Final File Sizes - Any Advice?

[SuperL98]

I’ve been using BTB to make tracks for GTR2, and finishing them up in 3Dsimed.

This process seams to group the common textures together fine, but my number of model files (GMT’s) is huge.

Every tree, fence, etc. has it’s own GMT file.

It’s not clear, to me anyway, how to group objects together in BTB, or 3Dsimed?

Also, if I figured this out, would the final Track size (for uploading) be smaller?

Thanks for any advise

 

[James Capper]

I believe you have to convert them to MAS files. If you go on the rfactor web site you can down load the tools to do the job there. Unfortunately how you use the said tools is unknown to me at this moment as i haven't got that far with my projects yet...........hope this helps you some?????

 

[SuperL98]

Yes, I use 3DSimed to group all the textures into one file, say Track_maps.GTR, and all the models into one Track.GTR file.

But it's these final "zipped up" files that end up being large.

Was wondering if I say, grouped all the trees into one GMT file, would the final GTR game files be smaller.

And how to do it :question:

 

[Andrew Evans]

you could probably do it in 3dsimed (dunno about btb) by isolating objects and saving them as a single entity.... though, that's just a hunch based on doing it the other way round (chopping up a massive gpl track)....

but: don't think it would make any difference.... it's still the same amount polys/verts/map info etc... and can't imagine the header info in a gmt file is that large....

i find that 7zip compresses evo tracks amazingly well - far superior than winrar or winzip... but for stuff that's already packed in mas/gtr/gtl archives... it may make little difference, since they're already compressed.... have a play with 7zip and see....

 

[SuperL98]

Thanks,

I need to start learning to be more efficient in my modeling, I guess
Using tree walls, instead of trees, etc.

I’ve made several Auto Cross tracks, for GTR2, that have 100 or so cones.

I used the nice cones from JayP666’s Great Britain Object Pack, but they have a lot of faces on them.

Probably should also learn to make my own, with smaller face counts.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9d6Y2Nu_pE[/ame]

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMi8BAQePYI[/ame]

 

[Sam Moss]

One problem i have noticed with BTB tracks is that GMT objects on a finished track have a very high file size compared to ones done in max.

 

[Technician]

What you might find as I dis was that the track folder containg lots of GMT's where you have added a tree and deleted it etc... I was rocking a 160mb track before i realised I was carrying extra unused gmt's my final relase was 49mb (when rar'd.)

 

[SuperL98]

What you might find as I dis was that the track folder containg lots of GMT's where you have added a tree and deleted it etc... I was rocking a 160mb track before i realised I was carrying extra unused gmt's my final relase was 49mb (when rar'd.)

Cool, I will look into that

 

[Kris Vickers]

What you might find as I dis was that the track folder containg lots of GMT's where you have added a tree and deleted it etc... I was rocking a 160mb track before i realised I was carrying extra unused gmt's my final relase was 49mb (when rar'd.)

I`ve also noticed the same thing. Same with textures from deleted or now unused objects aswell.

Is there any easy way of knowing what is and isn`t being used?

 

[RT1971]

If you have 3DsimEd you can get a report of objects and textures used , but you will still need to look through your whole folder.
Other option is open up your scene file to check .gmts only.

 

[R Soul]

The export tool in BTB includes a 'clear folder' option which will delete all files in the destination folder before exporting. Crude but effective. If you have several tracks for each location (e.g. Silverstone GP & F3 track), you could manually delete the files from GameData\Locations\somewhere\specificTrack

 

[Kris Vickers]

The export tool in BTB includes a 'clear folder' option which will delete all files in the destination folder before exporting. Crude but effective.

I`d completely overlooked that.....sounds like a bloody good idea!!

Cheers
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Edit:
I just done the 'clear folder' option, and holy crap......it had LOADS of stuff that was unused......went down from 130MB to 35.5MB. Cheers again