Creating City

Hi

I am planning to create a car simulation on a city track. To enhance the performance of the game i want to load the city in parts. I am currently developing the city in 3dmax. I would like to know whether i should create multiple b3d files or should use only on single b3d file to achieve better performance. Also incase of using single b3d how do i use commands like hideentity to hide specific parts of the city.

I would break it up if I were you and fade each section according to distance. Additionally, I've heard that Blitz3D can cull .b3d's on a per-entity basis, but someone else will have to attest the validity of that.

You could use FindChild or GetChild to get a part of the city.
ie:
part = GetChild(city, 1) <- index should be in range 1..CountChildren(city)
HideEntity part

I'd recommend splitting the city up into a grid of meshes. Blitz will automatically cull any sections whose bounding box is outwith the view frostum. You could either add some fog to avoid pop up or use entityautofade on each section.

Doing it like this will also speed up collision checking.

Stevie