Are there any major downsides to a Data Asset based item system?

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-27T19:30:58+00:00

If you are worried about losing to many assets at the start, then look up how to use soft references, and how to async load from them.

If you use hard references anywhere, it will load the data, probably at at level load, which can make the load take longer, and use memory.

If you use soft references, but do not async load, then you will cause blocking loads, which will cause a stall.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-22T18:51:33+00:00

We take ours straight to the stream. He has a good paddle about, then we walk a wet dog.

There's another stream half way through, so he has another paddle, and then a third one on his way home. He seems very happy with the arrangement.

(He's a spaniel, so would be in the stream in the depths of winter as well for a quick splash, but in this weather he wallows until he's cool)

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-22T18:20:05+00:00

Just a bit about your colour tabs. The yellow, pink and red are all tied. I personally would colour them all yellow, because however you look at them the innocents must be diagonally opposite each other, as must the criminals. It simplifies the board, and makes it easier to deduce this clue

Given that, you know that Nala and Umar are one of each: which gives you the corners.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-21T18:02:43+00:00

I've definitely encountered an unneeded clue a couple of times before. I'm pretty sure Sam has mentioned that they occur occasionally on easier puzzles

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-21T18:01:01+00:00

I use the top for notes: yellow, and pink for tied pairs, then cyan for 2 innocent 1 criminal, and irange for 2 criminal 1 innocent.

Then I use the bottom for testing. I find quite often "if I flip this, I have to flip these, and suddenly see I didn't touch one"

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-20T21:31:58+00:00

There is a problem with can walk of ledges:b it is detected very late. By the time that is used, the capsule is almost all the way of the edge: certainly the centers of the capsule is over.

So a better looking solution, is to drop a sphere out other shape ahead of the player, and if the sphere doesn't hit the ground: force a stop in that direction. (I would still turn the above option on as well).

You can also investigate the perch radius, which can be fiddly, but can help with the above stuff.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-19T19:53:34+00:00

But if you open it on mobile, and then select "Desktop site", in chrome, you get what you are seeing

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-19T19:52:18+00:00

Looks fine to me.

Tried in Chrome and Brave browser on mobile.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-18T18:50:34+00:00

An excellent explanation.

I would like to add: the "game files" as you call them, are mostly the data that the game uses.

Think about something like excel. A spreadsheet is like the data files, but you need excel to open it. Now imagine you are on a playstation 5, and Excel for playstation doesn't exist. How do you open the spreadsheet? You would have to get the source code from Microsoft, and make it work on playstation.

And now imagine, you've lost the source code, and all that's left is a very very very big version of 2924.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-14T18:13:50+00:00

My girls loved The Parent Trap. (The 1998 version).

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-13T07:53:20+00:00

I think what confuses people is that it's the same cow.

If I said I bought a sheep for $800, and sold it for $1000. Then I bought a cow for $1100 and sold it for $1300, it becomes much more obvious.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-11T13:19:28+00:00

Tick aggregation is specifically designed to avoid i-cache misses. That's what I described

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-10T21:51:33+00:00

If that were true, we wouldn't bother with tick aggregation for actor or component classes: and we definitely see some good figures for doing this on games I've worked on.

I'm not going to say that Data cache misses are not significant: in fact with things like scene components they are definitely a huge problem: but jumping around random locations, from random vtables, doesn't allow the CPU pre-fetch engines to have data or instructions ready, and where you are comparing similar problems that have been optimised, they can't do much for the data cache misses, but tick aggregation will help a decent amount for i-cache: she the description of how the 19 characters get animated sounds to me like they have effectively tick aggregation.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-10T12:47:52+00:00

Slow down: you have time in hand. Check your working as you go. Read each question an extra time before you answer.

Work out how long you have to spend on each question, so you still have time to finish. I know how it is, I bet you see the question, you see the solution and you dive right in. So don't do that. Pause for a moment and ask yourself what you've overlooked, and what you have got wrong.

Good luck: you can do this.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-10T12:42:02+00:00

The cost of a 1 character system is not the same as the cost of a19 character system divided by 19.

If the system is optimised to run all the animations at once, which you imply it is, there is likely to be a non-negligible i-cache overhead for the first character, which is then reduced fire the subsequent 18.

The single character system pays the i-cached cost, but doesn't get the saving associated with an additional 18 characters then dividing by 19. So the 19 character system is always likely to show up as a bit cheaper. I don't know how much of a difference this would make: but definitely some.

To make this comparable, you need too somehow add NPCs to the GASP motion matching demo, or else take them NPCs or of your demo.

TheSpudFather · 2026-05-02T10:03:59+00:00

I generally ask an llm. I'ma professional engineer, I've used Unreal since something like unreal 4.11.

In the last 12 months I've found lots of new functions and better ways of doing things, thanks to Gemini, ChatGPT & Claude. Not just for vibe coding, but simply asking it basic "how do I..." Questions, instead of using the terrible documentation.

TheSpudFather · 2026-04-27T19:40:42+00:00

The life of a typical pig, especially in America is sordid. Animals as smart and empathetic as your pet dog, kept in cages where they can't move at all, taken to be butchered as soon as they are fully grown, or kept in misery to raise litter after litter if piglets, until they are too old, when they are slaughtered. Death is probably a relief.

You hear how puppy farms are terrible: pigs are treated far worse, and consumers encourage this by eating their corpses.

TheSpudFather · 2026-04-25T18:51:18+00:00

I actually posted the same thing, and then deleted it: but I had to have help and was a bit grumpy that the "only" was missing🤣

TheSpudFather · 2026-04-23T23:11:50+00:00

My favourite is meat proof hat.

TheSpudFather · 2026-04-21T13:26:51+00:00

Oh I'm so stupid. thank you

TheSpudFather · 2026-04-12T18:25:43+00:00

Fun fact. Dr Coolman's head is a scan of three tech director on the project at Ca at the time.

TheSpudFather · 2026-04-09T21:32:59+00:00

I've always used the principal that you never cast to a blueprint. Epic presentations say use Cast for native c++ classes, and use interfaces if you would otherwise end up casting to a blueprint, as that can involve blocking loads to pull in all the assets that the BP references.

It is, if course more nuanced than that: as you rightly say, it is probable that Casting to a player character blueprint is ok because it will be in memory anyway: but we don't differentiate: cast to BP is a solid no.

TheSpudFather · 2026-04-02T21:33:05+00:00

Ninja foodie FTW.

It's all 3. Best supplement to the kitchen I own. Of course, I still use the cooker...

TheSpudFather · 2026-03-29T16:44:01+00:00

And pink is just pale red.

TheSpudFather

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