Destructable terrain
by Jeff Raab · in Game Design and Creative Issues · 08/13/2004 (7:45 pm) · 7 replies
Hello all!
I have a very interesting question for you all today.
Would it be possible for torque to have destructable terrains?
(i have noticed that in the edtior(on the demo at least) the terrain can be molded real-time. Doable?
Also if not, would it be possible to have it rebuild the terrain as voxels? (another medium for destructable terrain so im told)
Dont be afraid to laugh at my n00b-ness :P
I have a very interesting question for you all today.
Would it be possible for torque to have destructable terrains?
(i have noticed that in the edtior(on the demo at least) the terrain can be molded real-time. Doable?
Also if not, would it be possible to have it rebuild the terrain as voxels? (another medium for destructable terrain so im told)
Dont be afraid to laugh at my n00b-ness :P
#2
Melv May(hope thats the one :P) apparently had something to do this, but i didnt find it posted.
Also, would there be a way to do a sort or polygon(or bsp whatever) to voxel conversion to create desrtuctable buildings and such?
08/14/2004 (4:28 pm)
HmmmMelv May(hope thats the one :P) apparently had something to do this, but i didnt find it posted.
Also, would there be a way to do a sort or polygon(or bsp whatever) to voxel conversion to create desrtuctable buildings and such?
#3
08/14/2004 (10:00 pm)
Yes, there are many ways. The problem is finding a way that plays nice with the other needs of your game.
#4
So there are a bunch of ways, but i need to balance it with other parts of my game?
08/15/2004 (1:40 pm)
Eh, could you put that in more detail?So there are a bunch of ways, but i need to balance it with other parts of my game?
#5
Also you could potentially run into collision problems, not to speak about bandwidth requirements if you send over a new terrain bitmap.
Above is deducted from speculation and from rumours. Someone please confirm or deny where I guessed wrong.
08/15/2004 (2:01 pm)
AFAIK you cna only modify the terrain if you run a single user game (sitting on the server). If you modify the terrain in a multiuser environment you need to send over the terrain changes to the clients and relight the scene as the shadows are baked into the lightmap.Also you could potentially run into collision problems, not to speak about bandwidth requirements if you send over a new terrain bitmap.
Above is deducted from speculation and from rumours. Someone please confirm or deny where I guessed wrong.
#6
The issue is that doing something like this can be incredibly resource intensive so you have to take great care in how it fits into your game design. Another way of putting this is that if you don't know how to do it it may not be wise to do it. :)
Anyway, you can do some research on voxel techniques (or maybe play with Red Faction a bit - there are other demos out there, too) and learn quite a lot without too much hassle.
08/16/2004 (1:07 am)
Thomas is more or less on track. You can also implement a solution from scratch.The issue is that doing something like this can be incredibly resource intensive so you have to take great care in how it fits into your game design. Another way of putting this is that if you don't know how to do it it may not be wise to do it. :)
Anyway, you can do some research on voxel techniques (or maybe play with Red Faction a bit - there are other demos out there, too) and learn quite a lot without too much hassle.
#7
08/16/2004 (4:31 pm)
Red faction is limited to 100 damage events. It works good online up to 24 players. But once you reach 100 events, there is no more damage allowed. It didn't seem to slow things down at all. The main reason not many people play it is because of all the cheating that was going on. If they had fixed it so that people couldn't cheat so much... it would have been a great online game. Everything has to have a balance or it won't work the way it was intended. 
Torque Owner nibbuls