11 réponses à ce sujet

[DahliaLynn]

I am wondering if there is anyway to place massive amounts of actors (as in a crowd)
and making it efficient enough so that it doesn't use up that much memory resources in the editor/game.
As well as ambient activity and the efficient use of animation inserts like cheering for example.

Any input would be appreciated!

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 09 juillet 2010 - 04:38 .

[John Epler]

Unfortunately placing large amounts of characters in any cut scene is going to tax your system pretty heavily. There are a couple of things you can do to avoid this - one way is to disable Headtracking scrubbing (there's an icon on the top to do this) - the other is to play with LoD so it's not rendering everything at a high level.



Honestly, your best bet is to keep cutscenes short - the longer they are, the more the auto-scrub feature has to calculate and update animations/positions later on in the cutscene and the more you end up with the minute-long delay on anything you try and do.

[Beerfish]

Also, it depends on exactly what you have in mind as BioWare has some fx's that essentially replicate large mobs fighting and such or moving around.



There are some camera tricks you can probably use to give the impression of more people than what are really in the cutscene. (As in perhaps one zoomed out shot showing many actors then the rest zoomed in showing only a few of the crowd at a time thus cutting down on your need for too many actors using those animations.)

[DahliaLynn]

Yes beerfish! do tell me regarding the replication of large mobs! That's essentially what I need!

(BTW I have thought of the cam tricks, but eventually I will have to show a long shot in the scene I am making, and I can't add and delete chars in the scene with every shot)

[DahliaLynn]

JohnEpler wrote...

Unfortunately placing large amounts of characters in any cut scene is going to tax your system pretty heavily. There are a couple of things you can do to avoid this - one way is to disable Headtracking scrubbing (there's an icon on the top to do this) - the other is to play with LoD so it's not rendering everything at a high level.

Honestly, your best bet is to keep cutscenes short - the longer they are, the more the auto-scrub feature has to calculate and update animations/positions later on in the cutscene and the more you end up with the minute-long delay on anything you try and do.

Thanks for your reply, perhaps it would be better to connect several short cutscenes by fades to black in order to elliminate the load issue?

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 10 juillet 2010 - 01:09 .

[Beerfish]

DahliaLynn wrote...

Yes beerfish! do tell me regarding the replication of large mobs! That's essentially what I need!
(BTW I have thought of the cam tricks, but eventually I will have to show a long shot in the scene I am making, and I can't add and delete chars in the scene with every shot)

Well you can easily make them invisible without deleting them if you go that route.

[Beerfish]

These are the fx's I was talking about you will have to investigate whether they are suitable for your use or not and they do have to be zoomed out a fair bit to look right.



fxe_sa_dead_p Dead bodies pile up all over area as long as fx plays

fxe_sa_fght01_p Shadowy figures fighting all over area as long as fx plays

fxe_sa_fght02_p Mass of fighters battling all over the area as long as fx plays



fxe_sa_hurl02_p Milling groups of small fighters (dwarves?)

fxe_sa_hurl03_p Milling groups of fighters (humans or darkspawn?)

fxe_sa_kni01_p Lines of milling fighters



fxe_sa_torchglow_p Many torch glows



fxe_sprite_arena_p Milling groups of small fighters (dwarves?)



fxm_bttl_chrg02_p Large number of fighters charging

[DahliaLynn]

Thanks Beerfish

Essentially what I need is cheering crowds rather than fights, but with the information you have given me I can now begin researching the fx portion of the toolset.

Thanks again

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 10 juillet 2010 - 01:08 .

[FergusM]

fxe_sprite_arena_p is the cheering crowd using in the Proving. I think the whole crowd may be one model though, and it is a weird shape.

[DahliaLynn]

Thank you FergusM, I actually checked that out. Unfortunately I don't think that will suit my needs. Currently I am experimenting with lowering the LOD on the placed crowd, hoping that will cut down on the memory load. I was also wondering what would be the difference between placing actors in an area rather than the cutscene itself and if it has any bearing on the memory resources. (I won't do it for other reasons, but I am just trying to figure out how to use the cutscene editor most efficiently)
A short list of organized questions :
1. Does propping an **area** with preloaded placeables, and actors save on resource memory load when said area is loaded into the cutscene?
2. Do poses take less load than basic animations? Are they the same?
3. Does the usage of VFX affect the load drastically? Would it be the same as new actor placement?

I am just looking to find out where I can indulge a little more, and where I have to be a bit more careful. I have no way of finding out memory usage ratios, unless I continuously restart the toolset and physically look at the meter with each change.

Modifié par DahliaLynn, 10 juillet 2010 - 10:50 .

[DahliaLynn]

Anyone who wants to know, using LOD settings freed up a ton of memory usage space. Logical.

[Beerfish]

Thanks Dahlia. I may have to tinker with that as I have a cutscene I'm working on that will probably be a memory hog.