I've been thinking recently about how to optimize my maps for better gameplay. In the sense of less polygons and such. But I had a few questions:

1. If i use the original model as a collision model does it take more out of the game engine? Or would a simple box work more effectivly?

2. Does the size of the bitmaps matter? When I run tool it pauses for a second on bitmaps that are 1024x1024. Would smaller ones be better?

3. I heard that there was a 10,000 polygon limit in the engine. Which means the map itself, but does it also include the bipeds and objects?

4. In the campaign all of the enemies spawn when you enter the next area. Is there a way to have them spawn when they come into view without creating a new section?

5. Is there a way to play per say a .mp4 video file before the map loads? Like if I wanted an intro to every map I made that would not use the map itself in the video, but a pre-made one? (halo ce has a video preload to the menu thats a .bik file)

6. Is there a way I can make a script that randomly spawns different enemies every time? locations and the enemies themselves. (for a slightly different experience?)

This is all I can think of for now. Here's a shotgun I just finished:

eww das ugly

OS has a BIK playing script, but its not gonna play during loading.

Different sets, or just random enemies? Because if you place more spawn points, than allowed spawned AI in an encounter, it will randomly select what ones it wants to use. Otherwise, use the random_range command, with a cond to pick which ai_place to use (im half a sleep, too lazy to write moarrr)

so with the random range command your telling it to randomly pick which ever bots you choose? ill have to test this out.

I checked out the OS script and it seems like it might work, if you don't start your cinematics and everything until after it finishes playing. But is there also a way to play a video file as a shader? with scripts and not OS? I havn't started to experiment with OS yet... lol

thanks for the replys

No, the random range command in a script selects a value randomly between an upper and lower bound. For example,

(sleep (random_range 500 900 )) 

...would choose an arbitrary period between 500 units and 900 units to pause the script. Hence, its possible to make the AI spawn dependent on the random value. Not sure exactly how its done, because you can't reference the value created by a random_range command in another script, but maybe Kirby can set some light.

I thought of an alternative but somewhat more unwieldy way this can be done. You could script a global short that adds 1 to itself every now and then, and resets itself when it reaches 0. For example,

(global short ai_encounter) 

(script continuous blahblah 
(set ai_encounter (+ ai_encounter 1) 
) 

(script continuous reset 
(if (=10 ai_encounter) 
(set ai_encounter 0) 
)) 

Then you could have a separate set of scripts that spawn a unique encounter based on the value of the variable "ai_encounter" at the time. For example,

(script startup spawn_ai_1 
(sleep_until (volume_test_objects aispawn (players))15)
(if (= 0 ai_encounter) 
(ai_place alternative_encounter_0) 
) )
 

...etc. Repeat for all values of the variable.

Alternatively, you could just choose to have more spawn points, that works too.



I'm not sure what you mean, but I think you're implying that AI spawn whenever you enter a new BSP. That's not true, in campaign levels there are all kinds of triggers that cause AI to spawn (e.g trigger volumes, the health status of other encounters etc). You can make AI spawn on virtually any condition. So yeah, hope it answers your question.
Edited by Polamee on Jan 20, 2014 at 05:18 AM

oh wow. So with that script I could per say make one spawn point, but it would randomize what ever enemies I had it set to randomize within? That's pretty cool.

and the triggers that can also spawn AI? This could be used like Left 4 Dead, where it'll spawn a certain number of enemies based off of your current health. Now that's a kickass idea! it would probably be something like :get player health. if under 50 spawn 5 enemies. if 100 spawn all enemies. I'll have to try this out at some point!