Hypothetical question: how would having hundreds of prototype actors impact a project?

Paxton

Both in terms of loading performance and general laggyness - or other unforeseen stuff. There would never be more than 30 actors in one scene, but hundreds of prototype ones used across scenes.

I am thinking of doing this since my game is based on spawning things, and I cannot spawn "recycled" actors (non prototype ones) easily. The easiest way would be just to make lots of prototypes, but I am unsure what it would imply.

Thanks!

jonmulcahy

@Paxton said:
Both in terms of loading performance and general laggyness - or other unforeseen stuff. There would never be more than 30 actors in one scene, but hundreds of prototype ones used across scenes.

I am thinking of doing this since my game is based on spawning things, and I cannot spawn "recycled" actors (non prototype ones) easily. The easiest way would be just to make lots of prototypes, but I am unsure what it would imply.

Thanks!

it shouldn't matter. I have a game that had a few hundred actors, it only really matters how many are on screen at once.

Armelline

A game I'm working on at the moment has over 400 actors so far, with lots more to come, and regularly has over 100 on screen at once, some with very heavy logic. Lots of spawning. No issues. If you plan things carefully you can make GameSalad do a surprising amount.

wayback_gamer

Do it with one actor or your sacrificing performance, and not because of GS, but rather the limitations of any cpu.

tatiang

What is it about your actor instances that is unique? Do they have different images, different velocities, different rules, etc.?

You might be surprised how much you can simplify things in GameSalad by using tables, mathematical formulas, etc. I've been able to optimize games for clients where I was able to remove dozens of actors and hundreds of rules from just a few main actors. They had set up a system that worked but it was far from efficient.

Socks

@jonmulcahy said:
it shouldn't matter. I have a game that had a few hundred actors, it only really matters how many are on screen at once.

+1

@Armelline said:
A game I'm working on at the moment has over 400 actors so far, with lots more to come, and regularly has over 100 on screen at once, some with very heavy logic. Lots of spawning. No issues. If you plan things carefully you can make GameSalad do a surprising amount.

+1

@tatiang said:
You might be surprised how much you can simplify things in GameSalad by using tables, mathematical formulas, etc. I've been able to optimize games for clients where I was able to remove dozens of actors and hundreds of rules from just a few main actors.

+1

It's perfectly viable to have dozens if not hundreds of actors in a project and - if organized and optimised reasonably well - have it all run smoothly at 60fps.

My bat senses tell me we are about to get a @Lost_Oasis_Games video tutorial link on optimized code !

The_Gamesalad_Guru

@socks lol. Optimize code is so abstract it's hard to teach. I did one small video on it with a simple example. I think the main thing is people understanding and seeing things as logic and not as making a player jump or building an inventory et... Once people see everything as logic conditions, then they can see how to build anything.