Question

I would like to know whether using a transform matrix in SpriteBatch.Begin() renders the whole world or just the region defined by the viewport? If not, what would be the best way to render a huge world without severe performance issues??

Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You can work out the bounding rectangle of this viewport and simply not draw anything outside the rectangle. This is made even easier if your world is grid based.

For a grid-based world, you’ll want two (nested) for loops to draw the viewport, width and height.
For each loop, you need a starting point and an end point.

To get the start point for each loop: Divide the (width/height) by the (width/height) of the cells in the grid, then ‘floor’ this number.

To get the end point for each loop: Divide the (width/height) by the (width/height) of the cells in the grid, then ‘ceiling’ this number.

From there, you can simply draw the grid normally, using the start and end points that were calculated previously.

If your world isn’t grid-based, you can either use a simple ‘is point in rectangle’ test or an octree.