Fastest Way to Change Water Level

[REVENGE]

As far as I know, the only way to fake changing water levels is by raising and lowering the entire heightmap. There are a couple of different functions that I can use, so I'm wondering which function is the fastest, and whether or not this effect can be achieved instantaneously. Otherwise, I won't bother.

[Tobi]

Can definitely not be done instantaneously, unless you want fake water and just render some extra water with LuaOpenGL

If you change water level (e.g. change land level) engine will have to re-path the entire map in the background etc. Not sure if it does this actually, but if it doesn't you have the problem of units being able to drive in the water and boats being unable to move in it.

[REVENGE]

Can definitely not be done instantaneously, unless you want fake water and just render some extra water with LuaOpenGL

If you change water level (e.g. change land level) engine will have to re-path the entire map in the background etc. Not sure if it does this actually, but if it doesn't you have the problem of units being able to drive in the water and boats being unable to move in it.

Well damn, gg to that idea then.

[Noruas]

A map where lava rises with fake water done in lua would be cool, forcing all players to move toward the middle of the map in about an hour.

[lurker]

Fund it.

[Noruas]

Free Unit in xta.

[Evil4Zerggin]

Not sure if it does this actually

It didn't when I tried it.

[TheFatController]

I'm guessing it's possible to have a map with some sand bridges and land and a map gadget displaying a timer in the corner, say 5:00 counting down - then when it hit zero the game would auto pause and a loading screen would display "raising tide..." or "lowering tide..." and wait for all the players to do the calculations each time to raise and lower the sea level.

That would be mostly acceptable as a gimmick I think, it would be cool if all the tanks etc stuck on the bridges were stranded for 5 mins hehe

[Argh]

Can you even do a sync operation, or a series of them, while paused?

[REVENGE]

Can you even do a sync operation, or a series of them, while paused?

Nope.

EDIT: Wait, maybe. You can spawn units can't you.

[Masure]

Reminds me "full metal planet"

[Evil4Zerggin]

Can you even do a sync operation, or a series of them, while paused?

I doubt it. My understanding is that when paused, no game frames pass, and if no game frames pass, nothing synced happens.

[jK]

synced stuff don't run only in GameFrames...

(so you can give commands, start buildings, stop buildings ...)

[CarRepairer]

Reminds me of Worms World Party sudden death.

[Guessmyname]

A map where lava rises with fake water done in lua would be cool, forcing all players to move toward the middle of the map in about an hour.

Seeing as it's lava, that might actually be possible with clever workarounds:

1) Don't actually fiddle with the water level at all
2) The lava is rendered by LUA, and is set up (also by LUA) to destroy all units beneath a certain height (ie the lava level)

Thus, raising the level of lava is comparatively easy: just raise the visible lava and the 'plane of destruction' for units. The only catch is that this doesn't warn the pathfinder, which will probably result in units driving straight into the lava and dying when they really shouldn't...

[REVENGE]

Ah, but your suggestion still has some merit, in that you could fake nice fixed lava volumes using what you suggested and a typemap. Mappers, utilize!