(Forget) Voxel support (we want models and GL!)

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:07 am

A lot of people say that Voxels would be the icing on the cake for Zdoom... what is the exact reason for randy not wanting to implement it?

Maybe it could look good for monsters, but I'd just like to see items and inanimate objects as voxels. it would also be good if we could have hi-res voxels.

Nmn · Post by **Nmn** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 5:25 am

Collisiong implemented. Drawing not yet

But yeah, I'm all for it

Monsters out of voxels = barf
Cars, chairs, computers, cars, planes out of voxels = sex

Post by **Nash** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 6:43 am

The thing with voxels is that it only works for static decorations.

I don't think there's actually a way to make an animated voxel sprite. Making a voxel sprite, in the first place, is already one helluva job...

HobbsTiger1 · Post by **HobbsTiger1** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:27 am

Nash wrote:The thing with voxels is that it only works for static decorations.

I don't think there's actually a way to make an animated voxel sprite. Making a voxel sprite, in the first place, is already one helluva job...

And it would have to look good. the ggod thing is static sprites have only one rotstion, so if you were building them from scratch it would be fairly easy, sd you have some leeway artisticly.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 8:48 am

I seriously doubt that the amount of work required to do it and the potential benefit stand in any sensible relation. And let's not forget that voxels and hardware rendering are nearly mutually exclusive, which would make any mod using them worthless for ZDoomGL.

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:02 pm

What about model support in software? Quake did it...

Nmn · Post by **Nmn** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:07 pm

No polygons in Doom

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:10 pm

Lexus Alyus wrote:What about model support in software? Quake did it...

Quake was a polygon based engine with z-buffer, even in software mode.

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:21 pm

But won't Zdoom have polymost soon? Surely there is a solution once Polymost is implemented?

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Tue Aug 16, 2005 2:59 pm

Polymost alone not. With an OpenGL renderer and z-buffer models are possible, otherwise not.

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:29 am

Well, randy has said that the renderer is screwed up anyway and needs a rewrite... why doesn't some brave soul take on this task? It seems like something that needs doing, so why don't we hewlp each other out?

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 4:46 am

Yes, the renderer is screwed up. But it has to be if it still wants to play all those old maps. And let's not forget that a z-buffer may cause lots of problems with sprites that abuse Doom's shitty clipping. Take KDIZD's glows for example. If you run them in a GL port (which uses a z-buffer) they are mostly cut off. Apparently nobody cares about stuff like this and far too many maps that are done today still rely way too much on the software renderer's glitches.

The only solution is to keep the old renderer as a fallback for maps that need it. Otherwise you have a compatibility nightmare.

Lexus Alyus · Post by **Lexus Alyus** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 5:42 am

Grrr, damn those compatibility issues!

.

I think I can see why M$ dumped their old dos code

.

Post by **Graf Zahl** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:07 am

Sure, DOS is as obsolete as software rendering for games.

jallamann · Post by **jallamann** » Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:39 am

But DOS worked.