Improving the game speed.

[Dunenewt]

If you extracted all the compressed files into the appropriate directories would this reduce lag?

[erjin999]

Which compressed files ?  :O The .cab files (are there any ?)?

[Inoculator9]

Do you mean the Emp files?

[Dunenewt]

Yes, the rfd's or whatever they are.

[Inoculator9]

As far as I know, no, you can't make the game any faster in such a fashion.

[Dunenewt]

It wouldn't make it faster, it would reduce lag, as it would save the computer unpacking the files.

[erjin999]

I follow your argument Dunenewt. Shame I dont know enough to help any, except that the game would expect the fiels to be compressed, and would expect to decompress them, and would expect certain file names and all that, so even if you did decompress them, it may not work at all...

[Dunenewt]

Should be quite simple. Just get DuneEx 2 and extract all the files to the right person.  Get Apollyon to try it out as he's a modder and a regular online player, or do you think you could do it?

[erjin999]

If you instruct me as to what it is you want me to do, I can try. But wouldnt you want to have a lagger try it ? Or is it trying out the principle ?

I am logged in on msgr now if you want to tell me what to do

[Dunenewt]

I've just got a new account so I'll add you on that, but I can't talk you through it right now.

[Inoculator9]

I know what you meant Dunenewt, and my answer stands.

[Apollyon]

Yes, it would make the game a bit faster, much as it does in Doom3. It would probably not reduce lag, and it's unnecessary anyway since any player can avoid lag by not downloading whilst playing and by putting their graphic settings on lowest.

[Dunenewt]

Just a suggestion to try and optimise Emperor to try and squeeze as much fun out of it as we can...

[Cyborg]

Do you know why Emperor has a flash screen?

It's probably because it's decompressing the compressed files...

You could achieve shorter loading time if you removed the flash screen and unpacked all the files.

[Dunenewt]

What do you mean by a flash screen?

[Cyborg]

Well, Emperor has a flash movie...

Their company logo getting displayed.

Ever thought of why you can't skip it?

Because the game loads in the background!

So if you replaced it with a BIK file of no length, and unpacked the files beforehand, the loading time would be minimal.

[Dunenewt]

It is a bik movie not a flash movie anyway isn't it? And that's what my thread in the General board was about because this is what I wanted to do.

[Cyborg]

I'm not talking about the flash movie format...

When something is displayed on the screen to serve as a "loading" screen, it's called a flash screen.

I said flash movie because it's a movie... Not because it's made in Flash.

[Dunenewt]

Oh ok, so by how much would this increase speed?

[erjin999]

Well, Emperor has a flash movie...

Their company logo getting displayed.

Ever thought of why you can't skip it?

Because the game loads in the background!

So if you replaced it with a BIK file of no length, and unpacked the files beforehand, the loading time would be minimal.

Errm, you can skip it and I believe most of us players do skip it by simply renaming the bik movie files, and it just moves on, a few seconds of balck screen while it loads, but WAY less then the logos take to display and play...

I can be online within about 5-8 seconds of double clicking (on XWIS, WOL sucks, it takes ages to log-in).

...or have I misunderstood what movies you are talking about ?

[Cyborg]

No, it's the right movie.

And the reason your computer is quickly finished without the flash screen is because the screen works for slow computers too...

[veK]

Errm, you can skip it and I believe most of us players do skip it by simply renaming the bik movie files, and it just moves on, a few seconds of balck screen while it loads, but WAY less then the logos take to display and play...

which file has to be renamed to do this and what alternate name should be given to it?

[erjin999]

Well today, I just deleted all the movies in my C:Program FilesgamesDATAMOVIES directory but left the empty directory there just in case emp doesnt like me removing it (and its empty, so its not a biggie)...But if you want, arrange them alphabetically, and rename the last two to file extention ".erj" from ".bik" either adding ".erj" or replacing ".bik" with ".erj".

I think one was called Credits.bik.

That will mean the silly Westwood and EA logos dont show up, saving a few seconds. Can be handy seeing as it crashes so damn often. About 5-7 seconds.

[hide]It doesnt have to be ".erj" any extension will do[/hide]

:P

[veK]

well actually it's the LEGALS.bik which you have to remove as I found out right now (even as I am very drunk) and of course I figured it out myself that the files could be also named .veK instead of .erj - damn it you just screwed up. if you had told me the ending had to be .lol I might have trusted you  ;)

no, the main part was just to let me know where the files are located. wouldn't have figured it out to look for them in the MOVIES dir because I thought of them being spam or data or trash or logos or whatever but not movies... anyyway, it works fine now - and as a result I will go to bed now (I'm actually very drunk right now, dunno how I can type any letters....)  ;D

[erjin999]

I was shure there were two files to rename...well, never mind, you got that sorted.