Limit Theory Forums

Flatfingers wrote:I'm thinking about storing some generated data so that it doesn't have to be regenerated by slower computers.

But that's an optimization I suppose is irrelevant today.

Not at all...LT uses an on-disk storage cache for the 'big' assets. The bigger you allow the cache to be, the smoother the experience will be when travelling through systems (nebula and planet surfaces in particular are pretty darn intensive to generate, even on a good GPU!) Same thing goes for all models (computing ambient occlusion ain't cheap!)

I have a tangential question. A game like NMS allows destruction of its procedural terrain. Let's consider a tower. I destroy the middle of the tower, and the top topples over. Not Only that, but even if I leave a thin neck of support between the bottom and the top, the top should still topple over. So there's obviously a physics engine at work. The question is, would off the shelf physics engines work for voxel procedural terrain?


P.S. I know this will probably cause the thread to derail, but considering the number of my threads you guys have derailed, this is just karma bitches.

Vartul wrote:P.S. I know this will probably cause the thread to derail, but considering the number of my threads you guys have derailed, this is just karma bitches.

*chuckle* Ohh, a nice bit of payback invective there, Vartul.

your question...erm ...no idea but your PS was wickedly good.

Vartul wrote:I have a tangential question. A game like NMS allows destruction of its procedural terrain. Let's consider a tower. I destroy the middle of the tower, and the top topples over. Not Only that, but even if I leave a thin neck of support between the bottom and the top, the top should still topple over. So there's obviously a physics engine at work. The question is, would off the shelf physics engines work for voxel procedural terrain?

I dont know any games which would do that at any scale you could still compare with NMS' terrain detail.

Medieval Engineers does something along those lines, but only with very coarse block grids, and they built their own engine for the voxel+block physics...

7 Days To Die is a voxel (1 meter blocks) engine with procedural terrain generation and building physics.

There are caves in the generated terrain but mostly it's "stable" plains / hills / mountains.

Prefabs (like a house) are handcrafted from blocks and populate the game world. They observe the building physics, too, although some are not very stable. =)

Have you seem Miguel's voxel engine lately ?
http://procworld.blogspot.com/

What you do if you want voxels, is you do the entire world on heightmap, and then specify 3D regions where you can add or subtract voxels from the environment (or use CSG for the same effect) this allows you to offload them at long distances, and also allows you to produce what seem like seamless caves, alongside massive low cost world spaces.

Victor Tombs wrote:

Vartul wrote:P.S. I know this will probably cause the thread to derail, but considering the number of my threads you guys have derailed, this is just karma bitches.

*chuckle* Ohh, a nice bit of payback invective there, Vartul.

your question...erm ...no idea but your PS was wickedly good.

Glad to know you liked it Victor.

I've been following Miguel's engine for quite some time, but I believe the physics component in Voxel Farm is a completely custom implementation. Very impressive stuff.
If I remember right, LT uses Bullet physics, which I guess is a good choice considering LT's requirements. What I want to know is, when Josh showed the planet surface, was collision detection running? And if it was, how easy was it to use Bullet physics with the procedural terrain?

[quote="Vartul]

If I remember right, LT uses Bullet physics, [/quote]

Just did a google, and it came back with:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfezSJB21vk

"
Some rigid body physics tests I made in Blender. Simulated using the blender bullet physics engine.

A lot of tests used Kapla / Keva sized planks. Some were inspired by the Phymec rigid body tests, especially the 4400 plank building one which had a very similar construction to the building in the most popular Phymec video.
"

With the tutorial here:
http://www.mobymotionblog.com/2014/04/t ... ies-2.html

Vartul wrote: If I remember right, LT uses Bullet physics, which I guess is a good choice considering LT's requirements.

http://forums.ltheory.com/viewtopic.php ... 4838#p4838


On the rest of your question: shouldnt be that hard, the pcg terrain is just a normal "ground" collision mesh which can be handled like the ground in any other game.

Voxels with physics on them are a completely different thing, though