Help with optimising radar code.

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Broken_Code

15

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Joined: 20th Aug 2010

Location: Bremen, Germany

Posted: 20th Aug 2010 19:37

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Hello,
As the title says, I need some help with some code for making a radar for my FPS game.

The code I have already (see below) works fine, except it causes the frame rate to drop by around 40 frames. I've narrowed the problem down to the 'get image' command, the larger the image captured, the larger the slow down.
Here's my code:

+ Code Snippet

Radar:
   `Copy Bitmap 2,1
   set current bitmap RadarBitmap
   cls
   ink rgb(0,0,255),0
   RPX# = (px#/MapSizeX)*100 `Set position as % of the get image below
   RPZ# = 100 - (pz#/MapSizeZ)*100
   circle RPX#, RPZ#, 1

   for t=1 to NetMaxPlayers
      if t<>LocalPlayer
         ink rgb(255,0,0),0
         RNPX# = (NetPlayerPosition#(t,1)/MapSizeX)*100 `Set position as % of the get image below
         RNPZ# = 100 - (NetPlayerPosition#(t,3)/MapSizeZ)*100
         circle RNPX#, RNPZ#, 1
      endif
   next t

   get image RadarImage,0,0,100,100
   set current bitmap 0
   texture object RadarObject,RadarImage
   ink rgb(240,240,240),rgb(0,0,0)
return

Is there something I've missed?
Is there a better way of doing this?
I've looked in the codebank and there's a very good radar code by Dmitry K called 3D radar but I don't understand it could anyone help with that?

Thanks for the help,
Broken_Code

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Dr Tank

17

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Joined: 1st Apr 2009

Location: Southampton, UK

Posted: 21st Aug 2010 00:25 Edited at: 21st Aug 2010 00:26

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There are a few ways you can go about making this better.

The simplest is to make an extra camera, and set this to an image. Then you can use set current bitmap with a negative number to draw to that camera, using the same commands as you are currently. However, it will may be slow if you're using cls. You could draw over your circles with the background colour before moving them and drawing new circles.

I'm sure there are examples of this on the forum, but I can't find it.

Something like

+ Code Snippet

`=================
`do this before game loop
make camera 1
set camera to image 1,RadarImage
texture object RadarObject,RadarImage
set current bitmap -1   `sets drawing to camera 1's image
`=================

`then during the game loop draw to your radar and the radar
`object's texture should get updated automatically

Alternatively, there's a plugin where you can draw to images without using the camera.

Lastly, you can do it in 3D. This is what I've used for radar and it works OK, unless you have a really large number of things on your radar. Here's a snippet I made way back when:

http://forum.thegamecreators.com/?m=forum_view&t=115028&b=6

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Broken_Code

15

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Joined: 20th Aug 2010

Location: Bremen, Germany

Posted: 21st Aug 2010 02:13

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Thanks for the quick reply,

That 3D radar code is very good, nice and fast (I got 250FPS on that example) and gives a very clear radar, I would never have thought of using limbs for that!

However, I think I will try your other suggestion first as I have attempted that before but couldn't get it working. I'll try again and see what I can get and report back on how it compares to the 3D object limb version and my original code.

Thanks again for the help,
Broken_Code

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Broken_Code

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Joined: 20th Aug 2010

Location: Bremen, Germany

Posted: 22nd Aug 2010 14:55

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I tried the setting a camera to an image way but I think my version of DBP is too old as it doesn't recognise 'set bitmap -1'. In the latest version, however, this method works fine with only around a 4FPS hit on my system.

The limb method is very good, in-game I got a negligible FPS drop and I can texture the backdrop as whatever I want! I added a couple of lines to the start up code:

+ Code Snippet

REM In the for-loop:
      if NetPlayer(t).Ally=1
         color limb RadarObject,t,RGB(34,203,0)
      else
         color limb RadarObject,t,RGB(236,49,63)
      endif

REM After the for-loop:
delete mesh temp_mesh

So nothing that really changes the code but makes it look a bit better without any hassle.

Thanks for the help,
Broken_Code

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