31st January 2003, 6:29 PM
Graphics mean nothing when it comes to storing data, unless you actually are CREATING the graphics yourself, as in drawing the textures and modeling the models. Trust me, it means NOTHING that the tracks have bumps or the backgrounds look like a jungle. When it comes to save files, there is NO reason to store that data. All it needs to store is that the jungle background is being used. That can be done very simply, by assigning "jungle" to a single byte of data, that byte being "J" in this example. Where' the jungle? On the disk! The program itself knows what the J means, and does all the building itself. This is how all save files work. Only the most wasteful of save data will actually store all the sprites and models being used. In fact, ANY save file that just dumps all that info is purely wasteful and bad programming. So, it doesn't matter how complex it is, a random track builder wouldnt' even be processing what each track piece looks like, just where on the grid it connects (ie, what side) and then just put them all together. Again, the amount of data save files use is not NEARLY the amount of data the game puts together after reading the save file's data.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)