multiple levels

[DollMaster]

If I were to make a zelda 3 style game, which has multiple levels, I was reading that it may be best to use seperate GED files for each level, cause they may be large levels. I am not at the point in my game of level creation as I am still working on my menu and inventory systems. Can someone give me a run down on the process of how using multple GED files works?

I am confused as to whether I must copy my menu and inventory scripts into each GED in order for it to work.

Are there any demos available?

[skydereign]

, I was reading that it may be best to use seperate GED files for each level, cause they may be large levels.

I would recommend against this if possible. Using multiple ged files means you need to edit every level to make a change to the inventory, and anything else you'd like to tweak. For instance how the player acts in the level would become a giant pain. The "best" alternative is to load maps dynamically, from a single ged. This does take a bit more work though, and usually people will make a level editor to go with it.

[DollMaster]

Load maps meaning use activation regions? Or create actor? Is there any difference speed-wise?

So each ged would need the inventory script if one were to use multiple geds for each level. And to avoid the trouble of editing each individual ged for changes in my system, I should avoid multiple geds.

For my level creator I was just going to use paint shop pro and draw like 3 layers for ground, obstacles, and overlays. Is there a better way of doing it?

[skydereign]

Load maps meaning use activation regions? Or create actor? Is there any difference speed-wise?

I meant with CreateActor. Speed wise for activation regions are slower when loading your game at first (and the file size is much larger), but it should be slightly faster when transitioning between regions than destroying the old level and creating the new.

So each ged would need the inventory script if one were to use multiple geds for each level. And to avoid the trouble of editing each individual ged for changes in my system, I should avoid multiple geds.

Correct. And the problem applies to any change within your game, not just the menu.

For my level creator I was just going to use paint shop pro and draw like 3 layers for ground, obstacles, and overlays. Is there a better way of doing it?

Using tiles will allow you to make much more elaborate levels, and will cut down file size massively.

[bamby1983]

Just a word of caution in case you decide to use separate GED files for each level; Any animation stop events in your view's create event won't execute when you load one GED file from another. I don't know why this occurs, but it's a glitch I faced while trying to use this approach.