Fun with Caves
by Ben Acord · 09/30/2007 (3:30 am) · 5 comments
I've finally got a decent workflow going into TGE that there are more screenies to show. This is the most basic of caves. My goal was to model an entryway, tunnel, and large cavern. This generic cave has 200 brushes and 210 verts. Being so low-poly explains the unnatural look. I slapped some textures on it in Constructor and exported the DIF.
Turns out my ATI drivers were causing the low frame rates (see previous posts); it wasn't an old driver but the new release jumped the fps from 40 to 100 (averages). That's crazy talk.
Entryway in terrain (empty terrain for opening):
Updated entry with column rock (perf hit):
Who goes there? Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.
Down into the vowels of the earth.
Hey, look! A room with a view. What's up with the dropped face? When you jump through this hole and look back the brush is there. Absolutely mind numbing. However the brush exists in Constructor.
Looking across the cavern from the tunnel.
Updated cavern with column and two stalactites:
In summary; is this generic cave your final idea? Ha. No. There are much more dense caves but this one was quick way to model and test DIF and mission placement. The textures are stand-ins.
I am very pleased with the results (especially performance) and plan on posting the better cave screenies later this week.
Turns out my ATI drivers were causing the low frame rates (see previous posts); it wasn't an old driver but the new release jumped the fps from 40 to 100 (averages). That's crazy talk.
Entryway in terrain (empty terrain for opening):
Updated entry with column rock (perf hit):Who goes there? Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.Down into the vowels of the earth.Hey, look! A room with a view. What's up with the dropped face? When you jump through this hole and look back the brush is there. Absolutely mind numbing. However the brush exists in Constructor.Looking across the cavern from the tunnel.Updated cavern with column and two stalactites:In summary; is this generic cave your final idea? Ha. No. There are much more dense caves but this one was quick way to model and test DIF and mission placement. The textures are stand-ins.I am very pleased with the results (especially performance) and plan on posting the better cave screenies later this week.
About the author
Recent Blogs
• Change Logger - Released• Change Log
• Disaster Recovery - for the Enterprise Indie
• Commanding Entrance
• Cave Update
#3
Great to see you are still on it. 8-)
About performance: I tested C4 engine demo again yesterday, and yes, adding more RAM (+1Gb, now 1.5 Gb) on my iMac was really needed, the framerate jumped from sluggish to oustanding.
There is certainly some code optimization on their side, but it can not rely only on that. The Mac is in general much more faster (about 3 times).
Which reminds me I should test the TGE demo with the new configuration too...
//END of off topic comments ;-)
09/30/2007 (7:08 am)
Thanks for the update Ben.Great to see you are still on it. 8-)
About performance: I tested C4 engine demo again yesterday, and yes, adding more RAM (+1Gb, now 1.5 Gb) on my iMac was really needed, the framerate jumped from sluggish to oustanding.
There is certainly some code optimization on their side, but it can not rely only on that. The Mac is in general much more faster (about 3 times).
Which reminds me I should test the TGE demo with the new configuration too...
//END of off topic comments ;-)
#4
09/30/2007 (6:02 pm)
Nice screenshots. You might want to check out the brush in that hole; are the vertices in the right order (in other words; are the normals pointing outwards (relative to the brush)? If not, the engine might have culled the brush, explaining why it isn't there :)
#5
I've added two more screenies with some details. Performance suffered in the process. The drawing board is getting a lot of reuse.
09/30/2007 (7:29 pm)
Thanks Thijs. The normals are OK in Blender but there are a lot of steps between that and the final DIF. I'm looking through each to find the culprit. Tiled textures look nasty. I'd love a Blender exporter for DIF with UV maps. Constructor rocks but with this many brushes it is a real pain controlling a single textures repetition. I've added two more screenies with some details. Performance suffered in the process. The drawing board is getting a lot of reuse.
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