Spring RTS Engine

i don't like the idea @ all..

thats not happening to all maps (there could be some tag)... i see very nice maps that could be done if that would be possible

anyway cause this is never gonna happen anyway... lets think abaut the maps continuing even after when it has ended (doesnt change playability anywhere but gives better look to some maps)

Actually, just in case I ever find myself making a non-landscape RTS - could the common RTS pathfinding algorithms like those in Spring handle a non-landscape terrain system? Assume it's handled as a network of squares, where each square connects to other squares, but there may be gaps or overlaps in the network so it could never be laid out flat. Could such a topology still support normal pathfinding algorithms?

If you defined a central point, implemented the torus based map system, then all you'd need todo for a sphere system would be to distort all the y values as simply distances from the central point. Hey presto, all your camera and landscape gets curved, giving a populous style map system.

And yes there have been games that've used these systems and had their pathfinding work as well. Just play Populous 3 the beginning for a game whith spherical maps that'll run on low end systems in full 3D. (albeit the units are sprites, you could see the curved horizon, and the maps were a decent size too on some missions).

Guessmyname wrote:

Torrasque wrote:It's not so easy to explain. Perhaps this little drawing could help :



the map is still a square, but units can go from the left to the right like it were a cylindre

And you can do the same for the y axes to "simulate" a round map.
But, as we always display the map with a "top down" view, if the map is really small, this could lead to show 2 times the same part of the map.

Problem with that is that If your base is at the top and theirs the bottom you can just send your units up the map so that they appear at the bottom, and thus into the rear of his base.

But this is the whole point ! That you can't use a corner to hide in.
Thus there is no more top or bottom : youre in the middle.
You can scoll infinitly. It's invisible for the player. It's like playing on a spheric map.

Maps that behave like that always confused me because fo the way theyw here situated, especially when the minimap was displayed as normal and didnt scroll with the screen or couldnt be moved. It just got very confusing for me.

No, it's like playing on a toroidal map, not a spherical one. Torus = x and y, but looping x and looping y. Sphere = new coord system.

The trick is that you'd have to render everything 9x over so you could see the wrapping in the adjascent images of the current map. Plus, there's pathfinding/targetting issues.

Finally, there's the problem of the map window. Personally, I'd have it scroll with the view... you don't want a player near the edge to be confused as to distance for things across the wrapping line are. You want the wrapping to be invisible. So make the map window scroll with the view.

spherical map doesnt necessarily mean enw system unelss you have multiple spherical maps present, perhaps a base on a planet and then on a moon.

For a singgle world map with only that world to play on, it would be a matter of distorting how the game percieves ordinary co-ordinates. All the co-ordinates would still work the same way, the onyl difference would eb that when those co-ordinates where rendered they'd be rendered based around a central point. The maps in populous used this syetm, they where rectanglular maps that where toroidal in nature but the graphics engine curved them so that they where spherical. The game itself and all its systems treated it as a toroidal map, not a spherical map, all the co-ordinates where in the same manor as any other rectangular RTS that has a toroidal system, its just that when all those co-ordinates where displayed, they where curved so that they gave the illusion of polar co-ordinates when displayed in the curved world.

Pxtl wrote:No, it's like playing on a toroidal map, not a spherical one. Torus = x and y, but looping x and looping y. Sphere = new coord system.

The trick is that you'd have to render everything 9x over so you could see the wrapping in the adjascent images of the current map. Plus, there's pathfinding/targetting issues.

Finally, there's the problem of the map window. Personally, I'd have it scroll with the view... you don't want a player near the edge to be confused as to distance for things across the wrapping line are. You want the wrapping to be invisible. So make the map window scroll with the view.

Yes, I was perhaps a bit unclear.

Sadly, I think it's not feasable in Spring, or only in a far future.

And here I thought you wanted something more realistic.

Hiding in a corner... what sort of BS is that? That's not RTS, that's TA : Nerf, rated "G"

BAH!

Buggi wrote:And here I thought you wanted something more realistic.

Hiding in a corner... what sort of BS is that? That's not RTS, that's TA : Nerf, rated "G"

BAH!

Hey, you're the dude who has to make the map compilation program.

yeah lets have a "donut" like map! there wont be anyplace to hide because there will be neither sides nor corners :D

We shall call the map "Halo 3"