Map size

[Jihadmaster]

Hi im new here in the forum.
but ive been watching this mod for a while now and i am very impressed!

but i have a question:
When you said you were going to add some maps that are 60 km wide,
was that a typo because i thought the crysis engine could only handle 64 km2 at one loading. not 3600km2!!!
are you streaming parts of the maps on the go?
and sorry if this question has been answered before

[AoP]

64km2.

If it says 60km wide anywhere, it's a typo.

[Jihadmaster]

it says it in the main features list! 
thanks for sorting out a niggle in my mind!
although....would be kind of awsome if it did.

[AoP]

it says it in the main features list! 

Link?

[overwatch]

I think I found what he was referring to.
http://www.mechlivinglegends.net/content/view/49/73/#3.8

Seventh paragraph.  In the section about Action Areas. 

A very interesting plan for the MWLL Multiplayer "Trial of Annihilation" is the "Action Area" concept. This is a completely new concept never before seen in an FPS multiplayer title. Essentially each map will consist of a large 60km wide terrain. In this terrain, there will be three major action zones which are essentially maps in themselves. For ease of definition the large 60km will now be known as the world map, and the smaller areas that exists inside this map will be knows as Area/Action Zones.

[AoP]

A very interesting plan for the MWLL Multiplayer "Trial of Annihilation" is the "Action Area" concept. This is a completely new concept never before seen in an FPS multiplayer title. Essentially each map will consist of a large 60km wide terrain. In this terrain, there will be three major action zones which are essentially maps in themselves. For ease of definition the large 60km will now be known as the world map, and the smaller areas that exists inside this map will be knows as Area/Action Zones.

Ah, yeah, wide as in extent or spread, not as in actual width.
I'll put that on my todo list though.

[death_grin]

while it may be possible with the engine no one has a computer yet that could run that in the editor..right now our standared sizes range between 4096-8192meters squared (4-8 km wide..)  May not sound like much but in game 8 km is HUGE and takes awhile even for a aerospace to traverse it.

[overwatch]

May not sound like much but in game 8 km is HUGE and takes awhile even for a aerospace to traverse it.

That actually sounds enormous.  It would take a Nova Cat moving at overdrive speed almost NINE MINUTES to get from one border of the map to the other.  And the Blood Asp would take almost ten.  While the need to cross the entire battlefield in one pass is probably nil, this lends credence to the aerotech assets and light 'mechs acting as forward forces within the action areas while bringing the big guns to bare.

FUN!

[Jihadmaster]

 It is pretty big but the planes are only going at 200 mph (check the "planes" thread). I think that you could stream level data on the go if you tweak with the sdk.I remember in an interview with pc gamer (UK), that the crysis team clearly said their engine could stream levels but apparantly, pauses between levels are good for (I suspect only singleplayer) games.

[Jihadmaster]

also as an example lets look at the oblivion engine:
it can only load a 4 km2 area at one time.
it loads that area at roughly the same time as crysis takes to load 64km2.
it has no dynamic lod system.

now if oblivion can stream areas, im pretty  damn sure crysis can.
of course mechwarriors does'nt really this but it could solve the aerospace speed issue.

[ToeBall]

It's not a gameplay issue on the client side, it's a mix of the level editor eating alot of ram when making the level, and the server keeping track of everything going on. as it sits, we've modified the network policy settings so much that our levels could not even be run on a standard Crysis server because they're too big.

[Seiko]

It's not a gameplay issue on the client side, it's a mix of the level editor eating alot of ram when making the level, and the server keeping track of everything going on. as it sits, we've modified the network policy settings so much that our levels could not even be run on a standard Crysis server because they're too big.

This post is major woody factor. I have always been disappointed with the size of maps in games. I am more of a tactical player rather than a "rush in, die, respawn, repeat" player. So large maps.... right on!

[TimoBlastem]

How are you ensuring that your maps are fully utilized?  Or are you making them larger than the expected battle grounds on purpose so that we forget we're on a map with edges?

[Swissjak]

From what I've read thus far, the action areas are in place to focus the action. Thusly we'll be focused on one third of the map at any given point with enough room for large numbers of players to maneuver without being shoulder to shoulder.

This has me really excited. Full scale warfare of this magnitude has rarely been seen in Mechwarrior games to date.

[KorJax]

You guys also have to realize that with the exception of water maps, crysis has very abrupt map boarders.

Alot of the terrain will need to be made in-accessable to all units to provide for terrain that looks realistic and doesn't cut-off on the map edge.

For instance in my 2048x2048 map I am making for Crysis singleplayer, only about 1/10th of the map the player actually plays in.  The rest of the map space is for distant terrain (as it's a desert map on terrain).  Then again this is only an issue for me because deserts tend to be flat, and when your gameplay takes place ontop of a mesa, you can see REALLY far in the distance.

Currently the issue for me though is making the edges of the map not visible yet still finishing my map intime for the ICMC competition.  I might end up not having enough time to get a proper boarder that looks realistic in my map simply due to time alone.  If I didn't redesign my map half-way though the development this wouldn't of been an issue of course

What can I say, I was a newbie then at really coming up with a solid design that didn't just involve whatever was on my head at the time