City/Space Scapes?
by Mike Reddin · in General Discussion · 05/25/2001 (12:34 pm) · 2 replies
Hi,
I know V12 is capable of handling alot of game senarios.. One I am particularly interested in and concerned about is large sized cityscape's. Deux-Ex had some terrific urban enviornments but with the serious penalty of constant loading going in and out of buildings. We know Tribes2 has no issues with that *BUT* the T2 bases are quite frankly bland and generic for the most part. Granted I've seen some fairly cool designs and textures but for the most part Tribes2 bases are meer shelters... What always impressed me about the Unreal engine was the ability to have polished marble floors, mirrors, etc.
What would happen to the already shakey Frames per Second in Tribes 2 if you made the bases into carefully detailed structures [like interactive homes, office space, etc etc]. My fear is that the FPS would drop to such a point that the game might become unplayable. But my feeling is that if you could replicate a large village or small city without needing to do map reloads, you could create a more convincing atmosphere that is more immersive [because of the reload interruptions].
And on an entirely different tangent, could V12 be used as a space-sim? Meaning the only terrain as such might be planets/astroids, etc? How would you determine what the map size limits, based on total polygons?
Mike
I know V12 is capable of handling alot of game senarios.. One I am particularly interested in and concerned about is large sized cityscape's. Deux-Ex had some terrific urban enviornments but with the serious penalty of constant loading going in and out of buildings. We know Tribes2 has no issues with that *BUT* the T2 bases are quite frankly bland and generic for the most part. Granted I've seen some fairly cool designs and textures but for the most part Tribes2 bases are meer shelters... What always impressed me about the Unreal engine was the ability to have polished marble floors, mirrors, etc.
What would happen to the already shakey Frames per Second in Tribes 2 if you made the bases into carefully detailed structures [like interactive homes, office space, etc etc]. My fear is that the FPS would drop to such a point that the game might become unplayable. But my feeling is that if you could replicate a large village or small city without needing to do map reloads, you could create a more convincing atmosphere that is more immersive [because of the reload interruptions].
And on an entirely different tangent, could V12 be used as a space-sim? Meaning the only terrain as such might be planets/astroids, etc? How would you determine what the map size limits, based on total polygons?
Mike
#2
I agree with the dummy blocks, as long as their not over used it certainly helpful in your illusion making. But there is nothing more annoying than walking through a virtual city and only being able to actually go inside one out of 20 such buildings. It can spoil the illusion if overused or not somehow counter-balanced. :)
I brought up Unreal Engine only because I love the textures and effects it can handle, but like any engine I support it really comes down to the talent and imagination of your art staff and map architechs.
Mike
05/25/2001 (2:07 pm)
Hi,I agree with the dummy blocks, as long as their not over used it certainly helpful in your illusion making. But there is nothing more annoying than walking through a virtual city and only being able to actually go inside one out of 20 such buildings. It can spoil the illusion if overused or not somehow counter-balanced. :)
I brought up Unreal Engine only because I love the textures and effects it can handle, but like any engine I support it really comes down to the talent and imagination of your art staff and map architechs.
Mike
Torque Owner Tyler Frans
Some illusions are balancing out where the textures pick up and where the polys leave off. You can also play with the LOD to reach a high amount of detail within buildings (this would only work well in a singleplayer scenario though, where you can control what is around). Also creating what I like to call "dummy blocks" to add for environmental feel. Dummy blocks are essentially buildings you can't enter, but are there to "fill out" your city. You can keep them fairly low on polys and let the textures do most of the work. Keeping exteriors simple, using portals wisely, etc. etc. There are many different ways to approach it, it's just that you need to know what you want before you drive at it.
Also, there is a huge difference in purpose between the V12 and Unreal engines, kind of apples and oranges there.