Bay 12 Games Forum

Please login or register.

Login with username, password and session length
Advanced search  

Author Topic: Embark regions, low FPS, and a solution  (Read 1081 times)

Savok

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Embark regions, low FPS, and a solution
« on: December 27, 2008, 12:18:41 pm »

So, there appears to be a pretty large problem: Make your embark region too large, and your FPS plummets, whether or not you interact at all with large parts of it. Also, you're limited by a pretty strict ceiling, floor, and walls.

So, solution: You always start in a single square. A 1x1 embark region, with only a few z-levels of sky and of undergroundness. Being close enough to various things, like an open chasm, a cave, or a goblin fortress, that could interact with you could cause them to either be revealed or added to the map but kept hidden. Of course, you would be capable of exploring on your own, which could lead to weird and irregular map shapes. If you wanted, you could abandon a still, unmoving, and unconnected area, removing it from your map. Of course, it would still have buildings and roads and items and workshops and giant 3D statues of badgers and such.

This would also allow you to build towers as high as your comp will allow (which might actually force you to explore immense surrounding area) and dig deep. But beware of delving too deep, for there lieth a leviathan cavern five miles under the surface inhabited by all manner of demonic and deadly beasts. In the center of it be a lake continents in size, with an icy chill to silence even a Balrog.
Logged
So sayeth the Wiki Loremaster!

Schwern

  • Bay Watcher
  • MAKE WAY FOR THE DWARF!!
    • View Profile
Re: Embark regions, low FPS, and a solution
« Reply #1 on: December 27, 2008, 01:51:26 pm »

+1 (especially the giant 3D badger statue).  I like the idea of not having to weigh between FPS and fortress size before the fortress even starts, and doing some real exploration rather than "hmm, let's see what's on the unit list."
Logged

SolarShado

  • Bay Watcher
  • Psi-Blade => Your Back
    • View Profile
Re: Embark regions, low FPS, and a solution
« Reply #2 on: December 27, 2008, 08:21:59 pm »

GIVE THAT MAN A COOKIE! better yet the whole cookie jar. (appologies if savok's not male)

Great idea, but i hate to think what this would take to code... I suspect "major re-write" is a serious understatement.
Logged
Avid (rabid?) Linux user. Preferred flavor: Arch

Savok

  • Bay Watcher
    • View Profile
Re: Embark regions, low FPS, and a solution
« Reply #3 on: December 28, 2008, 11:55:51 am »

Great idea, but i hate to think what this would take to code... I suspect "major re-write" is a serious understatement.
My idea was actually inspired how adventure mode works: Only that part of the world that you're using is loaded and active. Currently, you can't fly up unless you're near a mountain or in a chasm or some such similar situation for steep soaring (if you're modded and can fly), and (for other reasons) you can't dig, but moving horizontally closer to the edge of whatever's defined as your area removes part of your area and adds another part.
GIVE THAT MAN A COOKIE! better yet the whole cookie jar. (appologies if savok's not male)
no worries; it's hard to tell on the Internet sometimes.
Logged
So sayeth the Wiki Loremaster!