TDC 2006 - random level generation prototype
by Stefan Rampp · 04/16/2006 (11:50 am) · 9 comments
TDC 2006, actually my first TDC, was a lot of fun. Next to getting to know the others, visiting a nice castle, while listening to the castle of an old and surely wise man and being led through a real(!) dungeon (that is a system of cellars), I prototyped an idea, that we might be using for a future project: random level generation.
A picture first:

In this screen, you see a randomly generated level consisting of modular difs. Placement of other mission objects, like items, lights, particle emitters, ... is also supported. The generation process is influenced by some parameters that can be defined by the user (size, dif types, item placement, ...). Using this system and some dif-modules allows fast generation of random dungeons, street systems and the like. There is still some polishing to do, some features to add, but basically it's finished. After polishing, I might be releasing this system with some modular difs as a "random dungeon generator pack" on www.3d-diggers.de, we'll see. By the way, the thingy in the upper right corner is an automatically generated map of the level. Only black lines are used right now, but custom bitmaps can be used if needed.
Some more pictures:
Some QuArK-fun
Some TLK-fun
A picture first:

In this screen, you see a randomly generated level consisting of modular difs. Placement of other mission objects, like items, lights, particle emitters, ... is also supported. The generation process is influenced by some parameters that can be defined by the user (size, dif types, item placement, ...). Using this system and some dif-modules allows fast generation of random dungeons, street systems and the like. There is still some polishing to do, some features to add, but basically it's finished. After polishing, I might be releasing this system with some modular difs as a "random dungeon generator pack" on www.3d-diggers.de, we'll see. By the way, the thingy in the upper right corner is an automatically generated map of the level. Only black lines are used right now, but custom bitmaps can be used if needed.
Some more pictures:
Some QuArK-fun
Some TLK-fun
#2
04/16/2006 (12:14 pm)
Ah, there it is :) I told y'all it's a really cool prototype! Great work :)
#3
04/16/2006 (12:52 pm)
@Stefan: You beat me to it ;-)
#4
04/16/2006 (3:26 pm)
That is seriously cool. I love this kind of stuff. Would be sweet to see this used somewhere... maybe for a multiplayer dungeon raider game or something. ;)
#5
04/16/2006 (6:40 pm)
WOW! Now thats seriously cool stuff! :)
#6
04/16/2006 (10:05 pm)
How'd you do that faux light ray effect in the last shot? Is it just the Volume Light with a good texture?
#7
@Paul: That is indeed a volume light with a grass(!) texture. I needed something to play with, so I used, what I could find.
04/17/2006 (1:04 am)
Thanks everyone!@Paul: That is indeed a volume light with a grass(!) texture. I needed something to play with, so I used, what I could find.
#8
04/17/2006 (9:56 am)
Really cool job! keep goin'
#9
05/10/2006 (10:02 am)
Nice! I had a similar system done a while back, but didn't use the prefab difs you did. Good work! :) 
Torque Owner Christian Weber
HydraGames