4 ms·
A huge problem are the game engines. Traditional state of the art game engines have mainly static worlds for performance reasons (Unreal, ID Tech, RAGE, Valve S
by frik 11y ago
A huge problem are the game engines. Traditional state of the art game engines have mainly static worlds for performance reasons (Unreal, ID Tech, RAGE, Valve Source, etc).
Voxel game engines like Ken Silverman's Voxlap (http://advsys.net/ken/voxlap/voxlap05.htm http://advsys.net/ken/voxlap/voxlap05.htm ), Infiniminer, Minecraft and Lego Worlds have a dynamic game world where everything can be changed. It's resource intensive and choosing the optimial world data structure is very important (avoid rendering invisible parts, infinite worlds, LOD). And integrating realistic infinite physics is too resource intensive. That's why you see little and only local physics.
From the graphical point of view the new Lego Worlds engine is really fascination! It seems it uses advanced geometric shaders to render all the tiny Lego parts on the fly. Does anyone know how it really works and which data structure it uses?
- asgard1024 11y agoActually, I think the blocky world is good enough for the application I described. Getting geometry and kinematics right is not so important for the game. I think something like Minecraft with a rudimentary thermodynamics system, statics/continuum mechanics for blocks, and mixture system for fluids (including air) would be doable. I think what would be more important is to change the crafting system from specific items to be more based on what materials you use (kinda like Tinker's construct does it). I even think the game doesn't have to be 3D - Terraria like world would be good fit too, if done right (probably allow several different layers at each tile - like background wall, plumbing and ambient layer for fluids).
- frik 11y agoLocal physics around the player is doable, like Minecraft's water/lava/red stone. Some mods already add thermodynamics, magnetism, other fluids similar to the water simulation. Real infinite physics like draing a water dam and flooding mines is CPU intensive (there are such mods too) and changes the gameplay (reversing a flood means pumping out the water). In 2D it's a lot easier and several such physics playgrounds exists (even with basic fluid physics). E.g. Phun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phun ) and some games based on 2D physics engines like Box2D.
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- leoc 11y agoCan't neglect to mention Dwarf Fortress and its 3D water physics. Of course the price is that DF will happily drop to many seconds per frame during big 'physics moments'.
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