[Scummvm-devel] Dynamic Plugins (uncached) - optimization

[sunmax at libero.it]

Hi there Team,

we are still forced to release a "static" (with the plugins linked in) binary 
at least on PS2, since detecting & adding new games with an uncached dynamic 
plugins setup is painstakingly slow... It takes 2-3 minutes we bad luck, and 
you can go for an expresso coffee every time you add a new games ;-)

Uncached is the best setup, as it boots much faster and doesn't load all the 
plugins at start (which spoils the benefit of saving memory), so I thought of a 
possible small change which will givee us the best of all worlds: fast start, 
low memory usage, fast add of new games.

I noticed that most of the times I name the directory containing the games, 
with the actual "gameid" (as per scummvm.ini), e.g. I have "The Dig" in "dig", 
"Broken Sword 2" in "sword2", and so on.

If I have multiple versions, I append the extra portion at the end, e.g. 
"monkey2-amiga".

For all these cases, we can use a simple optimization, which will really make 
a difference:

"if the folder name we are adding a game from, starts with a gameid, try the 
matching engine plugin first"

This seems a pretty ration assumption and will allow us to fully enjoy dynamic 
plugins.

Would make a great cherry on the cake for 1.7.0 ;-)

Let me know your ideas.

Thanks,
-max