General 3D mesh question

[primem0ver]

I have theorized on a new approach to creating truly spherical 3d worlds made of tiles that could be used for a turn-based strategy game that would allow much more realism, flexibility, and mod-ability than traditional tile based strategy games like Civilization. The problem is that I don't know if it is possible to use a mesh like a "texture" when it comes to laying them out.

The idea is to create sets of triangular and/or diamond shaped tile meshes and textures that are used to make more traditional tiles. Here is the question that would determine if this idea is sound or not. Can a mesh be stretched by a 3d graphics engine? The bounds for stretching would not be extreme. Simply enough to make both hexagons and pentagons (or even squares) of slightly different measurements (determined by a specific grid pattern algorithm) out of the triangles/diamonds in question.

[mongoose7]

Do you mean like node->setScale()? If you use parallax mapping, you have to change the parameter when you scale.

[hendu]

You will need some sort of batching or instancing, thousands of tiles and each tile made of several meshes.

[primem0ver]

Do you mean like node->setScale()? If you use parallax mapping, you have to change the parameter when you scale.

Not exactly. Think of it like a texture. A trangle texture can be stretched slightly without a huge difference in appearance if the shape is not too different. There would a bit of distortion but not enough to really make things look wrong. Say for example i made a texture that was supposed to go on an equilateral triangle. However, the triangle I fixed it too was not quite equilateral. Each side has a slightly different length. Now apply the same basic concept to a whole mesh rather than just a texture. Each of the points in the mesh would need to be adjusted slightly to adjust for the length of each individual side.

You will need some sort of batching or instancing, thousands of tiles and each tile made of several meshes.

You mean create a generic shape and then mathematically create a new mesh for each instance? How would that affect performance of the final product? Using hundreds of thousands of mesh instances versus one?

[Mel]

Hmm... a matrix transformation sounds enough for me. If you can model the proper transformation, it is posible to perform any modification to those triangle tiles. What transformation? i can't think of any suitable at the moment...

Then, of course, you have the problem of building the levels in which you would have to batch the content so there isn't thousands of drawcalls instead of a few