Great Game Maker Wall Optimization Script

[Koh]

After reading about how to optimize Game Maker games to make them run faster, I decided to try out one method mentioned before, to combine all of the Wall objects into one sprite using a surface, then deleting them all, and creating one big wall, it worked out TREMENDOUSLY. So I thought it would be useful for me to share my script with everyone. It's not hard to do of course, but it could save time, and I recommend using it with every game that's bound to have a lot of Wall objects. You call this script in the Room Creation Code.

Code:

var; wallsurface=0; w=0;  //Variables for the Surface on which all the wall sprites will be put on, and the New Wall object that will be made.
wallsurface=surface_create(room_width,room_height+1);  //Prepare a surface as big as the room, adding an extra pixel vertically so we can have transparency.

surface_set_target(wallsurface);  //Prepare to draw on the surface.
draw_clear(c_white);  //Clear the entire surface with the desired transparent color.
with objWall{  //With all of the walls in the room...
    if object_index==objWall{  //If it's not inheriting from anything (you may want to handle slopes with their own combined slope object, for example...
        draw_sprite(sprite_index,-1,x,y);  //Draw their sprite on the surface at their location.
        instance_destroy();  //Then delete theirself.
    }
}
if sprite_exists(global.wallopsprite){sprite_delete(global.wallopsprite);}  //If there was a combined wall surface sprite made before, get rid of it.  This is crucial you store this, as these will build up if you don't get rid of them, and can crash the game.
global.wallopsprite=sprite_create_from_surface(wallsurface,0,0,surface_get_width(wallsurface),surface_get_height(wallsurface),true,false,0,0);  //Make a new sprite from the surface made of all the Wall objects.
w=instance_create(0,0,objWall);  //Make a brand new Wall object at the top left of the room;
w.sprite_index=global.wallopsprite;  //Set its sprite to the sprite made from the surface.
w.mask_index=w.sprite_index;  //Set its mask to its sprite.
surface_free(wallsurface);  //Free up the memory from that surface.
surface_reset_target();  //Reset the drawing location.

It's not much, but it's effect on a game with a lot of Wall objects like my game is TREMENDOUS. I have no lag whatsoever now. You are all free to use this .