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Actual destroyed buildings


Jolt

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I have a request concerning the buildings when they are destroyed. It bugs me a little, (in the Original Renegade as well) that the buildings just have a destroyed skin and some burning and alarms etc. I'd love to see how a building collapses. The interior of the building can be obtained, just the irrelevant part above.

If I remember correctly, in the first mission of Renegade you can see an Obelisk that broke down/is breaking down. That would give the game a huge atmo bonus.

Plus some falling parts of the building could crush persons beneath. Imaging the globe of the HoN rolling over an enemy tank.

PS: I really, really love you guys who made this remake come to life :3

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  • 2 months later...

This is someone I've also wanted since Renegade. The layout of the interior would need to remain intact, but it could look more damaged on the inside and be damaged on the outside. Example: The HoN hand falls down, the airstrip tower caves in a bit, the refinery's tower thing falls down.

As the users above posted, they should focus on other things first. The game looks marvellous, time to worry about bugs and balancing.

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There's one issue with buildings collapsing. Besides the demand of rendering such large effects which could bog down a server it would ruin the balance of matches.

If one building outright collapses that means that many fewer spawn points or places to reload or change, order vehicles, or change load outs. People could find themselves being stuck to spawning in a besieged building with no way out rather than in an already destroyed building that allows them to flank the enemy and have a fighting chance.

I've been in tight matches before where my team mates spawning in destroyed buildings behind enemy forces was the only reason we were able to win.

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There's one issue with buildings collapsing. Besides the demand of rendering such large effects which could bog down a server it would ruin the balance of matches.

If one building outright collapses that means that many fewer spawn points or places to reload or change, order vehicles, or change load outs. People could find themselves being stuck to spawning in a besieged building with no way out rather than in an already destroyed building that allows them to flank the enemy and have a fighting chance.

I've been in tight matches before where my team mates spawning in destroyed buildings behind enemy forces was the only reason we were able to win.

I like to think I resolved that in my post above yours.

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  • Totem Arts Staff

This is something Unreal Engine 3 would have BIG issue on if I'm not mistaken.

Alternative that has flaws

1. Dividing the building parts into two, with cracks-shaped connection. If you make some sort of unfinished building (such as cracked foundation) and then attach the rest of the building so it would look complete, if you look closely, you can still see the separated connection. It would be obvious if you look in the interior

2. Using Fractured Static Mesh. This is very resource consuming, plus the collision will not change. You would hit invisible collision hull if you try to go out/in through a hole after the building is destroyed

3. Using Morph. Most likely will end badly, plus one building consists of more than one mesh as far as I know

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Don't get me wrong. I think the idea has merit and would make a more engaging experience. As a game designer I have to look at the possible hardware issues when considering ideas. If something could potentially bog down a game and decrease FPS then I drop it no matter how awesome it may look.

Unless the section of the map containing a building could be reloaded to place the new mesh, collisions, and such in the place of a destroyed structure I don't think it would be doable. Even then you have the issue of what would happen to players currently in the building when it is destroyed.

After giving it some more thought if the buildings were entirely remodeled as individual pieces that could later fall apart when the building is destroyed which still raises the server demand issue for running the effects.

If there are any game programmers here they may be able to provide additional insight. If this is doable it would be interesting to see if it could tie into my Rebuilding Structures suggestion, although it would look odd if pieces of a building started floating back together while it was being rebuilt. :P

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First off, this wouldn't be a big resource hog, even less on the servers. Its a complete non-issue that you exaggerate because you don't seem to know anything about what you're talking about.

Second, its very much doable. The only point that matters here is that yes, it would be a lot of work, for what is only a small visual bonus. And this team of developers wouldn't want to botch this feature if they added it.

Its not worth the trouble, don't expect it to happen.

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  • Totem Arts Staff

Unreal Engine 3 does not handle dynamic lighting well, sadly

I think Tarvin was referring to something like a crumbling animation of buildings, not an insta-destroyed look. I'm not sure how much of the resource the lighting will take for such animation. Dynamic lighting is there, but it's just not supported like Unity or CryEngine.

Buildings are already 'pieces' by the way. If one building was a whole mesh, collision will take a lot of resources than it is now

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I was referring to large scale animations that would have to be rendered as buildings fall apart which is why I joked about what it would be like if the crumbling of a building reversed if rebuilt in some way.

As far as pieces, I was thinking more along the lines of girders and smaller pieces so the building would shift from being in tact to piles of rubble. Otherwise it would look odd with large chunks being shifted to odd angles.

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