Map size?

ID:273868
 
Jun 24 2011, 6:03 am
For some reason I go against large maps, I believe some advice I read was that they were not the best thing for a game. I'm not sure If I ever questioned that advice. Since here I am wondering. Why not? What is so wrong about large maps? Why cant my map be 1000x1000or 3kby3k!!? because of some seeded doubt that may have been planted as I read the words of a similar topic years ago or misunderstood them.
My question,Cons of large maps?
Jun 24 2011, 7:33 am
My experience is they create a larger CPU usage on the host's CPU due to a larger rsc file, more time to load, and a larger save file in the end. They could also cause lag during Login() or just general loading for all characters when just one char is loading or logging in.

Just my experience tho. It may no be the most textbook answer.
Apr 12 2013, 11:23 pm
what if you are making a game that requires big maps. What's the best thing to do then?
Apr 15 2013, 5:02 am
In response to Rapido
I've seen 500x500x20 maps load with ease, it's more of a matter of.. what do you intend to do with the turfs? Gotta be careful about that. For a while I had a big issue with creating a new list for every turf when they were created (something I didn't notice at first, sadly, that I had done)

I haven't tested the limits, but I'm confident that you can get enough space out of the maps and be ok.
Apr 15 2013, 5:17 am
Turfs that are not 'special'; as in you've not edited them via the map editor to have different values to what's in the code, will be folded together a bit in the DMB file (maps live in the DMB) to save space.

The way it works is via 'runs', so if you have the same turf for an entire 500x500 Z-level for example, that can be represented as ... 4 map entries ((500 x 500) % 65535 which is the max run length), making for quite a small map in terms of DMB size.

If you alternated between two turfs, so one turf at 1,1,1, then the second turf at 1,2,1, back to the first at 1,3,1 etc, your map would have 250,000 map entries and be kind of big in terms of the DMB.

Now, as Kitsueki has hinted at, that's not necessarily an issue. Once that's in memory and loaded, whatever. The issue is, what kind of information are your turfs going to carry, are they going to run any procedures over time etc.

Unlike objs or mobs, it's very easy to have a massive problem on your hand because one little process, or variable, gets duplicated some 250,000 times by careless design.