So I gotta say: Starcraft 2 looks good, eh? It's amazing that they got that game looking and feeling so much like the original Starcraft. But nevermind that, have you seen Eyeshield 21? I guess it's based on a manga, which I'm sure is great, but the game itself looks completely fun.
@p
OK back to reality. Been working on houses really, just laying out the walls and so forth. I would say I have about half of them done. They are easy to do, time consuming but actually pretty fun. For each house (well, there aren't just houses, there are also buildings) I'm trying to put one or two elements in that are unique. There are three house styles which is more than enough for my purposes right now. Once I've got them laid out, I can fill in some details including items, furniture, that sort of thing.
@p
There is a problem with multi-floor buildings in that the framerate slows down quite a bit on the upper floors, since it currently renders everything below where you are (basically.) This morning I had an idea to have some kind of custom-drawn occlusion squares. So for instance you could draw one over the top floor, and when you are above that occlusion map it (per frame) does block culling. It would be very feasable cpu-wise, just more work. But I've got no plans to get on this today, at any rate. I'll have to think first if there is a more sensible way to avoid rendering stuff that is hidden under the floor you are on.
2007-05-22