Osiris/API/CharacterSetForceSynch
From Divinity Engine Wiki
Full Definition(s)
- call CharacterSetForceSynch((CHARACTERGUID)_Character, (INTEGER)_Bool)
Description
Characters are only synchronised between the server (the game logic) and the client (the presentation) if at least one player character is "nearby" (currently: within 30 meters). This routine can be used to force _Character to be synchronised even if no player character are nearby, by passing 1 as _Bool. Once the character no longer needs to be force-synchronised, you can make its synchronisation again depend on the nearness of a player character by calling it with 0 as _Bool.
Notes
- Synchronisation is only important in special cases. For example, a character's linked ghost will only be visible if the character itself is active. So if the character's corpse is far away, you have to force synchronise it for its ghost to show up. Another use case is when forcing the camera to a location far away from the players, in which case you may have to force synch characters in that far-away location if you want them to be visible.
- Forcing a character (or item) to synchronise does not automatically make it active, i.e., it does not make their behaviour scripts execute. If you want that, use CharacterSetForceUpdate instead.
- Use this functionality very sparingly, as it can easily lead to a lot of unnecessary overhead.
- As the name and declaration imply, this cannot be used for items. You can use ItemSetForceSynch for them instead, with the same caveats.
- Off-stage characters cannot be force-synchronised (it may appear to work, but will stop when saving/reloading).
- This call increases an internal counter every time you enable force-synchronising and decreases it again when you disable it. Force-synchronisation only gets disabled when the counter is at zero (which is its initial value).