Will you have to use tiles or can you use large maps like BG?

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The greatest author: Douglas Adams 1952-2001

You can use large maps, as you call it.

Saphfire

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hrmm. for the beta testers/dee/whoever; how's the loading/unloading speed for the engine? I mean, when loading a big, single-picece map into memory, it takes a time and RAM, which is one of the reason's why smaller tiles are more efficient. for testers who have tried messing around with big maps: is there a lot of slowdown? does it drastically increase the games memory needs? I really want to make single image maps, but I also want to keep my game up to speed...

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

well, that was odd. my message posted twice. I didn't notice a hiccup in my system...

(edited for wierdness errors)

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

(This message has been edited by jmitchell (edited 06-29-2001).)

I would recommend splitting your large images up into smaller tiles. When loading one large image, Coldstone could drop in frame rate if the user's system isn't up to it. However, if you split the image into eigths, then it should load OK. I just thought up this on the spot BTW (I'm using tiles in my game) so feel free to correct me fellow testers.

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Originally posted by the Necromicon:
**However, if you split the image into eigths, then it should load OK. I just thought up this on the spot BTW (I'm using tiles in my game) so feel free to correct me fellow testers.
**

yeah, I thought of that too. but then you've got the issue of storing more pict files, which takes up more disk space... oh well. I guess It's a trade-off no matter how you slice it.

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

What do u make your maps in?

I wanted to ask the same question. Would you use a modelor like bryce then touch it up with photoshop or color it? I want to know what everyone else thinks. I always need soeone elses input.

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Originally posted by Kireck:
I wanted to ask the same question. Would you use a modelor like bryce then touch it up with photoshop or color it? I want to know what everyone else thinks. I always need soeone elses input.

You can make your maps in any graphics editor. How you do it is up to you. However, it must be in one of the flat file formats, pict or png. Bryce might be a viable option for you. It just all depends on what's available.

Saphfire

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ty for the info! Also where can I find the a newer demo/beta version? Thought I saw one here but now it's gone? (Note: NEW GUY HERE! Just found out about this cool engine on the 4th) Can't wait to make some games and with no programming exp I can make a cool game! WOW!

kckx- Currently there is no demo of Coldstone available and the beta is in private testing, so sorry but you'll have'ta wait 'till the final release is out. (And no one knows exactly when that'll be.)

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Originally posted by kckx:
ty for the info! Also where can I find the a newer demo/beta version? Thought I saw one here but now it's gone? (Note: NEW GUY HERE! Just found out about this cool engine on the 4th) Can't wait to make some games and with no programming exp I can make a cool game! WOW!

Welcome to the boards, unfortunatly Coldstone is still in beta, undergoing an overhaul. However, I can say that when it's done, it'll be sweet. So sweet, not only will your teeth crack, your eyes will split down the pupils and your skin will melt á la Event Horizon.

Thank You.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, as you know we have something special for you at
Birdland this evening. A recording for Blue Note Records...
Let's take it back to the concrete streets, original beats and real live MC's...
"We find it hard to strike a good balance between reality and fun. The reason being? Reality is often not fun." - _pipeline

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Originally posted by jmitchell:
**yeah, I thought of that too. but then you've got the issue of storing more pict files, which takes up more disk space... oh well. I guess It's a trade-off no matter how you slice it.

**

erm, how does it take up more space? it IS the same amount of pixels... and with tiles you can repeat them throughout the map, which could save space.

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DeAdBoY-
(url="http://"http://www.grybs.com/harzius")Harzius Productions(/url)
(url="http://"http://www.IcedEarth.com")Iced Earth(/url)

Yes, but either way, you're going to have to load those maps at one time or another, whether all at once when first entering, or one piece at a time. The only major advantage to tiles is that the engine does not have to remember unused parts of the map.

Saphfire

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Originally posted by DeAdBoY:
**erm, how does it take up more space? it IS the same amount of pixels... and with tiles you can repeat them throughout the map, which could save space.
**

same number of pixels, yes, but stored in more places, broken down into more sectors = more disk space. plus the padding that Pict and PNG files add to the straight color-pixel code. So, it takes up more room.

as for tiling, I'm talking about doing each and every map as a completely individual 3D rendered image, touched up in photoshop and by hand. if you've played Baldur's Gate, or any of the other BioWare titles, you'll know what I'm talking about.

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Originally posted by kckx:
**What do u make your maps in?
**

I first find a source that I like (for my game, all of the locations are semi-real, so I can find actual topographical maps of them). then I'll do a rough sketch of that region in pencil, then do a more detailed sketch and scan it in. I take the scanned topo map into photoshop and translate each layer of the topo map into an alpha chanel and tweak them until I like how they look. Then, I'll add water, population, and location names for future reference. once I'm finished with that, I'll drop the topo map into a series of filters to make it useable as a grayscale terrain map in a 3d modeler, and tweak it from there. or, I'll fiddle with the map to fit the time period of my story if I want to use it in-game (if you've got a medieval game, you're not going to have a topo map -- you'll have a hand-drawn, deformed map on parchment, etc...)

of course, none of this covers the actuall building of level maps and tiles -- this is all just background research work...

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

so the one at macgamingfiles demo is no good?

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Originally posted by kckx:
so the one at macgamingfiles demo is no good?

that's just my process, and everyone has their own. I've never seen the thing you're talking about. what's the url?

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

He's talking about the Coldstone beta. And no, that is more than a year old, before Ambrosia joined the process, and the engine is completely different.

Saphfire

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Originally posted by saphfire:
**He's talking about the Coldstone beta.
**

ah, righto. no peeking at your presents on xmass eve...

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Do not follow me for I may not lead. Do not lead for I may not follow. Do not walk beside me, either. Just leave me the hell alone.
-Jedi

I read all around the forums and FAQs and stuff, but the whole movement layer thing is confusing me. When the character is moving, does he go by wherever you click the mouse? Or does he go tile by tile? How would you distinguish the difference betwwen up&down; and north&south;? Would "up" look like "north" or something? And what's with the mask layer? How does that work?

More layer questions...
When you have a higher layer and a lower layer, will they scroll past at different speeds, or is that an option that you can change on your own? Also, can you have a layer that scrolls automatically forever? For example, you're on top of a giant bird, (it's HUGE) and there's like a whole town on it's back and everything.(HUGE) What if you wanted the land and water to go past on the bottom layer, as if the bird were flying even though it isn't. Is it possible for that layer to scroll past and repeat itself? I think I'll have more questions, I just have to remember them.