As you may know, GameMaker natively supports only 2-dimensional arrays with size up to 32000x32000.
However, in some cases, you may want to use arrays with 3 (or more) dimensions.
Small comparison table with descriptions below:
| Stat\Method | array:offset | array:instance | ds_grid's | ds_map |
| Init (fill-up) | Slow | Slow | Fast | Slowest |
| Access (i/o) | Fast | Fast | Average | Average |
| Size limit | ~109 cells | 32k/dimension | Resizable | No |
| Index | Integer | Integer | Integer | String |
| Existance check | No | No | Not needed | Yes |
| Region operations | No | No | Yes | Only clearing |
| References | No | Partial (layer) | Yes | Yes |
