Irrlicht ready for RTS?

M.Buro · Post by **M.Buro** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 1:02 am

Hello,

I am shopping for a gfx engine to replace
raw-metal opengl code in our RTS game engine
(ORTS). Can Irrlicht handle
- large terrain (1024x1024 mesh points)
- hundreds of (moving) objects
- true fog of war, meaning unexplored terrain
is not just hidden, it isn't known, thus rendered
black, and explored but currently not visible areas
are darkened.
- split views (say screen halves or quarters)
?

In this setting, why should I prefer Irrlicht over say
Crystal Space or Ogre? ORTS is implemented in
C++.

Cheers.

/MB

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 11:48 am

RTFM

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 2:46 pm

Although this is the opendiscussion it's probably not the place for anonymous insults. And the FM might not be able to give all the necessary hints to answer correctly here.
Irrlicht cannot handle your terrain, due to lack of 32bit indices. Use IrrSpintz for this. Or tile the terrain.
Your question on bjects cannot be answered without going into more details. May work, may not.
Don't know about FoW, but this should be possible.
Split views are not built in, but easy to program with Irrlicht (there are several tutorials in the forum or on the homepage)

kburkhart84 · Post by **kburkhart84** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 3:24 pm

Irrlicht can do the 2d for the GUI for unit and building construction, like in C&C series. Use IrrSpintz's terrain manager for your terrain since it tiles your terrain and makes sure the edges are the same LOD and match up. Field of war depends. You could overlay a black quad over the whole thing, or you could change the material to not include lighting and have no texture and the color black. It would render everything where you are, but what is covered wouldn't be seen, but I recommend the quad cover more. Just put it between the camera and the terrain. About the explored but not present, which should be transparent, you could also do the quad thing, and just not render entities in that area, making them in irrlicht not visible. They still get animated and moved, just not visible. So each frame, you check and see if they are in the 'clear' area, and if so, they are visible. If not.... then not. Irrlicht can handle this, as long as you compensate for the terrain. You can only draw 65000 something tris per object in one render pass, so you can draw more stuff, but not in the same mesh/terrain. 32-bit indices can be used with the above mentioned change.

Baal Cadar · Post by **Baal Cadar** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 4:41 pm

Having used Irrlicht and Ogre, I'd tend to Ogre here. As it tends to give you more room for your own tweaks and is more flexible overall and has the all-powerful Paging (Landscape) Scene Manager. Though you need to be aware, that you can't just through all the objects at once to any of the engines. You need clever management of your game entities and a good understanding of the underlying concepts.

If you are a beginner, then go for Irrlicht, it is *much* easier to understand and if you are a complete beginner, then go for a more modest project.

kburkhart84 · Post by **kburkhart84** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 6:35 pm

Baal Cadar wrote: If you are a beginner, then go for Irrlicht, it is *much* easier to understand and if you are a complete beginner, then go for a more modest project.

I agree completely with this. I still consider myself somewhat of a beginner. I just now am going more complex than my asteroids clone.

hybrid · Post by **hybrid** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:40 pm

Baal Cadar wrote:If you are a beginner, then go for Irrlicht, it is *much* easier to understand and if you are a complete beginner, then go for a more modest project.

He said he already had the game engine up and running, and just want to replace the gfx part by some gfx engine. So why should we assume a beginner here?

Baal Cadar · Post by **Baal Cadar** » Tue Apr 11, 2006 7:49 pm

hybrid wrote:So why should we assume a beginner here?

Because of the questions asked. For an experienced programmer it doesn't take long to determine the answers to these questions using the API docs, wiki and forum. And I don't see him stating, that the game is already done. If it were, why then replacing the code at hand? Since I don't have more info, I answer for the broad spectrum of possibilities. From pro to beginner.

M.Buro · Post by **M.Buro** » Wed Apr 12, 2006 2:43 am

Thanks for the information.

> Because of the questions asked. For an
> experienced programmer it doesn't take long
> to determine the answers to these questions
> using the API docs, wiki and forum.

Indeed, I prefer getting honest opinions from
experienced people in forums over wading through API docs, which can't tell much about looks and efficiency anyway.

ORTS is not done yet and we feel that we have spent enough time on GUI development already, neglecting the AI part we are really interested in. The idea is now to hook up one of the free software gfx engines that seem to have come a long way since I last looked two years ago. If one of them actually can accomodate our needs that is ...

I will have a student looking into this in the coming weeks. Thanks again!

/MB