Product Chat / No terrain + stock polys

Author
Message
GubbyBlips
5
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jan 2019
Location:
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 03:12
Looking for a way to remove the terrain, but came upon this old thread;

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/208193

What Lee said at the last post was a little confusing. Any relevance there?
So my poly count on a empty map was round 272,000
Then I used the //superflatterrain=1// suggestion, and terrain ground was
still there, but the polys reduced drastically.

I'm curious how to remove the terrain completely, and why stock map poly's
where so extreme? The draw count was much lower though... Noob question.
PM
benjiboy
7
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Mar 2017
Location: In the depths of rural Norfolk
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 06:59
May not be pertinent but if your talking about the empty map that is opened when you first go into GG, I don't think it's flat - just not very bumpy.
Which begs another question.

Why does GG open an empty map whenever you start it?
Why not just open to an empty editor so you can choose to either generate a new map or open an existing one?

It's a real time-waster.
You can't teach an old dog.
cybernescence
GameGuru Master
11
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2013
Playing: Cogwheel Chronicles
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 07:43 Edited at: 18th Feb 2020 07:46
The ‘superflatterrain’ option replaces the usual terrain object system with one large flat plane object - this geometry can’t be deformed but is of course very low poly to render. It can be hidden as well so doesn’t have to be rendered - thought it is still present in game for physics purposes - if it wasn’t any objects placed with physics enabled would fall down endlessly. You can’t remove this terrain plane completely for this reason.

It’s probably the best option for games that do not for any level use anything other than indoor or absolutely flat terrain.

As to why it loads a new empty map - perhaps so it’s just real easy to start plonking assets down for new users ?

Cheers.

GPU: GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER PassMark: 14817
OldFlak
GameGuru TGC Backer
9
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Jan 2015
Location: Tasmania Australia
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 11:59
Would be good if we could have that as an editor option, so you can have space station maps and planets side maps in the same game.

OldFlak....
aka Reliquia
i7-4790 @ 3.2GHz. 8GB Ram. NVidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. M1: Acer 31.5" @1920x1080 M2: Samsung 31.5" @ 1920 x 1080. M3: Acer 24" @ 1920 x 1080. OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Insider.
PM
GubbyBlips
5
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jan 2019
Location:
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 15:52
One of the 'beauties' of GG is the ready to plonk stuff down aspect-- I'll agree.
But I also agree with the other guys- options would be nice, especially to eliminate
any ground when desired. So there's no way to do so?

@cybernescence you said
"It can be hidden as well so doesn’t have to be rendered..."
How to do this? How to access it via script? Turn off collision in lua?

Perhaps a good choice would be when GG starts up, a quick little
menu pops up (would take 3 seconds to choose), which would allow
you to enter the terrain type. Standard would already be selected,
so just hit enter to continue on.

For example-

Select terrain;
=> Standard (maybe a sub-menu for the veg/ texture type.)
=> Random (a slider for random height aggression would be a possible bonus.)
=> Superflat
=> None

When the user selects none-- they would have to bear this in mind that there
would be no Objects to land on. Perhaps gravity is automatically turned off.
But of course everything could then be custom scripts in that scenario.
PM
smallg
Community Leader
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Dec 2005
Location:
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 20:25
i think the terrain is always on to keep the AI stuff from breaking, you need some sort of navigation mesh even if it's just the superflat terrain or hidden terrain... while i agree it's useful for certain games to not have any terrain or collision or even path finding (space games etc) it's much more common to need it - even indoor games will need path finding and so you need the terrain unless you want to code your own.

and yes, just use HideTerrain() to make the terrain not render (there's a default script called goindoors.lua which hides the terrain and the water)
lua guide for GG
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=398177770
windows 10
i5 @4ghz, 8gb ram, AMD R9 200 series , directx 11
synchromesh
Forum Support
10
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Jan 2014
Location:
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 20:30
Quote: "even indoor games will need path finding and so you need the terrain unless you want to code your own."

