Compression support for Bud Tucker images?

[dooplex]

Using the SCUMMVM Tools, it is possible to considerably compress most of the "Bud Tucker" audio files (not the "audio" folder, though - why?).

The Bud Tucker directory also contains a lot images in uncompressed PCX format, which is very outdated. Recompressing them to another lossless image format like PNG, or even using ZIP should give quite a considerable extra compression (at least ~50%, I think). One could even use JPG, though JPG is lossy and not a good choice for compression of sprites.

So, why not add compression support for images?

[sev]

So, why not add compression support for images?

Because it is some work?


Eugene

[dooplex]

Hi Sev,

sorry, this was meant as an idea, not as a request. It's always easy to lean back and let others do the work, right?

I know a bit about image compression so I saw some potential there. I'm pretty sure one could even apply this idea to other supported games, too.

[sanguinehearts]

You'll need to consider the implications of this before you figure out whether its worth while.
If you compress something you need to decompress it to work with it right?

this decompression might be more trouble than its worth on the platforms with lower specifications, those platforms are the ones which the smaller files are neccesary for in the first place.

It would be interesting to know what the overheads required for this would be though.

perhaps you can create a test patch dooplex?

[dooplex]

To be honest, I don't know what you mean by creating a test patch . I'm a little bit into C++ programming, but I guess my skills are far behind those of most contributors (if programming is what you meant).

PNG or ZLIB decompression shouldn't be a problem for most platforms, though there might be problems on "small" platforms like Symbian.

I ran a small test, though, on the PCX files of my (german) "Bud Tucker" version.

Without compression (PCX): 6,948,482b
With compression (PNG): 3,300,159b

There are savings of a bit more than ~50%. Sev might be right, though. Adding PNG support means work, and the improvements are still very small.

Maybe, another possible concept would be the addition of support for zipped game files (for all games). Each game could stay zipped on HD until it is actually played. SCUMMVM would have to unpack the file to a temp directory before playing, and delete the files (not the savegame, though) afterwards.

[Longcat]

I like it the way it is:)

[md5]

Maybe, another possible concept would be the addition of support for zipped game files (for all games). Each game could stay zipped on HD until it is actually played. SCUMMVM would have to unpack the file to a temp directory before playing, and delete the files (not the savegame, though) afterwards.

No, we won't add support for zipped game files. Read the FAQ:
http://www.scummvm.org/faq.php#id299894

[dooplex]

Basically, you could also add support for zipped games with a simple, home-made batch script.

This could look something like this:

@echo off
pkunzip kyra3.zip .\kyra3 (unzip archive)
scummvm --config=scummvm.ini kyra3 (run scummvm)
rd /q /s kyra3 (remove directory)

I do understand your point about zipped files support, though.