Zagdul
Gallente Clan Shadow Wolf Fatal Ascension
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Posted - 2011.08.02 07:59:00 -
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Edited by: Zagdul on 02/08/2011 07:59:12
Originally by: Jada Maroo Edited by: Jada Maroo on 02/08/2011 04:14:36 This is a method I've been thinking about for years, after remembering some of the old voxel games (like the Commanche series).
I wasn't aware of this project, but about a year back I did some google searches on voxels and why they weren't used in games. Now, that was voxels, which are similar but I suspect very different than what's used in the linked demo, but some of the problems might be the same.
Some of the problems mentioned were real time shadows (the demo briefly mentions shadows but doesn't say whether they are real time or pre rendered), real time lighting (same deal), and collistion detection. You would almost have to have an undrawn polygon wrap around the collideable objects else you'd have horrendously complex collision detection. You can imagine a character running around and the hardware having to determine how it interacts with each grain of dirt and how that would be handles via physics too - very difficult. I also didn't see anything moving in that demo.
But there are huge benefits if they can overcome those hurdles. You can imagine the effects on item destruction. Shoot a wall with a machine gun and chew it away bit by bit or with a rocket launcher and blow a hole through it realistically. You could also have different physical properties depending on the type of material. That is, the "atoms" that make up a wooden wall when shot at would react differently than the atoms that make up a metal wall. One would shatter apart, the other would bend and rupture. The artist could set the kind of material used as an item property and the atoms would have a different level of cohesion and mass. Same for fluids and viscosity.
I hope this company has managed a way to overcome all the problems. I'd love to see cames go this direction. It would be great for games like Eve where art wouldn't have to be updated continuously to live up to modern standards.
+1
I look forward to seeing where this tech goes.
A company looking to release a SDK means that they're far from an actual release of a demo or game. Just proof of concept type thing which could potentially get them funding and raise the eyebrows of hardware developers to start catering to their ideas instead of polygon calculations for physic engine development.
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