Quick little idea: What if instead of generating a sphere (or cube) around you, the game generated a set number of cubic chunks? For instance, I tell the game to generate 1000 cubic chunks, and it then finds the 1000 nearest (in a spherical or cubic sense) non-empty cubic chunks to me. This would allow for increased sight distance when there is not much around you, but when there is a lot of used chunks around you, the effective "sight-distance" decreases, preventing unwanted lag spikes. I imagine that this could not only help performance, but increase the enjoy-ability of the game as well.
Imagine you are on a large grassy field, and you tell the game to render the nearest 5000 chunks to you. This loads a majority of the field, as well as a massive cliff to your north. You can see the top of the cliff, but not what is on the top. When you walk towards the cliff, more and more chunks on the other side of the cliff are loaded, while chunks in the field behind you de-res. Naturally, your sight distance will decrease, but it won't matter, as you can't see the other side of the cliff.
At the base of the cliff, you can't see much behind you, as the interior of the cliff is taking up many of the 'slots' for chunks to load in. However, this is a good thing, as it prevents annoying lag spike when many 'filled' chunks are in a near vicinity to you (ie within your render distance sphere). I don't know for sure,but I have been told that when most of the cubic chunks near you are non-empty, the game can slow down quite a bit. This idea is sacrificing view distance for performance, but only when necessary. A player with a fantastic computer could set the number of 'chunk slots' to an absurd number, and still get good FPS, while a player with a dinosaur could set the number of slots to the 10s. This would allow for performance option customisability to more than just a sliding scale with 4 options.
When you scale the cliff, and get to the top, you can see a much further distance in any direction, as there is now an abundance of empty cubic chunks off the cliff face. This means that, because the system can now accept the extra load, more cubic chunks are loaded, and view distance is increased.
Essentially, tell the game how many cubic chunks to load. When the game would otherwise lag, it just loads less chunks. When it can accept it, it loads more further away. I feel as though this would take the mechanic to its furthest capabilities, and I hope to see it implemented.
Minecraft Username: Dragunlord13 Age: 3 months from 16 Skype Username (optional): No webcam or mic, unfortunately. What do you enjoy in a SMP server?: I like to be able to play with other people (as it adds a lot to the game) without having to worry about my creations being ruined or admins becoming pretentious jerks because they have too much power. All I really want to do is build with some other people. Something made from the creativity of many people is always better than something made of the creativity of one.
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Imagine you are on a large grassy field, and you tell the game to render the nearest 5000 chunks to you. This loads a majority of the field, as well as a massive cliff to your north. You can see the top of the cliff, but not what is on the top. When you walk towards the cliff, more and more chunks on the other side of the cliff are loaded, while chunks in the field behind you de-res. Naturally, your sight distance will decrease, but it won't matter, as you can't see the other side of the cliff.
At the base of the cliff, you can't see much behind you, as the interior of the cliff is taking up many of the 'slots' for chunks to load in. However, this is a good thing, as it prevents annoying lag spike when many 'filled' chunks are in a near vicinity to you (ie within your render distance sphere). I don't know for sure,but I have been told that when most of the cubic chunks near you are non-empty, the game can slow down quite a bit. This idea is sacrificing view distance for performance, but only when necessary. A player with a fantastic computer could set the number of 'chunk slots' to an absurd number, and still get good FPS, while a player with a dinosaur could set the number of slots to the 10s. This would allow for performance option customisability to more than just a sliding scale with 4 options.
When you scale the cliff, and get to the top, you can see a much further distance in any direction, as there is now an abundance of empty cubic chunks off the cliff face. This means that, because the system can now accept the extra load, more cubic chunks are loaded, and view distance is increased.
Essentially, tell the game how many cubic chunks to load. When the game would otherwise lag, it just loads less chunks. When it can accept it, it loads more further away. I feel as though this would take the mechanic to its furthest capabilities, and I hope to see it implemented.
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Age: 3 months from 16
Skype Username (optional): No webcam or mic, unfortunately.
What do you enjoy in a SMP server?: I like to be able to play with other people (as it adds a lot to the game) without having to worry about my creations being ruined or admins becoming pretentious jerks because they have too much power. All I really want to do is build with some other people. Something made from the creativity of many people is always better than something made of the creativity of one.