My feelings on the Star Wars mod.

Creative. But unless Steve Robertson has some info on that, I don't know how we'd ever find out if LOD uses the center method or the edge method.

I've learned enough 3D to understand using the center (origin) of the model would be quicker, less resource-heavy, and cleaner than relying upon an edge-detection method.

I've got a pretty aged system (about 2.5 years old). I'll fire up the Sandbox and create Terrapins until I get some slowdown. That'll give me a guess-timate of the amount of polys my system can handle at one time. Then, I guess there's nothing to do except try the DS model, stay within half the poly-slowdown limit when building the sections (so ships can be rendered along with the DS), and see what happens.



<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

It seems there isn't much sense in creating a realistic looking DS if it can't be displayed.[]

Most fans probably flew into the DS already, for example to get to the reactor, in XWA. (I remember being dissapointed that you just got near it and then suddenly spawned inside the maintenance tubes).

From that perspective there is actually no real need for a whole DeathStar. Still, it remains a challenge somehow because (among other reasons) there never has been one with a trench that you could fly in IIRC.
Besides that, rotating turrets in the trench would be cool too!(and that is within the possibilities of flux.) [8D]

On an multiplayer map, you can adjust the diameter easily, so you could theoretically use just a portion of the DS (i.e. less than 1/2 the whole thing) and place it on one edge/side of the map where a player can't go around it. Then the rear side of it wouldn't even have to be textured.


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You could make a test by using bright glows. Use one color for each LOD. Then you can see from a long distance what LOD is currently active.

Then attach one set of bright glows to the main model (say using the station model Epic stuff). Then attach another set to the reactor model. Creep up on the station on the far side of the station, away from the reactor.

If the system is using a single center for the LOD, then the attached reactor glows and station glows should match exactly, all the time.

If the station switches first, then LOD is handled seperate for each part. And you know that you can detail the trenches in the highest LOD, knowing that only one trench will have this number of poly's active.

Still, it remains a challenge somehow because (among other reasons) there never has been one with a trench that you could fly in IIRC.

I guess this is a chance to make history [8D]

-Gtrout

Originally posted by GrandpaTrout

I guess this is a chance to make history [8D]

-Gtrout

Right! Thats what we've been doing all along with the Star Wars mod
I just got the title "Mr Pog Code Fixer Upper" yesterday for ground breaking stuff on the bot deathscripts :D

Just thinking, the billboard lights on the casino stations used in the MP maps never switch LOD, they remain brightly colored 300 km away. I guess because;
a)they are part of the setup scene that is switched by the scene itself (they blink by alternating images)
b)they don't have a LOD switch at all?

It might well be possible to use a Sim.AddChannel(deathstar) to switch the LOD of trench parts dynamically and have that triggered by Sim.DistanceBetween(player, deathstar). (that would only have to be on the client cause the server doesn't care about the scenery anyhow).

The collision hull in the trench model would have to have an uneven surface though, so if you hit a turret (or something else) you would bump into something. (the uneven surface could be symetric though)

Obviously that same technique could be used for bombing runs on "surface targets" too

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Good ideas, gentlemen. GT, I'll try the LOD/color experiement.

MajorTom: Being multiplayer, we have to display the entire DS model at all times, don't we? So if one player is in the trench and the other is on the far side of the DS, they both see what's correct.

Or is this something which is handled on the client side? The individual's computer keeps track of what the player should be seeing and just updates location information to the server?

Having never played a multiplayer online game at all, I'm a little lost at this stuff.

<font size="1"><font face="Book Antiqua"><font color="black">"Never before in the history of the world had such a mass of human beings moved and suffered together. This was no disciplined march; it was a stampede-- without order and without a goal, six million people unarmed and unprovisioned, driving headlong. It was the beginning of the rout of Civilisation... of the massacre of Mankind."
--H. G. Wells The War Of The Worlds</font id="black"></font id="Book Antiqua"> </font id="size1">

Originally posted by MajorTom


It might well be possible to use a Sim.AddChannel(deathstar) to switch the LOD of trench parts dynamically and have that triggered by Sim.DistanceBetween(player, deathstar). (that would only have to be on the client cause the server doesn't care about the scenery anyhow).

The collision hull in the trench model would have to have an uneven surface though, so if you hit a turret (or something else) you would bump into something. (the uneven surface could be symetric though)

No!
Even easier just put some dockports on a flat surfaced collision hull and we can dynamically dock stuff to it as the player gets close.
That way you can have destructable turrets (and for example cull them out as they are shot after each run through the trench!


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