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Area size for Persistent World

raz651raz651 Member Posts: 175
in Builders - Toolset
What is the max size for an area in a persistent world? I think I remember that it was 16 or something like that. Has this changed? And will the max size of an area be changed from 32 to 64 or greater?

Comments

  • TondenTonden Member Posts: 223
    I haven’t ever created a PW, so I can only inform you what I have been told.

    A lot of people have told me that 16x16 is as large of an area as you really should create for a PW area using NWN1. I was also told it is better to keep most of your outdoor areas closer to 8x8 when possible. Now all that said it really matters what all you have in your area. The larger the area the more room you have to fill. The more NPC’s, Creatures, Placeables, items, and so on that are in an area is what really makes or breaks an area.

    Again I haven’t ever created a PW my self, so I can only tell you what I have been told over the years. I hope this helps you in some way.
  • raz651raz651 Member Posts: 175
    That is what I have heard also. But they have increased the texture limits from 64mb to 2047mb. So I was wondering if this would also affect the limits of the area size concerning Persistent Worlds. Or if they were going to increase the limits on the toolset to have areas bigger than 32x32. :)
  • FreshLemonBunFreshLemonBun Member Posts: 909
    A lot of ppl also tend to be incorrect or parrot what they heard or misinterpreted elsewhere.

    16x16 isn't that large but an 8x8 exterior is positively tiny. I don't think I've ever played on a world that only has 8x8 exteriors bu I think it would be quite funny like NWN2 except those areas are more like 50mb each instead of just 200kb or 300kb.

    There might have been some truth to it in 2002 with ppl on dial-up but today I think you'll be hard pressed to find even a webpage as small as an NWN area. I have no problems playing on worlds with decorated 32x32 areas. My experience with NWN2 worlds is that they tend to make areas so small it feels like you're in a theme park ride each with it's own themed miniature enclosure.

    Preloading and caching areas would be good so you never see an overland transition, you always pre-load at a depth of 2 or 3 adjoining areas in the background, and can stitch areas together so the world appears seamless. Either that or the ability to make much larger areas would be nice.
  • TondenTonden Member Posts: 223
    Preloading and caching areas for a seamless module sounds really really nice. That said every area would have to be build so that they matched up at the edge of each area. This would be really hard to do with all the different tilesets out there, shoot you couldn't even do it with all the standard tilesets.

    This is why I we would have a better chance of fixing the engine so that we could create much larger areas.
  • FreshLemonBunFreshLemonBun Member Posts: 909
    You are right it would have to be optional and set up by the module builder. But you could add in a system where a builder specifies in the area properties where it lines up with other areas in terms of tile coordinates.

    Say you have and 8x8 area A with a 20x20 area B adjacent to it, you could specify that A lines up with B mapping the corner tile A(x=8, y=1, z=1) to B(1, 4, 1) so you would have them fuse together across the border B(1, 4, 1) to B(1, 11, 1).

    You couldn't make all the tiles look exactly the same so that would be a small problem that custom content can fix by making textured border transition tiles. The other obvious problem would be mesh differences and gaping holes in a hillside, which you might fix by having it render like a shear cliff instead.

    Either way I tend to find bigger worlds are just more immersive even if they're not as densely decorated you still get more the sense that you're on a big journey when the next transition isn't a 10 second hop away. A 64x64 area would be pretty impressive too and 128x128 if possible would be amazing.
  • raz651raz651 Member Posts: 175
    I like the idea of a border transition tileset, or maybe the ability to use two different tilesets in an area at the same time.
  • TondenTonden Member Posts: 223
    edited December 2017



    If we added some of the city tiles to the standard rural Tileset








    Something like TNO did









    Then add some forest Tiles to the Rural as well








    The above screenshot is of the Standard Rural Tileset with addons. One of the addons adds forest tiles which you can see. This helps when transitioning from rural to forest or the other way around.

    By doing something like the screenshots above and making it so you can create larger areas without having problems could make for some really nice looking PW's


    These are the kind of haks I'm currently working on for the Standard Tilesets. If anyone would like to help just contact me here or on the Vault. Even if you don't know how to help as long as your willing to learn I can teach you enough quickly so you would be able to help out more then you currently know.




  • TondenTonden Member Posts: 223
    edited December 2017


    If we added city to the rural Tileset









    something like TNO












    Then add some forest Tiles to the Rural as well















    The above screenshot is of the Standard Rural Tileset with some addons. One of the addons adds custom made Forest Tiles to help with transitioning from rural to forest or the other way around.


    So if the engine could be fixed to handle larger areas and we was to combine that with addons like the ones I posted above, well it could make some really nice looking PWs.


    I'm currently working on haks like these and if anyone would like to help please just contact me here or on the Vault. Even if you currently don't know how, as long as your willing to learn I could teach you enough to be a BIG help with a project like this.
    Post edited by Tonden on
  • TheCapuletTheCapulet Member Posts: 43
    Tonden said:


    I'm currently working on haks like these and if anyone would like to help please just contact me here or on the Vault. Even if you currently don't know how, as long as your willing to learn I could teach you enough to be a BIG help with a project like this.

    What tree override are you using btw?
  • TondenTonden Member Posts: 223
    In the screenshots above this is a mix of everything because I really didn’t know even 5% of what I know now when I put those haks together.

    So that said, I will be going through all the haks and picking out the better trees and getting rid of the ones that aren’t so great.

    In the end I would like a good mix of trees to use. That way people can create the look that they want.
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