Inactive Zones are not Visible

[+Moss Troopers]

When I make a zone not active it also becomes not visible when using the emulator. Does anyone know if this is the same for all devices?

[+Tequila]

When I make a zone not active it also becomes not visible when using the emulator. Does anyone know if this is the same for all devices?

 

I think that is true. I tried to create a zone called Parking that I make visible at the end so the player can find his way back. I didn't make it active and it was not visible. I didn't do a lot of testing. Just made it active and moved on the next issue.

[Ranger Fox]

The difference between inactive and invisible is that the Wherigo Player will not process inactive zones while they're inactive. Events will not be triggered if the player enters an inactive zone.

 

Invisible zones are functionally identical to visible zones, the only difference being they are not listed in the Player's list of zones.

[+Moss Troopers]

I appreciate the explanation; I understand the difference between active and visible zones.

 

Here's what happens. I have a zone that is both visible and active. When a player enters that zone i make the zone inactive but not invisible. The zone no longer appears in the locations list.

 

This works in my favour as it save a lot of steps in the cartridge I'm currently working on, but only if it is true for all devices.

[matejcik]

look at it this way:

 

Active and Visible don't have anything to do with each other.

 

Visible determines if the zone appears in list or not. (obviously)

 

Active is a different fish altogether. When a zone is active, it is considered by the Player (calculates position, evaluates distance, shows in lists etc.). When it's inactive, it's not considered at all. As if it never existed.

 

from that you can conclude that if a zone is inactive, it cannot appear in a list (because the Player pretends that the zone isn't there).

 

so, simple answer to your original question is : yes, this is true for all devices, this is the intended behavior.

[+Moss Troopers]

Thanks, that makes sense.

[kvhollis]

Active is a different fish altogether. When a zone is active, it is considered by the Player (calculates position, evaluates distance, shows in lists etc.). When it's inactive, it's not considered at all. As if it never existed.

 

Are inactive zones still consuming memory? I know I've read recommendations are no more than 10 zones per cartridge.

 

However, could I have say 20 - and only a few active at a time and not have to worrry about memory and other performance issues?

[Ranger Fox]

Are inactive zones still consuming memory?

Not that I've experienced or seen.

[matejcik]

This is a new one to me - do zones consume memory in some significant way?

I wouldn't think so, after all, the zone is nothing but a bunch of coordinates. I know that having lots of active zones can degrade performance, and maybe the memory consumption is related to showing them in the list and drawing those arrows.

But a zone by itself shouldn't eat much. (of course its representation is still there, but it's so small that it shouldn't have any impact. one zone in Lua compiled bytecode (with empty description) takes less than a kilobyte)

[Ranger Fox]

I'm assuming people are using the term "memory" to ask why having many zones displayed can slow the Player. The correct term, though, would be processing time. Tons of zones will slow performance due to the increased processing load. To the general public, though, it's pretty much the same thing.

 

I remember working the residential networking help desk in college. I was on the phone with someone who didn't have a network card in her computer and someone to install it. The conversation went like this:

Her: "Can I just bring the CPU down there and you install it for me?"

Me: "... ... ... ... ... ..." (Yes, a long pause.) "Um, I'm going to need you to bring the entire desktop down here for me to do that."

Her: "Yeah, the CPU."

At first, I was confused about why someone who could take the CPU out of her computer would have trouble installing a network card. Then I realized what she meant. I guess at times you have to pay more attention to what they mean rather than what they say.

[+HoustonControl]

My Cartridge starts with all zones but one inactive and invisible. They become visible one at a time as you progress through the game. But in the emulator, they are visible on the map as light gray boxes -- even the zone with the final cache. Why is this? I have the check to see if the cart is being run on the emulator, and then it won't display the final cache zone, but I don't want someone to just run it in the emulator and see the cache zone on the map.

Edited February 10, 2009 by HoustonControl

[matejcik]

don't worry about it.

all zones are visible on the emulator map if, and only if, you compiled the cartridge yourself on your own machine.

when somebody downloads it and runs it on their own machine without access to source code, they won't see a thing.

[+HoustonControl]

don't worry about it.

all zones are visible on the emulator map if, and only if, you compiled the cartridge yourself on your own machine.

when somebody downloads it and runs it on their own machine without access to source code, they won't see a thing.

Thanks. That makes me feel better!