many platforms slowing game down

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Damokles

21

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Joined: 28th May 2003

Location: Belgium

Posted: 29th Nov 2004 03:47

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Well, I'm creating a nice platform game, but it goes too slow. I think there are too many objects.

Here is the code for the plattforms

+ Code Snippet

FOR x = 1 TO 48
   FOR y = 1 TO 24
      plateforms# = 1000 +  x * 24 + y
      LOAD OBJECT \"levels/1/plate.x\", plateformes#
      YROTATE OBJECT ...
      POSITION OBJECT ...
   NEXT y
NEXT x

That means we have 1152 plattforms (not all visible on the screen at one time. I attached the platform, that way you can realise it is really low-poly right now.

I also tried this :

+ Code Snippet

FOR x = 1 TO 8
   FOR y = 1 TO 24
      plateforms# = 1000 +  x * 24 + y
      LOAD OBJECT \"levels/1/plate.x\", plateformes#
      YROTATE OBJECT ...
      POSITION OBJECT ...
   NEXT y
NEXT x

, thinking I could get the platforms on screen, only when the player is near them. I can not go lower than "FOR x = 1 to 8" because if it would be lower, then some platforms wouldn't be visible on the screen.

So here are my questions :
- Is the polycount responsible ? (I suppose yes)
- How could I manage to make it work ?

- Mind the gap -

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Mentor

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Joined: 27th Aug 2002

Location: United Kingdom

Posted: 29th Nov 2004 05:12 Edited at: 29th Nov 2004 05:15

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you only need to,load the platform once for one thing, for another your platform numbers do not need to be floats, just use integers (they are faster) do the following.....

+ Code Snippet

load object"levels\1\plate.x",1
rem if you have a texture then unrem the following line
rem load image "levels\1\plate.bmp",1
make mesh from object 1,1
FOR x = 1 TO 48
   FOR y = 1 TO 24
      plateforms = 1000 +  x * 24 + y
      rem the two ones at the end of the next command are the mesh number and the number of the texture in that order
      MAKE OBJECT platforms,1,1
      YROTATE OBJECT ...
      POSITION OBJECT ...
   NEXT y
NEXT x

that way you only have to load the platform off the HD once, then you make the rest in memory which is MUCH faster, I wouldn`t try to use that many to be honest, why not keep a 2D array with the positions of the platforms in it and then just alter the indexes to get the numbers of the platforms visible on screen, that way you would only need a few dozen at most and just keep re-using them, rather than thousands you only use the once.

Mentor.

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Damokles

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Joined: 28th May 2003

Location: Belgium

Posted: 29th Nov 2004 05:48 Edited at: 29th Nov 2004 06:10

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Thanks for the help, Mentor.

Well, I thought about the 2D array, but it was in my second attempt. As you can see, it's only 8*24 plateforms. It's the minimum I could get. So I was planning that when some get out of sight, the are simply moved to the next visible section.

But now there is a new problem

Well now it looks lik this :

+ Code Snippet

LOAD OBJECT "levels/1/plate.x", 1000
MAKE MESH FROM OBJECT 1000,1000
FOR x = 1 TO 48
   FOR y = 1 TO 24
      plateformes# = 1000 +  x * 24 + y
      MAKE OBJECT plateformes#,1000,0
      COLOR OBJECT plateformes#,RGB(i*10,100,200)
      YROTATE OBJECT plateformes#, wrapvalue(y*15)
      POSITION OBJECT plateformes#,0,x*1.5,0
   NEXT y
NEXT x

DO
SYNC
LOOP

It tells that the object does not exist on line 74 (which refers to "LOOP")

(It makes no sense to me)
I must admit that I threw a bit part of my code away to get it simple on the forums.
But with this snippet, the same error occurs.

- Mind the gap -

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Damokles

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Joined: 28th May 2003

Location: Belgium

Posted: 29th Nov 2004 06:19

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Oops, I found what it was.

Well, I show you a screenshot to make it more clear : I need many plattforms visible on the screen. They will appear and disappear depending on what you will do or what the ennemi does.

I still need to make it faster. I have no idea how to do it. I shall not go under 8 * 24 plattforms / screen

- Mind the gap -

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Van B

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Joined: 8th Oct 2002

Location: Sunnyvale

Posted: 29th Nov 2004 22:57

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If your platforms are so low poly, maybe it's the sheer amount of them that's the concearn. Personally - I'd just plonk them altogether in a memblock mesh, your backdrop platforms at least - then moving platforms can be seperate. I'm guessing a single mesh made from all the platforms in a single screen would be fairly quick. Like, if you have each 8x8 grid of platforms as a mesh, you probably would'nt have to do anything like optimise it.

Van-B

It's c**p being the only coder in the village.

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DarkBASIC Discussion / many platforms slowing game down

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