Idea: More realistic footprints, etc

[Anhur]

I\'m not very conform with coding but:

in many games footprints, bullets in walls, all dust getting on walls,... are visualized by putting a texture (e.g. a footsprit) on the texture of the hit object (eg the ground).

Now the idea:
why dont take a texture and additionally a bump map and put it on the hit object. Using this technique would alowe bullets to really get into a wall and people running on a beach would leave realy nice fprints.

I think that would really look fantastic. I\'m just wondering, why there are no games doing this jet.

so, all (c)opylefts  are mine, k?  

[zabeal]

Well, I think the main problem is that the server would have to treat each of these footprints as objects, and too many of them could cause problems. It might be posible if they are kept only on the player\'s computer, but then there\'s not too much of a point, now is there?
You do realize there aren\'t going to be bullets in PS, right? There will be arrows and thrown stones.

[Anhur]

I was trying to explain, what i mean, and I dont know a game were arrows and stones leave marks.

Maybe the datatraffic could be lower enough if you let all those things vanish quite fast. I don\'t need footprints of last 3 hours...

[Icefalcon]

I dont know much about this, but if nobody has done this before, then it probably doesn\'t work very well. Maybe in a non-multiplayer game, but... I doubt that will work in a MMORPG.

[Monketh]

Some form of trakcing would be nice though.  But footprints?  My machine would die in a spectacular fireball explosion-thingy!  The server would too.

[DepthBlade]

Well I think if you become like for say a elf type ranger character you would have no f00t steps so you couldn\'t be tracked and if you were a Ynwnn you would have just big f00t prints and if you were a kran? lol

[FESFES]

it would lag the server too much and uv gotta remember that these types of games arnt about the best graphics as much as the gameplay (take tibia for an example)

[Anhur]

maybe it can be included client side so that all objects in a certain region around the player are calculated and the rest not.

I dont know about this but I think the client must have a glimp idea of whats happening around the char already for things like hit detection, collision detection (I now, not really working ) , etc. So it already knows, whats on around him then a simple if -> then function should work. (if object hits wall then apply bumpmap on wall at position of hit)

and by the way, there are good looking good gameplay mmorpgs out there. Only diffrence is that in fact their commercial and have big, expensive servers, I dont know how the ps server is organized and what bandwidth it has...

[FESFES]

if that happend i think it would be like Really late in the game when the major stuff is mostly completed (will never actually get completed)

[Danny]

:emerald: RPGs are never finished..

I think the concept of the foot prints is a good idea.. but its not practicle.. its the same concept.. as you changing the looks of your character but only you can see the changes.. its rather pointless..

but yet i do think it should be placed on only your computer.. and you have the option to turn it on or off.. that way it would everyone happy knowing they had the choice...

Many thanks,
   Danny  )

[dfryer]

In any situation where non-bumpmapped footprints could be used, then bumpmapped footprints would be feasible (and pretty good looking).  I don\'t think that Planeshift uses bumpmapping at the moment though, but the Crystal Space engine can support it.

[Zephyrus]

http://www.darkandlight.com - has server side stored footprints in snow and sand, and also you  sink into deep snow... god knows how their server doesnt explode, but they also claim their single server can handle a near infinite number of players at once  ?(

[icebr4kr]

I like the idea of server-side footprints. Client-side footprints would be pointless. And no, they don\'t have to be separate objects, they could be part of a sort of footprint path. Don\'t go throwing out ideas before they\'ve been tested. If it adds something to the game, speed issues can always be investigated and improved upon.

The PS server for CB will be run on a dedicated machine. It is currently hosted by Fragnetics located in Singapore.

P.S.: That game looks really nice actually. Hopefully PS will make use of shaders and graphics hardware more in the future .