rein:

Lilman424 · Post by **Lilman424** » 31 May 2003 02:01

rein and anyone else who might be working on this that we don't know of:

Could you please post things as you add/change something? and NTOY but it seems to me (with my limited knowledge of programming, so...) that all you really have done is the classes and the empty map.....for at least 2 months since it was decided to actually make it, I don't think this is a lot that is completed, but I don't really know.

I know it IS just a hobby and it's on your spare time, but look at Josef, he spits out at least three alphas a week and, before X-mas, he hada new one every day!

Not to offend you, rein, as I'm sure you're working as hard as you can in the time you have to work on it.......what does Hellifire do on the project, as I could have sworn rein or someone said earlier that he (rein) was working on it by himself.......what we need is more programmers.

Also, I know we have tons of artistic talent on this forums, just look at the Finished Graphics topic! So why don't you artists help a new project and do some 3d models? Please.....

Evan

(OT: My fingers hurt)

Hellfire · Post by **Hellfire** » 31 May 2003 09:28

I’m trying to speed up the map rendering.

At a close view, comparable to the normal view in TTD, the frame rate is quite good, between 250 and 500fps on my computer. But as the zoom ratio drops, the frame rate drops as well. On the minimum zoom level, 0.02 at the moment, the frame rate can’t get above 5.

To increase the frame rate when only a small piece of the map is shown, rein implemented a small algorithm that doesn’t draw tiles of the map that aren’t on the screen. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work as well as it should yet.

But there’s another way to increase the frame rate. This involves an OpenGL technique, called “Display Lists”. Here’s what “NeHe” has to say on display lists:

nehe.gamedev.net wrote:For example. Lets say you're making the game asteroids. Each level starts off with at least 2 asteroids. So you sit down with your graph paper (grin), and figure out how to make a 3D asteroid. Once you have everything figured out, you build the asteroid in OpenGL using Polygons or Quads. Lets say the asteroid is octagonal (8 sides). If you're smart you'll create a loop, and draw the asteroid once inside the loop. You'll end up with roughly 18 lines or more of code to make the asteroid. Creating the asteroid each time it's drawn to the screen is hard on your system. Once you get into more complex objects you'll see what I mean.

So what's the solution? Display Lists!!! By using a display list, you create the object just once. You can texture map it, color it, whatever you want to do. You give the display list a name. Because it's an asteroid we'll call the display list 'asteroid'. Now any time I want to draw the textured / colored asteroid on the screen, all I have to do is call glCallList(asteroid). the premade asteroid will instantly appear on the screen. Because the asteroid has already built in the display list, OpenGL doesn't have to figure out how to build it. It's prebuilt in memory. This takes A LOT of strain off your processor and allows your programs to run A LOT faster!

Take a look at the images. They show the problems of the map drawing as it is right now.

Arathorn · Post by **Arathorn** » 31 May 2003 09:51

The maps look very very good!

spaceman-spiff · Post by **spaceman-spiff** » 31 May 2003 10:30

The framerate is good, 292 is excellent

Hyronymus · Post by **Hyronymus** » 31 May 2003 14:11

spaceman-spiff wrote:The framerate is good, 292 is excellent

It's empty, Spiff!!! It will decrease as soon as you plant 1 tree! But it sure looks good!

ken52787 · Post by **ken52787** » 01 Jun 2003 18:39

Yea, I think we can go easy on the zoom-outs, we don't need to see that much of the map

Lilman424 · Post by **Lilman424** » 01 Jun 2003 19:47

Yeah, the middle picture is good enough. Anyway, has anyone seen rein recently?

seanlawn · Post by **seanlawn** » 02 Jun 2003 00:09

wow

looks better than i thought it would at this stage,
i thought grass would just be a green square

rein · Post by **rein** » 02 Jun 2003 16:27

hmm, the terrain has currently turned the shading functions off, so it looks crappy, but anyway i'm sure Hellfire has done a good piece of job with it (i mean - on my GF4 when max zoom out was reached the fps didn't excess 0.05

)

i'm not an OpenGL programmer anymore - i gave it up, so i can't tell you anything about the 'visual' progress. I'm trying to set the best conditions for future graphic coders by splitting the code into smallest classes including functions made straight by them

SGWebmaster · Post by **SGWebmaster** » 02 Jun 2003 23:25

I agree with Hellfire's comments on the images. The farthest out view is really too far out to be useful. At this distance, I should imagine that any fine detail will not be seen fully due to its minute size. This kind of detail would only lead to lock-ups on lower spec machines. I agree that the medium view should probably be the furthest that the zoom goes out as it gives an overall picture by showing a large amount of the map without being too far away to include enormous levels of "invisible" detail.

Did all that make sense?

Hyronymus · Post by **Hyronymus** » 03 Jun 2003 08:53

Not really, it all depends on how big the objects will be in the zoom levels. If the middle zoom levels only shows one town it will never be sufficient!

Hellfire · Post by **Hellfire** » 03 Jun 2003 09:26

Check the tile size in the middle picture! If there would be any town that's bigger than the screen... That would really be a huge town!

Hyronymus · Post by **Hyronymus** » 03 Jun 2003 15:28

Hellfire wrote:Check the tile size in the middle picture! If there would be any town that's bigger than the screen... That would really be a huge town!

Sorry, didn't check it

!

Topic locked, really old moot (12112006).

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