Is Excluded Unused Files really that usefull

[Bigbaddevil7]

This is just a discussion I want to start on the option stated above and if it really should be used or not. Statements said below can be misunderstanding of the feature, feel free to correct anything.

So I have been running into a few issues with this simple checkbox "Exclude unused files", whether it be not being able to load certain plugin images due to coding issue of said plugins, or the fact that it keeps all the images from the battle scenes when my game has 0 battles and has hardly anything setup in the Database.

Using Tiled for my mapping I don't have any Tilesets setup, and I don't use any of the default sounds or music. They are all still in the resource manager, as I may decide to use something as testing or a placeholder.

The way as I look at it now, if I have to go through lengths of removing unused assets from the resource manager, as well as add the missing folders/files for plugins. Why even have the option?

When I develop anything that needs assets I keep a Master Folder separate from the Application at hand, whether this be assets, notes, credits, etc... Stuff will be put into that folder and then moved to the Application when needed.

I feel I would have a better time just leaving that option unchecked and export everything and then going in afterwards and removing the unused files cross referencing my master folder. Way as I look at it I would have better luck on keeping needed files. As well as removing unused files that RGPMaker decides to leave behind.

I do understand that most of the time these are small folder sizes, but in the 'img' folder 46MB was unused and the example game I had at the time was 150MB. That's almost 30% of the size taken up by unneeded files.


So I ask.
1. Is it really worth it, or should you just manually do it?
2. Would the problem get worse if say someone did add a bunch of assets to the resource manager and decided not to use it?
3. Am I completely misunderstanding how it works?

 

[ZephyrAM]

Far as I've heard and experienced, it only looks at resources actively used by the editor. If it's not something you clicked and selected in the basic editor, then it gets ignored, so anything and everything that plugins link through code don't get included.

Generally, 'Exclude unused files' is not useful.

 

[Andar]

It works as intended, but you need to understand its limitations.

The problem is that the engine needs to know that a file is used in the engine to correctly include it. That is automatic with anything in the regular parts of the game, but not for plugins.

With the option came a script command that allows a plugin writer to declare the files he used in the plugin, and the inclusion will work correctly if the plugin writer used this declaration correctly.
Unfortunately a lot of plugin writers don't declare their files, causing problems for this.

In such a case the solution is to make an unused map where you use the files that are not correctly declared manually in events.

 

[Sharm]

It works just fine if you don't have any plugins that use resources, but it sounds to me like you're using a ton of plugin resources, so it won't work at all for you. It'd be better for you to clear out any unused files from the games folder manually. Don't do it from the resource manager, go in to the game folder itself to do it, you'll have an easier time being thorough that way. In the future if you make a game and don't plan on using default resources it'll probably be faster to clear them out first.

It'd be cool if the exclude thing could do plugins but it's just not possible because of how the code works.

 

[Bigbaddevil7]

Yea, with using Tiled I do all my mapping outside of RPGMaker and really just using it as an Engine to script and pull everything together. Luckily Tiled seems to have added the bits of code it needs to bring the "Maps" folder with it, but things like Menus screens didn't have it. It's really only one Menu plugin I am having issues with, but I've seen the issue through the forum since it's been added, which is why I brought this up.

Personally I don't care if I have to do it, to me its all part of any kind of development and know there are a lot harder things to do (like program Asynchronous JS for Database interaction on a live site), but I just feel with the fact that MV is known for its Plugin support its a bit of a shame that so many plugin assets have issues.

I also do realize that there is things in place to keep it from happening like Andar said, but I also feel there can be a few ways to mark files/folders, even if you have a drop down to include/ignore X files when that is checked.

To me I feel like any game I made in MV, unless it was all default, I would always do it manually and just ignore that box.

 

[Lee Sang]

I used that once and it didn't work the way I expected. It's better just to use a resource checker plugin or something and delete all the unused files by yourself.

 

[Zeriab]

Regardless of whether you use the function or not keeping track of what resources you use is a good idea.
According to https://forums.rpgmakerweb.com/inde...w-plugin-manager-in-rpg-maker-mv-1-5-0.79764/ you can use a directive to let the Exclude unused files function know that the resource specified for this parameter is not an unused file.
Maybe it wasn't used where it should have been in the plugin, leading to used files getting wrongly removed, but maybe there are scenarios where the parameter cannot adequately express which files the plugin uses.

Please do note that in general it is not possible to create a plugin that can traverse through your project and tell you exactly which resources are used.

*hugs*

 

[Bigbaddevil7]

Yea I agree with Zeriab. Always good to keep track, I even made a Trello for my project to give me a TODO list and see my own progress, plus there been plenty of time where I went to some place like opengameart.org and browse, I may pull a SFX pack and throw in in my master folder because I may use them but not sure where or if at all.

Helps with organization, it will show in the game play experience. If you can't keep your resources in track then odds are neither will the game be in one way or another.

Helps with troubleshooting. The reason I even found out about the issue with this Thread Topic was I had improper capitalization and when it was deployed not happy at all, and found out in 4 secs where it was.

As well as I believe anytime you pull an asset through the Author and Link to the asset in a txt document so that you can make sure proper credit is given.

I'm just glad to of come from years of programming of many languages and practices like that transfers across all and works well with all.