Modifications to defensive building models needed

[Zarel]

I can't answer all your questions, but there are really only a few structure types you need to make basements for:

- fortress
- hardpoint (use the new ones!)
- wood tower
- hardened tower
- bunker
- emplacement (round)
- emplacement (cross)
- pit

[KukY]

- wood tower

There are wood towers?
Aren't there only concrete and metal towers?

[Zarel]

Well, whichever kind of tower the MG Guard Tower and Sensor Tower are. I guess they're metal; I always think of them as wood.

[poVoq]

I can't answer all your questions, but there are really only a few structure types you need to make basements for:

- fortress
- hardpoint (use the new ones!)
- wood tower
- hardened tower
- bunker
- emplacement (round)
- emplacement (cross)
- pit

Ok that's a start... Thanks a lot.
I guess the meshes are in data/base/structs; file names there are not very descriptive though
Also where would I find the corresponding textures to them?

Edit: Are the new hardpoints in the Beta4 source release? It not where can I get them?

[Zarel]

Ok that's a start... Thanks a lot.
I guess the meshes are in data/base/structs; file names there are not very descriptive though
Also where would I find the corresponding textures to them?

data/base/texpages/ (i.e. base.wz/texpages/)

Feel free to upgrade the textures and models while you're at it. But keep in mind we prefer to keep the number of polygons/vertices as low as possible, after all, at a normal zoomlevel, you're only going to be able to see a few pixels of the structure, anyway.

For the bunkers, refer to this guide:



It also illustrates roughly how far down the basements should go.

Edit: Are the new hardpoints in the Beta4 source release? It not where can I get them?

Yes, they're in the beta 4 source release.

[poVoq]

Hmm... those tex pages are a complete mess Doesn't look like they are even really thematically sorted.
How does the project deal with new models and textures?

The quickest (but messiest) solution would be to either just reuse some texture space, or to look for some free space on one of the pages (page-11-player-buildings comes into mind). But I don't really like either.

[Olrox]

If we're ever going to have bigger textures, we're going to need additional texture pages, right?
I think that creating a 256x256 page for foundation textures only wouldn't be that bad. (the only direct problem I can see is that, when we have many additional pages, the game will gain some 1-5 Mb, which a better quality is absolutely worthy of).

[Zarel]

Hmm... those tex pages are a complete mess Doesn't look like they are even really thematically sorted.
How does the project deal with new models and textures?

We generally just add new texture pages.

[poVoq]

Well bigger textures could just use 512x512 or so... that isn't a problem which would force the creation of new texpages.

Just adding new texpages for new stuff of course works, but IMHO from a editing point of view having individual textures for each model (like it is done in newer games that are not so severely limited in texture memory like the old Playstation) would be the much better option. I even doubt that from a coding/performance point of view it will make much of a difference, but someone with more knowledge about that would need to confirm this.

So if I will actually find the time to update the defensive structures, I would propose that each building and it's corresponding base should share an single texture (a 64x64 or a 128x128 should be ok for now) and if possible there should also be a subdirectory for defensive structures and proper naming of the files.
How much work would it be to restructure the code according to this idea?

It might not make much of a difference for the game itself, but since it is a fully GPLed game one should also try to ease future modifications by cleaning up the file structure.

[Tenoh]

I love this idea, when do we get to see it?

[Terminator]

What if to increase terrain poly count ? each tile divide on 4 smaller. But don't do it for structures. so if bunker is on 1 tile now it would stand on 4 smaller tiles.

Will it solve that "collision problem" ?

[Olrox]

What if to increase terrain poly count ? each tile divide on 4 smaller. But don't do it for structures. so if bunker is on 1 tile now it would stand on 4 smaller tiles.

Will it solve that "collision problem" ?

I didn't get the idea and multiplying the polygons from the terrain by 4 is something BIG, really. The problem is that the current system makes calculations that slow down the game, the objective is to make the game run more smoothly and faster. If making the foundations for all the defensive buildings would free up space for the Artists to implement more detailed models withou significant reduction in performance, then I really think it's worth the "bad appearance" of the foundation.

If I manage to, I'll be glad to make the necessary modifications to the models, if still needed. And I don't actually see any problem in simply adding a new "foundations" texpage, with all the foundations' textures. By what I've seen from the folder structure, it isn't hard to find things.

Hmm... Was this already decided for good? Those foundations are sure to be implemented?

[PkK]

I can't answer all your questions, but there are really only a few structure types you need to make basements for:

- fortress
- hardpoint (use the new ones!)
- wood tower
- hardened tower
- bunker
- emplacement (round)
- emplacement (cross)
- pit

Speaking of wooden towers, don't we need basements for the scavenger strutures, too?

Philipp

[Berg]

I have made a short guide on how to fix this It works in trunk and I suspect it will work in 2.3.# I have added an untested pie file to the guide for 2.3 https://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/wzgra ... evelopment
For more info wzgm.net or talk to someone in IRC ##wzgm.
If the pie file don't work remember its not been tested. IT IS A GUIDE

[cybersphinx]

That is a simple and elegant solution to the problem that the side textures get distorted. But those models still have their bottom vertices modified to fit the terrain, and that makes it difficult to render them faster. Though I'm wondering (and yes, I'm too lazy to reread the thread to see if it was mentioned already) if it's possible to cache each modified model, then the modifications only have to be done once when it's constructed, and possibly redone when the terrain changes.