Hello,
I was using the atlas to find some resources, and I think this is how it works but wanted to verify.
When you clear out an area of that resource, the atlas doesn’t actually update with the current state? Is that correct. So if I gather all of the plants in the area, the intensity will look the same?
I don’t think the Atlas updates. I tried with fiberous leaves.
I went to an isolated hot spot, and found a bunch of plants. I collected all I could find, and the spot was still hot there. I did another sweep, and maybe found 1-2 more. The dot didn’t change at all.
Maybe it updates on a slower cadence. I don’t think it can be very helpful if it’s just based on world generation spawn rates. A way to test that would be to see if the area around aa active big city is depeleted of some resources like iron or fiberous leaves.
I think it updates only every 24 hours not in real time. You might want to search the forums I think it has been discussed.
I found a quote from James
jamesDeveloper
Mar 12
(Currently) they’re updated every 24 hours. This frequency is configurable. There is a pretty aggressive trade off between player bandwidth and resource map accuracy.
Why is that. You only have to transfer the picture of the atlas to the client. the server can update en do the math.
The quote is per the developers so you would have to ask them.
It’s a relatively high resolution image (and in reality is several maps: bump mapping, luminance for gleam/etc, etc). Each update costs some amount of data, and the devs have to balance that with other bandwidth concerns (like bandwidth required to load chunks of the world as you move around).
And, doing it in a reactive way (e.g. using “extra” bandwidth when available) can be pretty challenging—I doubt we’d want them to focus on that (vs the other stuff they have to build)
I knew someone would be better at explaining this than me. Thank you
Atlat is not a very useful tool for searching, seriously. We need another tool, like scanner or something, that will show the nearest needed resource in an average radius.
I support this message. Give us a better material locator.
The reason it isn’t updated often is due to the strain it would likely cause.
To get the image at all for the planets in the sky or on the atlases, a request needs to be made to the server. Doing this every time a block is moved would be ridiculously expensive.
Also, getting the resource heatmaps must be another request to the server, if not multiple. Again, updating this in real time would be expensive and just not worth it
Edit: nvm, @nevir sorta got there first
Maybe let our atlas send out a pulse that’s 5 blocks wide every 5 minutes, to tell us if we are near a resource?
So I don’t lose my mind searching for impossible to find gems…
Do we know what time they get updated?