Make the level all one map or use loading screens?

[Gamerkought]

Hello, I am currently working on a mansion type sort of house. I have been planning to make it one large map, but would this been too stressful on PC's or the engine? I wanted to make it one large map to prevent people from "cheating" their way out of monsters spawning, but if I have to sacrifice a large amount of performance I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do.

Would anyone at Frictional or someone experienced with the engine/level editor kindly share some thoughts on this?

[Harry]

(09-17-2010 03:31 AM)Gamerkought Wrote:  Hello, I am currently working on a mansion type sort of house. I have been planning to make it one large map, but would this been too stressful on PC's or the engine? I wanted to make it one large map to prevent people from "cheating" their way out of monsters spawning, but if I have to sacrifice a large amount of performance I'm not sure if this is the right thing to do.

Would anyone at Frictional or someone experienced with the engine/level editor kindly share some thoughts on this?

I'm not that well versed, but I remember seeing somewhere that streaming ISN'T used and that therefore, each level is pre-loaded. This can be a big problem if you plan on making a mansion sized map so my gut feeling would be to keep to roughly the size of Amnesia's largest levels.

[jens]

I think you can safely make a level twice the size of the storage level (that is pretty big), as long as there are a lot of rooms and corridors the game will be able to optimize well. But of course the bigger the level the more to load and the more stuff in the level the more you have to keep track of and the more that can interact with each other to create unpredictable problems and so forth.

The main reason for the size of our levels is not a performance issue as much as it is to make something manageable in the creation process.

[Thomas]

While, as Jens said, making large levels is not good for developing reasons, I would find it extremely interesting to see how large levels can be made

[Gamerkought]

Hmm... I may try to do a full mansion as one level then. Worse comes to worse I will split the level between the two floors. We'll see what issues I run into during creation.

Thanks for the help and quick reply!

[Cranky Old Man]

There is a big relief in knowing that there is no hardcoded map size limitation, because that means that I don't have to worry about where in the overall map, the first room I create should be.

[Your Computer]

(04-06-2012 05:14 AM)Cranky Old Man Wrote:  There is a big relief in knowing that there is no hardcoded map size limitation, because that means that I don't have to worry about where in the overall map, the first room I create should be.

There is, however, an issue that entity interactive properties stop working after a certain distance.

[Cranky Old Man]

(04-06-2012 06:37 AM)Your Computer Wrote:  

(04-06-2012 05:14 AM)Cranky Old Man Wrote:  There is a big relief in knowing that there is no hardcoded map size limitation, because that means that I don't have to worry about where in the overall map, the first room I create should be.

There is, however, an issue that entity interactive properties stop working after a certain distance.

You mean the distance between two entities affecting eachother? If so, can't you just add an invisible lever in-between that sort of carries the signal like a middle man?

[Your Computer]

(04-06-2012 06:46 AM)Cranky Old Man Wrote:  You mean the distance between two entities affecting eachother? If so, can't you just add an invisible lever in-between that sort of carries the signal like a middle man?

No, i mean, for example, a wheel entity can be spun within the invisible map boundary but not when outside the boundary in the very same map.

[Cranky Old Man]

(04-06-2012 07:36 AM)Your Computer Wrote:  

(04-06-2012 06:46 AM)Cranky Old Man Wrote:  You mean the distance between two entities affecting eachother? If so, can't you just add an invisible lever in-between that sort of carries the signal like a middle man?

No, i mean, for example, a wheel entity can be spun within the invisible map boundary but not when outside the boundary in the very same map.

Oh, that's even WORSE than hardcoded limits.
If you have any idea on how big the functional area is, let me know.