I'm reworking the organics engine this morning. I don't know why, but it seems like the morning is the best time for technical tasks and the evening is the best time for gameplay/creative tasks. Actually I could do modelling or textures in the morning as well, just not the writing that is neccesary for quests and so forth.
@p
Basically, the current organics engine splits trees/etc. into three separate rings, the farthest one being simple point-impostors (very fast to render), then nearer are "asterisks" which are yet another type of impostor, then finally the real models.
@p
This system was envisioned to allow way more trees/etc. than I'm really going to be able to do anyhow. The idea was to let a much higher density at far out so when you look at those hills, man, they are just packed with trees. But it doesn't work quite like that.
@p
In the end, you really do notice the ring transitions as the trees come closer. This is just unfortunate. Anyhow, what I'm doing is simplifying/unifying it into one circular disc which moves around, and I'll manage the impostor transitions within it. Much, much simpler. Also, I was having trouble with umake in generating the appropriate parameters, so on some planets it looked wacky and on others it was fine. This will solve all that.
@p
It also gives me abit more flexibilty (simplicity == flexibility as a rule). In short, I can experiment with very small, very dense disks for things like grass, and we'll see how it goes hmm?
2004-12-08