[MUD-Dev] Jeff's Rant: A World Full of Wheel-Makers

[Dave Rickey]

-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com <Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com>

> Of course not using BSP means that the gfx quality is generally
> below peoples expectations. Is there actually an engine available
> that can cover both indoor rendering and outdoor using a hybrid
> engine with proper portaling? I was thinking the Tribes 2 engine
> might be able to do it. In addition, Unreal 2 looks like it *might*
> be able to, although the videos I've seen didn't seem to support
> anything like a large enough outdoor area for an MMORPG.

With DAoC, we basicly ignore the portaling problem, indoor/outdoor
portaling is the least of our problems, geometry counts factor in much
higher.  Most portaling approaches I've seen would cause more of a hit
than they would save (for that matter, even the V12 seems to have
issues there).

Similar issues arise with software poly occlusion, by the time you've
decided you don't need a poly, you would have been better off to draw
It.  However, the Kyro II chipset may render that moot, the tile-mode
rendering essentially provides hardware occlusion at no performance
hit.  it also seems (based on Kyro I performance) to be less effected
by geometry counts.  Basicly, the Kyro II is the first chipset that
isn't designed strictly for Quake-type games, corridor shooters, and
will be a major boon for high-geometry, high-overdraw situations like
most MMOG's.

I don't know, obviously there are posters in this list (Brian Hook
especially) with much better knowledge than mine.  I understand the
functional properties of 3D engines, but I've never done more than
experiment with using them in code.

--Dave Rickey

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