Handling level content streaming

In this recipe we are going to divide an existing scene into parts so that it can be streamed as required to unload parts that are no longer required, and ensure parts that are not yet required remain on standby. Streaming helps maximize performance by only loading areas the player can see. Moreover, streaming isn't only useful for performance optimization. In many storytelling scenarios, streaming can be used to selectively expose different features of a level based on player actions. This provides a nice way to generate a non-linear experience.

Getting ready

Open the file Packt_06_Persistent_Start.UDK, which represents the shared content persistent across the boundary between two streamed levels. The scenes we're going to stream have already been divided up from the scene we used in the previous recipe. In your own scene, you'd have to work out which elements would be saved to which scene. There is an upper level and a lower level, and the persistent level...