Large map creation help

[Rubixlight]

Oh no, sorry thats my whole map, i will use that to sculpt the terrain and all that good stuff then i will cut it into probably 6 section or maybe 12 or more and then stream them all in. I just used this example to show you what i mean by my streaming or basically switching from Map1 to Map2, lets say Map1 is Skyrim and Map 2 is Morrowind. I use one plane to create Skyrim and then another Morrowind but now i want to be able to move from Skyrim to Morrowind, if i make Skyrim, Morrowind, cyrodil, etc etc all in one map it will be to small so i would like to make multiple large maps representing each one a different country maybe this could clear what i would like to make a little more. Sorry for the confusion, as you can see i am not that great at describing things.

[LoGx Heaven]

Dude This Is Amazing!!

[ambershee]

I do think you're following at all. Stream small portions of the large maps you're apparently planning. Filling the entire gamespace and expecting it to load reasonably is a fools errand.

As an aside, how do you expect to actually populate a world that large? Game worlds like Skyrim's are built by massive teams of people over a number of years, with tools built for the job.

[cube2222]

Heh, you could try the daggerfall way. Generating it proceduraly. It's always nice to let the computer do the work for you . However, I have no idea how you could achieve that.

[Rubixlight]

Dont worry I understand what you mean and yes, I am aware that its a LOT of work, there are 3 of us at the moment and we will most likely expand soon. The current map we are making will be large but mostly populated with jungle area. there are 4 cities not enormous and a few caves, towns and things like that here and there. We are not in a rush to create it, its more of a hobby than anything really. Thank you for all the help guys i will keep you posted!

[Spoof]

I think you should do some prototyping, experimenting with the mechanics of how streaming works, its strengths and weaknesses, how you'll handle transitions, the requirements to make them convincing and the necessity of planning your world around it.

[Graylord]

Hey Ambershee thank you very much for the help. I have been looking further into it and i read around that they say when you go through the trigger area your player will lose all his data. how true is this? and would there be a way to fix this? I read through the documentation and they seem to have a way to fix that there, how ever would the be other ways? I believe this will be my last question. Thank you so much for answering my questions and taking the time to assist me.

Would it matter? Unless you are making an arcade game which somehow also the level of that size, you'd be implementing a save system which would work around this even if it was the case.

[Rubixlight]

@ Spoof: Yeah, im sure it will be a lot of trial an error with this part.
@ Graylod: very true, we do have the system to work around it, but i was just wondering if there was another way of the "teleporting" to another level but being able to keep the data intact. Im sure we will find a work around it. Thanks guys for the help, i really appreciate it.

[ambershee]

I suspect the loss of data only occurs when you move between persistent levels (i.e load a new map file completely), not cross between streaming levels, teleporting or otherwise.