I have a pretty big universe, often with very small objects, that often have massive collision parties in small areas (due to magnets pulling them into a small area).
This would obviously fit well with small grinds.
However, I have the odd occational big object, like a really big rock or a mothership.
Hmm. It sounds like your game isn't particularly well suited to shifted grid. It works best in games where sprites are usually quite well spaced apart. However, shifted grid may still be useful to you...This would obviously fit well with small grinds.
However, I have the odd occational big object, like a really big rock or a mothership.
How should I deal with this the most effectivly?
1. Make the grinds bigger.
2. Check more than 4 sectors at once?
3. Have really big objects ignore the grind system and check collisions against everything like the old system (since big objects are rare).
Well, if the magnetism causes loads of sprites to group together regularly, I'd definately avoid making the grids bigger.1. Make the grinds bigger.
2. Check more than 4 sectors at once?
3. Have really big objects ignore the grind system and check collisions against everything like the old system (since big objects are rare).
Option 3 may be worth trying. Remeber that the grid sector size has to be twice the size of the largest sprite, so this could really kill performance considering you also have lots of smaller sprites grouped together, due to magnetism.
Another option is to break your big sprites up into smaller sprite tiles. In this case, make the sprite tiles as big as possible - i.e. just small enough to fit the collision grid limitations.