Terrain Questions
by Michael Koehmstedt · in Torque Game Engine · 03/28/2001 (9:55 pm) · 4 replies
Hello,
This is my first time posting although I've been reading the forum quite a bit.
Now my questions, which is about terrain(obviously...). I know that the terrain engine is based off recursive tiling of 256x256 heightfields, but about how big (with an average scale) is 256x256? So if you create a special looking mountain that stands out, is the player going to notice it every 15 seconds and make it obvious that it is repeating?
Second question. If the terrain engine proves unsuitable for what is needed in my game, I'm thinking of doing something completely different, something like what Asheron Call does. If you don't know what I mean, Asheron Call has a whole world, split up into completely different terrain tiles (i.e. no repetition). As you move around, the details of tiles you're on or near are loaded, and as you move away from them they're unloaded. This allows completely smooth movement across the whole world. Now my actual question...with the Tribes2 architecture, how big of a project would this be to code?
This is my first time posting although I've been reading the forum quite a bit.
Now my questions, which is about terrain(obviously...). I know that the terrain engine is based off recursive tiling of 256x256 heightfields, but about how big (with an average scale) is 256x256? So if you create a special looking mountain that stands out, is the player going to notice it every 15 seconds and make it obvious that it is repeating?
Second question. If the terrain engine proves unsuitable for what is needed in my game, I'm thinking of doing something completely different, something like what Asheron Call does. If you don't know what I mean, Asheron Call has a whole world, split up into completely different terrain tiles (i.e. no repetition). As you move around, the details of tiles you're on or near are loaded, and as you move away from them they're unloaded. This allows completely smooth movement across the whole world. Now my actual question...with the Tribes2 architecture, how big of a project would this be to code?
About the author
#2
One more question, for someone in the GG staff. To make it simple...my game needs a large game world of randomly generated, but non repetitive tiles. However, I also need the ability to insert in custom made terrain tiles wherever I want. How simple/difficult do you think this feature would be to incorporate into the V12 engine?
03/28/2001 (10:32 pm)
Ok, thanks for the reply, it's good to know that the repetition is not very noticeable.One more question, for someone in the GG staff. To make it simple...my game needs a large game world of randomly generated, but non repetitive tiles. However, I also need the ability to insert in custom made terrain tiles wherever I want. How simple/difficult do you think this feature would be to incorporate into the V12 engine?
#3
Many developers have asked about this feature. I'm sure someone is going to work on it :)
03/29/2001 (9:01 am)
Extending the terrain engine to support multiple dynamically loaded tiles would not be difficult, but it would require a solid knowledge of how the engine works. The terrain editor would also have to change, I'm not as familiar with that code, so I'm not sure what's involved there. Shouldn't be too bad.Many developers have asked about this feature. I'm sure someone is going to work on it :)
#4
>Well, according to the Tribes 2 meta testers, you won't
>notice the repetition unless you get in an ultra-fast
>Shrike craft and fly at full speed with afterburners in
>one direction. And even then, you'll need a
>photographic memory.
>
>The 'in-between' detail is handled by whatever fractal
>algorithm they're using; meta testers tell me that the
>amount of detail in close-up terrain is pretty >incredible.
Tim, can you confirm that V12 will generate procedural detail under the 256x256 height field tiles?
A few more related questions...
1) What is the range of the coordinate space in V12? For example, in the Genesis3D 1.0 engine, the coordinate space was only +/-4096 units in each of the three axes. I'm hoping V12 will have a much wider domain range (like +/-4M).
2) Can the developer set the scale of the 256x256 terrain height map? Assume, for example, that I'm using a 1 coordinate unit = 1 inch scale for buildings, characters, and other non-terrain objects in the world. Could I specify, for example, a 1:63,360 (5280 feet * 12 inches) scale from the height map to the world coordinate system to give a "real" terrain resolution of 1 mile per point and procedural detail below that.
03/30/2001 (10:40 am)
Luc Jordan wrote:>Well, according to the Tribes 2 meta testers, you won't
>notice the repetition unless you get in an ultra-fast
>Shrike craft and fly at full speed with afterburners in
>one direction. And even then, you'll need a
>photographic memory.
>
>The 'in-between' detail is handled by whatever fractal
>algorithm they're using; meta testers tell me that the
>amount of detail in close-up terrain is pretty >incredible.
Tim, can you confirm that V12 will generate procedural detail under the 256x256 height field tiles?
A few more related questions...
1) What is the range of the coordinate space in V12? For example, in the Genesis3D 1.0 engine, the coordinate space was only +/-4096 units in each of the three axes. I'm hoping V12 will have a much wider domain range (like +/-4M).
2) Can the developer set the scale of the 256x256 terrain height map? Assume, for example, that I'm using a 1 coordinate unit = 1 inch scale for buildings, characters, and other non-terrain objects in the world. Could I specify, for example, a 1:63,360 (5280 feet * 12 inches) scale from the height map to the world coordinate system to give a "real" terrain resolution of 1 mile per point and procedural detail below that.
Torque Owner Luc Jordan
The 'in-between' detail is handled by whatever fractal algorithm they're using; meta testers tell me that the amount of detail in close-up terrain is pretty incredible.
Also -- the Asheron's Call maps are huge files, and they look like crap. Tribes 2 map files are MINISCULE in terms of size they take up.