Looking Back

As mentioned last week, it was time for another look at the terrain. Previously, all geometry was generated procedurally from (relatively) simple algorithms. While this offers a maximum of flexibility, it is also a maximum of pain in the ass to implement and extend. I have changed the system to still create the basic terrain layout procedurally, but geometry is now made up of pre-built pieces which are then combined into a whole terrain chunk.

Work in progress terrain pieces

These pieces have lower complexity, because I made fewer subdivisions on their surfaces. Currently, this also means that flat ground areas look very bland. Some shader-magic and splatted normal maps will change that soon enough.

Terrain with new pieces

On the loading front I am still working on continuous terrain loading. First I had to switch to a different persistence solution. Now I am trying to find a way to load terrain without slowing the game to a crawl.

Looking Forward

I will continue working on the terrain until the whole thing runs somewhat acceptably. Initial loading times are already down by a large amount. Once the continuous loading is done, I will upload a new alpha build.

After that, I want to tackle the task system next. All characters in the game are supposed to be able to issue and work on tasks of all kinds. Players also need a useful interface to define their tasks. That will keep me busy for a while…

Thanks for reading and until next week.