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Level layout using four backgrounds

by Keith Mc Dowell JR · in Torque Game Builder · 06/08/2007 (11:51 am) · 1 replies

Hello,
I've attemping to plan a level for mockup game purpose. The game view is a top down appears, in space. I'm wanting to give the appears of a large level by using 4 backgrounds. Or is there away to just make a 1600x1200 and just leave it has that?

The idea was once the player moved into 1 of the 4 possible backgrounds it would display, what zone or region they are currently in.

+==========++=========+
| |
| |
| |(the demarcation) old POTS term that signal the player as moved to a new region
| |but trying to avoid loading the region, so it seems seemless to the player.
+==========+

My other other questions is how would I go about combinding them, if making a large background would not be possible.
level00
level01
level02..etc, would I define the points x,y as the point where the player as moved (a collision detection). I guess, I could make 4 scene and load those scenes by swapping them in and out of memory?

Thanks, the almost goal is that each region would have its own distinct feel and their layouts would be different.

#1
06/30/2007 (1:39 pm)
Keith, I believe the maximum image size is something like 2048x2048 ... so a 1600x1200 image should be possible ... however, I would advise against using such a large piece of artwork for a 2D game unless absolutely necessary ... I'm unsure of your level design ... but if it's possible to break it down into smaller tiles then put it back together with a Tile Layer, that would most likely give you a performance boost ... especially if you could reuse sections to rebuild the map and reduce the overall image data thats stored in memory.

As for the detection ... you could use Triggers to alert you of entering/exiting a 'region' ... if your regions are large enough, you could split each region into it's own level ... like you said, level00, level01, level02 and level03 ... and then do a 'endLevel(); loadLevel();' when the player reaches a specific point of the current level to load the next level ... during this process you could display a simple GUI screen that alerts the player to the region change (you could display information about the new region while it loads ... to entertain the player ... many games use this logic ...)