Which way is faster?

ID:154067
 
Jul 2 2002, 11:57 am
Would it be faster to read from one (huge) savefile, or hundreds (to thousands) of tiny savefiles. Basically, should I save my muds rooms to one big file, or all these little files?
Jul 2 2002, 12:52 pm
At the beginning of a file is a special part called a header. This is used as a map for the interpreter(DM) to understand the file. If you use many files, it will take more space than just a few, or even one. This will of course affect disk access time, because the header must be examined.

I'd go with one big file.
Jul 2 2002, 2:09 pm
In response to ThreeFingerPete
ThreeFingerPete wrote:
At the beginning of a file is a special part called a header. This is used as a map for the interpreter(DM) to understand the file. If you use many files, it will take more space than just a few, or even one. This will of course affect disk access time, because the header must be examined.

I'd go with one big file.

Actually, in BYOND its quite the contary, one large file is really bad, it causes the game alot of lag and large access time, it must search the entire file each time to find the information it needs. Everytime it goes to get something, it has to load the entire file, therefore all your causing by one sav file is a big upload each time you access it, while using small files, access time is much quicker because it looks for just the file name and loads it, in order to get something from a large sav file as I said, it must load the entire thing then search.

I found this along time ago, when my game was hosted on Dantom's servers(when they used to host games) and we(My team) slowed the server, so Dan investigated and found this.
Jul 2 2002, 3:25 pm
In response to Darkness
Darkness wrote:
ThreeFingerPete wrote:
At the beginning of a file is a special part called a header. This is used as a map for the interpreter(DM) to understand the file. If you use many files, it will take more space than just a few, or even one. This will of course affect disk access time, because the header must be examined.

I'd go with one big file.

Actually, in BYOND its quite the contary, one large file is really bad, it causes the game alot of lag and large access time, it must search the entire file each time to find the information it needs. Everytime it goes to get something, it has to load the entire file, therefore all your causing by one sav file is a big upload each time you access it, while using small files, access time is much quicker because it looks for just the file name and loads it, in order to get something from a large sav file as I said, it must load the entire thing then search.

I found this along time ago, when my game was hosted on Dantom's servers(when they used to host games) and we(My team) slowed the server, so Dan investigated and found this.

Well, just load the large file once and store it in-game, so that you only have to load it once. :P

- Malver
Jul 2 2002, 3:57 pm
In response to Malver
When the game loads you still need to wait for the entire file to load, I remember the old DBZ Spar tring that and taking 7 minutes to load the Save files, and 5 more for the map, This however has been improved Somewhat due to better saving methods. But then why do you think Deadron's Character handing uses multiable?