Very true ..
The only person ever to get all his work done by "Friday" was Robinson Crusoe..
PM
wizard of id
3D Media Maker
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 16th Jan 2006
Playing: CSGO
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 20:47 Edited at: 18th Feb 2020 20:49
While hide terrian would work, easy way to get around that, would be to use a transparent texture, not sure how gameguru will react to a 100% transparent texture.But techinically it should work.Would not need to turn off terrain shadows in the setup file.
Win10 Pro 64bit----iCore5 4590 @ 3.7GHZ----AMD RX460 2gb----16gig ram
cybernescence
GameGuru Master
11
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2013
Playing: Cogwheel Chronicles
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 21:12
No transparent terrain texture won’t work - it’s coded not to respect alpha. Need engine changes to do that.

Cheers.

GPU: GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER PassMark: 14817
Belidos
3D Media Maker
9
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 23rd Nov 2015
Playing: The Game
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 21:45
Terrain can't be transparent because it uses the alpha channel of the texture as the specular map.

Primary Desktop:
i7 7700,k NV1070 8GB, 16GB 3200mhz memory, 1x 2TB Hybrid, Win10.

Secondary Desktop:
i5 4760k, NV960 2GB, 16GB 2333mhz memory, 1x 2TB Hybrid, Win10.

Primary Laptop:
i5, NV1050 4GB, 8GB memory, 1x 1TB HDD, Win10.

Secondary Laptop:
i3, Intel 4000 series graphics, 6GB memory, 1x 500gb HDD, Win8.1.
DVader
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2004
Location:
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 22:07
Hideterrain gives a great fps boost. Not sure if combining the flat terrain option is faster, you would imagine so.
SPECS: Ryzen 1700 CPU. Nvidia 970GTX. 16 Gig Memory. Win 10.
OldFlak
GameGuru TGC Backer
9
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Jan 2015
Location: Tasmania Australia
Posted: 18th Feb 2020 23:24 Edited at: 18th Feb 2020 23:41
Quote: ""It can be hidden as well so doesn’t have to be rendered..."
How to do this? How to access it via script? Turn off collision in lua?"


goindoors lua will hide water and terrain.....

MAX will have option to have No Terrain at all.
- Hopefully it will be level specific and not binding on the whole game....

OldFlak....
aka Reliquia
i7-4790 @ 3.2GHz. 8GB Ram. NVidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. M1: Acer 31.5" @1920x1080 M2: Samsung 31.5" @ 1920 x 1080. M3: Acer 24" @ 1920 x 1080. OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Insider.
PM
GubbyBlips
5
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jan 2019
Location:
Posted: 19th Feb 2020 00:41
"MAX will have option to have No Terrain at all."

News to me... cool.
PM
3com
10
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th May 2014
Location: Catalonia
Posted: 19th Feb 2020 10:42
Maybe GGMax may to have different types of default maps, such as:

Superflat terrain map - plane terrain
Random map - like GG does
Space map - no water - no terrain, just space, full of planets sky.
water map - not terrain, just water
Apocaliyse map - apo terrain with building debris, holes, and so on.

And something others.
Laptop: Lenovo - Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 1005M @ 1.90GHz

OS: Windows 10 (64) - Ram: 4 gb - Hd: 283 gb - Video card: Intel(R) HD Graphics
cpu mark: 10396.6
2d graphics mark: 947.9
3d graphics mark: 8310.9
memory mark 2584.8
Disk mark: 1146.3
Passmark rating: 3662.4

PM
LeeBamber
TGC Lead Developer
24
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 21st Jan 2000
Location: England
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 03:31
@OldFlak : I have had a lot of requests for switching terrain off from the editor, and per level, so I suspect some kind of tickbox in the right panel for terrain editing. Knowing this before I start the new terrain system will help a lot. I am also thinking it would make sense to cut holes in the terrain too if we decide not to go with Voxels, so you can cut through into underground scenes without a lot of fussing and hacks. Some good ideas coming in how on the research for the terrain, should be great fun applying all the lessons from the last five years to a complete rewrite!
PC SPECS: Windows 10 64-bit, Intel Core i7-8700K, NVIDIA Geforce GTX 1080 GPU, 16GB SYSTEM RAM

OldFlak
GameGuru TGC Backer
9
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Jan 2015
Location: Tasmania Australia
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 07:47
Sounds great Lee - thanks for the info

Naelurec has both space and planet-side levels.
The space levels have more polys - simply because there are more models needed - so it would be good to remove as many unused polys as possible.

