dim3 Forum

Well, as you see I moved to the editor :D

Creating the map for my space flight sim shouldn't be too complicated, but somehow it is. Similiar to the classic Escape Velocity I don't want any height, only width and depth. The game should be played from above, first person only if that makes sense. 2D feeling with 3D engine.

Now I thought I'd just create one big area, let's say 1 kilometer x 1 kilometer and let's say 30 meters high - the camera later in the game moving with the target in constant 20 meters height or whatever. Make all walls, ceilings and floors invisible or assign an invisible texture. Then create a high detail sky box.

I guess I can't create such a large space, so I thought create the space described above and then split it into portals, maybe 3x3 or 5x5 or 100x100 portals.

How do I do the invisible + sky boy part?

Another thing, don't know if it is scripting or editing: in open space where there is only black you somehow have to give the player a feeling of movement. Escape Velocity did that with multiple layers of white dots that move contrary towards the players movement. Eve:Online does the same thing in 3D.
Any ideas on this one?

First: Don't assign an invisible texture to the walls, just delete them.

And about the sky box/depth thing:
I'd do it this way: create multiple, different, transparent textures with stars on them and put it into the engine like this:

Note that this *could* slow down the game a lot. I'm not sure.

Actually there is not the correct collision detection if you don't assign an invisible texture to a border wall. The ship sticks to the portal borders. I have already done what you are looking for, Bradamante. Right now you'll only get inertialess control of your ship. I asked Brian to fix up the physics so that it will work correctly. After the new Editor comes out he said he was going to do it. Do what you can for now then just hang in there for a little bit. Just a heads-up for you.

Yep I thought of a layer solution like this, too. Problem is I don't know how to build multiple floores. To be honest I think the editor is not very intuitive, but I have to look further. Right now I don't understand how to scale let's say a 1K x 1K texture to a 100 WU x 100 WU floor. Speed might really be an issue, a texture stretched to that size should have a high resolution.

Yeah, the 0 G physics needed worried me, too. I was 99% sure the engine could no that, no matter what you scripted.

But I haven't gotten to scripting, yet. First I have to learn JavaScript, brought me a book from the university library today :D

If you have worked on something similiar, we maybe should stick together. Right now I want to build a very basic world, just to see if things work.
A room, a ship or two. See if lights and halos move with the ship. Put an asteroid in, see if collision detection works. See what poly count looks good. See if the from-above camera works etc.

Do have experience in the portal issue? Let's say you devide your universe subpart in 3x3 portals. Cool for from-above cam, not so cool for first-person cam, where you have infinite lines of sight.

As for the floor, just click the floor button to make one (looks like a small room/cube with the floor highlighted).

Actually, you would not create a big texture, but a small one that is repeated a lot. If it's something like stars that's probably easy to do.
To change the scale of a texture on a segment, just double click the segment.

Have you found sight paths yet? Sight paths connect portals so that you can see between them. That way, you get the benefit in physics calculation without sacrificing proper view. Easiest way to do this: go to map menu<auto sight paths

The editor has alot of features that I think you are missing. It might be because of way the default map is laid down from the moment you start. Just try every button, and soon enough, you'll get it. The editor is being reworked right now though.

I know that

I don't think this is viable, you would see the repetition.

Yeah I know, but that's not terrible convenient, too much trial&error. I one would knew that the wall is 1.3 Wu x 0.8 WU you would just go and set the texture to these values.

Yeah, but there still are problems. Again, for my space sim I would need a cam from above just like in Escape Velocity. A planetary system is fairly large. Let's divide it in 5x5 portals. Now, ship A is in portal 1, ship B in portal 3, portal 2 being between them. A fires a (guided?) missile on B. Using a cam from above one ship would not see the other, OK, portals valid. But what about the missile, would it travel from portal 1 to 2 to 3?

It's not that I missed those features, I know they are there and what they do. the problem is I don't know if this or that is a valid way to go.

That depends on the texture you use. If you do it right, you won't see it repeating.

I don't know what you're talking about. It's just simple math. No trial and error at all. :/

Yes it would. Portals are not surrounded by impenetratable walls or something.

Experiment with the editor a little more and you will find that it's not hard to use at all, and that
all the stuff, that you want to do, is probably doable.

Just a quick question:
I've got a 1200x1200 polygon, how do I stretch a texture to that length? I tried a few trial & error checkboxes, but don't get it to work