A Few Feature Ideas [From Browngr]

Hello, @grazer! Hoping you’d take the time to read through my ideas and get your opinion?

Since the beginning of Flowlab, the entire level has been loaded and ready to give commands at a
given time. The problem however, is that in large levels, sometimes, lag can become an issue, even if none of the objects excluding the player object have behaviours.

I propose a feature where you can give a certain object a render distance behaviour, and have an input stating what the render distance is. The variables work like Proximity, except on a bigger scale. This would generally just make the game run faster, [depending on what you have you render distance set to, of course] and make the experience for everyone easier. For sprites in-game, near the physics section in the sprite UI, you could have a button that checks on “affected by render distance”. The default would be set to yes, to prevent lag.

This feature would also pair well with a device detection feature, probably located in GUI. If you are playing the game on a laptop, then the system would recognise that, and you can pair these two behaviours together to bring down the render distance, or bring it up if it detects that you’re on a PC, etc.

Another useful feature that was considered was a while ago, and is in the lists rn, but just wanted to make a reminder while I’m at it; A “Done” output for sound. Once the system detects that a sound is done playing, then it’ll give an output for that in a fourth output slot. Wouldn’t affect any of the other ways it works, just adds something that would make cutscenes for example, a lot easier. (=

Another behaviour that IS CONFIRMED, is the game save feature. I talked to Grazer about this before; but wanted to remind the other members of Flowlab so that they don’t need to ask about it. Simply put; a feature that will save the entire game’s memory for the next time you come back. Extraordinarily complicated, and realistically won’t release as a feature for a couple of years. But it is happening, my friends.

And a final feature that I’d like added is actually in the sprite editor; a feature that enables you to create gradients or textures. Either I’d be fine with, because they both suck to make haha
Gradients: Choose your dark colour, choose your light colour, and select how long you would like it to take for the gradient to go from one to the other, alongside which order you’re going in.
Textures: Select how rough you’d like it to be, then add as many colours as you want, and it randomly places the pixels down!

What’re your thoughts, Grazer?

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I a random person on the internet approve of this message

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Your render distance idea is a good one. One of my games has a HUGE level that lags a lot when played. I can usually fight the lag by setting a higher FPS, but a render distance behavior would work much better.

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@browngr Umm just trying to get some badges here :slight_smile:

@MetaNinja glad you like the idea! The reason I started thinking about it was because of the HAKK3R 2 map, needless to say; it’s big enough to make a Mac with iCloud lag. |:

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Hey this is off topic but what is your flowcon event all about can i be a special part of it somehow

I believe that the most recent FlowCon was cancelled due to lack of participation.

I would like to participate

That’s right @MetaNinja (=

I’ve wanted the “done” output for sound for a really LONG time lol

I hate using timers

@browngr I now this is off topic, but when Is the next Flowcon?

@ManiacPumpkin Planned for March, 2021.
@Ramshacklegamestudi1 SAME lol

@PixelPizza your thoughts?

I would like the render distance one A LOT. An issue with my games especially is that I tend to make the who playable area just one level, and reserving the rest for things like a menu, boss fight, credits, etc. This would then greatly impact the performance, and is also what I (somewhat) plan to do with my next game if I still am using a free account.

So, count +1 for a render distance flow block.

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I’m glad you like the idea, @rcreger!