Level Preloading

[ffcmike]

Would it be possible in future for there to be a command for loading levels on your client before you have entered them?

If for instance you enter a level where you have never been in before you get a slight pause and a "Loading" display.

But even if it's a level you have entered before the tiles will become visible immediately (as a result of being stored within .code files) but there will be a slight pause until NPCs load.

What I would like is a function such as loadLevel("filename.nw"); you could call within a previous level which would request the NPC data from the server (aswell as the tile data if the .code file doesn't exist) for a smooth transition when entering a level either for the first time ever or since you started your client, this doesn't really matter the majority of the time but can be a hindrance to things like cutscenes and questing.

[Admins]

It could be done for levels, there is already such functionality (but not accessible by script). NPCs are however only loaded when actually required, problem is that the server would also need to send updates which would be more complex and require more bandwidth.

[ffcmike]

Even with the level tiles being loaded beforehand that would be an improvement over the loading screen if you have a succession of important levels you want to pass between smoothly, regarding NPCs I imagined this being possible to work as a one time only thing where your client would recieve the current data of the npc with the clientside script, though obviously if there were things going on within the serverside script of the NPC this would make things more complicated.