[24 Jan 2010] Heaviness of Layers. (how many, how big layers can there be on screen)

[Bugala]

Note: This is an archived post that was originally sent to the Hollywood mailing list on Sun, 24 Jan 2010 06:41:22 -0000

This is bit hard to give any accurate answer, so answer to the best you can.

Suppose i want to make a star sky where stars move with independent speeds when guy moves up. Now if i for some reason would want to use layers for those prolly 1x1 pixel sized stars, and put say 100 of them to screen, and then keep moving them as layers, i suppose there is no problem yet, since they are so small.

But what if i want to make say those old time 3D like demos where they created balls, cybes and stuff from dots that kept changing form. So i would then need much more dots, say 10 000 dots. Would this be too heavy for hollywood to handle if layers would be used to this?

Second, what about say i want to make populous type game where there could be even couple of hundred of small sized creatures running arounf the screen, would this be too heavy for normal modern day machines, say Sam440EP to handle?

How much difference is there between making small multiple small sized layers or one big one.

I mean, if i have one 100x100 pixel guy moving around or 100 1x1 pixel creatures, which one is harder for hollywood to handle?

And then as bonus question. If layers are not enough for one of those things in questions, then is there some better way to do them? ie. do sprites move faster or something?

Basically i plan to stick to layers since they are so handy to use unless there comes some good reason not to use.

[airsoftsoftwair]

Note: This is an archived post that was originally sent to the Hollywood mailing list on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 22:23:41 +0100

This is bit hard to give any accurate answer, so answer to the best you can.

Suppose i want to make a star sky where stars move with independent speeds when guy moves up. Now if i for some reason would want to use layers for those prolly 1x1 pixel sized stars, and put say 100 of them to screen, and then keep moving them as layers, i suppose there is no problem yet, since they are so small.

But what if i want to make say those old time 3D like demos where they created balls, cybes and stuff from dots that kept changing form. So i would then need much more dots, say 10 000 dots. Would this be too heavy for hollywood to handle if layers would be used to this?

Yes, 10 000 layers sounds like overkill. Of course, there is no limit how many layers you can use, but the more layers, the slower it will get. And 10 000 layers sounds likeeeeeeery slooooooow Better use a double buffered display for this.

Second, what about say i want to make populous type game where there could be even couple of hundred of small sized creatures running arounf the screen, would this be too heavy for normal modern day machines, say Sam440EP to handle?

Hard to tell, with several hundreds it's probably too slow but I could be wrong.

How much difference is there between making small multiple small sized layers or one big one.

I mean, if i have one 100x100 pixel guy moving around or 100 1x1 pixel creatures, which one is harder for hollywood to handle?

Um, the second is of course more trouble for Hollywood.

And then as bonus question. If layers are not enough for one of those things in questions, then is there some better way to do them? ie. do sprites move faster or something?

It all depends on the situation. There are no generic answers to these questions. You just have to try it... there's a chapter in the Hollywood guide about animation techniques which is also interesting.

[NubeCheCorre]

Note: This is an archived post that was originally sent to the Hollywood mailing list on Sun, 31 Jan 2010 01:05:48 +0100

Hi, i am not able to send message to the ML.. this is just a try..

Davide,