Hi Thomas, one thing that comes to mind initially, is simply to use actual 3D coordinates. You can still store objects or object descriptions in an array, but add two coordinates to each which can define (on a gross level) its size. I.E. a door might be defined as existing from -1.5, 0.0, -3.0 to 1.5, 0.0, 3.0 where coordinates are measured in feet and are shown as x,y,z for width, length and height.
so you'd have a door that is three feet wide, six feet tall, and zero feet long so to speak. In this example, 0.0, 0.0, 0.0 is in the center of the door, so you could move the door anywhere as its coordinate definition is only relative to itself. This would actually define the door and any other objects as axis-aligned bounding boxes so would have real dimensions in the game, but could still be stored with a very small amount of data. Hope this helps… Smiles, Cara :) On Dec 5, 2010, at 3:42 PM, Thomas Ward wrote: Hello everyone, I was wondering if some gamers and especially other game developers could give me their input on this matter. Tonight I am sitting here doing a bit of work on the Genesis 3D engine when it ocurred to me I might be doing things the wrong way, or at least I don't have to do things the way I'm currently doing it. You see, when I draw a map of a game level I draw everything in it completely to scale. Like if I draw a chasm or lava pit, and let's say it is 10 feet in length, it ends up using at least 10 elements of the array to hold it in memory. Now, obviously the larger the level the more memory the game is going to use because everything is drawn completely to actual scale. This would be fine for games where the levels are small, where the levels are restricted to a 2d world, but tonight while working on the engine and creating a test level for Star Wars Mysteries of the Sith I soon realized that in order to draw 3d levels according to actual scale would be huge. Oh, the computers of today can certainly handle it as memory is no object its just the principle of the thing why create a (100, 100, 100) 3d array to store the game level when I could acomplish the same thing with a (10, 10, 10) array that has everything scaled down by a factor of 10. So to use my earlier example the chasm that is 10 feet in length would be reduced to 1, and therefore would only use up 1 element in the array. Therefore instead of the player taking a step of 1 he or she would move only 0.1 units per step. Things like that basically means that I could make the level 10 times smaller, saving memory, and still draw large objects and rooms. However, scaling things down isn't without its problems either. For example, since you can't store anything in an array that is smaller than 1 unit in size a door that would normally only be two or three feet wide would now be 10 feet wide because that is the smallest I could make it and store it in the array. Same would go for chasms, fire pits, and anything else. Basically, I'd have to make the jumps longer in order to clear a trap that was only three or four feet accross, but thanks to the weird skaling and technical issues with the array would be no smaller than 10 feet. Any thoughts on this? Cheers! --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org. --- Gamers mailing list __ Gamers@audyssey.org If you want to leave the list, send E-mail to gamers-unsubscr...@audyssey.org. You can make changes or update your subscription via the web, at http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org. All messages are archived and can be searched and read at http://www.mail-archive.com/gam...@audyssey.org. If you have any questions or concerns regarding the management of the list, please send E-mail to gamers-ow...@audyssey.org.
