Turbine Games Q&A/Dungeons/Q-14
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Original Link (now dead) - http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_questions.html?id=1884
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| Asked: | 2000.11.09 |
| Name: | Sun-Lo (solclaim) |
| Question Title: | Above ground dungeon |
| Category: | Dungeons |
| Question: | Youve said that you cannot make an above ground dungeon.. As houses and etc are difficult.. But i have a suggestion or an idea... Instead of using a building.. Why not use trees or shrubbery.. Like the old Shrubbery mazes found in Europe? Simply pack the plants and trees to close together.. And Viola an outdoor dungeon maze!! Thanks again for a Fantastic game!! |
| Answered: | 2000.11.09 |
| Name: | Jason Booth |
| Answer: | Mainly because of fill rate concerns. Dungeons allow us to clip away any polygons which are not visible from the viewer, however, a shrub maze wouldn't allow that, and you'd draw shrubs/walls as far as the eye can see. At eye level, that could mean drawing the entire screen 20 or 30 times, in a complex maze, which would bring most machines to a crawl. Our building tech allows us to clip into the inside of a building, or clip into the outside of the landscape, greatly reducing the number of polygons we have to draw. However, it's limited to a 24 meter block size due to sorting, so large castles have to be built out of multiple pieces which have the same problems a hedge maze would have. Of course, all of this is moot with our next generation engine, but in 1995 (the days of 486's), when we started building AC, these tradeoffs were well worth it. |