@Dorsai6 Wow. I didn't expect so much detail. It's a lot to absorb all in one breath. You've gone to a lot of trouble. How in blazes did you ever figure all of
this out? Don't answer that.
Oh, I see. P2P depends on some of the files existing in the models folder.
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For this dialogue, let me define a couple of terms for quick identification:
- (f0) will indicate a models folder containing only the small data files (the demos, the P2P sharing, etc.)
- (f1) will indicate a models folder containing all of the data after buying a card
This will abbreviate the speech and clean up any ***** in the following as I think out loud. I'm trying to figure out if removing all the f(0) folders will affect the performance of the software:
- if I delete the (f0) folders, they get replaced next time the girl shows up on the carousel. The model appears as a grey silhouette on the carousel and the demo is downloaded.
- if I don't delete the (f0) folders, when a girl cycles back to the carousel after a long *****, the software doesn't need to download the demo, because it's already there. No silhouette, no download - immediate playback.
- if I delete the (f0) folders, and shut off automatic download demos, and shut off automatic play demos, I can save some space and only ***** having silhouettes permanently on my carousel, which I don't use anyway. It used to be a promotional tool, but it makes no difference now. The software can play no demos except the demos contained in the f(1) folders (the cards I own).
- with no f(0) folders, P2P won't work, at least not for transfering demos onto your neighbour's carousel.
As a gold member (under 100 cards), if I were to quit now and go away, never to enter the site again; I could continue to use the software as a stand-alone and play all the clips that I own. I wouldn't need the (f0) folders, and I would never need an upgrade. Not that I'm planning this, but with 12,000,000 users I can confidently guarantee you someone else has, and another one is contemplating it. I wouldn't keep those empty folders if I didn't need them. They're always in the way, whenever I go looking for stuff with windows explorer. Users need to know this stuff.
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It's fairly easy to identify which card folders contain a card from the size of the data files. I've been a user for years, but haven't bought many cards. Consequently, I have a large number of folders with very little information in them (ie- I haven't bought that card yet).
Deleting the (f0)'s wouldn't save a lot of space anyway, but a new user might want to do this, considering the vast number of empty folders that exist. A user that will never buy another card might not want them either, even if she was active in the forums and very popular there and planned to stay active for years to come.
To the untrained eye they look like errors, just from their presence. If we decide to include any information about the use of file types in the help files, we had better include this info too.
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If I mark a card with a heart (favourite), the program creates an entire new file on my hard drive to indicate this fact? Unbelievable. Ditto for disabling a card. That's crazy programming logic.
I wonder if the *overview.demo files are the transitions.
Why is there a demos.log file and how big will it get? What is it's purpose, and am I really ever likely to look at it?