This has probably been asked before, but i'd like to know the current status...
What would it take to make maps that have no edges and completely rendered scenery around the (bordered off) playing field?
I'm thinking maps with ridges just on/outside the playable area, and roling fields that seem to extend until the horizon.
But ehm, i'm afraid to ask even: is there any active development going on? What are the current items being worked on? Is the todo-list online anywhere?
Map edges
Moderator: Moderators
Re: Map edges
There is some development going on.gavan wrote:But ehm, i'm afraid to ask even: is there any active development going on? What are the current items being worked on? Is the todo-list online anywhere?
Trepan works on LUA stuff.
I work on netcode rewrite, (re)sync.
And other people occasionally work on various other improvements.
But since many of us have only limited time, it isn't going fast
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LathanStanley
- Posts: 1429
- Joined: 20 Jun 2005, 05:16
indeed i originally planned to have the map continue beyond the playing field for sm3, but there are a few problems with that:
- the spring game code assumes a big continuous float[] heightmap. If you want to extend the map the easy way you could increase this array, but then you also massively increase memory usage because spring isn't very efficient with memory per heightmap pixel. (32 bytes per heightmap pixel iirc).
- alternatively, heightmap outside of the playing field is stored somewhere else, but then you need to rewrite explosion code in order to prevent ugly drops and jumps in the heightmap at the edge of the playing field.
- another way would be to use a simple mesh for the geometry surrounding the playing field, but then the problem is how to get rid of the gaps at the edge, caused by heightmap LOD. And how to get some LOD working for the mesh, because rendering a mesh without lod around the entire map will be quite slow too.
- the spring game code assumes a big continuous float[] heightmap. If you want to extend the map the easy way you could increase this array, but then you also massively increase memory usage because spring isn't very efficient with memory per heightmap pixel. (32 bytes per heightmap pixel iirc).
- alternatively, heightmap outside of the playing field is stored somewhere else, but then you need to rewrite explosion code in order to prevent ugly drops and jumps in the heightmap at the edge of the playing field.
- another way would be to use a simple mesh for the geometry surrounding the playing field, but then the problem is how to get rid of the gaps at the edge, caused by heightmap LOD. And how to get some LOD working for the mesh, because rendering a mesh without lod around the entire map will be quite slow too.