Outerra forum
Anteworld - Outerra Game => Tech demo, support, updates => Topic started by: JackDawson on June 27, 2013, 01:53:59 pm
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My guess here is that the reason this engine has not been released yet, is because the procedural part for terrain creation is not done yet ? So right now, its reliant on the fact that you have to download the google maps to get the terrain data. Am I close ?
If I am wrong, can you please explain ? I am curious if this is why we haven't been able to get our hands on the engine yet to be able to work on our own games. When I supported this project almost 2 years ago I was hoping this engine be out by now. Even if it wasn't 100% finished yet. The tech demo is cool and all, but I'm anxious to get started on my own game idea.
I'm just trying to grasp a time frame here. I'm seeing other 3D game engines pop up left and right, and I'm nervous that waiting for this game engine to be done will prove to be pointless. Not trying to be rude. I apologize now if I come across this way.
I love what I have seen of this brilliant engine.
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as far as i can see the engine is currently maybe 50 % finished and a lot is still missing according to cameni's and co plans... but procedural terrain generation isn't the problem i think.
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It already has procedural terrain. Or, more accurately, many algorithms that refine the 90m elevation into what you see on the screen. Cameni and AngryPig have been working on a lot of functionality issues with the engine, such as animation and a lot of things I don't pretend to understand. If you read some of the forum posts by them you will see what they are working on and what is being updated.
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My guess here is that the reason this engine has not been released yet, is because the procedural part for terrain creation is not done yet ? So right now, its reliant on the fact that you have to download the google maps to get the terrain data. Am I close ?
That's pretty far off :)
That myth that we are using Google maps to download the terrain comes up quite often, but it would not make sense. Google maps aren't in a suitable format, reconstruction of the data would take eons and not even starting on the legal side. We are only showing a synchronized Google maps window, since the planet is Earth and it's a neat thing to do, but it's not doing anything else than showing the Google maps window synchronized with the in-game camera position.
The engine uses reprocessed terrain elevation data from satellite data sources, and the procedural part adds the detail below the resolution of those data.
In a sense you are right about the procedural part - there's a lot of work to get the engine to render a complete planet with all the biomes, rivers, weather ..
But there's also a lot of work to get the other common functionality that a 3D engine must have - physics, animations, multiple lights ... just try imagining how you'd start coding your game, what would you need for it? I imagine you have already started importing models and setting up physics for vehicles since that's already available in Anteworld - even though that's going to be a game and not an engine, but has some of the engine tools.
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Ahhhh.. OK thanks for the clarification guys. I appreciate the kind responses. I am still hopeful to see this engine soon. May the coding bugs be non-existent for the devs. :D