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Voxel Doors


Ben Fargo

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There are different ways doors could be implemented in DU.  One is what I call an element door.  This is one element that forms a complete door and frame.  Another way, which I prefer, is what I call a voxel door.  With this method, both the door and the frame are primarily made of voxels with a few small elements to handle opening and closing.

 

As an example, imagine we have a slider.  This is a small element, probably one voxel in size.  Each one could look like a coil, to represent using mag-lev technology to connect the door to the frame.  Several of these would be attached to the frame in a row to from a track.  Several more sliders would be attached to one edge of the door.  When the two groups of sliders were placed face to face, they would anchor the door in place, but allow it to slide back and forth.

 

There would also be a control unit to operate the door.  This could be another small, one voxel sized element, that might look like a touch panel.

 

The primary advantage of voxel doors is that they allow a large amount of variety in doors.  If there was just one element door, then every door in DU would look the same.  There could, of course, be more element doors, but each one would be another project for the development team.  With voxel doors, the same pair of elements could be used to make doors of any shape or size.  Some might slide to one side, some might go up and down and some might split and move out from the middle.  Adding one more element, such as a hinge, would allow even more variety.

 

Once these elements were in the game, they could be used for more than just doors.  The sliders and touch panel, for example, could also be used to build an elevator.

 

There are two requirements to make this possible.  First, voxels must be small enough to make a reasonably sized door.  From the examples of building I have seen in the videos, the voxels in DU do appear to be small enough.  The other is that voxels must be able to move next to each other without causing collisions.  Especially in a space game, large gaps between the door and the frame would not be acceptable.  I do not know whether the technology DU uses would allow this, but I hope it does.

 

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I like this idea, and I hope they are able to implement it! I do believe that they will likely have doors be elements at the initial time of release, due to the effort it would require to make moving parts. Although, the hinge idea could work pretty well.

 

I feel like doors are one of those little details that most voxel based games overlook that really adds to the immersion. 

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It is a good idea to ponder, main limiter in my opinion being how the voxels will behave.

 

Since they are pretty much glued to each other when placed adjacently, I very much doubt implementing "sliding voxels" will happen. One way to dodge around the issue might be to make every door (or each side of door) its own construct. Obviously different constructs will not glue to each other, but that would also mean making a core among other elements for each door separately. I very much doubt controlling such a door remotely as part of another construct would work either (as in ship controls: open hangar doors) since they are separate constructs tied to separate core elements. Can we link multiple constructs under one control?

 

There is also a question mark regarding player collision with moving voxels, in worst case scenario it might cause glitches or outright kill the player (moving through a door in motion and just grazing it = hit by a moving construct -> death by impact). Space Engineers is very notorious of these. How well does the game register non-glued voxels next to each other as "closed"? Can one target weapons through the visually nonexistent gap between closed doors? 

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Tracks are near the top of my DU wishlist :)

Doors just scratch the surface, like OP said.  Elevators, trains, shutters, drawbridges, instant fortifications, forklifts. etc. these are just some of my favorite things.

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If the devs allow for remote control of constructs, at least over a short distance, the possibility of a voxel door akin to a blast door, is indeed possible, not to mention, elevators, trains and everything that follows suit. The point is, how game-breaking remotely controlling constructs may end up, as the same mechanic enables things like drones.

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They could work around the voxel-glueing issue by creating a type of voxel with a programmable side. The side could be programmed to either stick or not, maybe even be electronically controlled. That would almost be like an additional lock on the door. If you keep the door actuator and door lock controls in seperate modules, a hacker would have to find and hack them both before they could open the door.

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I guess one big question is how will constructs interact with each other?

 

Hopefully there will be some way for smaller constructs to overlap and attach to or dock with larger construct.  So a moving door made out of voxels could be programmed to open and close.  But maybe more importantly that would also allow for smaller ships to dock inside of larger ships which i'm pretty sure we all want.

 

I think it'll be a lot easier for most doors to be elements.  But i definitely hope that we can build our own doors and elevators and whatever out of voxels too.

 

I really want a underground base with a huge hidden door that opens just below the surface of the water in the middle of a lake or something awesome like that. 

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I agree with the OP. Element doors are fine, but eventually players are going to desire different art forums to fit their style. If Dual makes a ton of money so future development is not only ongoing but healthy, then i am fine with them making all the doors elements as long as they can fit the majority of our needs, but that seems more difficult and costly vs a voxel door assembly.

 

I do not believe elements will be able to be scaled, which for doors is kind of a tough thing. Players are going ot want to add lots of immersion into their builds so a door could be anything from an entry into the ship, an entry into a room, a door to a cabinet, a cargo bay entry, etc. The list goes on and on. The ability to reuse and repurpose elements will go along way into solving the needs of players.

 

In the beginning it makes sense that all the styles will be similar (not ship shape, but elements) as we all come from the Arkship. I think though, as time goes on, factions break apart, people find even more distant planets to inhabit, we should also see a chance or rather an evolution of styles. Sci-Fi can be clean like Star Trek, a bit dystopian like Star Wars or Firefly, or alien like Prometheus. I would like to see elements that allow for players to break out of the Arkship mold so to speak.

 

Anyway, point is. The variance of needs (ramp doors, large docking doors, aperture portals, etc) and styles greatly necessitates voxel construct animation.
 

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For slider doors, I don't see where the problem is technologically speaking. But hinged doors that would swing could be harder. Actually, hinged door technology would be really useful for release hatches beneath planes.

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I guess one big question is how will constructs interact with each other?

 

Hopefully there will be some way for smaller constructs to overlap and attach to or dock with larger construct.  So a moving door made out of voxels could be programmed to open and close.  But maybe more importantly that would also allow for smaller ships to dock inside of larger ships which i'm pretty sure we all want.

 

I think it'll be a lot easier for most doors to be elements.  But i definitely hope that we can build our own doors and elevators and whatever out of voxels too.

 

I really want a underground base with a huge hidden door that opens just below the surface of the water in the middle of a lake or something awesome like that. 

 

I doubt this kind of door would be airtight though so it might be a problem depending on how indepth they go with systems like that.

 

I would love to be able to build voxel doors and stuff though but mostly as long as we get rails and I can make a linear train to space (space elevator) then im good

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I doubt this kind of door would be airtight though so it might be a problem depending on how indepth they go with systems like that.

 

I would love to be able to build voxel doors and stuff though but mostly as long as we get rails and I can make a linear train to space (space elevator) then im good

 

I believe JC did say that it is unlikely that there will be an air pressurization system.  This is more from a server load perspective. The most likely system is an air bubble creator, if the concept exists at all. The upside is that we don't have to worry about voxel doors being air tight, but rather that they look good.

 

Also the space elevator idea was shot down during the AMA.  If the planets do rotate, there will be a limit to how high off the ground a construct can be built.   This is to prevent buildings that are rotating with the planet from crashing into the static space stations.  

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