Map Linking

by Der/Nalia on 04/24/2007 02:05, 16 messages, last message: 05/03/2007 04:40, 1372 views, last view: 05/01/2024 00:01

I was reading the Dev Docs when i came accross the map linking theory.

I wouldn't really use this in my mod, for it seems like something that would help the RPG part of Sauer.. however, if there existed a map with 50+ people in FFA, it might be helpful for big maps, to lessen the load time of getmap.

I was thinking of a way this could work, and what first came to mind, was to have an entity that loaded a map...

say you have a map of an out door area, and the outside of some building exists, and the player wishes to walk into the building. An entity (lets call it maplink) tagged house1, would load a fairly small small map that would just be the inside of the house, which would load very quickly.

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#1: hmm

by ringostarrrox on 04/24/2007 03:44

Sorry to dig this up, but this could be a good idea, as it would be a good speedup and would help older cards more.


It doesn't have to be used for everything if this was implemented, it could just be some of the bigger rooms.

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#2: Re: hmm

by ethan592 on 04/24/2007 05:30, refers to #1

ermmm... how about portals

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#3: ..

by Eris on 04/24/2007 12:30

like zoning? sounds coo'

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#4: Refinement

by Morosoph on 04/24/2007 12:58

Possibly a crude model of the whole could be imported first, followed by detailed local models as they're needed?

That way, distant objects could be made out...

2*8=... Ow, it's so hard!

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#5: ..

by Max of S2D [Fr] on 04/24/2007 13:09

Anyone remember the Kokiri Forest in Ocarina of Time ? (Zelda 64)

It's the same concept (linking behind the "town" and the deku tree)

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#6: Halo

by conorkirk676 on 04/24/2007 15:50

Halo also sucessfully uses this too (BSP Switch)

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#7: Yes, Its possible

by CubeMaster on 04/27/2007 15:32

Infact, Sauerbraten already supports this. If you read through the docs for sauer' then you would see the command that you can use in a maps .cfg file.
[map nextmap]
Simple as that, When you run into the end of level trigger then it loads the map called next map.

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#8: Re: Yes, Its possible

by mccorkle on 04/30/2007 21:36, refers to #7

hmm, but that is only a one way thing, right? And it doesn't handle the lower detail loading of the house idea. I think this would have to be a code change, IMO. Halo and games like Dungeon Siege do a great job of loading little bits of the map ahead as they drop off parts of the map behind so that no matter where you are in the game, "loading" doesn't happen.

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#9: Re: Yes, Its possible

by kurtis84 on 05/01/2007 01:40, refers to #8

Sauerbraten does that already...the lod system in sauer drops off cubes as you get further away, and adds them back as you get closer. Read the docs about the lod settings if you think you want sauer to lod-out more than it already is.

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#10: Re: Yes, Its possible

by tentus_ on 05/01/2007 01:53, refers to #8

Halo doesn't have loading? Since when? Why was I never informed? What was the point of those little glowy screens then?

You\'re considering something where separate maps with diverse data sets can be loaded. Imagine the little complexities involved with making two maps blend when they have different skyboxes, different texturesets, redefined mapmodel slots. For at least the present, such maps would simply have to be mutually exclusive to this kind of "on the run" system.

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#11: Re: Yes, Its possible

by ethan592 on 05/01/2007 02:32, refers to #10

how about just preloading of the lightmaps? if textures are common in the next map they are not reloaded. so if we loaded all textures used in a series of maps along with the lightmap preloading the geometry loading time is really quick.

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#12: Re: Yes, Its possible

by Drakas on 05/01/2007 18:33, refers to #11

I thought textures were not usually reloaded myself. Say, I reload to a different map, the textures that were loaded are not goint to be loaded again. I *think* it all depends on your graphics card's RAM, or I might be totally incorrect.

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#13: Re: Yes, Its possible

by metlslime on 05/01/2007 20:29, refers to #9

Kurtis, I think he's talking about loading chunks of the level from disk, in the background, as you walk around.

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#14: Re: Yes, Its possible

by kurtis84 on 05/03/2007 02:08, refers to #13

Yes I see he is...but sauer can handle a really huge world in ONE map, and just LOD out the far extents of a huge map...so why bother? I suppose the idea might help ram/power-starved gpu's...but thats a losing battle anyway, and I think sauers beyond bending backwards for slow pc's.

And yes, once a texture(s) is loaded, sauer is very fast to load another map that uses said texture(s)...and it sounds correct to me to say this "feature" is limited to the video cards ram size.

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#15: ..

by Der/Nalia on 05/03/2007 04:02

actually.... i was thinking of something more.... realistically impossible..

for example


out door map.
walk up to house.
walk into house.
<map loads quickly, because the quicker the better>
house is bigger than what it looked like on the outside...

kinda like Donkey Kong 64

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#16: Re: ..

by ethan592 on 05/03/2007 04:40, refers to #15

yeah thats kinda what i thought you were going at. this should be possible with lightmap preloads.

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