So ... I did a little experiment today. I had made a watch tower, which was quite detailed and then set it on a mound of grass that I coloured green (of course). This hit 14% on the 'Graphics' thermo. I then cloned that watch tower and mound of grass 11 times. The 'Graphics' thermo was still at 14%. Not deterred, I pressed on and cloned the 11 clones 20 more times ... STILL the 'Graphics' thermo was at 14%. This can't be right, I thought so I cloned the 220 versions of my watchtower another 40 - 50 times ... Still 14%, BUT the 'Gameplay' thermo had risen to 67%. We're talking a huge ass forest of complex watchtowers here WITHOUT any lowering of the resolution, which was at full. I walked around it with my mannequin and there was NO framerate drop. I was however joined by a fellow mannequin, who seemed keen on accompanying me on my explorations. He didn't copy me, he simply traversed the scenery in pursuit of me. I wasn't controlling him because I turned to face him at one point and the little blighter just stared at me blankly and never said a word, which I found rude to say the least.
So in conclusion, with clever use of assets, logic, animation and sound effects (not the ridiculous mess I'd made), levels can be absolutely huge AND mannequins are ignorant little bastards.
