Codestar
Level 1
One man, one game
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« on: November 16, 2009, 12:46:57 PM » |
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I'm wondering what's people's thoughts on this? Does it tend to help or hinder development? Does it seem to make the game run a lot faster or create more problems than it solves?
I'm wondering because I'm thinking of doing this and just having the gamemaker exe act as a sort of "compiler" in which I can store all the object information and resources outside of the actual engine and because to edit them during runtime if I please.
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Eraser
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« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2009, 12:58:07 PM » |
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I'm wondering what's people's thoughts on this? Does it tend to help or hinder development? Does it seem to make the game run a lot faster or create more problems than it solves?
I'm wondering because I'm thinking of doing this and just having the gamemaker exe act as a sort of "compiler" in which I can store all the object information and resources outside of the actual engine and because to edit them during runtime if I please.
External resources generally means a faster startup time, and you can load your resources whenever you want to, meaning you can do some memory management. Also note that PNG alpha channels is supported through external loading, but not through the Game Maker image editor/loader system. I don't know why this would hinder development, as it doesn't take a lot of time to code a resource loading system... |
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jrjellybeans
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« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2009, 12:59:00 PM » |
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It's a great idea.
DO NOT BE AFRAID OF PEOPLE STEALING THE EXTERNAL RESOURCES or whatever. That's just a dumb fear and it will make your game worse because of it.
In addition, larger images (i guess in the 1000 pixel range) SLOW Game Maker down and are pretty much essential if you want to include them.
Bottom line, try to use external resources as often as it makes sense too (you wouldn't want to store all of your boss images externally as it might let people see what's going to come up or something like that...)
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JMickle
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« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2009, 01:03:35 PM » |
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yeah people never really steal your resources. i've just started using external resources and man it speeds up making my game because I don't have to wait 5 minutes because of the amount of mp3s i use  |
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Codestar
Level 1
One man, one game
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« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2009, 02:04:49 PM » |
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Yeah I already externally load my .ogg files I use, How fast is creating objects from external files generally?
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GregWS
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« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2009, 02:12:56 PM » |
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You should definitely use them; it allows larger image files and lots of other great things.
If you're worried about people having access to your resources, you can download an extension for GM that lets you encrypt the external resources; probably a good habit to get into. (sorry, I can't seem to recall the name of it right now)
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BlueSweatshirt
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« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2009, 02:22:40 PM » |
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Yeah I already externally load my .ogg files I use, How fast is creating objects from external files generally?
Objects themselves? Not only is it(fairly) counter-intuitive, it's also fairly slow. I mean, 5 or 10 objects will probably be no problem. But if you're loading 252 objects in at startup then you might run into some serious load-time issues. The only benefits to external loading are editing game resources outside of the editor, PNG transparency, and a shorter 'ugly GM splash screen loadbar' time. Which I'm all for. |
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2009, 03:19:17 PM » |
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Objects themselves?
Not only is it(fairly) counter-intuitive, it's also fairly slow. I mean, 5 or 10 objects will probably be no problem. But if you're loading 252 objects in at startup then you might run into some serious load-time issues.
The only benefits to external loading are editing game resources outside of the editor, PNG transparency, and a shorter 'ugly GM splash screen loadbar' time.
Which I'm all for.
it's still faster than gm's loading bar, though. i mean, the time you save in reducing gm's load time isn't exceeded by the time it takes to load everything from files. it probably takes like 1/10th the time, so it just speeds up the game no matter what. there are other advantages too besides the ones you mention. for instance, the game being more flexible to develop, easier to edit, easier to translate to other languages if you keep all the text external rather than internal, and, most importantly, *much* *much* less RAM usage (we're talking 600mb of ram used vs 80mb of ram used in some cases). |
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BlueSweatshirt
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« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2009, 04:02:06 PM » |
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Wow, I wasn't aware of that.(@ RAM usage)  That is awesome.  |
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Codestar
Level 1
One man, one game
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« Reply #9 on: November 16, 2009, 04:26:53 PM » |
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I was also thinking it would probably help when working with scripting the game.
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___
Vice President of Marketing, Romeo Pie Software
Level 10
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« Reply #10 on: November 16, 2009, 05:06:20 PM » |
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External resources are great, but sometimes I run into a lot of issues when trying to load .pngs that are a little large (320 x 240ish) I tell game maker to load the file, and then it doesn't actually load it... just gives me an empty sprite.
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #11 on: November 16, 2009, 05:07:21 PM » |
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strange, that hasn't happened to me, and i've loaded *really huge* png's, like 2000x2000, with no problems
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s0
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« Reply #12 on: November 16, 2009, 05:11:28 PM » |
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yeah people never really steal your resources.
That plus if people really wanted to, they could just rip your resources from screenshots anyway, or record them from the sound card if we're talking about audio. The only thing I had external for my game Pinknoise was the music. I kinda enjoy doing most stuff in GM itself (which includes the graphics in the case of Pinknoise) rather than switching programs all the time. But if it's really as much of an advantage as Paul says I might consider for the game I'm currently developing. |
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ChevyRay
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« Reply #14 on: November 16, 2009, 11:33:18 PM » |
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External resources are great, but sometimes I run into a lot of issues when trying to load .pngs that are a little large (320 x 240ish) I tell game maker to load the file, and then it doesn't actually load it... just gives me an empty sprite.
Check how you're saving the PNGs. I don't remember the specifics, but you can save PNG graphics as different types/rates, and I recall having similar issues loading PNGs that were resolved by changing how I was saving the image file. Sorry that's a bit vague, but it's been awhile since the occasion. |
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sergiocornaga
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« Reply #15 on: November 17, 2009, 12:10:13 AM » |
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I've had issues with external resources in Game Maker... that is, loading in too many and having a game that exceeds memory constraints on some computers, meaning it won't run at all.
It's my understanding that if you're going to use external resources, only load them when they're needed and delete them as soon as they aren't. Alternatively, load them into a small number of slots, replacing when necessary.
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ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)
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« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2009, 12:12:02 AM » |
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yeah, that's correct, but it'd take up an identical amount of memory if, instead of loading everything externally, you packed them into the .exe file; you only save memory if you only load the stuff you're using at the time and then free it when you're not using it any more, which normally should be done for at least these: large background images and music
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