And about the thing with the cutscene, is there anything I can do to speed it up? Neither setting/locking/changing game speed in any way nor changing difficulty of the game helped so far, except that timers are then running faster, the cutscene runs at the same speed though.
When I started making my fast map (Tanatox) 2 years ago, I literally had no clue about the editor whatsoever. That's why I added literally all dependencies from Blizzard that were available to download, even the wc3 one. I wanted to see how everything looks, not knowing that this would increase loading times heavily later.
I want to provide to the players of my map the pleasure to enjoy the map with the least lag possible and with lower loadingtimes too.
That's why I've rewritten most triggers in the last 2 months, improving game performance drastically. But there seem to be still so many things that appear to drain recources, and I can't really figure out which ones they really are. And before I keep trying to rewrite the wrong stuff, ending up having no real results, I'd like to ask you guys whether you could tell me which thing causes the most issues.
So here are my main topics followed by some questions and I would like to know which of those things influences the performance the most:
- I am having very large triggers. Also, I'm having a lot of them.
- I do have very much Variables. Some of them are, where needed, arrays (having over 30 of them) with the size of 750.
- Then I've just recently discovered that there are many triggers in the library that are coming with the dependencies, some of them fire whenever a unit dies. I can't seem to delete anything from there though. Like I've tried to adjust the creep spread from the Stukov Command Center default to my modified one, I didn't work. Also I added all campaign dependencies 2 years ago, which I now don't seem to be able to remove them easily. Is there an easy and safe way to remove the libraries and dependencies I don't need? The last time I tried doing so on my own I ended up messing up almost all of my previously made data.
- Also I've monitored that there's a function runnig that sets the tint color of some modified wireframe healthbars (green to teal), it runs quite often and consumes a lot of running time in total. Does changing the color of a wireframe consume that much rescources?
- I've noticed that when a specific hero is played, the game starts to lag incredibly after a while. This hero bascially only uses 2 things: he has a own trigger that fires everytime a unit dies, giving the hero +1 vesp and he also has the +5 hp gain from Alarak as an teal (instead of red) effect with an area over the entire map which should respresent the vespine he gets. In the debug window I end up getting an overflowing amount of error messages repeating: "an effect (or actor) already exists on that actorscope". Is there anything I can do about it? Or is it just the high amount of effects that occur and that are not getting removed properly? How can I make sure that those effects don't stack to infinity?
In the same way I often receive a message that some units are having too many cAbilAttack abilities attached to them, does this influence game performance in any way? Same goes with the message, that some units are having too many abilities in general. Has this a profound impact on the loading time or game performance in general or can it just be ignored?
- Relating to the dependencies, I've read that the wc3 dependency may cause various issues. Is that the case? It's the one I'm using the least, only like a few icons. But I'd like to keep those. Is there a way to keep the icons I want and then simply remove the dependency with no big effort? Only if that would improve loading time and game performance, of course. What I've seen so far is that I'm really having a lot of unused data stuff in the data section, way too much. But I'm really scared that, by removing dependencies/data, I would deeply mess something up somewhere, causing nothing to really work anymore. And since I've read that some files are only saved locally I'm scared that all my previously made stuff will then just get overwritten. But seeing all these triggers firing whenever a unit dies - or seeing that function that checks whether a player is a commander and is having a very high running time ( while and I'm not even using any commanders on my map) - causes me really to think that I have to do something about it as it looks like these things impact game performance by a lot while not doing anything useful at all. I just don't know how I can do that, since I can't change any of these triggers. I only see that they are there and that they are running. Is there anything I can do about it? And not having to worry about messing everything up while trying? Because having all these additional libr triggers running that are not doing anything really doesn't seem like it's supposed to be to me.
- Also, I'm having a few imported things: some pictures (around 10mb) and 2 sound files (one is 3, the other 10 mb). Does that have an influence on the loading time during the loadingscreen or are they just being downloaded when entering the lobby?
