Mp Memory Sizes? Options

[Nightshade-]

How big is a Mp? As time passes on hard drives and files get bigger and bigger. An average MS Word file now (At least average for what I do) is 80kb. Thats larger than early hard drives.

Now in SR they use Mp for hard drives and I assume the size of even minute files are much larger as well. So, how big would a average Word file be in Mps? How big would the MS Word Program be in MP? How big would ALL of MS Office be? How many Gigs are in a MP?

I have a player with 12Mp in headware memory and a datajack and he wants to know how much he can download in terms of documents and programs etc etc.. But doesn't want to use a Deck, even though he is aware of the penalties & there is already a Decker in the party. He is also aware of the advantages of not using a deck. Black IC can crash him all it likes it still wont do physical damage. But like I said he is aware that his ability is EXTREMELY limited.

So how big is this stuff?

[bustedkarma]

It hurts your eyes, but it answers your question

http://www.amurgsval.org/shadowrun/megapulses.html

No Clicky for you.

[hyzmarca]

A megapulse is one million pulses, give or take. That's the consensus.

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...67&hl=megapulse

http://forums.dumpshock.com/index.php?show...15&hl=megapulse

Don't try to make sense of it in today's terms. It isn't designed to make since. Just make some number up.

[Austere Emancipa...]

Datasoft size
Computers and Memory/storage question
Etc. etc.

[Edit]I am woefully slow.[/Edit]

This post has been edited by Austere Emancipator: Apr 20 2006, 09:14 PM

[Dale]

There must be a very simple answer to this question. i.e. 1 MP = 500 terrabytes.

[James McMurray]

Nope, no simple answer. Megapulse has never been defined and probably never will be.

[Moon-Hawk]

Watch any movie that is more than five years old and you'll realize why the pulse is left undefined.
I'm thinking of that scene in Hackers where they all get wet over a 28.8 modem and a screen capable of displaying a million colors.

[stevebugge]

There is a good reason not to tie the MP to a real measurement, todays technology is advancing so quickly the measurement could look silly in a very short time. Suppose that back in the early days of SR while the Virtual Realities supplement was being written someone had taken Bill Gates at his word when he declared that no one would ever need more than 640KB of RAM.

Developer1: Ok lets call our top model the Fairlight Exacliber
Developer2: Great name, now lets make it kick hoop, it will have a 33Mhz Processer and 32MB of RAM!

[Kanada Ten]

[eidolon]

There is no RL size comparison. The Mp only exists w/in the SR system. Furthermore, it needes no RL comparison. For any program or data packet's size that isn't given in the book, make one up. Most in-game programs have a size listed in Mp, or you can use the various charts and multipliers to figure it out.

I suggest, also, that unless you want it to be an "issue" for the sake of story/roleplaying, you let him carry a reasonable amount of "regular" data, like text docs (there's an actual number of still images per Mp floating around somewhere, I don't recall OTOH) without worrying about it (within reason).

On another note, pocket PCs and even Pocket Secretaries can hold a fairly decent amount of data for their size/price.

Apart from that, 12Mp can hold either 12 minutes of audio, 12 minutes of video, or 6 minutes of a video with audio. (Of course, to do so you'll need an opticam, a sound recorder, and all of it hooked together [through your datajack, or a router].)

In other words, he needs more. :)

[Arethusa]

[Dranem]

If I remember correctly, the books estimate 1 Mp as being approximately 1 minute of audio/video. So compare what 1 minute of audio/video is today, and that will give you an idea how how much capacity the memory module should have. I know by today's standards that's not a heck of a lot of space, as a 2 hour movie will net you a 650+ Mb avi compressed video file (4 gigs if you're making a DVD)...

If you want to be generous, you could allow that 1 Mp is equal to 1 hour of audio/video, which in my mind would make more sense....

[Kagetenshi]

Please, please, please don't try to make that comparison…

A two-hour movie will net you a 21.6 gigabyte DV file. Even DV is insufficient quality-wise to provide the kind of resolution provided by Shadowrun recordings (10x blowup without quality loss). Resolution issues aside, the kind of compression that lets DivX/MP4/etc. get that kind of filesize is totally worthless for the kind of work that can be done on canon recordings.

~J

[Dranem]

Kage, note that I stated a compressed video file.. not raw DV.
If you want a different example then, most of todays audio standards will give you 1 min/Mb MP3 CD quality audio. (note again, this is an encoded file, not raw wav)

[Kagetenshi]

Yes, you did. Note that I pointed out why such a comparison is totally inappropriate given the stated modifiability of the files in Shadowrun.

~J

[The Jopp]

You seem to forget something. First of all, as many have said already, DONT try to make it into todays memory size, it wont work.

Second: Video in SR is TRIDEO which mean that it is 1 minute of high definition TRIDEO, full 3D video that can be zoomed in X10-X30 times without any loss of quality.

So just assume that 1 MP is enough for what you want to do.

God, I love SR4 for removing MPs

[Dranem]

Point taken. Though I've noticed (since Shadowrun is based on a few concepts) that sometimes it's not just the quality of the recording, but also of the equipment used to examin the file.
Like in Blade Runner. The Esper photo analyser took a simple polaroid shot and could extrapolate data from it. :)

Maybe not video, but I think that the 1 Mp = 1 min of audio could still be plausible - seeing as audio is not as complexe... I've never been one to get overly rules lawyerish about file sizes, as long as players use it in moderation.

[Kagetenshi]

I assume you mean hour?

I've tried convincing my GM that I should be able to analyze sound recordings to pick up the heartbeats of people in nearby rooms, but it didn't go so well. Perhaps the fact that I don't allow it in my half of the shared-world game either might have something to do with it? ;)

~J

[James McMurray]

Just drop MPs altogether. Life becomes much easier.

[Kagetenshi]

How about no.

Seriously, what do you gain? Plaintext is practically free, video and audio sizes are so simplified as to be ridiculously easy to keep track of (if perhaps nonsensical), and programs are a calculate-once use-anywhere deal. On the other hand, with infinite capacity you have to deal with… well, the problem of infinite capacity.

~J

[James McMurray]

You gain the ability to buy a program without a calculator. :) Infinite capacity would be problematic, but that's not what I'm suggesting. If something is too big to be held on your storage the GM will tell you. But other than that you can ignore the accounting aspects of decking and focus on the rest of it.

Just my personal preference of course. Some folks prefer the opposite.

[Rajaat99]

I agree with not trying to make MP's into anything of today.
I don't agree with infinite capacity and it's too easy to abuse and players like to argue. I know, "I'm the GM, what I say goes." and all that drek, but I don't want the problem in the first place.
I've had no problem keeping track of Mp's.

[James McMurray]

As soon as you decide that storing a lot of stuff isn't abusive, most of the ways to abuse it disappear. :)

[Thanee]

It's not infinite. It's only effectively infinite for most purposes. Just like todays harddrives are as well.

Bye
Thanee

[hyzmarca]

What techno-utpoia are you living in? I can easily fill up a 200GB hard drive in a week with a decent internet connection.