Hi!
I’m trying to explore the options of UE which could lead to a project I’ve had in my mind for over 10 years.
Yesterday, I’ve discovered the level streaming and world composition, which is exactly what I was hoping to find. I’d like to ask several questions.
- Level streaming seems to be great - un/load a part of the world, according to the player’s location. Are there any cons or anything to keep in a mind? Something like “keep the levels small”, don’t have more than 9 levels loaded at once…
- How to make un/loading parts of the terrain properly? My idea is: every terrain has 2 levels - big and small objects. Big objects like terrain and main buildings/landmarks have a bigger radius of visibility than small stuff like street lamps etc. Small objects unload when player is 1 km away, the big objects, when the player is…10 km away? Only when they are behind the fog? UE can handle them if they are LODs? Do I have a good approach?
- How about interiors? Let’s say I have an apartment building with 9 floors and 5 accessible apartments. My idea is: the exterior is in the map tile’s level, the public part (stairs, elevator,…) in one level and the apartments, each in its own level. Is it a good approach? Somewhere I read something about a reccomendation to execute interiors like in GTA San Andreas (interiors in a separated map). The streaming option sounds better to me since it would be seamless and the windows could be actually transparent but I understand that it could potentially bring problems, so I’m asking for an opinion.
- I heard that the max size for world in world composition is 20x20 km. Is it possible to put some unaccesible background terrain behind that area? In ArmA, there’s a vast undetailed terrain behind the border of the detailed map. I’d be happy if there were, let’s say, two kilometers of a low-poly terrain. Is it possible or everything must be within the limit?
Thank you in advance for your answers.
PS: just to be clear, I’m only scouting the options, I know I won’t be able to finish or even actually start the real development anytime soon. I’m just prototyping and trying the tools and how to work with them.