ID:826116
 
Keywords: pixel, size, tile
(See the best response by DarkCampainger.)
Hey there.

I'm just starting to learn the Byond's language, and before I can begin to make my plans for my games, I'm willing to know something...

Is it possible to decrease the amount of pixels that each tile holds in Byond? It might be a silly question, assuming that I'm just a beginner. I sort of noticed that something like this might have been used in NEStalgia, but this can also be just an impression.

Would this decrease the amount of lag? In which situations, precisely? Thanks for your attention!

world/icon_size control the size of each tile.

This doesn't usually significantly affect the CPU usage or network usage of a game. However, for example, changing the view size can have a significant impact (as it determines how many tiles a user must be notified of).
That's my point. I'm wondering if I lowered the size of the tiles, instead of increasing the view size (therefore, the amount of pixels moving in the screen), I could, somehow, avoid any lag issues. The real point of the question is if it avoids lag.

Which's bugging me, given that I'm only a beginner.

EDIT: if world/icon_size doesn't affect too much, then I think decreasing it eventually helps the gameplay lag-wise, given that I won't need to increase the view size...
Best response
The view size is measured in tiles, not pixels.

For example, with an icon_size of 32 and a view of 15x15 (view=7), your visible area in pixels will be 480x480 (32*15). A client's view will be made up of 225 tiles (15*15).

If you decrease the icon_size to 16, but keep the view the same, your visible area in pixels decreases to 240x240 (16*15). A client's view will still be made up of 225 tiles.

Decreasing the icon_size won't cause you to actually see more/less tiles, and won't significantly affect CPU/Network performance.

However, if you increase the view size, then you will incur a hit to performance as more tiles will have to be processed. For example, if you use an icon_size of 16 paired with an increased view of 31x31, you'll have a 496x496 pixel visible area, but each client now needs to know about (at least) 961 tiles instead of the 225 for a view of 15x15.

The best advice I can give you is to try out a couple of combinations, and see which offer a good balance between visuals and performance.
So, in the end, would mean only a decrease in the amount of pixels in the screen? Hmmm, that won't help much, I guess. Perhaps the only good side of this would be the less amount of work in iconing, as I would need to make smaller icons instead. Thanks for your help!