graphics as the entire level
 

i was wondering if anyone has considering making an overworld where all the levels are a collection of graphics. i mean that the level functionality is covered by an image which the player walks over. instead of using a tile set, the overworld just uses images

i know gate made a castle on npulse this way, and it turned out looking really well, especially since he could add small details to unique places, which with tilesets would make them all look the same. it also tends to make making levels easier, since tile errors don't matter anymore - the image will cover them up. so long as the tiles are in the right place to block the player and what-not, the image takes care of the rest

has it ever been done?

Never seen it on a public server.

Well the whole point of a tileset is so that you won't have to use giant images per level...

You can't, I mean you can but have fun the tremendous lag. Putting images everywhere would clog up the server so badly your server would conk out all the time. I know this because I have played some servers with this theme.

The roof of the LC gang base was an image and it worked fine but it was a simple roof.

I'm pretty sure he means the entire level is one drawn image

Definitely possible, even on GMAPs. There was something on GK doing it, but I better not say any more.

As long as the image is compressed/small in size and is not animated :)

Using a lot of animated images can clog up easy. (Reason why you should not flood a level with those darn animated flowers -.-)

Its not impossible but it'd be pretty impractical and would put a bit of strain on the server due to players having to download level-sized images when they are walking around the overworld.

Seems like it'd be a better solution if you don't want levels to look the same to add a wider assortment of tiles to the tileset for outside leveling. :confused:

It seems like it would be nice for detailed inside levels though

Yes, can confirm it works nicely with 24bit PNG :)

lol "flying technology"?

wouldn't the server not lag once the player downloads all of the images (for instance, as soon as they log on) so that everything is already there? i mean yes, you could just use a wider arrangement of tiles in a (or several) tileset(s), but it's essentially doing the same thing

Wouldn't cause any server lag, I don't think. You'd be showing the images through a clientside weapon script anyway, because if you place them in the actual level (at least for a GMAP), the image will disappear when you leave that level.

I think he meant the actual downloading of so many large images, the actual bandwidth and such.

I still don't think it would be that taxing. Maybe for a huge GMAP of these images, but meh... I can't imagine it being too bad.