Intent

Aggregate the Model objects into one database.

Also called

World Database, World, Level, Fast Area

Problem

Most games need to track the state of many models simultaneously. Collecting the models into one list simplifies several important systems.
The creation and maintenance of indices which speed searching. (See Spatial Index.)
The inter-object references and the "death problem". (See Controller.)
Serialization, i.e. load and save.
Some games may have more than one kind of Model Database simultaneously because of fundamental differences in data or index type. For example, a game might have a TerrainModelDatabase which is independent of the MobileModelDatabase. These are both Model Databases, but have radically different optimization needs.

Solution

Some games may implement the Model Database as a simple array of Model instance pointers. This is probably the simplest solution and often very practical.

Other games may choose to implement sophisticated memory management or caching solutions to optimize or solve any of the following problems:
World is too large to fit in memory.
World fits in memory but too many objects slows down AI, physics, rendering, etc.
Synchronization of client and server.
Improve speed of load / save by "linearizing" world state.
The world database is almost always indexed to increase search speeds. (See Spatial Index.) The synchronization of these indices is usually part of the Model Database''s responsibility in methods like: removeFromWorld() and insertIntoWorld(). (See Gateway.)

Most games use hierarchical Model Databases over relational ones. In general, hierarchical databases are faster, but more cumbersome to change schema. Relational are slower but robust to schema changes. Since games almost always prefer speed to maintainability, they are thus typically hierarchical.

Structure

Not available at this time.

Examples

None at this time.

Issues and Risks

None at this time.

Related Patterns

A Model Database points to instances of Model.
Spatial Index is used to search a Model Database.

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Date this article was posted to GameDev.net: 6/19/2001
(Note that this date does not necessarily correspond to the date the article was written)

See Also:
Design Patterns