can a file be TOO big?

so im working on a lvl... its now 25x25 pages acrossXdown, aka its huge, over 1000 BSPs, etc. The CW file is '3.3MB'.

Now I was working on it. saved it. opened a new CW file because I wanted to do some things in this one then bring them over to the big one... but now, anytme I double click the big CW file, CW intro screen loads up, then disappeas but leaves a white square on the finder window, and then nothing happens... it NEVER loads, ive left it for over 15 minutes.

It will still load any other CW file. It makes no sense though, because I only added 1 single BSP object between the last time I opened it, saved it, and quit it... I dont see how that 1 BSP could just make the CW file stop working.

CW's memory is plenty high, something like 20,000.. so it cant be that..........anyone have any idea???

I cant finish my epic lvl now.

Is it possible that the CW file just reached the point where, even CW, regardless of how much memoery it has and whatnot, just CANT open the file!?

Give it even more RAM.

Wipe the prefs.

Yeah. You could always reinstall Clarisworks if that doesn't work. Post the download when your done, okay?

Take advice in that order.

Then again, you may have a somehow corrupted file.

K.

I quadroupled the memory of CW. Still wouldnt open the file. So I loaded a different file, then using the 'open' selection in CW, I picked the file. Took about 30 seconds but it loaded. This same way didint work before I quadroupled memory though. Its weird that it cant open it directly though.

On side note; have any of you ever encountered the Avara distance limit?? I seem to recall a year or so ago when putting landscape objects far on horizon they 'wrapped' around and would appear on opposite side of the lvl if placed too far. I recall this was at around 10x10 pages, but im at 25x25 and I cant seem to hit that limit?? Which makes me seem to remember that I had actually incarned in the opposite side of lvl I thought I was incarning at when placing those horizon objects... but I cant remember if that was true or if my minds just making that up as explaination. Perhaps any of you know this limit if it even exists?

If not, this levels gonna goto 100x100 pages and beyond. I dont care if it takes 15 minutes to load in Avara (already at 60 seconds), and it crashes 2/3 times you try to play it.

Speaking of which, after avara reaches 40:00, all your laser power disappears, if you provide a goody that re-gave that power, would it just be-resucked away instantly? If so is there any possible way to bypass this without needing the source code for avara?

Try it.

Network games don't usually last 40 minutes, unless I'm fleeing somebody in a their heavy.

What is the point of having a level that big? And just out of curiousity...would this level happen to be Big Game Hunters?

I've noticed the energy problem a few times, once when playing one of Mongo's puzzle levels (I didn't notice the time, but I had been playing for quite a while). But I don't know any way to change it. Then again, you could use it to add a catch to your gameplay. It's not a bug, it's a feature

I've never heard of the page limit.

And I guess you could try reinstalling ClarisWorks, but it might have just not been designed to handle such large files efficiently. What kind of computer are you using?

Haha, I forgot about Avara level editing...

:snicker:

clarisworks...

:snicker:

^_^

Begone, troll.

-§torm

So I dedicated my lvl editing portion of the day today to figuring out the distance limit stuff.

So, I meticulously (readjusting 1 spot per time) till I found the distances.

When you hit a certain distance, I beleive 26x26 pages or something around there (I have it marked in CW file) you hit a wall (The Line of Newbism). Anything placed after that 'wall' will appear on the opposite side of the lvl where placed. But, theres then 'another' zone. Which is a space between the line of newbism, and the line of überism. I have also mapped the exact distance of this space I shall coin the zone of überism. Anything placed after the line of überism will not appear anywhere in the lvl. Everything placed within the ZONE of überism, will appear in the outgoing order, inwards. Meaning, the object you place the closest to the line of überism, will be the object CLOSEST to the opposing side of your level, as if the level was now a circular planet and had 'wrapped' around. So which once was farthest, was now closest. Unfortunately walking past these lines does not wrap your hector around, it only affects walls and BSPs and other objects.

