Discussion How strong can be GMS2 ?

[Valrad]

Hello,

I post this thread just to ask if this is a good idea using Game Maker Studio 2 for a RTS game with 2D pixels graphism, but with around 600 units (400 NPCs, and 200 real units). Is that number way to high for GMS2, with all scripts considered (collisions, confrontations...) ?

Thanks

 

[Catastrophe]

It's possible, just not "straight of the box" without any optimization. But you would use some small workarounds and likely not use game objects for your units (although with 600, even with standard game objects it's manageable if you are careful with your collision and ai).

Someone made a bullet hell with 25k bullets for kicks once by just drawing sprites and using his own custom trig based collisions just to give you an idea.

Pathfinding might be an issue if it's an RTS with that many units and your maps are large, so you might need to make the pathfinding a bit dumb or come up with some clever solutions. Hard to say, but I imagine that would be your biggest performance issue. That can be seriously alleviated if you have a pathfinding queue and you make some restrictions, like disallowing making walled off or windy areas.

 

[Valrad]

Okay! Thank you for responding me so fast!

So everything is about optimisation, if I understand what you are saying.

And about pathfiding, is there any pre-registered functions to get what I want easily?

 

[Catastrophe]

mp_grid_path can handle most of your needs if it's square grid based pathfinding. There are also A* extensions as well in the marketplace, but some are slower than others, some cannot handle 600 objects, and you'll need to do some digging and performance testing to find this out.

You'll need to make your own pathfinding queue system so you don't run all pathfinding in one frame, but this isn't too hard in comparison to the rest of building an rts.

Edit: and yes everything is just about optimization so you can get your smooth 60 fps. GMS can pretty much do anything you want in 2D

 

[Valrad]

Alright! That's basically everything I wanted to know about GMS2

Really big thanks for your time and your answers!

 

[chirpy]

What platform though? I believe you're asking about contemporary PC and it sound okay.
However, if it's for browser html5 then collisions and paths can be a headache, if not worse.

 

[Valrad]

Yes I thought the game will be for PC users

 

[Homunculus]

Just want to add that while game engines do have their differences in terms of performance, you'll always need to work with optimisation in mind in this kind of scenarios, regardless of the tool or engine you are using.

 

[Mert]

The only issue here is that objects in Game Maker are really heavy. Each object puts a heavy burden to your shoulders. Yoyogames is bringing lightweight objects to GML soon (in about a month I think).

Up until then, you should not create units in separate objects, but you must manage them programatically.