PBBG map "rendering/building/whatever"

[stanni]

Hey guys,

I made a topic a few days ago about map's in pbbg's and posted it in the "game design" forum, I didnt get the answer I intended as I dont think I wrote the question clearly enough and plus I dont think I posted it the write section.

I am wanting to find out how best to go about the task of collection of data from the database and building the map on the web page. Firstly I want to know what method I am using to do the in-browser updating, not sure if im supposed to be using AJAX, JSON, Jquery or what ever else there is..

Next I wanted to know the most efficiant way to load the tiles onto the webpage, im currently using a table grid with a tile in each cell, is that the best way or is there others?

Finally I wanted to know if there was a way to first get the new location of characters on screen and then move them from tile to tile instead of seeing them jump. This affect can be seen here http://aethora.com/ (video in top right corner). The creator has an account on this forum also, so if he could comment on his way of doing that, that would be awesome. Also, very nice game.

Thnx

[JGadrow]

There's a detailed discussion of map tiles currently ongoing.

As far as the technology that you use to facilitate map transitions, that's really up to you. You'll probably want to use AJAX so that the user's browser doesn't need to be refreshed, but I always look at JavaScript (and it's associated 'technology' libraries such as AJAX) as a "nicety" rather than a "necessity."

Also, because people seem to be confused on the issue, I think I'm going to create a post about what the differences are between AJAX, JSON, AND JQuery. So look for that to assist you with identifying which technology is relevant to a particular portion of development.

As far as displaying the data... Personally, I shy away from non-semantic mark-up and a map isn't "truly" tabular data it's just conveniently displayed that way. But, that having been said, you're probably not exactly caring that Google and fellow robots correctl index your map tiles.

And the method of creating the movement is determined by creating a pathing algorithm (as I stated in your previous post). However, I should have also said that this just lets you know which spaces that the character must pass through. The actual movement of the character is best performed with JavaScript or a similar technology. Basically, the server itself "jumps" the character. But the user's browser renders the movement animation.

I hope this helps to clarify.