I then discovered 'another' zone, which is some sort of auto-cleaning zone. It forms between the TOP or LEFT hand edges of the CW picture file, and the line of überism's farthest end (the end that wraps closest to top/left sides of CW file. If you place an object past the line of überism, it is auto-deleted by this zone, this zone is like a 30 second hector walking distance, that automatically forms between the zone of überism and the opposing side of the level. Nothing can ever be placed here.

This disappointed me as theres no way to seamlessly connect the zone of überism to the regular level zone. So I took some BSP's, grouped something to them that was like 15-20 pages away, and dragged it so the lowest part would be just at the very TOP or LEFT (depending, I tested both), hand side of the CW file, so that the BSP's would be far away out of editiable vision in CW, and thus in this 'autocleaning' zone. All objects done this way WOULD appear, BUT, this then pushed the auto-cleaning zone INWARDS to the level, which doesnt make sense. The farther I pushed objects out into the auto-cleaning zone, the further into my lvl it would move, creating a line and auto-deleting anything I had in its new parameters.

CONCLUSION: You can create a lvl about 50x50 pages, utilizing teleporters (or just walking) to connect players to the Zone of überism, which is about the same size as the area you can normally build before wrap around.

Consider this issue solved. I attached a shot of the line of newbism (purple) and the line of überism (red) to better show, this is fully zoomed out in CW4.

Im going to conduct an experiment on the '40 minute' thing tonight.

And yes its BGH. But its going to be an orgy of every lvl ive ever made pretty much all smashed into one super CO-OP.

Attached File(s)

• AVARAMAPPED.gif (29.4K)
  Number of downloads: 69

Umm... tell me how you're going to get six people in a game to play this massive co-op of yours?

doesnt need six, who said that? single player would work fine, just be harder. Id recommend CO-OP cause I dunno if you could even beat it in 40 minutes single player, but 2 players would work good, its only 1 life so you cant mess up, and its pretty much 1 shot kills you so you gotta play with tactics otherwise you gotta wait for the lvl to load again lol

I thought Sphinx wasn't capable of thought as deep as this. Or maybe it is just me... :unsure: I know it is all too complicated for me to understand most of it.

I said it needed six.

Sounds like it does need six now that you go into more detail.

Cool. With the discovery of the zone of uberism now we can make needlessly collossal levels.

And of course Spinx is capable of deep thought! When he isn't stoned...which is almost never.

This post has been edited by Katana !!! : 10 October 2005 - 01:40 PM

Once again Dan proves his chaotic genious. Awesome!

So when you say "every level you've ever made", does that also include Cocaine Train?

Yes. Cocaine train will be completely remade into BGH. It will no longer look a THING like Cocaine train does tho, except for the same lvl of detail (flickering lights, lotsa BSPs, crazy little polygons no one notices but me). But colors, train look, etc will all be different so that they fit the theme of BGH, which is 'less' futuristic than Cocaine Train originally is and more 'present day' standards of what a train looks like.

And I wouldnt say needlessly collasal, but as BGH is right now, its already filled the Zone of Newbism, and that only includes parts a) raiding the cultivation fields, the car chase, and c) raiding the processing facility. There is still at least 3x as many objectives to be completed and multiple areas still to be made, such as an entire city, a swamp, and the train scene for starters. Most of the jungle is completed, and thats whats taken up the entire first zone.

Belows a shot of one of the vehicles.. yes, its made out of about 100+ moving doors.... took 5 hours.

Attached File(s)

• Truck.gif (9.56K)
  Number of downloads: 63

Won't a level that big and detailed either crash Avara, or make it suck up huge amounts of RAM?

^ Yup.

Ill put a warning in the LEDI that says to boost avara to at least 50,000 in memory or else say buhbye before loading. Hasnt crashed me yet. The CW file on the otherhand has crashed me over a dozen times lol. And the process is tedius, it takes over 30 second to copy the CW PICT, 30 seconds to click on finder, 30 seconds to open resedit, 30 seconds to paste the PICT file in, and then 60 seconds to load the damn level, and then to top it, after quitting avara it takes like 15 more seconds to load finder... oh and SAVING the CW file takes over 60 seconds. And im using a G5. But whatever, all moot stuff. I just make the lvl in seperate CW files now and copy and paste it into the big one when each parts done.