Event Editor Sub-groups

[Asholay]

In order to tidy code up, and to keep the game running smoothly, I want to create groups within groups which I can activate/deactivate.

Is this safe from a resources point of view - and how many levels of grouping can you go down - i.e. can I do this:

-Main engine code
---<<Group 1: Area 1 of game>>
------<<Sub-Group 1: Building x code>>
----------<< Sub-sub-group 1: Dialogue control of building>>
----------<< Sub-sub-group 2: other specific building code>>
------<<Sub-Group 2: Building y code>>
----------<< Sub-sub-group 1: ...>>
etc, etc

It's certainly tidier, but will I run into problems with memory, or crashes, doing it this way?

Cheers
Ash

[Pixelthief]

Its how I've done every one of my projects. Subgroups just exist as permissions on what code is visible to the runtime or not. When a group is deactivated, all code inside it, subgroup or not, is deactivated.

I'm sure that if you tried to break it by making 100,000 levels of subgroups, you'd run into some problems. But for any reasonable amount of grouping you'll never run into issues with memory, crashes, or other resource errors. And it will indeed make your code tidier and give you additional controls on activating/deactivating routines.

Heres an example of what one of my projects looks like:

[Asholay]

Thanks for the info, I thought that was the case but wasn't sure; it's exceptionally tidy - much better than a single list of events - doesn't help that I'm a slave to OCD it would kill me to even leave an apostrophe out of a comments sentence, lol.

[Tomek]

You do not need to using groups. It's cool to use flags.
For simple example, [color:#FF0000]when you going to use it:[/color]

Exit button clicked | "activate grup "RUN"
:RUN
only one action when event loops | Set text "BYE!"
only one action when event loops | End the application,

[color:#009900]just try to use this:[/color]

Exit button clicked | Set internal flag 0 on
Rich Edit internal flag 0 is on
+only one action when event loops | Set text "BYE!"
Rich Edit internal flag 0 is on
+only one action when event loops | End the application

You can also use global values instead flags:
Set Global Value A to 1 instead Set internal flag 0 on
Global Value A=1 instead internal flag 0 is on

[Pixelthief]

If you're using lots of objects and a large program, thats a case where having groups and subgroups will explicitly run faster than using flags. When MMF2 reads a condition like:

"Bad Guy Flag 0 is On?"

it must then execute one conditional check per each instance of "Bad Guy" that is still scoped on that event- all instances if its the first condition.

If you're running X loops of that event in a game with Y objects, this will require X * Y conditional checks; a polynomial time complexity. Were it an event that was activated via groups, or by a singular object instance's flag, then it would be linear time complexity (much faster).


A good rule is to use flags for minor small off/on checks, and group activations/deactivations for large and complex chunks of code.

[Tomek]

You are right, but sometimes flags looks much better, in small projects

[Shawn]

You do not need to using groups. It's cool to use flags.
For simple example, [color:#FF0000]when you going to use it:[/color]

Exit button clicked | "activate grup "RUN"
:RUN
only one action when event loops | Set text "BYE!"
only one action when event loops | End the application,

[color:#009900]just try to use this:[/color]

Exit button clicked | Set internal flag 0 on
Rich Edit internal flag 0 is on
+only one action when event loops | Set text "BYE!"
Rich Edit internal flag 0 is on
+only one action when event loops | End the application

You can also use global values instead flags:
Set Global Value A to 1 instead Set internal flag 0 on
Global Value A=1 instead internal flag 0 is on

In my opinion, it's a lot easier to read what is going on in your code with groups than to activate/deactivate using flags.

Also, I built a custom pause feature for a game, because I needed to pause the game, but yet still allow for a menu to be usable while the game was paused, so I couldn't use the built in pause feature. Basically, I put everything inside a group for the main game loop,and the pause menu was in a different group. Upon pressing the pause button, I deactivated the main game loop stopping everything inside that.