How far can I push Hub maps?
Posted: Wed Sep 21, 2016 12:07 pm
When I was testing example maps that showcased how 3DGE could perform various feats, the one that stood out the most to me was the hub maps wad, which showed a simple demo of traveling freely between six or so small one-room maps.
This concept intrigues me and I would like to utilize it in a full-blown mod. But I don't want to make a bunch of plans until to find that they exceed the limits of the feature. And so I wonder... just what are the limits of using hub maps?
My biggest concern is how I notice that the game saves a LOT of details from those other maps. It knows exactly what monsters are alive, active, what pick-ups have been picked up, etc. And I can't be certain, but I swear the game seems to account for what monsters would have been doing during all that time since you last left the level because their positions have all changed.
So if the game is actively tracking all of this information, quite simply, there has to be a breaking point somewhere. There has to ultimately be some limit where I am going to reach a negative effect because I have traveled to too many levels, or my levels were too big, or I had too many monsters, or something.
Now even having said that, I imagine that the true limits might be pretty high for modern machines. I got some pretty good stats in my computer, and I bet I could run a lot with it before noticing any problems. But I should not expect that everyone playing this is using a top-of-the-line machine. (Especially since the fact that it is based off of an old game, which is something that would appeal to and draw in folks who are still using older under-powered machines.)
And as i think about this further, I think I might want to keep my project as something that can run on the Dreamcast. I might change my mind later, but at the moment I think that would be a good criterion to use. It would set some very concrete limits, and I really have no fears that anyone's computer would be unable to match its specs.
So I would ask then, what limits would I want to keep in mind if I were building this for the Dreamcast? And if I were to abandon that idea, about how far can I push those limits without worrying about performance on a lesser computer?
This concept intrigues me and I would like to utilize it in a full-blown mod. But I don't want to make a bunch of plans until to find that they exceed the limits of the feature. And so I wonder... just what are the limits of using hub maps?
My biggest concern is how I notice that the game saves a LOT of details from those other maps. It knows exactly what monsters are alive, active, what pick-ups have been picked up, etc. And I can't be certain, but I swear the game seems to account for what monsters would have been doing during all that time since you last left the level because their positions have all changed.
So if the game is actively tracking all of this information, quite simply, there has to be a breaking point somewhere. There has to ultimately be some limit where I am going to reach a negative effect because I have traveled to too many levels, or my levels were too big, or I had too many monsters, or something.
Now even having said that, I imagine that the true limits might be pretty high for modern machines. I got some pretty good stats in my computer, and I bet I could run a lot with it before noticing any problems. But I should not expect that everyone playing this is using a top-of-the-line machine. (Especially since the fact that it is based off of an old game, which is something that would appeal to and draw in folks who are still using older under-powered machines.)
And as i think about this further, I think I might want to keep my project as something that can run on the Dreamcast. I might change my mind later, but at the moment I think that would be a good criterion to use. It would set some very concrete limits, and I really have no fears that anyone's computer would be unable to match its specs.
So I would ask then, what limits would I want to keep in mind if I were building this for the Dreamcast? And if I were to abandon that idea, about how far can I push those limits without worrying about performance on a lesser computer?