08-28-2015, 03:18 PM
(This post was last modified: 09-02-2015, 09:24 AM by Emor D'ni Lap.)
Sorry, you're right, I haven't been around much over the past seven months or so: a really rough period for me in terms of both all-consuming freelance work and some difficult family matters. Right now it looks like both of those areas will be clearing up soon and I will hopefully have more and more free time in the remaining months of 2015.
cskid13: like BenB says, "thanks for asking what you can do to help!" And as Ben says, please let us know what you would LIKE to do, what you're good at, and maybe what you've done already, would you?
And, as Ben says, this project is still in need of a storyline. I think what's needed is a story that motivates the player, then has a number of hurdles that must be overcome in separate areas that can be built by multiple volunteers, and a resolution...either in a final area or as a return to the first area.
Regarding the Page Demo Age:
I still intend to get back to this test Age.
However, earlier this year Adam Johnson straightened me out on one misconception I had: apparently URU loads an Age's entire .prp file into active memory on link-in, no matter how it is paged. The only advantage of setting up visregions lies in taking the load off the client's graphics card, so that only the visible areas of the Age have to be rendered (if visregions are set up properly).
So, for a VERY large Age, the question is more like: "What are the Plasma engine's tolerable limits for triangle numbers and texture Megabytes, for the lowest end of our target range of computer quality?"
When I get back to this project, I might just try stuffing it with more and more junk mesh and texture, and we can all test it to see where it bogs down on each of our computers...or is there a better way to test the modern-day limits of the average gamer's computer? What do you think?
cskid13: like BenB says, "thanks for asking what you can do to help!" And as Ben says, please let us know what you would LIKE to do, what you're good at, and maybe what you've done already, would you?
And, as Ben says, this project is still in need of a storyline. I think what's needed is a story that motivates the player, then has a number of hurdles that must be overcome in separate areas that can be built by multiple volunteers, and a resolution...either in a final area or as a return to the first area.
Regarding the Page Demo Age:
I still intend to get back to this test Age.
However, earlier this year Adam Johnson straightened me out on one misconception I had: apparently URU loads an Age's entire .prp file into active memory on link-in, no matter how it is paged. The only advantage of setting up visregions lies in taking the load off the client's graphics card, so that only the visible areas of the Age have to be rendered (if visregions are set up properly).
So, for a VERY large Age, the question is more like: "What are the Plasma engine's tolerable limits for triangle numbers and texture Megabytes, for the lowest end of our target range of computer quality?"
When I get back to this project, I might just try stuffing it with more and more junk mesh and texture, and we can all test it to see where it bogs down on each of our computers...or is there a better way to test the modern-day limits of the average gamer's computer? What do you think?