Think the tribes 3 engine will allow tunneling?

S

Sir Lucius

Veteran XX
The current height maps they use for terrain are in the same vein as the 2.5d of doom and doom2. Remember when quake introduced REAL 3d?

Do you think Tribes3 will do that with the terrain or do you think we're still doomed (haha, pun) to heightmaps for another few years.


Personally I'd like some tunnels and caves, and trenches with over hanging lips. I know it's harder to do, but it looks a lot cooler :)
 
Height maps. But you can do overhangs and such by using objects to create the overhang, or build a cave complex that is under the terrain and punch a hole in the terrain to get to it. Both are possible in T1 and T2.
 
no cuz the addtions you make don't meld with the terrain polys and textures as well. You should be able to have like a negetive metabolic sphere that you can place and it will carve into the terrain. Hurry and get your programmers working on this thrax! (yeah right) Specific models for the effect just don't look as good.
 
and another thing is, your gay ass tribes2 engine was a BITCH about making tunnels. Cuz I tried it and it kept erasing my models (at long distance. See, cuz I didn't put the indoor/outdoor brush on it cuz I wanted to let vehilces go in it, but it was all gayed up -- i hated that.
 
Unreal Tournament 2003 has the same issue with terrain and uses what would likely be the solution for a new Tribes title. The terrain itself is a heightmap and any overhangs/caves or other features that a player can move under or through are 3D-modelled objects (in the case of UT2003, static meshes or hardware brushes). While these objects don't look exactly like the terrain of a heightmap, skillful texturing and model design can create a fairly seamless environment. Tribes 2 did this with a few features like rocks and natural arches (there's one on Dessicator that's a bit out of the main play area).

If Tribes the Next can support hardware brushes, it would be possible to have fairly complex terrain features without a big framerate hit.
 
i'm still waiting for deformable terrain.

i'd love to be able to shoot a mortar ahead of an outbound capper and screw up hit exit route by changing the ground in front of him. ski, ski, BABOOM, smack!
 
The problem with deformable terrain is:
There is a well used cap route
I MD the cap route many times
Cap route goes away.

It would turn every cap into a cowboy cap.
 
which is why you greatly restrict what can deform the terrain. mortars, bombs (for T2 peeps), maybe exploding mpbs (again for T2 peeps), things like that.
 
Make an eclusive weapon for the medium -- the shovel
And an exclusive vechile -- the backhoe


I would totally play this game.
 
see, thrax WAS giving us a hint with the link to the construction site.

can't wait for the backup sound on the backhoe...BEEP .. BEEP .. BEEP .. BEEP
 
if someone could convert the terrain textures to a usable wad file i could make buildings that blend in with the ground, no problem
 
Fidelio said:
which is why you greatly restrict what can deform the terrain. mortars, bombs (for T2 peeps), maybe exploding mpbs (again for T2 peeps), things like that.
Click to expand...

Then what's stopping one from completely mortaring a cap route to an unusable state?
 
Xagothae.1 said:
Then what's stopping one from completely mortaring a cap route to an unusable state?
Click to expand...

nothing, but anyone who has played on a seriously competitive team would tell you that spending that much time on it is a poor use of resources.

besides, anyone with advanced skill can adapt and make a route out of anything, changing the shape of the terrain wouldn't hinder them much, that is of course unless you change it right in front of them so they trip over your hole so to speak or smack into a vertical spot which was just a second ago a nice uphill slope.
 
There are a number of reasons for not doing this. Ignoring the gameplay issues, etc. there is one obviuos one that kills the idea. Sending data to everybody in the game every time a mortar lands, mine goes off, etc in order to update all of their terain data would kill any hope of good network performance, and anything that even hints of harming net performance must be killed before it can spread.
 
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