Topic: perpetuum.gbf filesize

I wonder what is saved in there that makes the file grow in size over time.

AFAIK user settings are stored in local.gbf, Terrain data in layers.gbf

Yesterday i though - client lagging, loading ultra slow and such - time to get a fresh gbf from the server, and delted the 1.9GB big perpetuum.gbf and started the client.

then, after it was done, looking into the directory again, i saw that the new one had only 800 MB.

what in the world makes that file grow to more then twice the size  over time? The only additonal data i can imagine that is stored locally in the client would be the black lines for walls and gamma buildings on the map.

Terraformed terrain should not change a single byte in filesize, since from my understanding, it would overwrite a stored value in layers.gbf.
Chatlogs, screenshots and combatlogs are written into seperate TXT files.

so, what could that 1.1GB data be, that my client has collected over time?

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear

Re: perpetuum.gbf filesize

When have you last deleted said GBF?

[14:15:15] <Freya Sabbat> ...Dear god, the Devs are as bad as us

3 (edited by Annihilator 2012-10-14 18:15:20)

Re: perpetuum.gbf filesize

didn't check that here, but on another machine it was 12th may this year. and that one also has the 1.9GB size

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear

Re: perpetuum.gbf filesize

that gbf file grows. just for comparison: i deleted mine a month ago and it's at 1.5 gb right now. might be the info about tfing being stored?

Re: perpetuum.gbf filesize

Who cares hard drives are cheap. big_smile

RIP PERPETUUM

Re: perpetuum.gbf filesize

With the Gamma patch, we've split the GBF files into two (Perpetuum.gbf and Layers.gbf) because as a single file it was getting too big. While your client did this transparently, it didn't delete anything from the Perpetuum.gbf, so a lot of the residue data might still be there. We will probably separate the data further somewhere down the line so that the files themselves get smaller and easier to reinitialize.

The reason they grow is that when a file is removed or updates, they leave a "gap" inside after themselves, so that there's no need for re-saving the whole ~1.5GB file if a small file grows a single byte. Downside is, of course, that the datafile itself becomes fairly fragmented.

Deleting either file causes no harm and the client will automatically redownload everything on reconnect.

[14:15:15] <Freya Sabbat> ...Dear god, the Devs are as bad as us

Re: perpetuum.gbf filesize

Will it improve performance though, if we redownload it once a while?

Re: perpetuum.gbf filesize

Kokomut wrote:

Will it improve performance though, if we redownload it once a while?

usually it did. For example, i got a very long freeze when opening agent profile - that was gone for a few days if i redownloaded the gbf. This time it didnt help though, probably because i didn't run defrag this time before downloading the new file.


When i read that gargaj - does that mean the layers.gbf will fragment due to terraforming?

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear