MMF2 Slow down

[Nick]

Quite obviously, having lots of active objects in MMF slows it down considerably. While this is improved with the HWA beta, it still causes a problem to me.

When there are several thousand objects, slower computers start to struggle. Will this be improved in the final version of HWA? These objects have basically no events relating to them, they're just there.

8500 objects on my 3ghz core2 duo machine runs at 45 frames a second max. Slower computers obviously struggle a lot more. The game is set to limit at 30fps, and there are options in the game to lower the settings for slower computers, but the graphics are clearly much lower quality with this lower setting on.

Why is it that games that are actually made in 'real' development can run so much faster?

So is there any chance of having an active objects improved to be more efficient? Will the final version of HWA be more efficient?

[nivram]

Hi Nick. I think not everyone has access to top machines. You may want to try and code for a middle range, instead of 3ghz.

Marvin

[Nick]

Yeah, like i said the game does have a 'low quality' option which lowers the graphics so it is playable on other machines. But it makes the graphics look a bit 'blockier'. At the moment it's just about playable on a high end Pentium 4 on high graphics. Low graphics settings let it play on slower machines but it still pushes the machine more than it would if it was programmed in a 'real' programming language.

[xyzzy]

you can't really avoid this short of using fewer objects

what would be a neat addition would be the ability to activate/deactivate objects through events; while objects CAN be activated/deactivated, there is very little control of it since MMF does it automatically.

the reason why MMF (and similar programs) are slow is because it's a very high-level language (and interpreted, i believe)... what you gain in ease-of-use, you lose in speed

[Werbad]

If the objects doesn't really do anything, can't you make them backdrops instead? Should be a lot faster...

[Nick]

Unfortunately all the objects need to be brought to the front/back and be deleted and stuff so they have to be active as far as i know

[Nick]

After trying out another leading game creation tool, it seems there is a drastic difference in two areas. These results are just for my machine. 3ghz Core2 Duo, 8800GTS, 2GB 667mhz RAM, Windows Vista.



Loops (creating 8500 objects):
MMF2: Instant
Other: Well over 10 seconds

Number of rotated objects:
MMF2: 8500 at 45 fps
Other: 8500 at 200 fps

Is there a chance that MMF2 will catch up with this speed?

[DavidN]

As you've seen from your results, different tools will have different advantages and disadvantages. The hardware-accelerated runtime is still unfinished and it's likely that there will be a few more optimizations by the time it's released, but for now, I can only say to use the program that does what's best for you.