eboostr caches very large files (on usb device)
By belledesirepc | November 26th, 2008 | 1:41 pm
If I open the eboostr cache viewer, and sort by column ‘size’. I see that it has apparently also cached very large files.
The largest file it cached was a crysis warhead .pak file of 800mb, a bit of a waste on my 4gb usb stick. Now I can of course exclude .pak files in version 3 now, but i still see several other very large files.
As far as I understood it’s main purpose is to cache a lot of small files because of the increase in speed in random access time from the usb device, versus streaming performance from the hard disk.
I’m using 3.0 469
Nov 26, 2008
There is no restrictions on file size now. Even large files can be read by small chunks. In the third version large read operations are faster since we are manage to do it from several physical devices simultaneously (you get something like software raid-1)
I think there is no need for any exclusions. The .pak files can be in the cache if and only if there was many read operations of those files.
Nov 26, 2008
Can we take that “I think there is no need for any exclusions” as a general tip? Is there *any* good reason to exclude files now?
Nov 27, 2008
Hi,
Maybe the .pak file is not the best example, I agree with Ilya that it probably is a package of several files, so it will be accessed randomly most likely.
But, the reason it ended up in the cache was a “full computer scan” by kaspersky anti-virus. I haven’t played the game since I installed eboostr.
A better example:
I also see a 45 mb .exe (adobe photoshop). Now I can’t imagine that loading faster from my usb stick rated @30mb/s versus my scsi hdd rated @89mb/s.
Maybe it is a good idea to implement a configureable maximum filesize setting (maybe default it initially at something like 20% of your rated usb cache device speed, so 30mb/s == max filesize 6mb)
Nov 27, 2008
Marin We are trying to make algorithm which will work automatically in all cases. But there can be files which are often used but their speed is not critical. For example – favorite mp3 files. They can be excluded by extension.
belledesirepc Executable files are accessed randomly too. They are loading from disk by one page at code execution order. Usual hard disk gives you only 4mb/s during loading application.
But even if you have super fast raid and load speed is 30mb/s, with help of usb flash drive this speed will be doubled (30mb/s hard disk + 30 mb/s USB flash)
Nov 27, 2008
Ok, thanks. Clear!
Still, the option to add a configurable restriction filter on filesize in a future release of eboostr is not a good suggestion?
Since the cache device size is limited (4gb in my example) I would rather have the option to fill it with lots of smaller files than a few very large ones.
Nov 27, 2008
Ok. Please create settings.ini in ‘all users\application data\eboostr’ and insert folowing strings:
[eBoostr]maxfilesize=10000000
this setting will be available in next build.
Nov 27, 2008
cool!
10000000 meaning ~9.54 MegaByte?
Nov 27, 2008
Yes. Just a dummy value for tests. Use your own -)
Nov 28, 2008
Thanks Ilya, re the exclusions.