Real Time Slopes?

farlowj · Post by **farlowj** » Tue Aug 09, 2005 10:10 am

I think the title explains it, but if not:

How hard would it be to have slopes be calculated in real time, so they can change during the level? This would be very useful for creating more realistic looking waves, and other things, like something trying to poke through the dirt. The ground slopes up to a point, then it falls back down, making a crater. You can kind of do this with the Floor_waggle, but that doesn't change slopes. So, is it possible, or too much work?

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 3:11 am

Good idea! This can be done in build... dunno how hard this would be to implemewnt but it could create some stunning effects.

Post by **Enjay** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 3:51 am

Ages ago, shortly after Randy first implemented slopes, Randy said that he had the intention of making them changeable during game-play as a longer term goal. I guess it slipped way down the priority list eh?

Post by **TheDarkArchon** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 4:39 am

Gone with Doomscript, probabally.

Cutmanmike · Post by **Cutmanmike** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:42 am

What is this legendary doomscript I hear of?

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 7:56 am

Enjay wrote: I guess it slipped way down the priority list eh?

Sadly a lot of stuff does.

farlowj · Post by **farlowj** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 10:33 am

Can we bring it back?

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 10:43 am

cutmanmike wrote:What is this legendary doomscript I hear of?

Randy's vaporware version of DECORATE, albeit much more powerful - if it had actually been done.

Belial · Post by **Belial** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 12:05 pm

If POLYMOST gets implemented, well, SW had real-time changing slopes for slides (map04, map05).

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 12:23 pm

I don't know what the renderer has to precalculate for slopes but aside from that just changing the plane equation should be straightforward enough.

Post by **randi** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 2:40 pm

Graf Zahl wrote:I don't know what the renderer has to precalculate for slopes

Nothing. As you surmise, just changing the plane equation is enough to change the slope. It's the physics I'm reluctant to deal with because I hate that code.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Wed Aug 10, 2005 3:01 pm

Understandable. Just ignore the specifics for now and call P_ChangeSector when a slope is changed. That should be enough, I think.

Jonathan · Post by **Jonathan** » Thu Aug 11, 2005 3:13 pm

cutmanmike wrote:What is this legendary doomscript I hear of?

The original announcement:
http://forum.zdoom.org/potato.php?t=43

You know, it's hard to believe it's been six years since I first read that. Anyway, as I understand, Doomscript was an attempt to remake ZDoom along the lines of modern gaming engines. That's where there is a strong separation between the base engine and the game. The engine provides a generic way to implement environments, entities, physics, etc, and a scripting language of some sort on top. That way the actual game code can be implemented separately from the engine code. Doomscript would have been the scripting language, and Doom itself would have been sort of reimplemented using this new language and the generified engine.

From an engineering point of view it's lovely, although it was never a very realisitic proposition for a solo programmer's hobby project. Although if there's anyone who disagrees with this, please prove me wrong!

Gendo · Post by **Gendo** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 5:37 am

imo 3d floors and 3d slopes should be implemented before that...

ace · Post by **ace** » Fri Aug 12, 2005 7:31 am

Gendo wrote:imo 3d floors and 3d slopes should be implemented before that...

Yes... IF there is going to be a real-time slopes feature, this should come first. I'm not pushing for this one though, for now I don't really need it.

Then again...