terjesolgard wrote:
I feel like you thinks that corpses would use like 50% of the hardware. That isn't the case.
A caveat first: I haven’t checked the Dragon Age toolset yet, so obviously don’t know for certain exactly what script slots, nor types of scripts (and type is important) that NPCs use in this game. However, I made a very large module for NwN (35+ game hours) and the basics would be the same, and I’m aware also that this game is actually more script intensive. We’ve already discussed the rendering etc etc.
In my experience fully operational NPCs (alive or slain) suck a LOT of resources, and past a critical mass or number of them maybe 50% or more. Even if they’ve been killed, whilst they remain extant in the area they’re firing off heartbeat scripts, perception scripts etc etc. (Actually placing an already dead NPC in an area is something else since the scripts can be removed from their handler slots.) This is why most enemy NPCs are not in an area when you enter it, but are rather spawned in via encounter trigger or some other method. Yes, alive and perhaps attacking NPCs use more resources than slain ones – animations, spells, other various combat scripts firing etc – but the dead ones are still a performance liability. A live NPC that has not actually spotted you is pretty much identical to a dead one on the ground resource-wise. If they (the dead ones) were allowed to remain in a largish, detailed area (moving detail in particular) with a *lot* of combat then near the end of exploration and fighting in that area your system, regardless of how good it is, would be suffering some kind of performance hit. In medium or lower end systems this could be quite significant.
if you could be bothered, and if one of your party has the requisite stealth talents, you could even test this by stealthing through, say, one of the larger Deep Roads areas and triggering all the encounters, before returning to where you started and beginning your whole party exploration/fighting. Regardless of your PC hardware (have no comment about other platforms) I would be extremely surprised if you didn’t notice a significant performance difference.
Anyway, not all bodies disappear after combat, often there are a few left lying around, so Bioware has actually addressed your concerns with ‘realism’ to an extent they feel is reasonable without compromising the experience of a large number of their clients. I would venture to guess that most people playing DA:O on a PC would be playing at medium or low.
But anyway, yeah, it *is* the case in some situations, in my experience as an amateur dev, that slain NPCs could have a significant impact on performance. It would take a lot of them to suck 50% but it’s certainly possible.
And you say further down that they wouldnt add corpses for a minority of the players, yet you argue that YOUR computer is 2 years old and it would be crap for you if it happened. Considering xbox, ps3 and alot of players with great computers I would say you are a minority aswell. So with your own logic why should they bow to you?
Well, they already have bowed to me, which is to say common sense, haven’t they? I can make no comment about other platforms, as I said above, and obviously I have no data about different platform numbers, but decaying corpses in a PC version is necessary, even (probably) with a great machine, which most of us don’t have.
And exacly where in Dragon Age is it large terrains or places? Most cities or places you go are smaller zone, with are cut into more than one again. If you enter a house it is a loading screen, aka a new zone. And very few npc's do anything at all. They mostly just stand at the same position the entire game.
Forgive my spelling, maybe: Ostagar, Lothering, the Wilds, the Deep Roads areas, all the temple areas, Denerim Markets, Redcliffe Village, some of the forest areas, all of these and more are huge, and some very busy also with moving placeables etc etc and largish numbers of NPCs. Also, it doesn’t matter that much relatively speaking whether NPCs are animated or not.
It shouldnt be too hard to add a option for us who wants corpses that's all I say. The mod is proof for that.
Again, the low number of people responding to this topic attest to the fact that most folks are quite happy with decaying corpses, consider it no biggie, recognize the necessity of it, insert other reasons... And I saw no mod. A project with no files is all....
Retour en haut
