Basements/cellars in interiors
by Todd "zaz" Koeckeritz · in Torque Game Engine · 02/26/2004 (8:15 am) · 5 replies
Just a quick question about implementing basements or cellars, i.e. underground levels, to an interior.
Initially I was planning on just digging a hole in the terrain and positioning the interior .dif appropriately to do this. The only issue I saw with this is that I wasn't able to convince the terrain editor to make a hole with verticle walls on it, so one would need to build the structure to hide the sloped walls of the hole.
I assume the lack of verticle walls on the hole is due to the terrain structure and rendering optimizations.
Then I noticed the Set Clear action for the terrain editor and placing a structure on top of some cleared terrain tends to work well, but requires some adjusting and proper sizing.
My questions related to this are:
1) Is there a better or different way to do this that I missed ?
2) Is my assumption about the lack of verticle walls on my holes correct ?
3) Are there any issues, performance, etc. about having cleared terrain ? Well, other than insuring the players don't fall through them, :-).
Thanks in advance for any answers you might provide.
Initially I was planning on just digging a hole in the terrain and positioning the interior .dif appropriately to do this. The only issue I saw with this is that I wasn't able to convince the terrain editor to make a hole with verticle walls on it, so one would need to build the structure to hide the sloped walls of the hole.
I assume the lack of verticle walls on the hole is due to the terrain structure and rendering optimizations.
Then I noticed the Set Clear action for the terrain editor and placing a structure on top of some cleared terrain tends to work well, but requires some adjusting and proper sizing.
My questions related to this are:
1) Is there a better or different way to do this that I missed ?
2) Is my assumption about the lack of verticle walls on my holes correct ?
3) Are there any issues, performance, etc. about having cleared terrain ? Well, other than insuring the players don't fall through them, :-).
Thanks in advance for any answers you might provide.
About the author
#2
03/10/2004 (5:07 am)
A trick I have been toying around with is using teleporter couplets to solve the problem. For example, assuming you have a stairwell in an interior, make a duplicate of it attached to your cellar, below the terrain. Place teleporters near the bottom of the original and the duplicate with each being the destination of the other. Set the teleporters to transport instantaneously (eg no fade effects, etc.) and light the cellar stairwell areas the same. When the player moves into the trigger for one of the teleporters he just shifts position instantly to the other and the transition is not particularly noticiable.
#3
03/10/2004 (9:26 am)
It would be much easier and cleaner to use the set terrain clear method.
#4
From further distances they may get filled in by the LOD algorithm, but they're there nonetheless.
03/10/2004 (9:38 am)
Nothing bad comes from holes in the terrain, except maybe having the player fall through them, like you said. :)From further distances they may get filled in by the LOD algorithm, but they're there nonetheless.
#5
I can see why you'd want to have both the cleared terrain and the portal tricks available. Since the terrain has a fairly high granularity, at least at default scales, it will be awkward to make the cleared terrain work for some interiors. Using the portal trick for these would likely be necessary.
03/12/2004 (11:19 am)
Thanks for the answers guys, just trying to leverage some of the wisdom here instead of learning everything ojt, :-).I can see why you'd want to have both the cleared terrain and the portal tricks available. Since the terrain has a fairly high granularity, at least at default scales, it will be awkward to make the cleared terrain work for some interiors. Using the portal trick for these would likely be necessary.
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