Destructible Environment

[Mr.House [503]]

Although I would like to see this in the final release on the game I understand how hard it would be.
Having every beam destroy the rocks/ground based on the power of each beam.
Same with buildings, you could swoop through the walls making holes or just shoot them with beams. I think this would add to the big explosions of the attacks and the smoke.

 

[Deathshot]

Through many discussions we have had about this, it would more than likely cause the game to lag majorly.

 

[fuzzy]

Terrain deformation is so complex, even most AAA games don't feature it - with the Frostbite Engine being the major exception. Afaik, it is the only widely used engine with multiplayer destructible environments.

 

[Z Power]

Technical limitations.

Also, fighting in an empty map would get boring after you've destroyed everything.

 

[Grega]

Terrain deformation is so complex, even most AAA games don't feature it - with the Frostbite Engine being the major exception. Afaik, it is the only widely used engine with multiplayer destructible environments.

Even frostbite only has partial destruction. The last game with total destruction i played was the first Red Faction (cant remember if number 2 had that level of destruction), where you could pretty much start digging with explosives. And even that game had unbreakable things in it. Frostbite is even stingier with it. They deform the terrain by creating a crater, but you can not make a hole by repeatably shooting the same area with tank shells. The crater will stay the same size.

So yea. There are no games out there with full destruction. Its just to taxing. And if you considder that we are still running a game engine that has only support for a single CPU core, such features are out of the question.

 

[fuzzy]

Red Faction also limits the extent of the restructuring. After a certain amount of terrain has been deformed, the game will simply stop deforming anything. These limits can easily be tested in the test level.

 

[Grega]

Red Faction also limits the extent of the restructuring. After a certain amount of terrain has been deformed, the game will simply stop deforming anything. These limits can easily be tested in the test level.

Correct. They did that when the game was released. But nowadays those limits would be able to be far greater. Remember the computing power is a dozen times better than back then XD

 

[dutchmeat]

Aren't the terrains in ESF giant meshes at the moment?

 

[Deverz]

I new Red Faction like the first would be nice then it would make for a nice DBZ mod base

 

[Deathshot]

The new Red Faction is just like that. Certain things can be broken and certain things cannot. Most buildings can be destroyed though. You can also rebuild those buildings as well like it was never broken.

 

[Lexis]

Well first of all , if they we're going to implement this it would take them atleast one year , if not more (with proper testing and debugging) and EVEN IF they managed to do it to some level, it would be way too taxing to make it worth it. And it's not like it would be of any real use. You could probably level a map with 3-4 big bangs.

 

[macdaddymario]

The closest you could get would be predetermined sections.. sort of like Ultimate Tenkaichi, where most of the stages have 2 sections for a 'beam on ground' then a crater for a 'ball' then a few small deformations for the rapid ki blast style attacks.. but as stated, that's not real destruction, it's just a scripted event. It works the same in Frostbyte, an M203 grenade vs. a Tank shell give you the same size hole. As it stands it's just to much work for something that, in the end wouldn't really change to much, in regards to how the game is played.

I believe Red Faction 2 did limit it Grega.. though in some sections it was more detailed then Frostbyte 2.0

 

[omegalucas]

The closest you could get would be predetermined sections.. sort of like Ultimate Tenkaichi, where most of the stages have 2 sections for a 'beam on ground' then a crater for a 'ball' then a few small deformations for the rapid ki blast style attacks.. but as stated, that's not real destruction, it's just a scripted event. It works the same in Frostbyte, an M203 grenade vs. a Tank shell give you the same size hole. As it stands it's just to much work for something that, in the end wouldn't really change to much, in regards to how the game is played.

There's still a third way, having the stage be segmented like a puzzle, as Spike did with the Cell Games arena in the Raging Blast series (and a bit in the Tenkaichi too).
Like here: http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2...eld_destruction_fanwish_by_nostal-d4yxkz7.jpg
It'd probably require a lot of work so it most likely won't be implemented...

 

[macdaddymario]

That's still a predetermined section that gets destroyed. There are a few pieces that got destroyed, but it isn't real destruction as I could for example: fire a kamehameha as the very corner and the same chunk would get destroyed as if I flew right through the center of that section.

 

[Grega]

Using that technique is pointless in ESF. Imagine this. We do it like that and get 2 planes where the top one is composed of big tiles. Now shooting a big beam drops the tiles HP down to 0 and the tile disappears. All looks well. But do the same thing while shooting KI blasts. And while still draining a tiles HP slowly a small explosion does the same damage as a big one. Looks weird.

This could be fixed by using small tiles. The problem there is lag. As in it would lag to unplayability.

 

[DJ-Ready]

Well, the deformation could simply be done procedurally until at some point it just intersects the indestructible lower geometry. The overall polycount could possibly skyrocket with such a system through - more craters = more polies = unpredictable overall polycount.
Plus, I have no idea how our current collision system would cope with dynamically altered geometry.

Also, adding such a system this late would mean a lot more waiting time for the release for you guys ;P
More then likely its not going to happen, even if its technically possible.

 

[Prozac]

Also, adding such a system this late would mean a lot more waiting time for the release for you guys ;P

Interesting choice of words! "This late."
Can't wait for the new year release!

*laughs evilly*

 

[IFlip92]

Interesting choice of words! "This late."
Can't wait for the new year release!

*laughs evilly*

It would make sense that the closer they get to finishing the mod the more quantity of work they will put in because I'm sure they want to finish the mod more than we want to play it!

 

[Lexis]

Interesting choice of words! "This late."
Can't wait for the new year release!

*laughs evilly*

They said the earliest we could hope for a release is late 2014 if Im not mistaken?

 

[Grega]

They said the earliest we could hope for a release is late 2014 if Im not mistaken?

You are. No one on the team gives out estimates. Well except for Adam, but he only estimates the maps, not the entire game.