Being able to cut holes in the terrain would be cool too - be great solution for tunnels etc.

MAX is sounding better and better....

OldFlak....
aka Reliquia
i7-4790 @ 3.2GHz. 8GB Ram. NVidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB. M1: Acer 31.5" @1920x1080 M2: Samsung 31.5" @ 1920 x 1080. M3: Acer 24" @ 1920 x 1080. OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit Insider.
PM
benjiboy
7
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Mar 2017
Location: In the depths of rural Norfolk
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 12:19 Edited at: 20th Feb 2020 12:30
How would you do the 'cut holes' thing without voxels? Two terrain arrays - allowing floor and ceiling height?
Nope - I don't think that works - how do you handle having a texture on the underside of the ceiling and on the top side of the floor, and the point where ceiling turns into wall turns into floor.

Hmm.
You can't teach an old dog.
granada
Forum Support
22
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 27th Aug 2002
Location: United Kingdom
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 13:34
Quote: "How would you do the 'cut holes' thing without voxels? Two terrain arrays - allowing floor and ceiling height?
Nope - I don't think that works - how do you handle having a texture on the underside of the ceiling and on the top side of the floor, and the point where ceiling turns into wall turns into floor."


You could cut a hole into the terrain and fit your underground model or cave using the terrain hole as a entrance


Dave
Windows 10 Pro 64 bit
GeForce RTX™ 2070 GAMING OC 8G
AMD FX (tm)-9590 Eight-core Processor
31.96 GB RAM
3840 x 2160 ,60 Hz
PM
benjiboy
7
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Mar 2017
Location: In the depths of rural Norfolk
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 14:38
With shift+enter to make it sit under the floor?
Any dynamic entity is gonna fall forever n'est ce pas?
You can't teach an old dog.
GubbyBlips
5
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jan 2019
Location:
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 16:12
If there was any kind of horizontal drilling, that would be IMMENSE!
Only there's still the need to find "ground @ 'X,'Z'- and now 'Y'"
So if Lee has a plan- awesome!
PM
cybernescence
GameGuru Master
11
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2013
Playing: Cogwheel Chronicles
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 17:32
It can be done:

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=7#msg2619936

https://forum.game-guru.com/thread/213870?page=7#msg2620178

Takes a lot of engine wrangling though (at the moment - assume max will be much better).

Cheers

GPU: GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER PassMark: 14817
Earthling45
8
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Sep 2016
Location: Zuid Holland Nederland
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 18:59
This is also done in the far cry editor i believe by removing a terrain polygon and hence have an opening for a bunker or so beneath the terrain.
It does however have to be a closed bunker because if not, and you look up, you'll be seeing all the entities which are placed on the terrain.
3com
10
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 18th May 2014
Location: Catalonia
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 19:50
You can dig the tunnel just as it would in the snow.
Laptop: Lenovo - Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 1005M @ 1.90GHz

OS: Windows 10 (64) - Ram: 4 gb - Hd: 283 gb - Video card: Intel(R) HD Graphics
cpu mark: 10396.6
2d graphics mark: 947.9
3d graphics mark: 8310.9
memory mark 2584.8
Disk mark: 1146.3
Passmark rating: 3662.4

PM
DVader
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2004
Location:
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 20:00
Quote: "Any dynamic entity is gonna fall forever n'est ce pas?"

Not if you turn off it's gravity, or just sit it on a model.

@ Lee. I've seen there are no plans to change the terrain size. I would suggest, as it is being wrote from scratch, you should really think about at least the option. As you say, better to plan ahead and what better time than when starting from scratch. I'm not saying promise it as definite, but at least try to future proof it so it will be easy to add in and not mean another re-write or worse stay the same. I'm sure people would love to see a terrain size option in the UI. Even Matedit back in DB days had the option
SPECS: Ryzen 1700 CPU. Nvidia 970GTX. 16 Gig Memory. Win 10.
benjiboy
7
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Mar 2017
Location: In the depths of rural Norfolk
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 20:37 Edited at: 20th Feb 2020 20:43
It's gotta be as simple as raising a hill or it's just going to be a turn off to all the people who aren't into engine wrangling.