- I have a few triggers with the "map init" event, like one for each bank preload (having 3 banks). Does having everything in 1 map init trigger together really have an positive impact on the loading time and therefore should be done or is that just rumors? And the effect not worth mentioning?
- Also, If I want to shut down a trigger correctly, how would I do it best (in which order to actually make it work properly)? "Turn trigger off", "Stop trigger" and then "Destroy trigger"? Or would the "Stop Trigger" action actually stop the trigger from being destroyed?
- Foodprint. I have many things on my map that are not doing anything really but waiting for a specific hero to come by. Though they have 2x2 or 1x1 foodprints. Would it be better to just completely remove the foodprints of these buildings or is it better to have them? What causes more lag: having foodprints on big buildings or having none applied to them?
- Further I am having a lot of regions and points all over the map. Do they, by any chance, influence game performance? I also gave a model to some of the points so that I can identify them more easily. Could this be a trigger for lag?
- Many units have a fidget move command with 90° turning rate, letting them move around the entire map once idle, but they are getting issue ordered around a lot before they finally stand. Does their fidget capability still drain game performance and should be removed although they are not using it for a long time?
- Is there anything else in general that I could do to reduce lag and loadingscreentimes? I'm working on all kind of triggers and data stuff (only to reduce lag) since month now and I still havn't found the main reason for it yet. Is there something really simple, besides all the mentioned points, that I can do to increase performance, something that I've just overlooked all the time? Or have I just messed something up with the lights/render? I really don't know which triggers, what functions or what in general are the cause for the lag, except the common ones that are already known.
2 more questions:
I made a cutscene that is 180 seconds long. When it runs, no matter what, it always runs at the same speed which is 180 seconds. I literally tried everything to make it run faster, it always appears to run at "normal" speed. Is there any way to make the cutscene run faster?
Also, I do have many hills on my map, some a very close to each other. I'd like to make some units not being able to see whats going on on the other hill while being on the same height level as the other hill. How can I do that?
I'd be really happy if you guys could answer some of my questions.
Best regards!
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Thanks a lot mate!
And about the thing with the cutscene, is there anything I can do to speed it up? Neither setting/locking/changing game speed in any way nor changing difficulty of the game helped so far, except that timers are then running faster, the cutscene runs at the same speed though.
Best regards
Hey guys
When I started making my fast map (Tanatox) 2 years ago, I literally had no clue about the editor whatsoever. That's why I added literally all dependencies from Blizzard that were available to download, even the wc3 one. I wanted to see how everything looks, not knowing that this would increase loading times heavily later.
I want to provide to the players of my map the pleasure to enjoy the map with the least lag possible and with lower loadingtimes too.
That's why I've rewritten most triggers in the last 2 months, improving game performance drastically. But there seem to be still so many things that appear to drain recources, and I can't really figure out which ones they really are. And before I keep trying to rewrite the wrong stuff, ending up having no real results, I'd like to ask you guys whether you could tell me which thing causes the most issues.
So here are my main topics followed by some questions and I would like to know which of those things influences the performance the most:
- I am having very large triggers. Also, I'm having a lot of them.
- I do have very much Variables. Some of them are, where needed, arrays (having over 30 of them) with the size of 750.
- Then I've just recently discovered that there are many triggers in the library that are coming with the dependencies, some of them fire whenever a unit dies. I can't seem to delete anything from there though. Like I've tried to adjust the creep spread from the Stukov Command Center default to my modified one, I didn't work. Also I added all campaign dependencies 2 years ago, which I now don't seem to be able to remove them easily. Is there an easy and safe way to remove the libraries and dependencies I don't need? The last time I tried doing so on my own I ended up messing up almost all of my previously made data.
- Also I've monitored that there's a function runnig that sets the tint color of some modified wireframe healthbars (green to teal), it runs quite often and consumes a lot of running time in total. Does changing the color of a wireframe consume that much rescources?
