Terrain & me
Posted: 2012-03-30, 12:56
Hello, i am new to the Cafu community, but i come with moderate/brief experience.
(listed)
-Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Mapping (GTK Radiant; quite similar to Cafu's CaWE)
-RunUO's Ultima Online Emulator: (C# Modding/Light scripting/mapping 2 yrs experience)
i can see some similarities in the creation of a map, in both jedi academy, as well as Ultima, though i have a few questions. In ultima, for example. when creating a 'map', you would draw it out including the color-settings for the Height map, in paint, or whatever your artwork program may be, and then run it through a compiler, and it would present to you, elevations and all, a rough copy of what you had, based on a specific color palette. In jedi academy, elevation was determined by you, you would shape each object to fit your needs, as well as apply the appropriate texture, and thus, was your product. (3d and all that good stuff in JA)
My end goal, is a bit of a hybrid. I want to apply the personal skill, and functionality of any shooter game, with the play style & open world of an MMO.
I come in with full knowledge that i will be 100% re-scripting everything, that is not an issue. My issue & questions come with the world itself;
Is it possible to build an entire world within a map (rivers, land, bodies of water, mountains, the whole 9), while still being able to function within the bounding box of terrain. I need to be able to apply multiple different textures to the 'ground', for various regions, but on one large field. ( i am sure a lot of this relies on scripting, i will worry about that when the time comes.) I would like to handle as much of this in world building as i can, and still maintain good FPS without any leaks, and what not. Perhaps those of you who have more experience may have a few tips to guide me where i need to go, as far as building what will be 'the world' of my game, through this engine.
Another question that popped into my mind, is this engine powerful enough to run what i am trying to run. (imagine jedi academy, halo, *pick your shooter game* on an MMO scale.)?
Does my best end-result lie in instance-based maps, (a good example is guild wars), or one single persistent world (similar to that of LOTRO/WoW, with small instances for dungeons, etc.)?
my plan, in the end, if everything is as i hope it will be, is to present an MMO, that relies more on the skill of a player, than how well he/she can grind to a 'top level'.
I will continue to monitor, reply, and add to my post, here, as questions develop.
(listed)
-Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy Mapping (GTK Radiant; quite similar to Cafu's CaWE)
-RunUO's Ultima Online Emulator: (C# Modding/Light scripting/mapping 2 yrs experience)
i can see some similarities in the creation of a map, in both jedi academy, as well as Ultima, though i have a few questions. In ultima, for example. when creating a 'map', you would draw it out including the color-settings for the Height map, in paint, or whatever your artwork program may be, and then run it through a compiler, and it would present to you, elevations and all, a rough copy of what you had, based on a specific color palette. In jedi academy, elevation was determined by you, you would shape each object to fit your needs, as well as apply the appropriate texture, and thus, was your product. (3d and all that good stuff in JA)
My end goal, is a bit of a hybrid. I want to apply the personal skill, and functionality of any shooter game, with the play style & open world of an MMO.
I come in with full knowledge that i will be 100% re-scripting everything, that is not an issue. My issue & questions come with the world itself;
Is it possible to build an entire world within a map (rivers, land, bodies of water, mountains, the whole 9), while still being able to function within the bounding box of terrain. I need to be able to apply multiple different textures to the 'ground', for various regions, but on one large field. ( i am sure a lot of this relies on scripting, i will worry about that when the time comes.) I would like to handle as much of this in world building as i can, and still maintain good FPS without any leaks, and what not. Perhaps those of you who have more experience may have a few tips to guide me where i need to go, as far as building what will be 'the world' of my game, through this engine.
Another question that popped into my mind, is this engine powerful enough to run what i am trying to run. (imagine jedi academy, halo, *pick your shooter game* on an MMO scale.)?
Does my best end-result lie in instance-based maps, (a good example is guild wars), or one single persistent world (similar to that of LOTRO/WoW, with small instances for dungeons, etc.)?
my plan, in the end, if everything is as i hope it will be, is to present an MMO, that relies more on the skill of a player, than how well he/she can grind to a 'top level'.
I will continue to monitor, reply, and add to my post, here, as questions develop.