+1 for selectable terrain size. - 256,512, 1024 would cover most needs and avoid the need for chasms and mountains to constrain the player.
You can't teach an old dog.
cybernescence
GameGuru Master
11
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2013
Playing: Cogwheel Chronicles
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 22:10
It depends what sort of game, if you have flying or driveable vehicles run out of terrain real fast, so needs another method. If starting from scratch, procedural and paging segments that can be swapped in and out based on player position perhaps.

Cheers.

GPU: GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER PassMark: 14817
benjiboy
7
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Mar 2017
Location: In the depths of rural Norfolk
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 22:55
@cybernescence Which kind of begs for auto load of next world N,S,E and W. I can't think of an engine that gives that flexibility, or are you just suggesting more sizes upward? I think we're 1024x1024 at the moment?
It certainly could be a possibility, based upon user setting - reach max x -> shift to map e, max y-> shift to map s, etc. But don't you want, generally, to be directing the player along the storyline, rather than just exploring, (I know some games do but is that GG's focus)?
You can't teach an old dog.
Earthling45
8
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 3rd Sep 2016
Location: Zuid Holland Nederland
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 23:07
It's about having the possibility to have larger maps, or smaller of course.
For my fortified town, the current map size is to small.
DVader
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2004
Location:
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 23:25 Edited at: 20th Feb 2020 23:28
Yes, the option would be nice. For fast paced shooters you can use a smaller map and for more RPG like games a bigger map is King. Not to mention the fact on a fair sized hill or mountain you can generally see the edge of the map, even the water. Although i haven't done much in GG of late so maybe that has been addressed.
SPECS: Ryzen 1700 CPU. Nvidia 970GTX. 16 Gig Memory. Win 10.
smallg
Community Leader
18
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 8th Dec 2005
Location:
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 23:30
Quote: "Which kind of begs for auto load of next world N,S,E and W. I can't think of an engine that gives that flexibility"

async loading is in the big engines for sure, it's how they made this

it's not really terrain but has thousands (maybe millions) of entities being seamlessly loaded and removed as the player moves around - it's very much capable of doing the same with terrain

would be nice to get the option to add new neighbor terrains (in a grid) to expand the existing terrain

Quote: "I think we're 1024x1024 at the moment?"

1024 what? the current terrain is 51k units in GG, but yes a basic scale would be nice too (even if fixed to 25% increments as you suggest)
lua guide for GG
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=398177770
windows 10
i5 @4ghz, 8gb ram, AMD R9 200 series , directx 11
DVader
20
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 28th Jan 2004
Location:
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 23:35
That looks pretty impressive
SPECS: Ryzen 1700 CPU. Nvidia 970GTX. 16 Gig Memory. Win 10.
benjiboy
7
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 24th Mar 2017
Location: In the depths of rural Norfolk
Posted: 20th Feb 2020 23:43
Is that 51k units per side?
I was basing my numbers on the current GG heightmap - which, looking in the file, seemed to be 1024x1024, and that is what I think BOTR is using in HM2GG.

Entity placement is on a much more granular scale, to be sure.

The fundametal thing is that map size should be selectable.
You can't teach an old dog.
GubbyBlips
5
Years of Service
User Offline
Joined: 14th Jan 2019
Location:
Posted: 21st Feb 2020 00:44
The topics are seeming incoherent and jumbled about.
Approx 50,000 total units x or z = GG ground size for scripting entity positions.
If they keep designing GG and GGMAX to such a basic precept that a two year
old can do it, progress on the engine will always remain highly constrained.

The developers goal in GGMAX I think should be for a higher level of flexibility
and a lower level of constrainment.
PM

Login to post a reply

Server time is: 2024-11-23 19:58:46
Your offset time is: 2024-11-23 19:58:46