Big maps vs big panoramas

[Ellie]

I'm planning a quick game which will allow me to use a giant map for scenery. But I'm wondering the best way to render it. Do I leave it as a 500x500 (or 200x200 if I go with VX Ace) map, made of tiles, or do I turn this into one giant graphic and use it as a panorama? Which will be less resource intensive? The map itself is just scenery, I'll be flying over it, so won't need layers or anything like that.

 

[coyotecraft]

Panorama, if it's just a fly by. Shoot 'em ups use long scrolling panoramas.

 

[Ellie]

Cool. Will actually be mapping it in xp, exporting using a script as an image and then using as a panorama in vx ace, I think.

 

[Ellie]

I'm a bit stuck now. I want to make a 500x500 map - that's the main part of the project - but vx ace only allows 200x200. Does anyone know if editing the file (or generating my own) will allow me to use 500 in the editor?

 

[coyotecraft]

Thats weird. I can make a 500 x 500 tile map in ace. Are you using a trial or lite version or something?

 

[ZenVirZan]

Considering how priorities are so important in XP versus VX(A), how are you going to work with that in a flat image? If you were moving a VX(A) rendered map to XP, I could understand, because lots of stuff is single-tile.

 

[Ellie]

Oh, weird. Why did I think they cut it to 200? O.o

It's literally just a well mapped scene that the player hovers above so layers aren't an issue.