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+---- Thread: Map Size? (/thread-29774.html)
Map Size? - Vale - 03-25-2015
So for the custom story I have oohhhh so ever slowly been working on, some of the maps will be quite large.
What I've been thinking about is making most of the game on one 'supermap' as one complete mansion/house kinda building, seamless and fully connected. The only thing is: an unfinished component from one (of 5, maybe 4) floors which will probably compose only a fifth of the floor has surpassed three megabytes.
The final map would likely go well beyond 50 mb if it was all integrated.
So other than loading times and possible layout issues, would the game lag to an extreme level? Or would the occulusion take care of the size worries for me?
I mostly want the map to be one whole to make it feel like a complete environment, and IMO the layout of the mansion would be easier to design and come up with if its all in one map. Do you guys have any experience with a map of this size?
Right now the size is theoretical, and people with outdated/shitty PCs are out of the question as my one 3 mb causes verrry minor framerate loss in same positions.
Just as comparison, my PC had no lag at all in any other Amnesia CS or even in our many hands 2 project.
Thoughts?
RE: Map Size? - Romulator - 03-25-2015
Whatever the POV of the player is focusing on will determine how great of a framerate loss there is. If the viewpoint has to process decals, particles, animations, entities and billboards, then there will be either a slightly or noticeable frame drop depending on multiple variables (pc performance, Amnesia settings, etc). Static_objects tend to obstruct the view, but do not always lower the performance of a large map, hence, looking down from the bottom floor will considerably lower lag if any since there is nothing to process, minus a Skybox or void.
A way you can get around it is to script "loading" areas. An example would be a script area between your floors and/or parts of the mansion, which will cancel out billboards, particles and decals which cannot be seen by a player between the floors or rooms. It will ease performance issues on both high and low end PCs, though it *may* create a bit of a spike when the script is triggered, depending on how many commands you need performed.
The map on its load will also be a bit laggy if objects need to "fall" into place, or "uncollide" themselves with others.
Personally, I would try not to make a really large map, but maybe a map for each floor and one for the front and outside (if necessary). It limits the amount of loading screens if you don't want them, but also provides reasonable performance leniency.
RE: Map Size? - Vale - 03-25-2015
+repped for your reply. I'll keep all that in mind. Thank you.
RE: Map Size? - Mudbill - 03-25-2015
If you wish to use the script loading approach, you can also use the PreloadSound and PreloadParticleSystem scripts to keep them in memory so that you most likely will not encounter a lag spike upon activating them.