PCG vs Save/Load and Windowed level

Development Programming & Scripting
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1

I have a level that is just a 3D galaxy map. It contains about 1000 stars that are generated with PCG. There is nothing else in the level except for the stars and their data. Would it be better to regenerate the level every time it is loaded, or generate it on the first level load and save/load all of the data in a save file for subsequent loads?

Also, is it possible to load this level into a window (widget)? So that the player doesn’t actually leave the current level when opening the galaxy map.

2

you can use level instances, level streaming, and data layers. (well not data layers since you already have it in another level).

a quick search online or in the forum will give you plenty info about it.

if the map is not going to change at runtime, then generate and save it is the best imho.

3

I am familiar with all of those, but I am not sure how I could apply those to make it show in a window. Do you know any resources that show how that could be accomplished? I haven’t been able to find any for that use-case.

4

what exactly do you mean by “in a window”?
can you shouw an image mockup?

if you want to show them in a rectangle, the most used way i know, which kinda sucks, is to load the level in a far away place, inside a sphere with inverted normals. and have a camera with a render target2d.
note that this will lower performance.

5

Look into PocketWorlds, a plugin included with Lyra. Allows running a separate UWorld you can do a scenecapture on. It’s used for thumbnails in lyra but you might be able to adapt it to your use case

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6

By “in a window” I mean just a widget with a border that does not take up the whole viewport (Current level is visible around the outside of the border) and the levels content (from the cameras perspective) inside the border.

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