mision area vs zone
by Zeph · in Technical Issues · 08/31/2011 (6:21 am) · 2 replies
Whats the difference in mission area vs zone... They both seem to be near the same to me... Whats in my mind is zone is for the server zone cluster or board number when a player goes from area to area, and a mission area is about the same but with special rule sets applied in code like out of bounds warning, or can only find x type of resources, or npc related quest/flags/triggers....
Also is it possible to just completely delete both, and use the terrain as is and stitch them together, and use the terrain as is from board to board or zone to zone as the player travels the world? The default size of the map with both mission area vs zone confuses me... Leads me to think that the default terrain would be all 100% playable zone but then I see this red box taking away from % of the map which makes me think there's a bound limit...
Or;
Would I have to use the Zone box, and stitch terrain together from its red boundaries? Makes no sense in not being able to use the whole terrain as is...
The reason why Im asking this is: say I went with height maps and I wanted to stitch them together to make numerous boards.. Where does my bounds actually start... Edge of height map or big bounding red zone or mission area box's boarders??? Im trying to stay away from portals unless I can portal the whole edge of the terrain, and give the appearance of 100% open world for the player to move, and explore... When I think in terms of portals Im thinking like a door way through a mirror or a jump gate...
Also is it possible to just completely delete both, and use the terrain as is and stitch them together, and use the terrain as is from board to board or zone to zone as the player travels the world? The default size of the map with both mission area vs zone confuses me... Leads me to think that the default terrain would be all 100% playable zone but then I see this red box taking away from % of the map which makes me think there's a bound limit...
Or;
Would I have to use the Zone box, and stitch terrain together from its red boundaries? Makes no sense in not being able to use the whole terrain as is...
The reason why Im asking this is: say I went with height maps and I wanted to stitch them together to make numerous boards.. Where does my bounds actually start... Edge of height map or big bounding red zone or mission area box's boarders??? Im trying to stay away from portals unless I can portal the whole edge of the terrain, and give the appearance of 100% open world for the player to move, and explore... When I think in terms of portals Im thinking like a door way through a mirror or a jump gate...
Associate Rene Damm
A zone, on the other hand, is a rendering optimization tool. This is why you see objects and chunks of terrain clipping out. A zone denotes an enclosed volume of interior space. To connect such a space to another one or to the outdoors, you use Portal objects.
The engine uses this information to cull away objects that, according to the zone and portal setup of the level, clearly cannot be seen. This speeds up rendering but should not make for any otherwise noticeable change to the player (if the setup is making sense).
Using zones and portals for outdoor spaces, as you describe, is usually not useful. They will only add needless overhead to your level. In general, for outdoors, as far as rendering goes, control things via rendering distance and occlusion.