- I've noticed that when a specific hero is played, the game starts to lag incredibly after a while. This hero bascially only uses 2 things: he has a own trigger that fires everytime a unit dies, giving the hero +1 vesp and he also has the +5 hp gain from Alarak as an teal (instead of red) effect with an area over the entire map which should respresent the vespine he gets. In the debug window I end up getting an overflowing amount of error messages repeating: "an effect (or actor) already exists on that actorscope". Is there anything I can do about it? Or is it just the high amount of effects that occur and that are not getting removed properly? How can I make sure that those effects don't stack to infinity?
In the same way I often receive a message that some units are having too many cAbilAttack abilities attached to them, does this influence game performance in any way? Same goes with the message, that some units are having too many abilities in general. Has this a profound impact on the loading time or game performance in general or can it just be ignored?
- Relating to the dependencies, I've read that the wc3 dependency may cause various issues. Is that the case? It's the one I'm using the least, only like a few icons. But I'd like to keep those. Is there a way to keep the icons I want and then simply remove the dependency with no big effort? Only if that would improve loading time and game performance, of course. What I've seen so far is that I'm really having a lot of unused data stuff in the data section, way too much. But I'm really scared that, by removing dependencies/data, I would deeply mess something up somewhere, causing nothing to really work anymore. And since I've read that some files are only saved locally I'm scared that all my previously made stuff will then just get overwritten. But seeing all these triggers firing whenever a unit dies - or seeing that function that checks whether a player is a commander and is having a very high running time ( while and I'm not even using any commanders on my map) - causes me really to think that I have to do something about it as it looks like these things impact game performance by a lot while not doing anything useful at all. I just don't know how I can do that, since I can't change any of these triggers. I only see that they are there and that they are running. Is there anything I can do about it? And not having to worry about messing everything up while trying? Because having all these additional libr triggers running that are not doing anything really doesn't seem like it's supposed to be to me.
- Also, I'm having a few imported things: some pictures (around 10mb) and 2 sound files (one is 3, the other 10 mb). Does that have an influence on the loading time during the loadingscreen or are they just being downloaded when entering the lobby?
- I have a few triggers with the "map init" event, like one for each bank preload (having 3 banks). Does having everything in 1 map init trigger together really have an positive impact on the loading time and therefore should be done or is that just rumors? And the effect not worth mentioning?
- Also, If I want to shut down a trigger correctly, how would I do it best (in which order to actually make it work properly)? "Turn trigger off", "Stop trigger" and then "Destroy trigger"? Or would the "Stop Trigger" action actually stop the trigger from being destroyed?
- Foodprint. I have many things on my map that are not doing anything really but waiting for a specific hero to come by. Though they have 2x2 or 1x1 foodprints. Would it be better to just completely remove the foodprints of these buildings or is it better to have them? What causes more lag: having foodprints on big buildings or having none applied to them?
- Further I am having a lot of regions and points all over the map. Do they, by any chance, influence game performance? I also gave a model to some of the points so that I can identify them more easily. Could this be a trigger for lag?
- Many units have a fidget move command with 90° turning rate, letting them move around the entire map once idle, but they are getting issue ordered around a lot before they finally stand. Does their fidget capability still drain game performance and should be removed although they are not using it for a long time?
- Is there anything else in general that I could do to reduce lag and loadingscreentimes? I'm working on all kind of triggers and data stuff (only to reduce lag) since month now and I still havn't found the main reason for it yet. Is there something really simple, besides all the mentioned points, that I can do to increase performance, something that I've just overlooked all the time? Or have I just messed something up with the lights/render? I really don't know which triggers, what functions or what in general are the cause for the lag, except the common ones that are already known.
2 more questions:
I made a cutscene that is 180 seconds long. When it runs, no matter what, it always runs at the same speed which is 180 seconds. I literally tried everything to make it run faster, it always appears to run at "normal" speed. Is there any way to make the cutscene run faster?
Also, I do have many hills on my map, some a very close to each other. I'd like to make some units not being able to see whats going on on the other hill while being on the same height level as the other hill. How can I do that?
I'd be really happy if you guys could answer some of my questions.
Best regards!