I am playing "Devil May Cry 4" and "Ys Origin", and found that a level is composes of many small level.

I am thinking using this approach as it is easy to design many small level instead of a huge single level, I think loading a huge level is not hardware friendly and most importantly, it is not a pleasure to working a huge level in WED

I am thinking to use level_load() to load the sub-level when the player move the the "edge" of the each mini-level, but I wonder how fast is level_load() for this purpose, as suppose the player can leave/enter between sub-level with acceptable lag.

Any idea or existing snippet demonstrate this technique?

Thank you.

Using the level_load-technique to seperate a huge world into many small levels can result in ugly lags when playing the game from a slow media (CD/DVD/INTERNET/NETWORK/SERVER).

You also not only have to load the new level but also manage the possible changes in the single small sublevels (if the player ):

Code:

---

                !start
                  |
           !enter sublevel
                  |
 !save actual sublevel state (save_game)
                  |
   ?new sublevel already entered/saved?
               /    \
             no     yes
             /        \
     !level_load   !load_game

---

I once tried it with success (running from a fast hdd)

I prefer the way like in HL2 (where the world is devided in several sublevels but with a remarkable loading (5-10 sec.) of the levels [better than small lags])

Generally acheived by using doors or S bends so that when player enters an S bend or a door, the next sub level loads and when past the point, the old one is removed.

A preloading mechanism stops any lag effects but if the sub levels are small enough may not be needed.
How ever, any ent_create call should be preceeded by a preloader at level start.