SIZE: A limit?

posted on September 21st, 2009, 10:22 pm

Basiclly, is there a limit on how big your map can be? And is it possible to create another minimap? I have tried 100,000 and 75,000 (both the same for height and width) and both get errors.
I am planning a new full mod for Fleet Ops, details will be released later, (if anyone shows interest). I would appericiate any help you guys could give on the engine limitations.

posted on September 21st, 2009, 10:25 pm

About 50,000 is the limit

posted on September 21st, 2009, 10:31 pm

Has anyone ever gotten around that?

EDIT: Thank you.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 12:47 am

nope, i tried to make my map "Dead Space" 75,000 but it just crashes

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 1:34 am

What in terms of "engine limitations" are you curious about?

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 2:00 am

We started this scheme a couple days ago, I have modded games before but he has not. So forgive him if he is a little overconfident.

I asked him to find out how we could make a bigger map.

What in terms of "engine limitations" are you curious about?

So I guess the clarification would be: is the reason map size is limited related to the engines architecture or a number some developer typed in somewhere because hardware was much less advanced at that time?

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 6:46 am

In stock Armada II there was a map that was so so big you actually had to fly about a minute from one edge to the other (by warp). Somehow the creator knew how to get around the engines limitations. I once played it in MP 1on1 and it worked without any problems. So, somehow it is possible.
Maybe the new graphics of Fleet Ops doesn't allow such actions anymore as it would eat up your memory sticks. 

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 7:18 am

if you have such a large map at hand, jan, you could send it to me to analyze it. the limitations in map size from stock armada 2 and fleet operations should be the same, i never tested it much though.

[Sulu]

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 3:18 pm

Last edited by Sulu on September 22nd, 2009, 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

In stock Armada II there was a map that was so so big you actually had to fly about a minute from one edge to the other (by warp). Somehow the creator knew how to get around the engines limitations. I once played it in MP 1on1 and it worked without any problems. So, somehow it is possible.
Maybe the new graphics of Fleet Ops doesn't allow such actions anymore as it would eat up your memory sticks. 

Hope returns :p That one minute estimate sounds perfect for what I want, maybe a little small but I can just tweak warp speed.

I thought that the problem might be memory, but it can't be because I monitored armada's use of physical memory when experimenting up to 50,000 and at that it was only 300 mb, I only have 3gig ram, but am using a SSD for a paging file so I don't believe the problem is with hardware. Unless of course it's the software not being able to take advantage of new hardware.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 3:40 pm

I always wanted a 200,000 sized map. That'd be the perfect warfare map (I think I had an A1 map that was that large). Anyway. I would always like to be able to make large maps that can actually scale an entire sector. Those would be really good days for mapping...

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 4:52 pm

Good luck filling it... It'd be mostly empty space.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 5:36 pm

That is the idea, at least for me.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 5:58 pm

if you have such a large map at hand, jan, you could send it to me to analyze it. the limitations in map size from stock armada 2 and fleet operations should be the same, i never tested it much though.

We had that larger map topic once and I tried to find it on the net. Too bad I couldn't find it anymore. It must be in one of the map packs... it must be somewhere. Help appreciated if there's someone who's willing to search too.

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 6:05 pm

That is the idea, at least for me.

Gonna get pretty lonely if the enemy isn't right next to you...

posted on September 22nd, 2009, 6:08 pm

Well, I want to be able to build a 200,000 map so that everyone would basically be at least 70% up his tree before you run into anyone. To me that is a bit of a balance there (plus the possibility of warp-ins not being able to go to the opposite side of the map which would counter the 'cheat' of landing your warp-in fleet right on someone's base early game.)