TGE suitable for large naval simulation?
by Anthony Lovell · in Torque Game Engine · 08/01/2003 (12:42 pm) · 7 replies
I licensed Torque but have not yet done much with it. My first goal is to evaluate its suitability as a platform for my concept of a massively multiplayer WW-I naval simulation.
While I know that I'd certainly have to modify the engine, and perhaps come up with a confederated server model to support the number of players and ships I'd like to be able to place into a single sea battle, I know that some of you might be able to offer a quick appraisal of whether TGE can meet the fundamental challenges I'd face.
1. I'd need to depict a visual range of up to 10-12 miles. Is this scale feasible in TGE (leaving out for now issues of how many ships will lie within this largely water/sky world -- any land can be castly simplified)?
2. Supposing for the moment that I can handle networking 40-100 ships in the game environment. Will TGE offer graphical performance to permit this scene to render at >= 15 FPS with drastic LOD use for ships which will be fairly far-off on average?
3. If possible, I'd like gameplay to be first-person perspective, with ships being fairly nicely detailed and some equipment being highly accurate (see prototype image at end of post). What choices would I need to make to permit walking around these ships, climbing ladders and stairs, and moving through hatches and looking over railings and through portholes? What should be interiors? What should be shapes?
4. I'd like to be able to add realistic waves, possibly licensed from arete (see second render for an image of this in another game), and have fairly accurate hydrodynamics of the local player's ship. Is this feasible in the current waterblock codebase, or would this likely be a rewrite from beginning?
Thanks in advance for any expert insights.
tone
Image of a VERY complex fitting in my prototype:
Image of a licensable water SDK suitable for games (it's okay if TGE could not do the glare):
While I know that I'd certainly have to modify the engine, and perhaps come up with a confederated server model to support the number of players and ships I'd like to be able to place into a single sea battle, I know that some of you might be able to offer a quick appraisal of whether TGE can meet the fundamental challenges I'd face.
1. I'd need to depict a visual range of up to 10-12 miles. Is this scale feasible in TGE (leaving out for now issues of how many ships will lie within this largely water/sky world -- any land can be castly simplified)?
2. Supposing for the moment that I can handle networking 40-100 ships in the game environment. Will TGE offer graphical performance to permit this scene to render at >= 15 FPS with drastic LOD use for ships which will be fairly far-off on average?
3. If possible, I'd like gameplay to be first-person perspective, with ships being fairly nicely detailed and some equipment being highly accurate (see prototype image at end of post). What choices would I need to make to permit walking around these ships, climbing ladders and stairs, and moving through hatches and looking over railings and through portholes? What should be interiors? What should be shapes?
4. I'd like to be able to add realistic waves, possibly licensed from arete (see second render for an image of this in another game), and have fairly accurate hydrodynamics of the local player's ship. Is this feasible in the current waterblock codebase, or would this likely be a rewrite from beginning?
Thanks in advance for any expert insights.
tone
Image of a VERY complex fitting in my prototype:
Image of a licensable water SDK suitable for games (it's okay if TGE could not do the glare):
#2
But I agree with Badguy on 1-3; Torque should be able to handle in excess of 75 ships at a time with no trouble, provided you give it properly LOD-ed assets.
08/02/2003 (9:37 am)
For 4, it's probably a rewrite. Torque's waterblock code is fairly icky.But I agree with Badguy on 1-3; Torque should be able to handle in excess of 75 ships at a time with no trouble, provided you give it properly LOD-ed assets.
#4
08/03/2003 (6:43 am)
I agree with the above 2 posts.
#5
--Rick GG
08/04/2003 (10:16 am)
I think you could get the naval sim up and running on the Torque in short order. The network code will be able to handle a ton of ships no problem. Water is obviously the most important part of your game so I think it would be worth your time to either write your own custom water rendering or license one from someone else. We have some updated water block code to be released with the new Torque feature demo that has surface sun reflection. Also might be a smart idea to rethink the terrain -- since the terrain is just visual for you (you won't be walking on it) you might just be able to just use TSShapes and detail them aggressively. The beauty is you have the source code and the sky is the limit!--Rick GG
#6
One ambition I have is to permit each ship to have a crew of fairly many people doing individual tasks to fight the ship. But, if I am smart, I feel I could make each client see the game as a rich model of their own ship, with 4-20 other guys about it, and a large number of less detailed versions of other ships in the world, with a vastly reduced flux of data across the net to indicate the location, attitude, and external characteristics of those other ships.
I just need to know how to get started from here!
tone
08/04/2003 (11:11 am)
Thanks, Rick. I'd sure use land and ports in a very limited way and could let it look blocky.One ambition I have is to permit each ship to have a crew of fairly many people doing individual tasks to fight the ship. But, if I am smart, I feel I could make each client see the game as a rich model of their own ship, with 4-20 other guys about it, and a large number of less detailed versions of other ships in the world, with a vastly reduced flux of data across the net to indicate the location, attitude, and external characteristics of those other ships.
I just need to know how to get started from here!
tone
#7
A special interior class that can be attached to a special Vehical class. I make it sound so easy to myself but Programming is one of those things I wished I could do well but so far I gotten pass the "hello World" programs heh now it on to input name and guess age programs. :)
08/04/2003 (8:30 pm)
Combining interiors with a vehical is one of those things I would like to see in the future too Anthony. I think interaction is the key between a sim and just a game. A special interior class that can be attached to a special Vehical class. I make it sound so easy to myself but Programming is one of those things I wished I could do well but so far I gotten pass the "hello World" programs heh now it on to input name and guess age programs. :)
Torque Owner Badguy
2.) With proper LOD you should not have any trouble with networking that many objects.
(with 100 touching on the high end)
3.) I would recommend using Interior Art for the ships.
which will take a new wrapper class over InteriorInstance to get the functionality you desire.