It's the fresh install that got me thinking and by now I've figured out the solution to my problem.
I've opened the fpm made with RC5 (and before) and saved it with RC7. Build the level with RC7 and now everything is back in it's place. I'm still getting an occasional character dropping through the floor as mentioned before.
So, if you've got old levels, it's wise to save them with RC7 before building/testing
By having found the solution to I've been able to test the full level by now. I can't say I'm happy at all.
1. Even though the lights look great, the loading time of larger levels increased with more then 100% (due to the textures that are being build). You will not notice this so much with small levels, but with larger levels using lot's of different segments and textures, it's starting to show. A loading time of 7 minutes compared to 3 minutes before isn't really acceptable for me.
2. A major drop in framerate. Again with smaller levels you will not notice this, but with larger levels, I've experienced a drop of 6-10fps and even more at times. With RC2 the game runs 28-32fps. With RC5 the game runs from 24-32fps. With RC7 the game runs 11-25fps. With every build were loosing speed instead of gaining and this isn't only due to the AI anymore.
I'm not like Uman trusting that DarkAI will bring back good framerate, since I'm not 100% sure it's the AI only. It's the complete scripting system causing a major drop in framerate. You can take out every enemy, but have other scripts using zones, keys and so on and still the framerate compared to older versions has dropped.
Since version 1 we've been loosing a bit of speed with about every update and by now it seems they're starting to add up and take their toll.
I've also tested my most optimized level ever (from Commander Josh). It was created originally with V1 and was created for maximum speed and yet havinbg enough action going on in the level. That one has always ran over 29fps in every build and 31fps with V1. With RC7 the game drops to 24fps on several occasions. Still runs pretty well, but there's a loss of 5fps compared to other builds and a loss of 7fps compared to V1.
A drop of 7fps doesn't matter much if we're talking about framerates over 50, but we're talking about 31fps at max and then 7 less is lot less.
Quote: "The task is to create a 1 level game in FPS Creator.
The level should be no larger than 15 x 15 x 5 grid units in size (that's 15 units square by 5 units in height). Into this relatively small space you need to cram as much gaming action as possible."
The way we're going now there's not going to be much action left if the game is build with the newer builds, since we need to take out a lot of entities to get the game even to run at a decent speed. I'm really considering returning to V1 by now for my entry. At least I'm going to get decent gameplay with it, but I will suffer in other areas.
I feel sorry for some of the first timers entering. Some of the stuff I've seen looks awesome, but they're cramming so much stuff into the game that it won't even run in the end. At least we're all facing the same problems, that somewhat of a comfort.
Well, I'm off to uninstall RC7, going back to a previous build, still got to try RC6. But with the loss of speed and the increased loading times, I'm going to wait for the next RC instead of aggrivating myself waiting ages for a level to build or test.
EDIT: Some of you really need to start testing completed levels with these release candidates! A lot of you test small empty levels and start shouting the upgrade is working great. You don't test an upgrade that way. I'm glad at least some of you (like Uman & FredP & some others) are testing the upgrades to a fuller extend, we all need to do so. Throw everything you can think of against the release candidate and then tell us how it stood up against that. Don't just test it with an empty room or a few empty rooms. Test it with a complete level, several floors high, using stairs, doors, scripts, enemies, pickups, and so on. Use full levels, not these empty ones. Any build will run well with those.
