How to make .vsav smaller

Module Design
1

I edited the module adding a prototype with some Calculated Properties and 4 Report Actions to improve the messages displayed on the chat. The prototype has then be added to almost every counter. After updating the setup .vsav I realized that its dimension has increased a lot (from 8MB to 15MB). No new images were added. I do not understand how some text added (Calculated Properties and Report Actions) can almost double the file size.

Is there a way to make .vsav smaller, in this case and in general?

Thanks.

2

Are you looking at the module (.vlog)? Or are you sure its no KMB. I have never seen a .vsav file in the MB range. Usually less thank 200KB

3

Cannot imagine what you are thinking of. I have a few hundred modules and they range from 2 or 3 MB to 200 MB. The majority are 50 to 60 MB. Perhaps you are thinking of saved game (vsav) files, and not modules (vmod) files the poster is asking about.

4

15 MB is meaninglessly small on computers with 8+ GB.

It is a very old idea to try to reduce module size at this level and you should not concern yourself with it.

1 Like
5

I think the rate of increase in game file size accelerates as more traits are added (perhaps @uckelman can correct me there).

i have taken game file sizes from low 10’s of Kb to 1Mb plus by adding many more traits than you have added here, in games with perhaps 200 pieces. Your module’s piece count I guess is a an order of magnitude or two above this.

One technique that I sometimes find useful is to use a Global Property to help define a long literal part of a report field - reducing the size of this string reduces the size of the piece.

6

Correct. The encoding—which we can’t change in V3 without breaking literally every saved game ever written—is quadratic. It won’t be like this in V4.

In the meantime, I wouldn’t spend time worrying about at 15MB file. That’s the size of two or three phone camera photos.

1 Like
7

Thanks a lot for your replies.
My game is played by email and every .vsav is sent by email to all 6 players or saved in dropbox.
This is done for every game turn and there may be more than 400 .vsav per game…it’s more than 6/7GB.

Anyway if there is a guide to how to optimise the module please let me know.
I just didn’t realise that adding few kB of text in a prototype would have increased the .vsav (not the module itself but the saved game) so much.
If I have 1000 counters and I add some traits to a prototype used by the counters than the few bytes added are multiplied by 1000? It seems so… as far as file dimentions it seems that there is no difference between using a prototype or adding the new traits to every counter.

8

I see it was me who was mistaken. My apologies Jardic.

9

It is worse than that, as the size increase is factored also by the number of traits on the piece.

Prototype is no different as its contents are simply placed in line in the piece definition.

Can you use global properties to reduce the size of your report traits?

10

How would you suggest to use global properties?
I added Report Actions traits in order to give more info in the chat like
PlayerName has moved Infantry Unit XXX (strength=10, movement=4) * from Location Hex A to Location Hex B

Moreover is it better to use a big single trait or many little ones? For example I could split a long Calculated Property in many shorter properties which are then called by the main one.