Idea's for open mw

[ZafotheNinja]

Hey, I didn't know exactly where to put this (or even if one was made before and this is just a re-post) but here's my Idea for open mw that I think should be added. In mw I heard of a "One World" mod, note: I never actually found it. Supposedly It loaded the whole map of mw at once. (No more Interrupting glitchy loading bars while trying to kill a cliff racer.) Instead just one big *** loading bar at startup. Think it can be done in open mw?

PS: If you read my other topic, you would have noted that I really don't get on much. So don't EXPECT a reply from me anytime soon.

[Zini]

That would assume that the whole world fits into memory. Not going to happen for very smaller boxes or very large games (MW with a huge number of mods or a very large TC). Also, the startup would be insanely slow for the later case.

[TorbenC]

Honestly I would absolutely love this implemented as an optional (checkbox or INI setting) feature.

The shortcomings I can see have to do with scripting though, would it mess with any local or global scripts just by loading an area? I'm doubtful but I guess it is possible. If there is no problem there then this would be an excellent addition I think!

[heilkitty]

If I'm not mistaken, at some point OpenMW will load cells in background thread (maybe even using some algorithms predicting which cells it would better load). It would give very similar effect but without eating up the whole lot of memory.

[cdoublejj]

If I'm not mistaken, at some point OpenMW will load cells in background thread (maybe even using some algorithms predicting which cells it would better load). It would give very similar effect but without eating up the whole lot of memory.

so basically it can load and finnish loading in the back ground, thus no loading bar?

That would assume that the whole world fits into memory. Not going to happen for very smaller boxes or very large games (MW with a huge number of mods or a very large TC). Also, the startup would be insanely slow for the later case.

If the above doesn't work, what about bigger chucks or pop-in (like gta).

[psi29a]

Zini has already stated (as this idea is not new) that it would be a post 1.0 feature. Preloading cells in surrounding area would lessen the need for loading screens/bars. If that solves the problem with minimal memory usage.

[Greendogo]

Re: the scripting issues with this - it would be easier to do if you separated scripting/AI (and maybe shadows) from the models and textures part of it. When you actually enter the cell it would activate all the moving and thinking bits, but the models and textures would be active all the time (or whatever you had a distant land setting up to).

[ZafotheNinja]

Sweet, I'm liking that this topic is taking off. And from the comments, it looks possible?
As TorbenC said, this would be great as an option. Or even, set how many squares ahead you want it to load.

[WeirdSexy]

Sweet, I'm liking that this topic is taking off. And from the comments, it looks possible?
As TorbenC said, this would be great as an option. Or even, set how many squares ahead you want it to load.

Your original suggestion of loading the whole game in to memory is not practical, or possible for most machines, and is not likely to ever be implemented as an option. What we have said, and have said multiple times before, is that we eventually plan to do a preemptive loading scheme. This means that as you are approaching a cell border, the game will recognize this and load the cell(s) it thinks you might be entering momentarily in the background before you get to the cell. This has the same effect (as far as smoothing out cell transitions) as loading ever cell at once, but is actually do-able.

[cdoublejj]

Re: the scripting issues with this - it would be easier to do if you separated scripting/AI (and maybe shadows) from the models and textures part of it. When you actually enter the cell it would activate all the moving and thinking bits, but the models and textures would be active all the time (or whatever you had a distant land setting up to).

FYI "distant land setting" would be called Draw Distance. Also WierdSexy that's like good and logical explanation. Instead of guessing what cells you might enter can't it just work of pure proximity or would that load to many cells? I guess it could guess which cells you might enter by proximity (which cells are the closest) and active/selected quests or that crazy talk?