Digging a hole
Author
How would you go about the act of digging a hole in the ground or maybe into a wall? What I would like to do would be to do is to allow for somebody to dig a whole to whatever depth and width for the sole purpose of discovering something (mineral, weapon, chest, etc). Also, the hole would have to be real so that a character could go into the hole.
Any ideas? I''ve looked around and don''t want to have to use voxels.
This is a very complex issue that has yet to be solved in a very nice way. The best method is to either use voxels or metaballs. Using standard polygons is far too complicated to get good holes without creating millions of polygons.
Try searching around for deformable terrain and/or deformable geometry.
Good luck!
Try searching around for deformable terrain and/or deformable geometry.
Good luck!
Assuming you''re talking about full 3D rather than something 2D like Worms or Lemmings...
Alternatively take a look at CSG (Constructive Solid Geometry).
Howver, as ApochPiQ mentions, making holes in things has lots of problems and issues - for example what does the texture of "inside" the hole look like? - usually not the same as the outside surface.
Volume textures combined with plain Z buffering can be used to do some of this - if supported on your target hardware.
Most games that allow things to be deformed to that extent tend to cheat and only have the holes available at certain places - and define what the inside looks like (in shape and texture).
--
Simon O''Connor
3D Game Programmer &
Microsoft DirectX MVP
Alternatively take a look at CSG (Constructive Solid Geometry).
Howver, as ApochPiQ mentions, making holes in things has lots of problems and issues - for example what does the texture of "inside" the hole look like? - usually not the same as the outside surface.
Volume textures combined with plain Z buffering can be used to do some of this - if supported on your target hardware.
Most games that allow things to be deformed to that extent tend to cheat and only have the holes available at certain places - and define what the inside looks like (in shape and texture).
--
Simon O''Connor
3D Game Programmer &
Microsoft DirectX MVP
Author
This is for full 3D and I definately would not want to limit it to specific areas. I had thought about the textures being different, but it''s the concept of how to structure everything and the lack of existing articles, etc that has me both curious and frustrated.
The lack of writing is due to the lack of reliable methods for doing what you want to do. The only really viable methods are voxels and metaballs, and you''ll need volume texturing. It hasn''t been done a lot before because its very hard to do 
Come to think of, there is another method you could consider, and that is the layered terrain system that the upcoming Worms 3D uses. It may only be good in the sort of cartoony world that they use, but it''s probably worth looking into.
You can have a simple hole and shoot a blinding amount of particles out of it to give effect of digging.
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