Storing Game Attributes in a Table - refer to the Table or to the Attribute?

TheAlchemyst

In order to make it extremely convenient for me to tweak the game calculations, I was going to store all of the constants in a Table and refer calculations to it there, instead of writing constants directly into the equations.

My question is this: in the interest of game speed, is it better to refer to the table directly, or to update a global attribute to the table value?

• Table directly: Damage calculation would be (tablecellvalue(TB_Constant,1,2)*Self.Damage)
• Attribute: Damage calculation would be (Game.DamageMod*Self.Damage), and then I'd have an actor that updates the Game.DamageMod attribute to match tablecellvalue(TB_Constant,1,2)

Braydon_SFX

@TheAlchemyst said:
I'd prefer tables as well, but I'm expecting some pretty heavy calculations so I wanted to check. I know there are some... intricacies to what impacts game speed that are hard to tell from a beginner's perspective

It can get messy and complicated doing calculations in a table expression. If that's the case perhaps you want to use global variables. Again, it's up to you.

Braydon_SFX

I don't know if you'll see much difference if you see difference at all. I'd say you should go with your preference.

My preference would be to use tables.

TheAlchemyst

I'd prefer tables as well, but I'm expecting some pretty heavy calculations so I wanted to check. I know there are some... intricacies to what impacts game speed that are hard to tell from a beginner's perspective

TheAlchemyst

What complications would that be? Being an Excel geek by day, I figured I could just do something like (tablecellvalue(TB_Constant,1,2)*Self.Damage)^(tablecellvalue(TB_Constant,1,3))-tablecellvalue(TB_Constant,1,4) or what have you and still be fine

Braydon_SFX

@TheAlchemyst said:
What complications would that be? Being an Excel geek by day, I figured I could just do something like (tablecellvalue(TB_Constant,1,2)*Self.Damage)^(tablecellvalue(TB_Constant,1,3))-tablecellvalue(TB_Constant,1,4) or what have you and still be fine

If you use Excel a lot, then you would most likely spot errors in your expression. I don't use Excel much but do a lot of table expressions. If it's a long expression, sometimes I leave out a parenthesis or two. That's just me.

tatiang

http://forums.gamesalad.com/discussion/comment/523976/#Comment_523976