Terrain

the_dare · Post by **the_dare** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 8:01 pm

yep thats what i thought

finnbryant · Post by **finnbryant** » Tue Dec 11, 2007 11:01 pm

thought that this article looked relevant and useful.
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=m...ew&qid=7262

comments explain how it will generate terrain proceurally across multiplayer. dont know whether its copyable, but even if it isnt, useful reference stuff /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

all it needs is the seed used to be decided on the server and sent to the clients, so its prctically multiplayer already.

HSharp · Post by **HSharp** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:15 am

Could try having it randomly generated but not so random, like have premade tiles made and then on map generation it just places premade tiles around, dunno if thats possible though, XCOM UFO Enemy Unknown does it though and I mean like that. You could have it so that on map generation it make sures that at least x number of tiles are flat/tech/ruins (w/e) in the sector and the rest of the map is procedurally randomly generated.

Cadillac · Post by **Cadillac** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 12:28 am

Could we not made various templates for special sectors such as choke points and the likes?

It would be good to have some individual variety too.

radruin · Post by **radruin** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:18 am

Cadillac wrote:QUOTE (Cadillac @ Dec 11 2007, 07:28 PM) Could we not made various templates for special sectors such as choke points and the likes?

It would be good to have some individual variety too.

What do you mean?

Cadillac · Post by **Cadillac** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 1:54 am

Custom as in ... shaping the landscape, strategically placing water, mountains, obstacles etc..

the_dare · Post by **the_dare** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 7:39 am

Finn Bryant wrote:QUOTE (Finn Bryant @ Dec 11 2007, 11:01 PM) thought that this article looked relevant and useful.
http://www.garagegames.com/index.php?sec=m...ew&qid=7262

comments explain how it will generate terrain proceurally across multiplayer. dont know whether its copyable, but even if it isnt, useful reference stuff /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

all it needs is the seed used to be decided on the server and sent to the clients, so its prctically multiplayer already.

yeah i pointed this out before!! i dont think it works for multiplayer.

but where has to be plate style genorations!

HSharp · Post by **HSharp** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 11:06 am

Basically im suggesting that a bunch of premade areas of tiles are made and these tiles will probably be the equivalent of asteroids and tech rocks in Alleg, on map generation the map is randomly generated but x number of tiles are put in (depending on game settings/map choice) which means that in every sector it will have garunteed places to put outposts/tps/refs/techbases (which like in Alleg may still be utterly arsey positoins or absolute awesomeness)etc.. and could also be set so that those are the only places structures can be built as to stop some magically flat generated sector being able to have loads and loads of stuff in it.

Only problems I can see is that on randomly generated it could cause mountains and the tiles to be built on may be unreachable(by AI at least)

the_dare · Post by **the_dare** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 2:46 pm

could set height restrictions and such so not inaccesible oneS!

finnbryant · Post by **finnbryant** » Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:31 pm

as i said before, its quite possible to predetermine a lot of what you want in procedures, you can specify in the code that there must be a passable route between the alephs and buildings by all sorts of methods. i can think of one off the top of my head right now, simply blur the heightmap when generation is complete, as steep angles are represented by sudden colour changes, blurring would soften the slopes, make it impossible to have slopes of a greater angle than you want. If mountains are put in the game, it would be on purpose, making it impassible for ai, and a great challenge/shortcut for people.

that all said, i think your asking the wrong questions here, procedural generations could do everything we need, the question is if our programmer is willing or capable to deal with a very complicated programming problem. i may be wrong of course (i havent seen any of his work yet), but i think its unlikely that any new programmer to this area is capable of this sort of thing without getting a few years under their belt at least.
If its possible to find free code like the link i posted above then we dont even have to worry about that, since the tough algorithms are done and just fiddling with numbers should be enough.

dare, read the comments at the bottom of the link, the guy who wrote it said it wouldn't require much effort to make it multiplayer, you dont even have to make any complex changes, just change the random number to a number thats sent from the server, and its done.
the way it works is it gets a random number, and uses it to create a map, if the same number is input twice, the same map will come out, so if you have 32 computers connected to the same server, and the server tells all the computers the same number, they will all make the same map.

in case anyone is wondering how i know this, i just take an active interest in this sort of stuff since i found out about a procedural game that creates an entire galaxy with billions of stars, modelled to less than a meter all the way up to 100,000 lightyears (its multiplayer btw, just to prove that its possible) its not out yet though

called "Infinity: Quest for Earth"