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Can We Make Ground Maps Bigger

SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
Now I know that one reason that the ground maps are so small is due to the amount of "stuff" is on the maps; it would take too long to load. So is there anyway that everything could be scaled down in order to add more to the maps? I'm no game developer so I have no idea if this can be done, just an idea.
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  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Summit wrote: »
    Now I know that one reason that the ground maps are so small is due to the amount of "stuff" is on the maps; it would take too long to load.

    this is false.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Intrepidox wrote: »
    this is false.

    more "stuff" more to load no? Again I have no idea how this stuff works, so I could be wrong :p
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Summit wrote: »
    more "stuff" more to load no? Again I have no idea how this stuff works, so I could be wrong :p

    once you've loaded a a <generic tree> into your cache, the game can spawn hundreds of them on a map and it wouldn't increase loading any more than having just 5 <generic tree>

    are you talking about exploration maps?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Intrepidox wrote: »
    once you've loaded a a <generic tree> into your cache, the game can spawn hundreds of them on a map and it wouldn't increase loading any more than having just 5 <generic tree>

    are you talking about exploration maps?

    Was talking about everything =P. With the cache, does it use the same cache that IE uses? Or is it separate? If so, I clear my cache everyday, so that wouldn't help me.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Yes, they can. Champions Online uses the same engine and gets away with far larger areas. :)

    Here's a link to a Thread about creating massive ground maps for Iconic Worlds (think of a dozen missions on a single, large map - instead of 1 mission per small map):
    http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=158423
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Yes, they can. Champions Online uses the same engine and gets away with far larger areas. :)

    Here's a link to a Thread about creating massive ground maps for Iconic Worlds (think of a dozen missions on a single, large map - instead of 1 mission per small map):
    http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=158423

    do you think that they would be able to do sector space without a single loading screen with the engine they got?
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Summit wrote: »
    do you think that they would be able to do sector space without a single loading screen with the engine they got?
    I'm not a developer.

    However, if I took a wild guess it would be not without significantly re-writes to how it is handled.

    Keep in mind that having 100k+ people on the servers means they can't have too many in a given instance at a time (right now it's around 50 people per instance at Sol - the highest traffic location).

    50 people is pretty sparse when stretched across 12 sectorblocks (the equivalent of 4.16 people per sector block). It would be fairly empty - especially as that number gets divided across additional sector blocks.

    It's not impossible but I see space as being the biggest hurdle for them to change.

    If I could re-write the code, I'd do it like this:
    • assign sector spaces to one of four quadrants (removes the seams from many sector blocks).
    • have 50 people per instance in those quadrants.
    • zone chat would based on all players in your quadrant instead all players in your sector block

    However, I have no idea what performance impact this might have. It would be better suited toward having more sector blocks in the gamma and delta quadrants.
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