I've just coaxed an area back to health, it had been causing a crash to desktop in-game right as the area began to load (after the module areas had been completely loaded). It was a big area, 32x32, as I work on several areas conjoined, to keep the landscape continuous. The area included a high mountainous region with a lake and streams flowing down to lower areas and eventually to the sea.
I finally got the area to stop crashing by erasing a lot of the water, especially the mountain streams. I'm guessing that having too many different layers/heights of water in a single area can cause the renderer to crash, with the limit probably being somewhere between 6 and 12.
Any other thoughts as to what might have caused the crash?
Too much of water hath thou poor Toolset
Débuté par
Lugaid of the Red Stripes
, janv. 02 2012 07:17
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#2
Posté 02 janvier 2012 - 09:49
painofdungeoneternal
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Too much of anything will. I've heard issues with too many triggers, too many placeables, too many shadows from actual people working in toolset. Now too much water. The issue being one of moderation. The toolset will not tell you how much it's using up, and will allow you to build things that can never work. Basically larger areas need more memory and closer to the max it's more likely to have issues both in building and using. ( both because they can hold more, and because they are much bigger).
I usually advise people who are just starting to not do everything using a 32x32 area, but figure out what area size is just enough to do what needs to be done. Just enough placeables and trees to get the point across. If an area is just not going to be visited make it unwalkable. If the player is just going to walk straight across the area, make it 32x16 or 32x8. Turn off all shadows, and go back and turn them on. I think of it as if i was doing a theatrical stage for a play, and i freely play games with the eyes to make things look epic and as a builder nothing "should" look right as you are seeing things from backstage and should be seeing your tricks. But from the perspective of the player things can look much bigger than 32x32 even with much smaller areas.
There is no set limit, but try to balance things, you can't have max area size and really detailed areas, but you can if you do everything else sparingly. 32x32 in itself is pushing the engine, so you have to use much more care when you do so. To a degree a more experienced builder will be able to pack more in mostly due to knowing how to set things up. I also try to only have a few areas in a module at a time ( a working module separate from my live module ) and rarely open more than one area at once ( usually just to do transitions or to compare them for some reason, and quickly restart toolset whenever i do so )
Unfortunately most of my notes on this was on the citadel which is down at the moment.
I usually advise people who are just starting to not do everything using a 32x32 area, but figure out what area size is just enough to do what needs to be done. Just enough placeables and trees to get the point across. If an area is just not going to be visited make it unwalkable. If the player is just going to walk straight across the area, make it 32x16 or 32x8. Turn off all shadows, and go back and turn them on. I think of it as if i was doing a theatrical stage for a play, and i freely play games with the eyes to make things look epic and as a builder nothing "should" look right as you are seeing things from backstage and should be seeing your tricks. But from the perspective of the player things can look much bigger than 32x32 even with much smaller areas.
There is no set limit, but try to balance things, you can't have max area size and really detailed areas, but you can if you do everything else sparingly. 32x32 in itself is pushing the engine, so you have to use much more care when you do so. To a degree a more experienced builder will be able to pack more in mostly due to knowing how to set things up. I also try to only have a few areas in a module at a time ( a working module separate from my live module ) and rarely open more than one area at once ( usually just to do transitions or to compare them for some reason, and quickly restart toolset whenever i do so )
Unfortunately most of my notes on this was on the citadel which is down at the moment.
#3
Posté 02 janvier 2012 - 10:36
MasterChanger
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You could also consider using Tanita's WaterMill. I've noticed many problems with it, so this isn't an unqualified endorsement. My general experience has been that most of the hangups with the WaterMill seem to occur during building rather than in-game, so it might help in your situation--you can fake having water at different levels even within the same tile.
Specifically, I remember that when I was trying to apply the WaterMill changes and/or bake, my computer would cry tears of RAM (I only have 2 GB).
Your areas have had the most interesting terrain of any I've seen for NWN2, so hopefully what you're doing now bears fruit!
Edit: I did not have a comma between "bake" and "my computer". It read pretty differently! I wasn't trying to bake it, but SpeedFan said I was doing a pretty good job of that accidentally.
Specifically, I remember that when I was trying to apply the WaterMill changes and/or bake, my computer would cry tears of RAM (I only have 2 GB).
Your areas have had the most interesting terrain of any I've seen for NWN2, so hopefully what you're doing now bears fruit!
Edit: I did not have a comma between "bake" and "my computer". It read pretty differently! I wasn't trying to bake it, but SpeedFan said I was doing a pretty good job of that accidentally.
Modifié par MasterChanger, 02 janvier 2012 - 10:38 .
#4
Posté 03 janvier 2012 - 01:42
kamal_
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Solution: paint down your water after you break up the 32x32 into it's individual areas.
