games size...

[jim lefevre]

This is a question I ought to ask now rather than later as my game is currently starting to snowball in terms of size so knowing the answer to this (if there is one) might effect my build now.

With TGF( EDIT - TGF2 ) (and obviously MMF) when building a game, is there a predictable point where the game becomes too big for the computer to work it, thus creating slow down (on a 'normal' computer) etc... Or for the casual game-maker is that usually not really a problem, i.e. it's only when a game gets to a stupid size that it starts to happen?

Where I am at the moment is a very simple moving mechanic (built from the foundation of David's platform tutorial) and I'm making provisions for 5 movement upgrades, 6 'objects (spade, sword etc...) and there are 10 'task' flags (i.e. do task 1 then obstacle 1 disappears).

Currently this seems to be all happening in one game area.

So how much does the amount of active objects (and their little bits of task related code), animations and backdrops effect the processesing speed. Would it help to 'split' the game world into levels - something which I've yet to find out how to do - does this involve creating different 'frames' which are levels and if so I'm going to have to start learning about sharing objects and information between 'frames' and not least saving data to transfer.


Apologies for the long post!

Jim

[RayMarble]

I'm no expert by any stretch of the word but since nobody's answering here I am :-)

There's no definite answer - it can depend on so many things. I guess the best thing to do is to get hold of some example files and see what kills the framerate etc - of course a complex application with good design can be less taxing for the processing speed than a simple app with bad design.

The most well known resource eaters are various transparencies; using lots of fastloops can be bad too (if they aren't contained in a group that gets activated when you actually need that particular fastloop); and say resizing your app window by stretching. Others claim layers are a killer too but in my experience they aren't so horrible.

This is a question that gets asked over and over, try combing the MMF2 forums and Daily Click.

[jim lefevre]

Thanks RayMarble,

I think that buried in my post was actually the question (which you've started to answer) of what are the things to bare in mind to streamline a game, so maybe it's a case of efficiency.

I've been going back through the TGF2 posts this morning while waiting for a plumber (who didn't turn up) and what I could glean off them were things like Global events/strings/values etc... and of those things they are most importantly done right at the start as I have just found going through my original project! It's a bit of a nightmare doing it after the fact!

Once I've finished my project I might try and do some tests and see if there are any easily described things and post them up...

Thanks for the reply though!