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Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 3:39 pm
by guigr
I have some moving teleporters in my 4th level which require a lot of timers to activate/desactivate. So i wanted to move them to another floor to clear the view a bit.
Sadly I found out that everything was working a lot slower. The timer was set at 0.8sec between each teleporter and suddenly it took 3-4 seconds.
Is this a known bug or is there is a workaround?
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:01 pm
by Trollmann
I think that's how the game works. Everything moves slower on the levels you're not in at the moment. Same as when you sleep, everything moves 2x faster, timers included.
Have you tried scripting the timers? That way they won't take any room from your editor view, or just move them all in one spot when you've set them out and tested that they're working like intended, possibly into some corner of the map, nearest to the spot the teleporters are located.
The editor still has a room for improvements when talking about UI, possibly filters to hide items / logistics / monsters etc.
Yesterday I was actually thinking about making a topic or something about basics how to start editing your levels, how several things work, things to try to avoid etc.
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:10 pm
by Isaac
I notice this effect with my pitImmunity mod. If you place one or more pits below a pit and the party falls through (multiple floors); the timer handling the immunity gets waaay off.
It can leave the party immune to damage for many seconds after they land; or revoke their immunity before they land.
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:32 pm
by guigr
Thanks, scripting seems a good idea even if I suck at that. There's some examples that might help me around here
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 4:37 pm
by Trollmann
guigr wrote:Thanks, scripting seems a good idea even if I suck at that. There's some examples that might help me around here
I'm a newbie myself, when it comes to Lua
Still I've started to use the script entity in increasing manner, and they tend to do the same things as counters etc. but even more flexibly, and cleaner of course!
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 5:03 pm
by Komag
This is an interesting "bug". I suppose it's for optimization and performance reasons, which makes a lot of sense. In the original game there wasn't a lot of multi-level interaction going on.
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 6:51 pm
by Montis
It would be really interesting to have a dev comment on this and the multipliers involved. I mean this could make for some interesting things like an "ethereal realm where time moves slower" kind of thing
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:43 pm
by SpacialKatana
I noticed this at the beginning of the beta when testing lower levels, my timer intro subtitles on the first floor take ages to play even though they only had 7 sec delays.
It's definitely a performance issue (ie to help/aid performance) , scripts, timers etc on your CURRENT level/floor will be prioritised, as that's the stuff that directly effects your game experience. A lot of games do this, and without added code from the devs I don't expect it to change
AH obviously wanted this software to work/run well on older systems (good business practice) as we don't all own top spec rigs ...*cough* you should hehe
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:34 pm
by petri
The current level is updated every frame, the level above every even frame and the level below every odd frame. The remaining levels are updated in round robin fashion, one level per frame. Hope this helps!
Re: Timer running slow when placed in other levels
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 9:39 pm
by Komag
hmm, that's a good clue, but I'm not quite clear...
what about a 4 level dungeon, and you're on level 3. So level 2 is updated even frames, level 4 on odd frames, but how often does level 1 get updated in that situation? Every frame?
What about a 6 level dungeon and you're on level 1? Level 2 updated every odd frame, and levels 3-6 take turns 3,4,5,6,3,4,5,6,etc, right?