Heightfield vs. mesh was RE: AC2 was RE: [MUD-Dev] TotalAnnilation of Downtime

[Dave Rickey]

From: "Amanda Walker" <amanda at alfar.com>
> On 12/16/02 2:10 PM, Marc Fielding <fielding at computer.org> wrote:
>> [Brian Hook]

>>> It looks like, well, a heightfield with a bunch of 3D objects
>>> shoved into it.

>> Have any recent games taken this approach? I'd be curious to see
>> how noticeable the disjunction is.

> For "outdoor" areas: AO, AC, AC2, E&B planetside, ... EQ & DAOC
> maybe, but it's a little hard to tell just by looking.  If so,
> they're very well integrated.

Camelot does use heightfields (two of different scales for each
outdoor section).  Unless they've radically changed their
architecture, EQ does not (but may be using them at some stage of
the process).  It does impose some limitations, but we've started
finding ways to work around them.  Making a seamless transition
between the heightfield and poly-based terrain objects is tricky,
but potentially solvable, and not in and of itself a barrier (if the
transition looks a little rough, the players can and do learn to
ignore it).

Cornwall has about as much of a "cliff" structure as is feasible
with heightfields.  The poly-based cliffs of SI look much better.

--Dave



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