@ DC: Will maps allow players/objects to stand in negative vectors? (where the center of the map is the vector (0, 0, 0) ). It could help on making four times bigger maps, if I'm not wrong.
The size constrictions of Stranded II maps has nothing to do with positive or negative numbers, ist just a simple performance factor. Stranded II keeps every object in memory, even of the other side of the map. There's no internal problem with maps bigger than 256*256. (As far as I know, a modified source code from Mc Leaf has maps up to 1024*1024.)
@ Nova: It being negative makes it better, instead of having vectors from (0, 0, 0) to (256^2, 256^2, 256^2) it would be like from (-256^2, -256^2, -256^2) to (256^2, 256^2, 256^2). (Four times the same size because it goes down, left and right)
Proving Starkkz's point: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Far_Lands
The generating issue starts (used to) in Minecraft at X/Z ±12,550,821. That means if Minecraft had only positive values (0 - 12,550,821) then (the playable part of) the map would be much smaller.
@ Starkkz:
Given that the map remains under the accuracy limit for whichever floating-point precision DC uses, there is absolutely no performance factor for using negative space. If S3's islands are more than a few km across, I would be surprised.
Well, another amazing idea could be that the value size limit for the vectors was adjusted to the map size, say you have a 256*256 map, the server would have to send 2 bytes for each position in the vector (X,Y,Z) (That's 6 bytes in total), in case that you have a bigger map, it has to use 3-4-5 bytes and so on (This limit would have to be sent to the client when it joins to the game server).
Starkkz, I honestly think you are getting a bit too finicky over these little details. Sending variable length data is not worth those tiny savings in data transfer, since you have to do extra computation at both ends. Easier just to transfer IEEE floats, which are fixed width and will work on pretty much any architecture.
@ Jawohl: Well, if the vehicles and the items worked as client-side and server-side the same time they could be synchronized to work with Lua somehow, we'd be able to make them from our own and upload them to the File Archive.
Correct. You don't need Unity for it. It's true that there is a Unity Webplayer Plugin but Stranded III will be a stand alone game which does not require any extra software.