Overall, is it better to append all your blend files into one and save it as a runtime or is it better to have a folder with many blends and link them all, make all paths absolute and then save it as runtime?
From what i can tell, linking them all together from seperate files gives the best results
it should reduce lag.
It really depends on the game- if it’s something like breakout, with small levels in contained areas, a single blend would probably do just fine (maybe better) whereas if it’s something like yo frankie, with larger levels, many and varied assets, linked blends is far better for memory. As far as I can tell, if you can afford to keep the whole blend in memory (that is, it’s small enough) then you don’t really need to split it up.
If you have an asset you would like to spread across a bunch of blends and scenes and such (say, a tree), I would recommend putting it in an external blend and linking it in with groups, so you can edit just the original and all the others will be changed (instead of having to go through every blend it’s in and fixing it)
Thanks, that makes sense. So if I am doing a huge environment scene (like a city for example) with many non - repetitive objects and plenty Ipos and action animations, I should just do it all in one file? Am I understanding it right?
In a large environment, if you can afford to split it with loading screens, multiple blends would be better- but if you want to make in one continuous place your best choice would be to look into the newly-installed dynamic loading and unloading features.
It has nothing to do with “results”. I’d say that in theory, a linked blend file might take a bit longer to load… but probably less than a seconds difference, even on large files.
Linking blend data is really a tool for you, the developer, to organize things. It allows you to re-use objects easily and edit them. If you have one enemy spread across a level, and you find a bug, it’s much easier to open the enemy blend file and edit that, instead of having to edit one and find ALL the enemies on the scene and copy the bricks.
Implementing linked blends also would allow you to release patches without having to have the user re-download the entire game. More data here: http://blenderartists.org/forum/showthread.php?t=163380&highlight=patch.
-Sam
Thank you all for your responses, I think I have a better understanding of this issue now.