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Some basic questions

Posted: 2006-01-29, 18:25
by Thrawn
When talking wih Scott about the techdemo, we noticed that lack of clearance that makes specific thoughts about features right now impossible. We would like to have those questions cleared in order to be able to plan...
  • For which PC specs is the techdemo going to be developed?
  • How big will the outer part be? How much will be accessible and what can only be seen from distance?
  • What kind of vegetation do we want to have? Open space or jungle?
  • What's the theme for the interior part? Zombies and dark pasages like Doom 3 or a modern lab?
  • How do we present the engine features? For example room by room or all at once?
  • How do we proceed? Do we create room by room or do we have multiple persons working at multiple passages? How do we coordinate all the work? With a script? By forums? Website?
We really have to clear those questions. If you think that you can say something to a point, feel free to do it. When the answers are once cleared, I'll edit this post and add the answers to the questions.

Re: Some basic questions

Posted: 2006-01-29, 20:04
by Carsten
Hi,
Thrawn wrote:
  • For which PC specs is the techdemo going to be developed?
Upper D3 / Q4 class. However, the TD should also run "reasonably" on older hardware. Max. 256 MB video mem required. The latest NVidia or ATI products in January 2006 should be able to handle it well.
  • How big will the outer part be? How much will be accessible and what can only be seen from distance?
1 km^2 with a heightmap resolution of 1025*1025 to 4097*4097 elements. Accessibility just depends on terrain shape. Accessible terrain should be bounded by sea or by steep rocks.
  • What kind of vegetation do we want to have? Open space or jungle?
Vegetation may vary. In general, I'd like to auto-plant most trees:
http://www.ca3d-engine.de/e107_files/im ... tnt_01.jpg
http://www.ca3d-engine.de/e107_files/im ... tnt_02.jpg
http://www.ca3d-engine.de/e107_files/im ... tnt_03.jpg
However, some places may have denser and/or different vegetation, e.g. with the palms that Kai made.
Gras should auto-fade with increasing distance (for performance). Gras may also be planted algorithmically.
  • What's the theme for the interior part? Zombies and dark pasages like Doom 3 or a modern lab?
Modern lab, post-catastrophe, dark (power failure). The theme of the original qx map that we use as base map somewhat predefines this theme. (Or did I misunderstand the question?)

More concretely, I'd like to do the large-scale lighting with radiosity lightmaps, which however should be pretty dark. Then there will still be a lot of dynamic lights whereever no or little radiosity light gets.
  • How do we present the engine features? For example room by room or all at once?
The base map is huge, so we'll present them room by room, each with an explanatory text. The text will either appear in the players HUD or in integrated computer panels.
  • How do we proceed? Do we create room by room or do we have multiple persons working at multiple passages? How do we coordinate all the work? With a script? By forums? Website?
Subversion for management, this forum for communication, see http://www.ca3d-engine.de/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=195 for details.
Some tasks will require global map changes, other tasks can be localized to one room and one person.

Example:
Let's assume that the existing TD map has enough rooms as-is to present all effects that we want to present (otherwise we may "open some doors" in the map to add more rooms). Then we need a table that lists what effect should be presented in what room, and possibly the person that is to implement this effect. With that table everybody can use Subversion to work on the map. As doing so also requires a lot of communication, we'll use this forum to discuss and agree on things.


Thrawn, I was a bit surprised by some of these questions, but maybe it was my fault to assume that everybody knows everything already. ;) Therefore, I'm also a bit unsure whether my replies actually answer your questions. If not so - just ask again. ;)


Oh, and maybe we should also agree on a short and simple "background story" (even though a TD normally doesn't require one). For example:
You are an employee (research and security manager etc.) of a company that performs secret research on an isolated island. Something went wrong however, headquarters have not been able to establish communication with the island outpost for several days. Just a weak alarm signal was recently received. You've been brought to the island to enter the lab through the emergeny exit (back-door) and investigate the situation.

Not very clever, but probably (hopefully) good enough.

Posted: 2006-01-30, 11:32
by scott
Carsten, just a quick, question, how many units tall are the characters?

Posted: 2006-01-30, 12:04
by Carsten
Their height is measured in inches, so for a person being 1,70m tall, 170/2.54 = 67 units would be required.