Realistic 3-d damage poll

[JU_88]

Originally Posted by oscar19681

I did not know this. But where not asking for gta 4 damage modeling just something better then what we had in sh4

There isn’t really anything else, as there are only a limited number of technical possibilities in 3d.
SH3/4/5 mostly deals with visual damage in two most commonly used ways.

1) 2D Damage
Textured scorch marks (sh3) or alpha channels (sh4) to give the illusion of a 'hole'
this works so long as you have basic interior geometry so the hole don’t give the model the impression of being hollow or a cardboard cut out
Anyway these are dynamic so they occur where ever damage hits the model (when they work properly that is)
Oh... and they will dissapear over time as any 2d graphic stuff eats gfx memory for lunch! (memory has to be overwritten eventually.)
otherwise all your hundreds of 'texture holes' would eventually crash SH, when and if the gfx memory is full.


2) Pre-determined 3D damage,
Vessels and aircraft have certain 3d parts that are treated as child objects that can be shot or blown of the parent object
to make this possible they have to be independent Obj files with an invisible collision detection box attached (so it knows when it has been hit)
This applies to the ship’s deck equipment, rudders and props (mostly) and for aircraft parts such as wings/engines/tail etc.

For large things like the breaking up of a ship’s hull, the single mesh is instantly replaced with a clone, which is divided in 2 parts (though it will be 3 or 4 parts for SHV)
The same trick is applied in for the damaged Deck and AA guns on the players Sub.

Now GTA IV uses both methods above (for scratches) and parts breaking off
BUT it also boasts....

3) Dynamic 3d damage
So a vehicles mesh will deform/ distort /dent where ever it is struck.
And it looks the most realistic.
But this is pretty new in games, only happening now, since our PCs and Consoles can actually handle the increased poly counts required.

That pretty much covers all the possible methods in which visual damage is handled in 3d game engines.

1) Texture effect 2d damage
2) predetermined 3d damage (using detachable mesh objects or replacement mesh objects)
3) Dynamic 3d damage (new)

SHV will not have number 3) but I hope they use 1) & 2) to a better effect.