zlib

[XH_JSMX]

If possible before the game is finalized, id suggest importing the zlib compression library online (http://www.zlib.net/) to allow the entire assets folder to be a single zlib compressed *.dat or whatever file loaded on the fly, it could still be unzipped and modded using any .zip program, it shouldn't slow down loading with further compression although it likely wont compress much further (and optionally can use no compression to load exactly the same possibly faster even if compressed since windows wouldnt have to cache all the files locations).

You may already have it, since PNG coding usually includes most if not all of the zlib code. It also shouldn't be too complex to code in & to me (and probably to steam too) its better to only need to handle 10 actual files or so than having 35000+ files in a folder (im still on v18 dunno if that changed yet) .

An added future benefit would be to code the game to allow any additional .dat named zip files in the folder to be loaded after the assets.dat and allow it to use those files in place of the ones that normally would be in the assets.dat to allow mod packs to be loaded easily.

Example: assets dat containing all original files loaded first, then load any other *.dats in the folder such as a mod.dat containing a modified file (assets\gui\Mission End\VictoryScreen.png) thats in the same structure would load the modified victory screen or whatever files instead of the originals etc blahblah.

Edited September 26, 2013 by XH_JSMX