Merging Custom Leaderheads Module

[Vokarya]

I've been spending a lot of time (especially recently) hunting through the various files of this mod, especially with trying to find things that we might be able to remove to streamline this mod and give it some needed polish. I noticed when doing scanning of the files that the Custom Leaderheads module is close to 1/3 of the files of this mod, and every file takes a little bit of time to load.

I think it would be a very good idea if we merged the Custom Leaderheads into the main mod and pack the art files into one of the existing FPK files. Each leaderhead consists of only a few XML files (which can be easily merged into the existing XML) and a bunch of art files that wouldn't be difficult to repack. I'm reminded of what happened during the first re-release of the MegaPack and how long it took to load until the unit art files were repackaged as an FPK.

Does anyone out there NOT use the Custom Leaderheads module? Or is there another reason that this needs to be a separate module?

Let me know what you think.

 

[dbkblk]

It's a very good idea. I had already reduced the number of files by modifying the interface color procedure. Now, merging leaderheads will be another step to reduce the number of files!
I see absolutely no reason not to do that.

While you're at cleaning FPK, maybe you can sort the files that are scattered into the three FPKS. I'm sure there are duplicated or unused files in there.

 

[Arakhor]

The Custom Leaderheads were the Frankensteined heads for the new civilisations? Julius Caesar redone as Deganawida, for instance? If so, then of course I use them.

 

[Rezca]

Like Arakhor said. If they're the custom heads for new civs, then I guess I do use them (and never realized it XD) but if they replace vanilla leaders (Catherine's CivIV look with a CivIII look for example) then.... No I don't use them.

Honestly, I just kinda forgot that module even existed. Didn't know if it was enabled or if it was disabled or... What it even did.

 

[Vokarya]

The Custom Leaderheads module contains the extra leaders for the civilizations that were already in BTS. The leaders for the brand new civilization (Assyria, Hittite, Iroquois, Siam) are already integrated into the main mod. The only exception is the two extra Ethiopian leaders are also integrated and aren't part of Custom Leaderheads.

This is the roster of the Custom Leaderheads module.
View attachment 398588

As I said, I don't think there is anyone who DOESN'T use this module. You can manually turn it off if you really want to, but if you do, then you're playing with a more restricted list of leaders.

 

[Vokarya]

It's a very good idea. I had already reduced the number of files by modifying the interface color procedure. Now, merging leaderheads will be another step to reduce the number of files!
I see absolutely no reason not to do that.

While you're at cleaning FPK, maybe you can sort the files that are scattered into the three FPKS. I'm sure there are duplicated or unused files in there.

I'll see what I can do about this. I did some purging of the unit artworks a while back to trim down the sizes of the FPK files. I know I don't want to increase the number of FPK files, because I remember there being problems with too many FPK files in one mod and I would very much like to leave room open for modmods, but I don't think the size matters as much. The Megapack has an FPK of around 2 GB. The non-terrain FPK files in the main AND mod add up to 522 MB. Realism Invictus and Reconstruction have single FPK files that are bigger than that. So 3 FPK files of about equal size is probably a good target.

While I'm at it, I would also like to organize the button files into atlases and merge the RoMModularWonders artwork into the FPK's. I know this is going to be one gigantic graphical project, but once it's done, I don't think there will be anything left to do graphically.

 

[Rezca]

Ah okay, so then yes I do use that but didn't know it!

 

[<Nexus>]

I'll see what I can do about this. I did some purging of the unit artworks a while back to trim down the sizes of the FPK files. I know I don't want to increase the number of FPK files, because I remember there being problems with too many FPK files in one mod and I would very much like to leave room open for modmods, but I don't think the size matters as much. The Megapack has an FPK of around 2 GB. The non-terrain FPK files in the main AND mod add up to 522 MB. Realism Invictus and Reconstruction have single FPK files that are bigger than that. So 3 FPK files of about equal size is probably a good target.

While I'm at it, I would also like to organize the button files into atlases and merge the RoMModularWonders artwork into the FPK's. I know this is going to be one gigantic graphical project, but once it's done, I don't think there will be anything left to do graphically.

Uhmm! Wish you a lot of coffee for that work

BTW: Do you plan to integrate the MCP Custom Leaderheads and Alternate Leaderheads too? Maybe it would worth it - or at least some of them?
Alternate LH contains much better graphics, Alexander for example.

 

[Vokarya]

Uhmm! Wish you a lot of coffee for that work

BTW: Do you plan to integrate the MCP Custom Leaderheads and Alternate Leaderheads too? Maybe it would worth it - or at least some of them?
Alternate LH contains much better graphics, Alexander for example.

I'd prefer to leave that as an add-on. There are probably a couple of leaders that would be good, but I think it would be better to just let it be.

 

[Vokarya]

I had a chance to work on this and it's as done as it can get for the moment. Getting this implemented into the working version of the mod is going to have to wait until I can finish clearing up all the duplicate icons and arranging the FPK files. It's going to be one giant upload but it should be the last change to the FPK files. They are about half of the total filesize of the mod.

 

[dbkblk]

You can benefit from this by repacking and renaming the FPK into 2 or 3 categories like unit-buildings-technos and the others or something smarter I can't think of. There is no need to keep separate FPKs based on ROM, AND or your changes.

 

[Vokarya]

You can benefit from this by repacking and renaming the FPK into 2 or 3 categories like unit-buildings-technos and the others or something smarter I can't think of. There is no need to keep separate FPKs based on ROM, AND or your changes.

I know that. I'm probably going to have one FPK for units and break the rest down evenly (or just have one other FPK). The Megapack FPK is somewhere between 2-3 times the rest of the other FPK's combined, and there are other mods with bigger FPK's, so I'm not that concerned about the size of individual FPK files getting too big. I think the total number of FPK's needs to be kept as low as we can get.

 

[dbkblk]

I haven't tested multiple FPK but I won't bother as you said it might run into troubles. We're lucky because Subversion support large files. I've tested with git for the Megapack and it can't handle more than 500mb of binary files.

 

[Vokarya]

I haven't tested multiple FPK but I won't bother as you said it might run into troubles. We're lucky because Subversion support large files. I've tested with git for the Megapack and it can't handle more than 500mb of binary files.

Well, the current combination of FPK files (ROM.fpk, AND.fpk, Vokarya.fpk, and an FPK of all the files from the custom leaderheads module) is 750 MB. I think leaderheads might wind up being bigger than units, but I don't know enough about leaderhead creation to know which files we can get rid of.