layerbackdrops or massive actives?

[8pack]

Hello community,

my basic engine is now done and i got my level editor working!
I am now coming to a point, where i have to decide, in which way the level graphics are displayed.

It is a game from the topdown perspective.
Most of the walls have to be visually a layer above the player and NPCs.

Let me explain, how my level editor works right now:

One whole map is stored in an active object. The map is splittet into 300x300 pixel parts, that are set one on another when the frame starts.
First, there comes a layer of backdrops, where all the collision detection is done.
Then, there comes a layer of (as mentioned) walls, that have to stay above the player. Right now, these are active objects, also in 300x300 pixel.

There are no events directly related to these actives, despite they are being created. I just use this layer object, where the the order is given by a specific value the object has.

My problem is: all these large active objects could be REALLY bad for the framerate, although i dont really see a real effect on it in my testlevel.

Now the question: would it be better to use backdrop objects instead of actives, that are in a real layer above the main game?
I never worked with layers before, but i heard, there are quite memory extensive.

I thought i asked this before coding everything for nothing. Also, what about my 300x300 pixel objects? Would it be better, if the tiles where larger? like 640x480 or even larger?

thanks for the help!

8pack

[nivram]

I think this is a quote from Francios:
"Lots of 8x8 objects are going to take more memory and longer to draw than, for example, a single 256x256 object."

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[8pack]

Thanks for the answers!

Although i think I have been missunderstood!

1. Question

Ok, less larger Objects are better then many tiny objects. But what is too large? Lets say my levelmap is like 10.000 x 7.000 pixels wide. how big should the tiles be at maximum? I am just trying to get the best performance here. Should the tiles be 200x200 ? should they be 500x500 or 1.000x1.000 pixels?

2. Question

Nobody has got an idea of layers? Is it better to use a bigger amount of large static activeobjects without layers or should i use the same graphics as backdrops WITHIN layers?

thx alot for your time

[pzazz]

I'd go with the backdrop layer myself. Easy to sort and edit (you can show/hide whole layers) and I think it would run faster. You may need to double up on invisible backdrop objects on the actual layer of interaction mind you.

[Macaw]

I have a similar question that I might as well ask here - If I have a floor background object in a platform game is it faster/more efficient to just have it as one huge image, or to have smaller ones that are copied and pasted?

[nivram]

I have a similar question that I might as well ask here - If I have a floor background object in a platform game is it faster/more efficient to just have it as one huge image, or to have smaller ones that are copied and pasted?

Hi Macaw I quote Francois:
"Lots of 8x8 objects are going to take more memory and longer to draw than, for example, a single 256x256 object."

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[nivram]

OLD. If you disagree with the co-creator of the Click line of software, you need to take that up with him. Also I have read several of your posts. Why don't you help instead of analyzing every post. You have not answered any of the questions ask.

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[nivram]

Off topic: OLD. Your posts are completely worthless on this forum and there is no beauty to anything you type. You are not helping.

On topic: Mcaw. Your best bet is to use a larger image.

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[Alonso]

I also agree to use large objects when possible, but I think the question was: when is the object too big? I don't really know, we should ask François when it would be better to split a huge object (say 5,000x5,000 pixels) into a few smaller ones (4 2500x2500 objects).

Personally, I try to use background system boxes or the background images object when I can instead of active objects, but I don't think there's a huge performance difference between their memory usage.

Edit: This last, if you intend to move the 'background' at runtime. Otherwise it's probably best to use a quickbackdrop object with a tiled texture.

[nivram]

Yes Alonso, you are right. I have used large backgrounds and have had a few problems. With a quick backdrop no problems, but with one like that 5,000x5,000 background object a developer would probably have to slit that up.

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