Too many objects...?

A forum for discussing map making ideas and problems for the Myth series.
t o x y n
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Too many objects...?

Post by t o x y n »

After playing some games on my map last night w/ folks (thanks ppl), someone mentioned that I might have went over the object limit after going thru some of the level and killing enemies, etc. The map uses a lot of trees and other scenery, and I've added projectiles such as leaves, flies around ambient dead bodies, etc.

Anyhow, I was testing what I was hoping would be the final beta of my map. I got to the end to see if I fixed an issue with the scripting for the final battle. Well, I fixed it, but when I got down to the last 2 enemy units, something went wrong. Although my zerks were slicing away at the last 2 trolls, they werent doing any damage. Same goes for the trolls, they werent doing damage to my zerks. I shot at the entire group w/ the mort and no mort ball flew out of his cannon. I just heard the firing noise but no projectile in sight. So, I guess I must have hit an object limit, or something like that.

Do I just remove some scenery here and there if that is the problem?
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rabid_wombat
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Post by rabid_wombat »

I think you're right, I've heard of something like this happening before. But I haven't played in a long time so I might be thinking of something else. Try cutting down on the projectiles being created though, maybe less flies and such :P
t o x y n
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Post by t o x y n »

Ok, I did a quick sweep around the map and tossed a lot of the local projectiles (leaves mostly). I also deleted some scenery objects and did some reorganizing to reduce the number of total objects. I can keep going through it, but for now, here are my numbers per the Mesh Limits display in Loathing...


ambient sound defs: 5/64
artifact defs: 0/128
collection defs: 56/256
collection reference defs: 49/320
local physics defs: 13/128
local projectile defs: 0/128
local projectile group defs: 19/128
lightning systems defs: 2 /16
map actions: 277/1024
mesh_effect defs: 1/32
models: 0/512
model defs: 0/512
model animation defs: 0/512
monster defs: 18/96
object defs: 72/256
projectile defs: 165/1024
projectile group defs: 92/768
scenery defs: 38/96
unit defs: 18/512
objects: 3371/8192 <-- was over 4000 before I deleted some stuff
MA params size: 13068/65536

Should I keep going with the cleanup of the scenery objects? If so, what amount should I aim to keep my total number of objects under?

thanks
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Fury IX
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Post by Fury IX »

Yea I have had that problem alot... 4000 is a very high number, might want to lower that to about 3000 or less. Some scenery like ww2 sandbags make sooo many objects when busted, maybe if you have any stuff like that cut some of those first. While in a game pushing shift page down might show you some in game stats that could be useful in tracking what leaves the most objects behind. LPGRs shouldnt be an issue, unless you have alot of spell casters, but they shouldnt leave objects anyway. an object is like a projectile at rest, any body part or dust particle or scenery or tree limb that stays around.
t o x y n
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Post by t o x y n »

I was wondering how sillek was able to tell the amount of objects during a game, heh. Thanks for the tip.

I'll go through the map some more tomorrow and try to cut down the total number some more, then do some testing and see if I can balance this out.
Myrd
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Post by Myrd »

If you press shift-pagedown in-game, you can see some stats while the game is running.

Watch the film of the game you're saying bugged out, and see what limit was getting reached. Then figure out what you can do to prevent that.
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Baak
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Post by Baak »

Myrd wrote:If you press shift-pagedown in-game, you can see some stats while the game is running.
Learn something new and kewl every day. :)
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Fury IX
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Post by Fury IX »

either ask the right questions, or mash the keys violently; there are several ways to learn stuff :)
t o x y n
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Post by t o x y n »

Argh, this is drivin me nuts. I've lowered the total amount of objects to about 2200, and I still hit the limit while playing my map. How come stuff like Mazz and Grave Tidings that have hundreds of objects via dead bodies/body parts dont have this issue? =P

To note, this always happens at the same place- right when the last wave of units attacks. The issue where no more projectiles from arty units or damage from melee units (for both friendly and enemy units) has happened even though the object total has shown different numbers. I've hit about 4300 and had it happen, as well as 5200ish with the same result. Is there something else possibly wrong?
Myrd
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Post by Myrd »

Are you sure it's not the projectile limit or explosions limit that you're hitting?

Also, plugins like Mazz employ scripting that removes objects that have been on the ground for some time.
t o x y n
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Post by t o x y n »

Going thru films now to triple check...
t o x y n
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Post by t o x y n »

You're right, it's the projectile limit. :(

*ponders fix*
A-Red
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Post by A-Red »

Myrd wrote:Also, plugins like Mazz employ scripting that removes objects that have been on the ground for some time.
Grave Tidings doesn't though. The limit must be really high now, because I've never hit it...which really astonished me given the length of the map and the amount of carnage, although I'm glad i didn't need to use a biodegrader.

But it really leads me to wonder...on a map as small as that one, how did you manage to go over the projectile limit?
t o x y n
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Post by t o x y n »

lol, not quite sure.

I'm trying to narrow things down as to why this is happening at only this part of the level. While going thru the map and killing enemy units, especially with the mort hero, the proj limit jumps to as high as 600ish sometimes. However, the proj limit obviously falls back to below 100 once fighting is finished. This doesn't happen during the final battle though.

The total projectile amount hovers at a total of about 130-140 right before going in to engage the enemy for the last battle. There are a few things that happen when the player triggers the final battle.

1) Given they havent already been killed by the player, a group of enemy units is set to disappear via a CTRL function which is set to activate on success in the TUNI function that triggers the final battle.

2) The first wave of the final attack sequence are a pair of wights. When the final battle sequence of actions is started, the following things happen:
-Summoner Unit fades out and disappears
-If still alive, enemy units on N. base are faded out and disappear
-Pair of wights move out of water to attack (first part of final battle)

After those 3 things, before the wights are killed, the projectile limit jumps to 250-300 total. Once I open fire at wights and kill one with my arty, it jumps to above 400 and hovers in the area of 390-430. Once I kill the second wight, the total jumps to above 500 and bounces all the way up to 720 via wight puss popping when it hits the ground.

Now, as soon as wights are dead, the very last wave of enemies spawns AND comes out of the water. Before any of my arty fires at the last wave, and after all invincible units are spawned and underwater units have surfaces, the projectile limit is hovering at around 530-550. There are still 3-4 small wight pieces bouncing around at this time, but no big puss paks that haven't already exploded.

My arty units begin to open fire and the projectile limit now jumps to about 575, and after they continue to fire at the charging enemies, the number continues to rise all the way up to a hovering point of 730-760. Now, the enemies are close enough so that I have to engage them w/ my melee units. Among the enemy is a single Mahir, btw. I spacebar my arty units and move them away to a safe distance. They aren't even attacking anymore, simply just sitting there. My melee fights with the remaining enemy units and the projectile total rises to above 800 and never stops climbing. The enemy units are trolls and trow- both have the same death sequence (turns to stone and then breaks into multiple pieces). I think that might be part of the problem. Once both trow, the mahir and a few trolls are dead, and only a few trolls remain, the projectile limit has been hit. The game can't be finished since neither I nor the enemy can inflict damage on eachother and once the limit has been hit, it won't reset or fall below that.
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Baak
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Post by Baak »

We have a film from a couple weeks back that seems to have hit the projectile limit and I was quite surprised that it had done so - something seemed amiss.

I will dig around for it and send it to you Myrd - perhaps it will shed some light on the situation.
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