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Author Topic:   Anyone find this odd?

Xotor posted 04-04-99 07:12 AM ET
Anyone find it odd how Firaxis didn't pack the graphics and sound files into single files? Instead they just left them in simple PCX and WAV files which are able to be opened by any art or sound program. Usually this is not the case. Most programs either pack the files so they're compressed (more storage space) or just pack the files so there aren't so many entries. In some cases it's just to prevent graphics or sound stealing.
Also if someone modifies the files used for faction profiles, are they usable in multiplay?
Mortis posted 04-04-99 07:51 AM ET
They did that to make the game more customisable. If they sacrificed security for it, then thats their choice.
Borodino posted 04-04-99 01:10 PM ET
It's Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier's standard approach: Trust The Consumer! It's kinda the same reason that the CD is not neccessary to play the game. They must figure that most of the world is composed of at least semi-halfway-decent human beings.
geraden posted 04-04-99 02:48 PM ET
And, of course, that protection in this day and age is pretty dumb anyway. Or rather, it's not effective - too many people will post cracks within hours (or negative hours) of release.
Gardener Geraden
StargazerBC posted 04-04-99 07:11 PM ET
Actually. Cd-rom. . .Cd-rom recorder. DvD. . .DvD recorder. If you don't have the CD you can always copy the files onto a hd and write an *.ini file to trick a program into thinking they're reading the CD-ROM when it's on your HD. Not that I've ever done that before. . .
jig posted 04-05-99 07:45 AM ET
Quake used packed files and it was as much as if not more customisable than smac. The packed and compressed files would have saved alot of hard drive space (compression and less wasted space).
But, at least the voices were mp3 encoded.
jig posted 04-05-99 07:49 AM ET
If you're not familiar with Quake, what it did was put all sound sounds, levels etc. into one (or more) big pak file, blah.pak.
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Author	Topic: Anyone find this odd?
Xotor	posted 04-04-99 07:12 AM ET Anyone find it odd how Firaxis didn't pack the graphics and sound files into single files? Instead they just left them in simple PCX and WAV files which are able to be opened by any art or sound program. Usually this is not the case. Most programs either pack the files so they're compressed (more storage space) or just pack the files so there aren't so many entries. In some cases it's just to prevent graphics or sound stealing. Also if someone modifies the files used for faction profiles, are they usable in multiplay?
Mortis	posted 04-04-99 07:51 AM ET They did that to make the game more customisable. If they sacrificed security for it, then thats their choice.
Borodino	posted 04-04-99 01:10 PM ET It's Brian Reynolds and Sid Meier's standard approach: Trust The Consumer! It's kinda the same reason that the CD is not neccessary to play the game. They must figure that most of the world is composed of at least semi-halfway-decent human beings.
geraden	posted 04-04-99 02:48 PM ET And, of course, that protection in this day and age is pretty dumb anyway. Or rather, it's not effective - too many people will post cracks within hours (or negative hours) of release. Gardener Geraden
StargazerBC	posted 04-04-99 07:11 PM ET Actually. Cd-rom. . .Cd-rom recorder. DvD. . .DvD recorder. If you don't have the CD you can always copy the files onto a hd and write an *.ini file to trick a program into thinking they're reading the CD-ROM when it's on your HD. Not that I've ever done that before. . .
jig	posted 04-05-99 07:45 AM ET Quake used packed files and it was as much as if not more customisable than smac. The packed and compressed files would have saved alot of hard drive space (compression and less wasted space). But, at least the voices were mp3 encoded.
jig	posted 04-05-99 07:49 AM ET If you're not familiar with Quake, what it did was put all sound sounds, levels etc. into one (or more) big pak file, blah.pak.