Friday 2010-08-06 Dev. update and Discussions

[yogy]

Coming closer to reality

[76.IAP-Blackbird]

Yeah ... great!!!!!

Good shots Luthier.

Could you answer me these questions?


1. Aren't the trees in picture 2 maybe a bit too high?

2. Will we have like dynamic ground so that bombs will make deep craters or is it again just texture overlay?


Thx, Hecke

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by Hecke

Good shots Luthier.

Could you answer me these questions?

1. Aren't the trees in picture 1 maybe a bit too high?

Yeah, see what you mean. Hadn't noticed that - using crappy work PC.

WIP..?

[luthier]

The trees are all a standard size, inside cities or outside. We can either have tall trees in cities, or tiny regulated runts in the woods. If we had to have different types of trees and check where they grow, we'd lose way too much FPS.

[kendo65]

Originally Posted by luthier

The trees are all a standard size, inside cities or outside. We can either have tall trees in cities, or tiny regulated runts in the woods. If we had to have different types of trees and check where they grow, we'd lose way too much FPS.

What struck me Luthier was in the lower part of Pic 1 the trees look a little like they're 'floating' in the air. No trunks visible (as is probably correct given perspective) but they do look a little 'high' and 'floating' above the landscape?

Edit: seems that Hecke and myself are talking about different things here. I was referring to an apparent 'floating' effect visible on the foreground trees in Pic 1. Pic 2 trees look fine to me

[luthier]

Originally Posted by kendo65

What struck me Luthier was in the lower part of Pic 1 the trees look a little like they're 'floating' in the air. No trunks visible (as is probably correct given perspective) but they do look a little 'high' and 'floating' above the landscape?

Edit: seems that Hecke and myself are talking about different things here. I was referring to an apparent 'floating' effect visible on the foreground trees in Pic 1. Pic 2 trees look fine to me

It's called LODs At that distance our airplanes lose their gear legs and canopy framework and flaps, buildings lose their chimneys, tanks lose their gun barrels, and so why should the trees keep their trunks?

We still live in the age where computers have limited resources. Some day PCs will become powerful enough to render a fully modeled tree with every twig and every leaf all the way to the horizon, and that'll be a very happy day for everyone in game development, but the way things are, if we were to splatter a bunch of tree trunks everywhere around the player, you'd be looking at an extremely pretty picture that runs at about 1 frame per minute.

Originally Posted by luthier

The trees are all a standard size, inside cities or outside. We can either have tall trees in cities, or tiny regulated runts in the woods. If we had to have different types of trees and check where they grow, we'd lose way too much FPS.

But the trees have double the height of a high building? That's very confuse. And too many trees.

Will there be Craters or just overlay textures?

[SlipBall]

Originally Posted by Hecke

But the trees have double the height of a high building? That's very confuse. And too many trees.

Will there be Craters or just overlay textures?

I think some 80 foot trees are about right

[luthier]

Originally Posted by Hecke

But the trees have double the height of a high building? That's very confuse. And too many trees.

Those are 2 and 3 story buildings. I'm sitting on the third floor right now, and I'm looking UP at a bunch of trees.

And I think there's just enough trees for the kind of town it is. It's supposed to be a light green suburban-type area. There are fewer trees in heavier downtown areas, and fewer still in industrial ones. Seems perfectly fine to me.