Probably because they consist of what seems like thousands of very small files.
I was trying to back up my AppData folders and the minecraft saves slowed the backup to a crawl.
Does Notch have any plans to make this a less tedious process? For example, implementing some sort of compression scheme for the saves would be nice. Or having them saved in less files.
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Minecraft Beta 1.2: "I'll grind your bones to make my bread!"
I would assume that yes, when Minecraft is out of beta all the little files will be consolidated into a few files, or depending on how he does it, just one (random access is so much fun). For now though, it makes total sense why they are separate. It makes debugging easier. Just another reason to not get too attached to your saves. :smile.gif:
I'm zipping it up now, but it would be sorta nice if the game did that by default. I understand it's easier to debug this way, but the files are just so hard to move...
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Minecraft Beta 1.2: "I'll grind your bones to make my bread!"
I would assume that yes, when Minecraft is out of beta all the little files will be consolidated into a few files, or depending on how he does it, just one (random access is so much fun). For now though, it makes total sense why they are separate. It makes debugging easier. Just another reason to not get too attached to your saves. :smile.gif:
That sounds slower. Zip all files up, takes about as much time zipping and extracting alone as it would copying and pasting, plus you still have to copy and paste the zip.
The way modern hard drives work, it is vastly more efficient to have 1 file to copy rather than hundreds of small ones. The break even point in terms of time spent zipping and unzipping depends on how you zip, but if you choose the option in winzip to not compress, that break even point is even smaller. In extreme cases, we are talking hundreds of thousands of files (not applicable to Minecraft, just system admin in general) and it is *always* more efficient to transfer files as a package rather than separate files.
I would assume that yes, when Minecraft is out of beta all the little files will be consolidated into a few files, or depending on how he does it, just one (random access is so much fun). For now though, it makes total sense why they are separate. It makes debugging easier. Just another reason to not get too attached to your saves. :smile.gif:
That sounds slower. Zip all files up, takes about as much time zipping and extracting alone as it would copying and pasting, plus you still have to copy and paste the zip.
Nah, zipping doesn't take too long, and copying and pasting the zip takes no time because it's a single file, and usually rather small (probably under 100 MB).
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Minecraft Beta 1.2: "I'll grind your bones to make my bread!"
Notch should let the saves the way they are now.. A big file takes way more time to copy then 10 smaller ones.. (I quess?)
Waves,
Xavear
Actually, it's the exact opposite. The more files there are, the more "thinking" the file system has to do to rellocated them all. If it's a single, larger file, moving it is much faster and more straightforward.
Besides, we're not talking about 10 files, we're talking about over 10,000 files. They are all very small files, but the operating system has to mind each one specifically; if it were a large file, it would just be a matter of moving the data.
Hope that makes sense...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Minecraft Beta 1.2: "I'll grind your bones to make my bread!"
I was trying to back up my AppData folders and the minecraft saves slowed the backup to a crawl.
Does Notch have any plans to make this a less tedious process? For example, implementing some sort of compression scheme for the saves would be nice. Or having them saved in less files.
That sounds slower. Zip all files up, takes about as much time zipping and extracting alone as it would copying and pasting, plus you still have to copy and paste the zip.
Nah, zipping doesn't take too long, and copying and pasting the zip takes no time because it's a single file, and usually rather small (probably under 100 MB).
Actually, it's the exact opposite. The more files there are, the more "thinking" the file system has to do to rellocated them all. If it's a single, larger file, moving it is much faster and more straightforward.
Besides, we're not talking about 10 files, we're talking about over 10,000 files. They are all very small files, but the operating system has to mind each one specifically; if it were a large file, it would just be a matter of moving the data.
Hope that makes sense...