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Max number of items?

by Andre Lind · in Torque Game Builder · 07/04/2006 (5:16 am) · 4 replies

Hi!

Just a quick question that popped up (slow workday ;))
Is there any "unwritten" max number of moving items before things start to lag?

I'm in the startup phase of creating a shooter with multiplayer support
But with, say 8 people (at least) jumping around, shooting like maniacs, will the T2D engine be able to handle it nicelyor is it very sensitive to how many objects that flies around?

Which way is the "cheapest" (in CPU time) way to go for the bullets, or the characters?

Cheers!
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Torque Owner Philip Mansfield
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#1
07/04/2006 (6:37 am)
When you say 8 people, are you talking about networking them? If so, you're more likely to run into problems with the efficency of your network code than TGB. If you have buckets of particles going off every couple of seconds then you could easily reduce even a single player game to its knees.

I would worry about streamlining your network code and getting the clients in sync before worrying about when TGB will fall over.

Torque Owner Charlie Malbaurn
#2
07/04/2006 (7:26 am)
I think he means more along the lines of 8 NPC's running around.
It really comes down to the system and the card I would think. You need to remember that particles are going to hurt performance if there are a ton of them. But mostly, 2D games in the past didn't even really rely on the card to do much. So the chances are that you can get a heck of a lot of stuff going on in T2D.
Animating characters, particles, that sort of stuff.

If you base your specs on the average user having between 64 to 128 megs of video memory, you should be able to run wild. Proper coding would help a lot. Using the same block for bullets (and other constant game items) helps alot since the system only needs to put it in memory once. Using tile maps when aplicable helps for the same reason. Remember that tile sets don't need to be the whole level and that they don't have to be small. Like a sky for example or other background items that don't really change.

Hope that helps

Torque Owner Andre Lind
#3
07/04/2006 (11:57 am)
Sorry for the confusion...

I meant 8 networking ppl, but not the speed of the networking but I'm thinking about the graphics system...
I mean, even if all 8 are NPCs and running amok, will T2D be able to handle it?

Example:
All 8 running around shooting like 3-4 bullets/second and I'm aiming to use particles for the animated characters too.
This will mean a sh*tload of particles flying around...
Is T2D efficient enough to handle it?

Could it be done all in script or should I go nuts on the engine?

Thanx in advance :)

Torque Owner Philip Mansfield
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#4
07/04/2006 (1:04 pm)
Why not knock up a quick test with 8 characters moving about spawning bullets with particles, and then chuck in some enemies doing the same thing?

I suspect you'll be OK, but you also need to keep in mind the PC spec of the player. You could probably help out the lower end by including options to disable some of the spangly effects.

But you need to allow for the overhead of processing physics, AI and networking as well. Keeping all of those things in sync isn't likely to be a trivial undertaking.