Is Irrlicht Engine suteable for this kind of game?

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 5:36 pm

Hi there!
We're (VEntertainment) going to code just another 3D game and we're not sure if we can use the Irrlicht Engine for this.

The game plays in a city. You can go into any house without loading. You also can go outside the city into the forest.

So on the one hand we need an Engine which can load an manage infinity big terrains (heightmap) and on the other hand it need's a BSPTree for the inside.

Is Irrlicht Engine suteable for such a game?

Peter Müller · Post by **Peter Müller** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 5:40 pm

Sorry, I wasn't logged in

Mercior · Post by **Mercior** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 6:48 pm

Irrlicht can draw triangles.. so yes its suitable for your game description :p

Going into houses with no loading etc will be your choice when you code it - you may find it is better for frame rates / memory usage to put house interiors in a seperate BSP which is loaded when you enter a house - Irrlicht is pretty fast at loading bsp's so it would be a small load time (under 5 seconds) or alternatively you could cache several BSP's for your games map.. its really up to you.

As for scenery... theres no such thing as an "infinite heightmap" however you could generate terrain using a technique like perlin noise that should be able to create an "infinitely" sized terrain mesh.. Irrlicht doesnt do things like LOD scaling for you but with some effort I imagine you could make system for creating huge landscapes that have a reasonable triangle count.

Peter Müller · Post by **Peter Müller** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 6:54 pm

Thanks for the answer!
With 'infinity sized terrain' I just wanted to know, if Irrlicht Engine can load heightmaps. But I can't really speak english well...

Do you know any Indoor/Outdoor games, using Irrlicht Engine?

saigumi · Post by **saigumi** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 7:30 pm

Yes, it can load height maps, but it's slow and doesn't use ROAM.

I have a few simple (but out of date) tutorials on how to do repeating and forever landscapes.

I played around with a system that Asheron's Call uses by loading the closest zones to full quality, and further out zones to a decreasing quality. Then, load them at an increased quality as you get closer.

Peter Müller · Post by **Peter Müller** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 7:52 pm

I know ROAM. But could you please send me the tutorials (or give me a link).

One more question: What is 'Asheron's Call'

Tels · Post by **Tels** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 7:52 pm

Peter Müller wrote:Thanks for the answer!
With 'infinity sized terrain' I just wanted to know, if Irrlicht Engine can load heightmaps. But I can't really speak english well...

Do you know any Indoor/Outdoor games, using Irrlicht Engine?

Hi peter,

welcome to Irrlicht

There are no T-Shirt nor Pins yet, Niko probably works on that. But I can give you a virtual coffee mug:

Code: Select all

o[~]

The Irrlicht Logo on it is not visible, because it is opposite to the holder, on the right side

Oh, und danke fuer Eure Webseite, ich stöbere gerade drin

To your original problem I cannot respond, I don't know enough of Irrlicht yet. It surely is solvable, but will be quite a bit of work.

Best wishes,

Tels

saigumi · Post by **saigumi** » Sun Mar 14, 2004 11:05 pm

http://www.saigumi.net is where 3 of my howto's are.. the rest are in the howto forum.

Peter Müller · Post by **Peter Müller** » Mon Mar 15, 2004 1:16 pm

Thank's, i'll read them

Masdus · Post by **Masdus** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 2:07 am

ROAM wouldn't be any good anyway, the algorithim is cpu heavy and doesn't take advantage of 3d Hardware. Geo-mipmapping and Chunked LOD are better options.

Peter Müller · Post by **Peter Müller** » Wed Mar 24, 2004 3:54 pm

I know these technics. Are they in Irrlicht included, or must they be coded by me?

Caecus · Post by **Caecus** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 3:18 am

Neither is currently included, however, niko plans to add LOD (not sure in what fashion) to the heightmap / terrain node in a future release (maybe 0.7?)

Peter Müller · Post by **Peter Müller** » Thu Mar 25, 2004 1:18 pm

Thanks. I'll gonna ask him.