SBURBDEV Forum

Update: Now with stairs

While we're still discussing programming languages, 2D v. 3D and so forth I thought I'ld spend a little time prototyping some aspects of Sburb.

I've started on a prototype of the house building. It isn't interactive yet, except that you can scroll the camera about with WSAD or arrow keys, and move the camera up and down levels - I've been focusing on getting some of the main building functions working first. In this case, the house is generated with the commands:

Code:

houseControl.AddWalledArea(IntRegion2.ContainedRegion(IntVector2.Zero, new IntVector2(5, 5)),0);
houseControl.AddWalledArea(IntRegion2.ContainedRegion(new IntVector2(6, 2), new IntVector2(8, 2)),0);
houseControl.AddWalledArea(IntRegion2.ContainedRegion(new IntVector2(9, 1), new IntVector2(12, 4)), 0);
houseControl.AddWalledArea(IntRegion2.ContainedRegion(new IntVector2(3, 3), new IntVector2(5, 5)), 1);
houseControl.Extend(new IntVector2(5, 5), new IntVector2(7, 7), 1);
houseControl.Extend(new IntVector2(4, 4), new IntVector2(10, 4), 2);


So you can imagine a user could click and drag out an Extends or AddWalledArea section.

I've also set it up so that as you move the camera up and down levels the bits of the house that would obscure vision are hidden.

Anyhow, here it is: Sburb House Building Prototype

I'll keep working on it and hopefully we can get a feel for how it could work.

It's nice and functional, but could it handle several hundred layers?
Similarly, and this is a problem I think would be inherent to 3D - does that mean players without jetpacks have to navigate it themselves? just walk up all Problem Sleuth four heroes style? Leading from that, won't it have a hell of a lot of redundant space that nobody will ever, or will ever want to explore? I mean these things get insanely huge.

Surely a program that made something like this would be far faster, and probably more able to handle the later stages of the house than something in full 3D, even if placing objects inside is done like you've go there

That's basically just a set of 64x64 tiles, five layers and about 30 seconds in paint for the John sprite and "background" if you can call it that.

We've established our graphical style. See the 2d/3d Debate thread. 3d with a forced isometric view is what we voted on.

Second, I don't think we'll actually have SEVERAL hundred layers. Think about that. The climb is divided into eighths (seven gates + Skaia). You'd need to have fifty floors per ascent to get four hundred floors, and that's insane! I doubt any climb will have even TWENTY-FIVE floors. Maybe ten, max, which is easily navigable.

You do have a point about how in the later games players will want to just skip past floors or add full floors at a time, like Rose was doing. We could probably add transportalisers as an alternative to rocket packs for faster travel too.

Even if we have hundreds of floors we don't need to render all of them at a time, we can fade into the clouds or something at 25 floors distance or so.

I've been trying to refine the commands a bit, let me know of any suggestions on how they could be easier to use. I've added in stairs as well now, perhaps doors next.

This is beautiful.
That said, the only thing I can think of is a "delete walls" tool.

demosthenes2k8 wrote:This is beautiful.
That said, the only thing I can think of is a "delete walls" tool.

Sure, I've added explicit Add/Delete Floor/Wall tools. Still tweaking the other tools a bit, and I really need to implement something to handle deletion unbasing higher structures.

At the moment I feel what would be fun is both the low-level exact tools which give good control over what you are doing but require more work/attention by the user, and some high-level broad stroke tools with powerful but harder to control effects. So Refine (which was called extend) allows you to easily extend rooms and ledges, but you can end up with walls moving about or floors being added where you don't want them (blocking stairs).

Added automatic deletion of unconnected elements. At the moment it is generous and allows stuff hanging off of upper floors. Can always remove that later.

Also added placement of doors. It is all coming together now.

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