Interior models and viewing exterior

[Chad]

Mike, Letum and I have run into a shortcomming.

We don't know what to do about the interior, being as it's like a FPS, that when you climb the ladder through the conning tower to view the exterior.

I don't know how to explain it but I'll try my best.

MOHAA, the U-boat level, it had to load while it was transitioning from the outside to the inside, we don't want a loading period, we want it smooth, but we don't want to use the polygons to make the exterior fit around the interior unless we must, so my question is, how can we have both, exterior and interior, and save polys and CPU speed without making this an impossibility?

If you get what I'm trying to ask you please answer, and if you don't maybe Letum could elaborate what I mean.

Thanks,
Chad

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

a couple of questions first Chad...

1- are you coding this in Blitz3d?
2- how do you have the player moving, is it relative to any object or world relative?
3-is anything moving... the sub, theinterior, the sub with the interior?

--Mike

[Chad]

1 - yes
2 - the player is moving around like a fps.. have code if you want to see it
3 - nothing else is moving

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

ok... given the answers above it should be really simple... all you're going to need to do is to hide the compartments that you are not in at any time...

you can load the sub and all the interior compartments... and then hide everything except the compartment, or the submarine and bridge that you start out in... then let your position determine what gets shown and when.

also, the sub interior does not have to be positioned inside the sub model shell... it can be positioned at at 0,-1000,0... way below the sub, and when you are climbing down the ladder, once you reach a certain y position, just reposition the view to the bottom half of the ladder in the interior compartment and continue going down untill you reach the deck...
the transition will be seamless, and you won't know the difference.

i use this methodology in the 3DRAD demo i have posted... if you go near the ladder in the control room, turn towards it (look a lil ahead, it's not 100%) and hit F1, then you will go up to the conning tower, a separate part... do the same at the ladder in the conning tower, and you will be on the bridge... (F2 to come down)

this way the sub can move around, and when you are on the surface and on deck or the bridge, it will seem like you are moving...

but if your model is such that you want the compartments inside the sub model and in close proximity, the same methodology can be used...

... just make up a small function that determines where you are at (based on EntityZ() for moving forward and back, and EntityY() for moving up and down... have this value printed out as you walk the length of the sub and note where each transition to another compartment occurs... if witin that range, show the compartment you're in, hide everything else.

i hope i've explianed it clearly enough... lemme know how everything works out.

--Mike

[Chad]

Ok thanks Mike, I'll give it a try

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

i've just transfered a lot of the final logic from 3DRAD to Blitz3D, the rotational problems in RAD were just becoming too much of a pain to fight with... so i'll be doing a lot of Blitz coding getting this finished...

that may mean no multiplayer for the first release though...

so, i'll be around here and the Blitz forum, if you have any questions, or just want to fly an idea or two past me...

hey, check out these pics... testing the sub surfaced rolling motion, the power, speed and turning functions in Blitz...








untextured Gato class from the first release, and a Permit and LosAngeles from future versions... i had to take the time to write up an Object Oriented source lib so i could code in Blitz, but now that i'm doing it, i realize i should've done this a long time ago... Blitz is really proving to be nice to work in...

--Mike

[Chad]

What water is that? It looks good!

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

it actually looks better than it looks in those screenshots... there's reflections and whitecaps...

look on the Blitz Showcase for the water competition thread... it's a few back... there's a few good exmples to choose from... code and everything...

mine is based on the Fredborg demo... though i've moded the code and the texutres quite a bit, the real credit belongs to him for the idea...

--Mike

[Chad]

Thanks for the heads up..

I'll take a look but I'm pretty happy with the water I have now.. but the code is scrambled and messy so later it might cause problems..

[Mike 'Red Ocktober' Hense]

but the code is scrambled and messy so later it might cause problems

i had to come up with my own engine... Blitz is based on a old form of BASIC programming language... linear, procedural coding... i tried working with it before like that, but just wound up with a mess of speggetti logic that drove me crazy...

so, since BlitzMAX3D isn't out yet, and i was familiar with Blitz and DarkBASIC, i sat down and wrote up am object oriented engine (source code include files) in both, and the Blitz one got done first, so that's why i'm using Blitz3D now... this is the only way i could work with it... now things are humming along smoothly, and code is coming as fast as ever...

i just got off a good session today where i completely ported all the logic that took me months to get working right in 3DRAD, over to a Blitz3D OOP submarine 'class'... (read here--> http://www.blitzbasic.com/Community/...hp?topic=56973 )

i've got it turning diving surfacing just like a real sub (well, verry verrrry close anyway)... gonna fisnish testing it tonight, then tommorrow the interiors and the controls and gauges...

--Mike

[Chad]

Sounds like your tootn' along Mike, good for you..


Also, thanks for the help and advice you've been giving, greatly appreciated.

As this gets more and more serious the more excited I get, and I wouldn't be able to control my enthusiasm as you..

Good stuff Mike,