Custom levels in flash games.

[Sejez]

Is there any realistic way to load custom levels into a flash game, without slowing the application to a crawl?

I was testing if it was possible to load custom levels into my game, I developed a way that allowed me to create levels on the fly in-game, with a simple scripting language I made, that reads the script using the string parser object.

Well it worked as I expected, except that the time it took to create all the objects, backrounds, etc. for a large level was too long, for the engine to be of any practical use. Even creating backdrops, by pasting the same object into the frame, takes a lot of time when I try to run application in flash format.

The project I had in mind was to make a game with a level editor, with the capability to submit and load levels from a server. But it seems to be an unrealistic project at the moment, unless I make the editor very limited.

[RickyRombo]

Sounds like you need to optimize your code a lot better. I tried to make a level editor (but didn't finish because I got distracted with things) and it didn't seem to have any slowdown. Of course I didn't generate a GIANT level, but it really shouldn't be the loading backdrops and actives slowing you down.

http://rickyrombo.co.nr/out/Climb%20Crush.html if you want to test.

It really shouldn't need a custom scripting language either. I just used the INI to store the location of objects and loaded them. I didn't even need the string parser object (but I did need the String tokenizer, mind).

If your game is really slow you're probably running a lot of fastloops or a really long one or something to do with fastloops. In my editor, I only have one fastloop.

Hopefully this helps!

[Sejez]

But it is the creation of actives that slows the engine down, mind you I'm talking about creating several thousand objects with a fastloop at the start of the frame. Creating backdrops (by the thousands.) by using the same active object, causes simililar slowdown in the flash version.

So I'm just trying to do too much, in too little time for the application to be able to handle it. There is not much optimatization that can be done on 3 events either.

One way I could handle this is, if I used the array object to store the level, and create the objects when I need them. That is when the player comes close enough to the object spawn point. But it sounds like so much work.

It is not the code that is slow, its just that the create object event isn't fast enough to be used this way I guess.

I hope there is alternate way im just not aware of, that I can use.

[LB]

You mean like knytt stories?

I think it'd be better if you ran 100 fastloops at a time and after each one you let the frame redraw and udated a progress bar for the user to see that is was loading.

[Sejez]

Haven't tried Knytt Stories, so I don't know how it works in that game. I simply want to load a user created level into the game.

Yeah running 100 fastloops and then letting the screen redraw is a possibility. Won't help with the long load time, but at least the player knows that the game hasn't crashed.

So there isn't a way to generate a level, by using input from a external source that isn't as slow?

[LB]

There is! Your levels are just too big.

[Sejez]

Well it is a random generated level made for the sole purpouse of testing the engines limit, of course it's too big. I take it as that theres no faster way of creating a load of objects at once.

Well thanks anyway, I guess I just have to employ other tricks to ensure that the game runs smoothly at all times then, if I ever need levels that big that is.