Hello Guys,
I am trying to model a large map to be loaded with Panda3D, but I have some questions is it possible to load a complex and large map within panda 3D with a minimum performance lost. For example I see games like World Of Warcraft with large map running smoothly in game. How can I make this? What’s the workflow to do this? Thank for your help.
you dont load them as big map. they wont even fit into memory of high-end pc’s.
games like world of warcraft and many many others split the world into smaller parts. small enough to get loaded during runtime without any noticeable or with only very little loading times. this usualy is refered as “pageing”.
bout the workflow. well you either create one big model and write a small script which rips it apart into smaller pieces. or you create the pieces right from the start (maybe using an in-game editor or simmilar).
panda itself has no problem handling pageing. using its binary BAM file format you can load quite some stuff in almost no-time. many moons ago i wrote a basic system for piecewise loading pre-made level-parts so i know panda handles it well even on older machines.
for huge outdoor levels you might want to use advanced terrain-algorithms. panda has recently gained geoMipTerrain which does a great job at optimizing terrain geometry,but pageing support for it is not yet implemented, it’s on the to-do list with pretty top-priority if i remember pro-rsofts words correctly.
Thx for replying. Could you send me a copy of your script, since I don’t know how to translate this concept into python code?I would like to study it to know how to try this method. I give thanks in advance.
http://home.arcor.de/positiveelectron/files/project-files/fullTest.zip
there it is,however. its sorta brute-force implementation and i really advice against learning too much from it. it’s terribly written.
since request is farily high i decided to make a small animation on systems like that and explain how they work. but i wont have time until middle or end of next week.
I’m on that request list. 
Kijaro, have you used Google maps? - Same idea.