rock Hard Abs are just a sw-sw-swivel away!
[ Parent ]

Interesting idea by Rogerborg (5.00 / 1) #2 Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 12:10:29 AM EST

Kind of closing the stable door after the horse is cantering around the field though?

I've never worked on a project where all IO wasn't wrapped anyway (relying on any stdlib functionality isn't safe if you plan to port) and the use of a flatfile is (I thought) pretty much standard for games. That was actually the very first thing that I implemented as a commercial games programmer, and that was for a totally clueless company with little idea what it was doing.

Because the contents of the flatfile changed so much, we had a resource manager that looked in the flatfile first, and if it couldn't find the resource there, it opened it as an individual file, and flagged that file to get included in the next flatfile build. We didn't have a strategy for removing obsolete files from the flatfile, other than by deleting it occasionally and rebuilding it over the next few runs (which always leaves the danger that you miss a few files that are only loaded on demand).

Not dissimilar from your strategy, but far easier to put in from the start, rather than trying to swipe stdlib functions in a mature codebase. I take your point about 3rd party libs doing their own IO though. That's a bit of a nasty.

Anyway, great subject, thanks for sharing.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.

Optimisation by codemonkey uk (3.00 / 0) #5 Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 03:29:17 AM EST

Yes, indeed, it is better to "do it right" in the first place. I guess that's the thing with optimisation. If you anticipate the problems and deal with them up front you save yourself a bunch of time and effort later on.

That said, I think you may have missed one of the main points of the talk. Most "flat file" systems used in games act more like database systems than contiguose data streams, and traditionally exist to overcome the limitations of console file systems.

I am familiar with the kind of system you describe, but that is more like a file-system-in-a-file than a contiguose data stream, and as such would not do much to eliminate seek times.

--- Thad ---
Growing a mustache for charity.
[ Parent ]

Oooh, got you by Rogerborg (5.00 / 1) #6 Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 03:43:10 AM EST

Sorry, I'd missed that. So the app can't change what it asks for between runs, or you'll get screwy data loaded? Wow, hard core. I guess that's why you're still in there ensuring that there's pedal support in the PC version of San Andreas, hint hint, while I wimped out and joined Dilbertopia.

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Metus amatores matrum compescit, non clementia.
[ Parent ]

: Correct (nt) by codemonkey uk (3.00 / 0) #7 Thu Mar 18, 2004 at 03:46:07 AM EST

--- Thad ---
Growing a mustache for charity.
[ Parent ]

Vienna IGDA Chapter Meeting | 7 comments (7 topical, 0 hidden) | Trackback


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