21 Questions about L4D (Minus 19)

[Grudge]

Hey hopefully you guys could help me with 2 questions I have about L4D.


1) Obviously there are hundreds of zombies on screen at any one time in L4D. How are these rendered to affect framerates? I'm sure if they were rendered like proper NPCs they would kill any PC but straight from the words of Doug that anybody that can run OB, can run this. So what's the deal with zombie resource usage?

2) AI Directors automatically choose the places your Zombies emerge from in custom maps. Is this mandatory, or is specific plotting and placement allowed to? I mean surely if I had a shop, and I wanted the zombies to run through the windows, and not round the back wall of the shop or w/e, I should be allowed to make these decisions myself? I'm all up for AI Directors dealing with scripting etc i'd just like to be assured that I have some flexibility over my maps NPC scripting to.

Obviously these questions may or may not be answered to a certain extent because the game isn't released or sufficient details are currently unknown.

Thanks for any help.

[DIFFdeathsquad]

Obviously there are hundreds of zombies on screen at any one time in L4D



Ha, We wish...

[Grudge]

Hundreds is an exaggeration, but theres still fucking loads.

[Kaboose]

Is it still 40 zombies on screen?

[Grudge]

At least, I counted 40 with more remaining on the ingame wallpaper screen where the dudes on the truck and another guys climbing on.

[toxictbag]

If they say you can run it if you can run orange box, then you can run it if you can run orange box.

[Grudge]

I realise that toxic, i'm just interested in how they're rendering the zombies - because they have next to no affect on frame rate.

[toxictbag]

Probly super optimised :P with just the limit of whatever is needed, i dont model so i wouldent know ^^

[armored cow]

If they say you can run it if you can run orange box, then you can run it if you can run orange box.
Best explanation ever.
:)

[Sifer2]

In game the most infected hoard I usually see is around 15 to 30 it looks like. Which is not that much really a lot of games these days can throw that many models out there without bogging down. The infected hoard themselves probably are not that detailed just so gameplay will be this smooth.

[Hona]

Yepp, you will be able to script the infected one way or another. Since they got all those "special encounters" they need to control the AI Director somehow, one example is when they are in the generator room and push the button there's infected coming trough the windows.

[Bucky]

Not to be mean, but how are we supposed to know lol? Email mike.

[Thor-axe]

Email mike

[Reptile]

I'm interested in the Qs too. If you've tried adding 50 NPCs in Garrys mod, you know what happens to frame rate. L4D must be optimised like hell.

And I'm also interested in making maps. Where the hell do the infected spawn, if you can't create spawn points? Just 'somewhere' around the corner?

Email Mike!

E: My PC has a special ability. Every time my FPS drops to 5 - 15, there's infected coming at us.

[squerl]

And I'm also interested in making maps. Where the hell do the infected spawn, if you can't create spawn points? Just 'somewhere' around the corner?

Yeah, Director handles it.

They always say around 40 infected, that might go up if they get some optimizations in before launch, who knows.

[Xaos Falcon]

I think that they said in an interview that you can make 'nodes' for the zombies to go through/spawn through and such. But it's not very specific. They did say that the director was modifiable, though, so with a bit of programming you can make basically any zombie scenario. Wow, I can't wait for custom L4D maps.

[masterblaze0]

E: My PC has a special ability. Every time my FPS drops to 5 - 15, there's infected coming at us.

XD