Pros and cons of where to store image data

[peter9.smith at ps.ge.com]

> > Thanks for the helpful responses on this.  My potential aim 
> is to do a
> > simple non-commercial Myst style game.  As you move between 
> the rooms of the
> > game the game needs to load up the images for the room 
> being moved into, and
> > unload images for some other room based on a caching 
> algorithm.  My current
> > thinking is to have each room as its own stack embedding 
> the images into
> > them.  Room state will be maintained in a central stack.

> I think a graphics-heavy app a la Myst would be a good 
> candidate for the
> memory conservation benefits of referencing images rather 
> than embedding
> them.  Then your caching is automatically done for you, so 
> you can spend
> that coding time crafting cool puzzles. :)

I'm on a learning curve here so pardon newbie questions.  When you reference
images when do they get loaded and unloaded?

What are the guidelines for how to reference files so it's straightforward
to include them when you build to distribute to the outside world?

Thanks for all the advice, Peter Smith.