Dev Blog #11
Today’s dev blog continues the theme of the previous one — ground vehicles, their damage model, and landscape objects. Previously we showed you the road network and power poles, this time it’s about explosion craters and the interaction of various objects with them. You can write a lot of words, but of course, as always, it’s better to see: here’s a short video we prepared for you.
In this video, you can see several features we have prepared for you in the new project. All of them are related to craters. A new visual representation with increased detail, their shape and size much better corresponds to the power of the explosion and is adjusted according to the reference data we have. In this video, you can see craters from 250 kg bombs. The transition from a crater to the surrounding surface is now done by tessellating the crater model and deforming it along the surface, giving a much more natural look.
In this video, you can see several features we have prepared for you in the new project. All of them are related to craters. A new visual representation with increased detail, their shape and size much better corresponds to the power of the explosion and is adjusted according to the reference data we have. In this video, you can see craters from 250 kg bombs. The transition from a crater to the surrounding surface is now done by tessellating the crater model and deforming it along the surface, giving a much more natural look.
Second, a crater itself now has not only a rim of extracted soil, but an actual depth below ground level. This is probably one of the most powerful innovations, which in the future will allow using this technology to create not only craters, but also various objects below the landscape surface, such as trenches, dugouts, and the like. By the way, this technology has made another important feature possible — functional transport tunnels, which we’ll show you later in one of our dev blogs.
Third, a crater is now a physical object. Vehicles, as well as bullets and projectiles, now interact with both the crater rim and the crater itself, which means it affects the game world as it should — blocking traffic on a road, railroad, or airfield. At the moment of collision there is a transition from simplified to detailed motion physics, so the locomotive in the video is thrown too high into the air — this transition is yet to be tuned but will be to give more realistic-looking results.
Of course, there are still some limitations on the number of craters in the mission, mainly related to multiplayer optimization. Only powerful enough explosions will leave craters, and a priority system will be implemented — craters on airfields will have priority to be kept in memory. Over time, as PC power increases, the numerical values of these constraints will grow, as they always do. But even now, they are quite large and should generally allow effective use of aerial bombs not only to hit objects on the ground but also to block airfields and transport routes, even in a multiplayer game.
We have much more to tell you and show you about what will change in Korea in terms of the visualization of the landscape and the objects in it. Stay tuned for more updates!
Third, a crater is now a physical object. Vehicles, as well as bullets and projectiles, now interact with both the crater rim and the crater itself, which means it affects the game world as it should — blocking traffic on a road, railroad, or airfield. At the moment of collision there is a transition from simplified to detailed motion physics, so the locomotive in the video is thrown too high into the air — this transition is yet to be tuned but will be to give more realistic-looking results.
Of course, there are still some limitations on the number of craters in the mission, mainly related to multiplayer optimization. Only powerful enough explosions will leave craters, and a priority system will be implemented — craters on airfields will have priority to be kept in memory. Over time, as PC power increases, the numerical values of these constraints will grow, as they always do. But even now, they are quite large and should generally allow effective use of aerial bombs not only to hit objects on the ground but also to block airfields and transport routes, even in a multiplayer game.
We have much more to tell you and show you about what will change in Korea in terms of the visualization of the landscape and the objects in it. Stay tuned for more updates!