Derspegn on 16/2/2020 at 03:32
I've seen more posts about the limits on numbers of objects or brushes, but what about their sizes? If I have large cliffs to block the horizon or walls to separate a large air brush, how far can they span?
Picture, if you will, a wall that spans the middle of a large air brush, but only one part of it has a portcullis where you can reach the other side. In theory, that wall can include a solid brush for the portion with the door, with another same-textured object to continue the wall and reduce cells.
In terms of distant objects, I think the largest one's I've seen were the bay cliffs in the Bones FM. Since working with Blender, I've been able to put three shorter horizontal cliffs along the border of a large air brush, but haven't tried longer ones that might be the same distance as a wall.
nicked on 16/2/2020 at 15:03
The main problem with extremely large objects is that the engine has a tendency to cull them if the centre of the object is too far off-screen. Shouldn't be much of an issue if it's for distant scenery, but you may want to consider breaking objects into smaller chunks if the player can get up close.
Technically, you can have terrain brushes as large as the level limits without it crashing. However, if your texture scale is too small on a very large brush, you can get errors and crashes, and extremely long sightlines can also be problematic. You can also eat up cells very quickly if you have large brushes that aren't cubic.
In my current mission I have some air brushes that are over 400 units long without any ill effects.
R Soul on 16/2/2020 at 17:17
And if you're using a 4:3 monitor and get things just right with object visibility, people with 16:9 monitors may still see those problems.
Tannar on 17/2/2020 at 21:25
Not sure I completely understand what you mean about the wall. Are you saying that you have a wall spanning the width of the air brush but only a part of that wall is a terrain brush, and the rest is an object? If so, that won't necessarily save cells. In fact, it's more likely to produce more cells than if the wall was just completely one solid brush.
As far as the size of distant objects, you can make them huge, but they will distort so it takes some trial and error to get things right. Also, what R Soul said. Take a look at the huge oversized bushes we used in mission 1 of Scarlet Cascabel.
Derspegn on 18/2/2020 at 09:15
Quote Posted by Tannar
Not sure I completely understand what you mean about the wall. Are you saying that you have a wall spanning the width of the air brush but only a part of that wall is a terrain brush, and the rest is an object? If so, that won't necessarily save cells. In fact, it's more likely to produce more cells than if the wall was just completely one solid brush.
As far as the size of distant objects, you can make them huge, but they will distort so it takes some trial and error to get things right. Also, what R Soul said. Take a look at the huge oversized bushes we used in mission 1 of
Scarlet Cascabel.
Yes, I meant only part of the wall would be a terrain brush, and the rest an object. I've been debating whether or not to do this because an FM like King's Story had a large amount of terrain brushes. I will look at your FM for some ideas, thanks!
Derspegn on 18/2/2020 at 09:17
Quote Posted by R Soul
And if you're using a 4:3 monitor and get things just right with object visibility, people with 16:9 monitors may still see those problems.
I didn't consider that. I should probably start changing resolutions temporarily when testing out bigger objects.
Derspegn on 18/2/2020 at 09:18
Quote Posted by nicked
The main problem with extremely large objects is that the engine has a tendency to cull them if the centre of the object is too far off-screen. Shouldn't be much of an issue if it's for distant scenery, but you may want to consider breaking objects into smaller chunks if the player can get up close.
Technically, you can have terrain brushes as large as the level limits without it crashing. However, if your texture scale is too small on a very large brush, you can get errors and crashes, and extremely long sightlines can also be problematic. You can also eat up cells very quickly if you have large brushes that aren't cubic.
In my current mission I have some air brushes that are over 400 units long without any ill effects.
It doesn't sound too worrisome apart from trial and error. Good luck with your current mission!
trefoilknot on 19/2/2020 at 13:24
The other issue you might run into is that objects get lit uniformly. This might make the object stick out, depending on the surroundings, and the light sources around.
ZylonBane on 21/2/2020 at 00:13
Quote Posted by trefoilknot
The other issue you might run into is that objects get lit uniformly.
They do not.
Flat-shaded polygons within objects get lit uniformly. By setting object surfaces to Gouraud-shaded and sufficiently subdividing them, you can even get a rough approximation of per-pixel lighting on objects.
[video=youtube;ciARntlPhEk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ciARntlPhEk[/video]
trefoilknot on 21/2/2020 at 04:32
Wow, good to know—I never knew that was possible!