Knytt stories-Untitled story-IWBTG-ish adventure, y'know; with lots of environment and stuff.
Is it best to have all the "rooms" in different frames? Or some in some frames or whatever??
'cause I've experienced lag if you have too much in one frame, even if you select the "ignore if too far from frame"...
I thought Knytt Stories was (accidentally) open-source?
You can probably still find it somewhere and see exactly how it works.
I write all the code in just one MMF frame, but load the world from external files.
If you want smooth scrolling around the world, you have no choice but to put it all in one frame.
If you're happy to flick to the next room when the player walks off the edge of the screen, then you're probably better off loading the world one screen at a time (I think that's what Knytt Stories does).
It might be more efficient to break the world into "zones". For example, you could have one frame for an "arctic" zone - this would contain the code for a sasquatch enemy, slippery ice floors, etc but it would be used for several rooms.
By splitting your world up this way, you can keep the code a bit more simple (you're never going to need the code for a sasquatch in a desert zone).
If it's tile-based, an Array is probably more suitable than an Ini.
It does mean you have to make your own custom level editor as well, of course.
I think it depends on the scale of the game:
If you only have a small game-world, you can make it all in one frame (eg. Plasma Warrior).
If you have a medium-sized game-world, you might want to spread it across multiple frames.
If you have a really big game-world, it's probably easier to use external files (a custom level editor can be more efficient than using MMF's Frame Editor, so you'll save yourself some trouble in the long run).
I think it depends if the slowdown is caused by graphics or events.
If you're using the HWA version and still have slowdown, then it's probably caused by events - in which case the options you mentioned might help.
I've never tried making such an epic game that I had trouble with slowdown though, so I don't know.
You might be able to code some things more efficiently too (eg. Running a lot of fastloops all the time).
I've tried both and I think for big games it's better if each room was a separate frame. Just make sure that when you go from room to room that your hero's X/Y values are updated correctly or else it'll be stupid.
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Edited by Solgryn
