Simulating infinate space

ID:151383
 
Apr 2 2011, 3:52 pm (Edited on Apr 2 2011, 4:01 pm)
Ever since I've been on Byond I've attempted to develop a space themed game, however I've always run into the same problems, most of which stem from my lack of understanding of DM and programming in general. With the progress I have made, it always comes down to pixel movement, multi tiled mobs, and space simulation.

In regard to the space simulation, does anyone have any ideas on how this might work? Of course, when I first attempted this project i just made multiple insanely large maps but the problem with that was obvious.

The best i could come up with was to give each player a certain amount of actual space on the map, and continue them looping through the same space until their false coordinates (a separate x,y,z counter) reached a recognized a pre defined range, so they could actually end up somewhere. However, the problem with this was when players had to interact with other players. I couldn't figure out a way to make sure if two players were going to the same destination, even if their false coordinates read the same in a non-pre specified location, they could meet.

Does this make sense?
Apr 3 2011, 7:30 pm (Edited on Apr 3 2011, 7:50 pm)
I was wanting to do the same quite awhile back. I managed it by loading and unloading 100x100 sized map chunks with a view + 1 sized border. The border regions were filled with map data of the adjacent cells so that the players never see the edge of the map. Once they pass over they warp to the next 100x100 cell and if done right the player will never even know there was a transition. The fun part however is to prevent objects and mobs from popping in and out on the border regions. So if a player/object is nearing the edge of a cell it needs to be mirrored on every cell that can see the edge so for the corner locations it could be up to 3 other map cells.

It's a really neat effect when it works but it takes a whole lot of effort and you'll be fighting with it a lot for implementing just about anything to get it to look right and not have issues when mirroring dummy versions. BYOND lets you have up to 16 million turfs and there really isn't much overhead so long as you aren't running code on all of them. So it'd probably just be easier to use a really big map and scale down the speeds and sizes to make it look and feel larger and through means like fuel usage make it impractical to ever make it to the map edges.

In the end a fun game that's less technically impressive is gonna be better than one that pulls off cool tricks but isn't as much fun to play. Better to put the effort where it matters :P!

[Edit]
Well since I probably won't ever really be doing anything with the source anyway I guess I can release it. Just remember this source is 8 years old so I have no clue what state it is in. I didn't have any intention of releasing it when I was working on it either so it's probably ugly. You can salvage whatever you want from the code however any of the graphics that look good are Foomer's so not mine to give away. If you wish to use any of those graphics you'll have to contact him somehow for permission.

http://files.byondhome.com/Theodis/SpaceGame.zip