VARIOUS IMPLEMENTATIONS:
Well, i haven’t touched on this 3D raycasting game engine (andre michelle’s base) implementation lately due to other stuff. But anyway after discoverring about the BitmapData.threshold property, I saw a possibility in creating a new sprite/entity rendering system that uses their own respective bitmaps as a mask to cover parts of itself which are blocked by walls. So, starting from a basic EntityStaticSprite (which extends my BaseEntityClass), I didn’t just allow it to be just a dotted entity on the minimap, but have an additional 3D sprite projected and positioned properly over the 3D view and masked accordingly if blocked by walls. For entities to conceal themselves behind walls, I fish out the Distance Map bitmapdata from the 3D view and run a threshold command for each entity.
Looks like I’m doing away with the per-pixel drawing of bitmap sprites (which are extremely hard to manage and get way too laggy upclose), and doing away with having to pass troublesome arrays and such within the code and manually drawing 'em. RIght now, the sprites are truly interactive sprites/movieclips generated from the minimap itself…simply nothing more than DisplayObjects in the DisplayList…and can therefore even be tied to library items, serving as an Entity directly that can be managed from the Flash library. So, I can see future possibilities of directly creating new entities in the library extending this EntityStaticSprite with added features like built-in animations, hostile/killable behaviours, directly mouse-clickable behaviors to interact with such objects, and even drag-into inventory box (system shock-style) behaviours. You’ll end up having a full game that way using a bit of flash authoring the workflow. I’m not even sure whether to extend MovieClip for some of the Entities, since if there’s animation in those entities, why not make use of the frame-based approach in Flash’s movieclips that is already in existence? I don’t know…whether it might lag further, because sprite switching means more code required, movieclips could be higher overhead but easier to visually manage (wat you see is what you get…should i use frames in MovieClip for animated sprites?). Whatever, it is, I can see how it possibly makes an excellent framework for both RPG and action game hybrids, now that the sprites are !live! and not merely a drawn bitmap image… In fact, now these entities can use Flash vectorgraphics too, which means they CAN look smooth upclose if you want it…
VOLUMETRIC FOG:
I also need to know a good fast way to implement volumetric fog.
I already have the Distance bitmapdata within the Raycasting engine (which is also a bitmapdata). Is it possible for me to use those distance values within each pixel to alter. ANy suitable fast quick filters to work with these? What formulas to use the alter the colors of each pixel?
The SETTING:
I’m thinking of doing a “Rise of the Triad 2” game (since I managed to rip those sprites from that old DOS game) in this kind of environment which this modifed engine now is kinda similar (rott source code and goodies are released but i don’t think i’ll be refering to the code…not very applicable). But it will be a RPG/FPS hybrid with many other features people can contibute. My intepretation: the Oscurido Cult took over the world in the year 2048 (with their futuristic/weird stuff mixed in ) and established their so-called order within the city. It’s winter now.They became known as the Triad. . New features include very large triad-controlled cities (extremely large), vehicle traffic and then you can enter various buildings that serve as dungeons to play your old Rise of the Triad levels (and other new ones) …plus buy stuff, get jobs, manage things, etc… The disc platforms are now CCTV HL2 style floating cameras within the city (to keep watch on you), but serve as slave elevators in ROTT dungeons. The thing is, you are now playing the game as an undercover agent, a “spy” (ie. you managed to kill the guards and take one of their uniforms), so you are now ONE of them and can chat with the guards and people (just be careful of dogs, cameras, etc.). OF course, it 's still possible to get discovered given the kind of hostile/closely monitored enviroment, which might make you into a criminal anytime soon. Additionally, you also have to consider whether you have to work with the rest of the other good heroes which are NOT undercover, and you might have to be compromised as a result. Of course, doing something of that scale does need a team, heh (you are like combining the likes of GTA, ElderScrolls, ROTT, HL2, Need For Speed Underground, etc. you get the idea… ).
I was thinking of having different versions of the rendering engine optimised for its various purposes. Different levels will load different versions…so in some levels, there’s water/lava and other procedural textures (generated with perlin noise), etc. There’s already quite a good structure here, and the levels are created using the freeware program Mappy which you can download online. Environments are all tile-based, but you interact with the sprite entities like they r on the stage (clicking or aiming at 'em, etc.). Wonder if anyone is interested to contribute?
For more info on this old classic: http://www.3drealms.com/news/rise_of_the_triad/
Just wondering who’s interested than i can release the source like what happened with Madness Interactive (and make it neater, and document various possible workflows on adding new stuffs).