State component (Animated voxels)

[FD3242]

The idea is a component that can store the state of voxels in small area and switch between them.

 

The component can store up to (EXAMPLE NUMBER) 5 states.

 

You can set this block to cycle between states. Basically making animated voxels. You could also hook it up to a script or logic circuit.

 

For balance reasons they should make it so voxels destroyed in one state will also destroyed voxels of other states that are in the same spot.

If they did not make it this way people could make cycling armor.

 

I can imagine people making some pretty cool designs with this.

 

I don't know if this would be a technical problem or not, it's just a idea.

[Kuritho]

People would make small movies then.

I'm down-

 

Wait, what's that? Server processing power isn't infinite?

[FD3242]

11 minutes ago, Kuritho said:

People would make small movies then.

I'm down-

 

Wait, what's that? Server processing power isn't infinite?

If thousands of people can be editing terrain around you with no problem I see no reason why predefined states would be any more taxing.

 

Sure you could spam thousands of these units around the place but there are things that can be done about that.

For example:

 1. Allow only a limit amount of these on a given construct.

 2. Make them cost more then a pile of dirt.

 3. Only make them change if players are close enough to see it.

[Kuritho]

12 minutes ago, mefsh said:

If thousands of people can be editing terrain around you with no problem I see no reason why predefined states would be any more taxing.

 

Sure you could spam thousands of these units around the place but there are things that can be done about that.

For example:

 1. Allow only a limit amount of these on a given construct.

 2. Make them cost more then a pile of dirt.

 3. Only make them change if players are close enough to see it.

What if a thousand players made 100,000 "shifters"? I see no reason why the server shouldn't lag like crazy.

[FD3242]

25 minutes ago, Kuritho said:

What if a thousand players made 100,000 "shifters"? I see no reason why the server shouldn't lag like crazy.

Every game has things which if you had enough of you could cause lag, but realistically nobody would ever get enough to do that. (Unless they cost nothing)

 

And again there are many things that can be done to limit lag in a situation like that.

Another one is:

  4. Make it so the server stops animating them if load gets to high

  5. They don't need to make the animations server side. They only have to be visual so they only have to run on the cleint. All the server has to do is syc up all the players so they see the same thing.

 

Also why did you quot shifters nobody said that.

 

[0something0]

But why would we use it?

[FD3242]

2 minutes ago, 0something0 said:

But why would we use it?

Why wouldn't you?

[Kuritho]

Just now, mefsh said:

Why wouldn't you?

Hey guys, let's add a nuclear weapon that resets the map and costs 1 voxel of dirt.

I mean, who WOULDN'T use it?

[FD3242]

7 minutes ago, Kuritho said:

Hey guys, let's add a nuclear weapon that resets the map and costs 1 voxel of dirt.

I mean, who WOULDN'T use it?

If your trying to say that this idea could reset the map It couldn't

That would be stupid it would have a limited area of effect.

[0something0]

I mean, is it worth the dev's time and energy to add this feature? Sure, its cool, but it doesnt really make a big impact on the gsme.

[FD3242]

Just now, 0something0 said:

I mean, is it worth the dev's time and energy to add this feature? Sure, its cool, but it doesnt really make a big impact on the gsme.

I disagree. It would be a massive tool for builders.

[0something0]

Also, does the voxels simply change color or change to another voxel type thats already ingame? Does the voxels also carry the material properties of the textures? 

[Kuritho]

Just now, mefsh said:

If your trying to say that this idea could reset the map It couldn't

That would be stupid it would have a limited area of effect.

*you're

---

I meant to say: It's somewhat unnecessary. It's eyecandy.

I'll be constructive now.

---

It'd be cool, but think about it: The server has to store several voxels per voxel. That's a (slightly) huge problem.

And argument with:

1 hour ago, mefsh said:

If thousands of people can be editing terrain around you with no problem I see no reason why predefined states would be any more taxing.

Uhh... No. What if you had 1000 players AND "shifters" happening at once? That takes up (some) a fuckton of processing power. And since the game will probably have things update at the same time (32 bit servers!) you'll have constant lagspikes 32 times every second. (Slight) GIANT problem.

 

THEN you have the problem of the server having to send MASSIVE amounts of data (if you say maps will be stored client-side, then you clearly have several terabyte harddrives and SSDs). Sending 5 voxels per voxel? Are you daft?

[FD3242]

36 minutes ago, Kuritho said:

*you're

---

I meant to say: It's somewhat unnecessary. It's eyecandy.

I'll be constructive now.

---

It'd be cool, but think about it: The server has to store several voxels per voxel. That's a (slightly) huge problem.

And argument with:

Uhh... No. What if you had 1000 players AND "shifters" happening at once? That takes up (some) a fuckton of processing power. And since the game will probably have things update at the same time (32 bit servers!) you'll have constant lagspikes 32 times every second. (Slight) GIANT problem.

 

THEN you have the problem of the server having to send MASSIVE amounts of data (if you say maps will be stored client-side, then you clearly have several terabyte harddrives and SSDs). Sending 5 voxels per voxel? Are you daft?

It's not your job to correct my grammar. It just makes you look like an asshole. Pls don't.

------

It's really not a "(slightly) huge problem" It's only a small area. Probably like 5x5 meters. That's nothing compared to planets. Even with  thousands of them It wont be a big deal in comparison.

-------

In everyday use they would never get laggy enough to be an actual problem.

If somebody wants the fill a giant area with them that's there problem as I suggested above it would just stop updating them if there's to many.

That is if they can get enough. Again they should cost enough that somebody would not just spam them around.

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MAPS XD. I'm talking about small 5x5 meter areas at the most. And they wont be stored on your client. I never said that. I said the changes will be handled on your client so the server dose not have to send you new info every time it changes states. Scripts are client side so anything that could effect it's state is already being ran on the client.

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We really don't know how there voxel system works so the only people who can say for sure if this would be possible is Novaquark.

[Kuritho]

Just now, mefsh said:

Words

That was meant to notify you.

So uh, could you answer my question of "it's sending 5 voxels per voxel"?

I legit doubt your idea would be possible.

And what about people who walk inside of the area whilst it's shifting?

[Kuritho]

Listen man, I would also adore to have this, but I just can't see it realistically happen until a year after full release.

I'm not shooting you down, but the game's universe is huge, and if you had several thousands per planet, you'd have problems.

I'd also love manual voxel doors.

[FD3242]

1 minute ago, Kuritho said:

That was meant to notify you.

So uh, could you answer my question of "it's sending 5 voxels per voxel"?

I legit doubt your idea would be possible.

And what about people who walk inside of the area whilst it's shifting?

There are millions of voxels around you that the server needs to send to you. A few extra is not a big deal.

[Kuritho]

Just now, mefsh said:

There are millions of voxels around you that the server needs to send to you. A few extra is not a big deal.

Could you say how expensive they'd be roughly? I'm still imagining Terran Union (because of their massive potential workforce) creating entire shifting buildings.

And what about constructs that "dodge" attacks? Since it can be controlled via "logic gates" (I think you mean inputs), you could have fighters warping side to side.

[FD3242]

2 hours ago, Kuritho said:

Could you say how expensive they'd be roughly? I'm still imagining Terran Union (because of their massive potential workforce) creating entire shifting buildings.

And what about constructs that "dodge" attacks? Since it can be controlled via "logic gates" (I think you mean inputs), you could have fighters warping side to side.

I'm starting to see the problems with this idea XD. Still hopeful Novaqurk could figure something out.

 

 

 

[Veln]

18 hours ago, Kuritho said:

People would make small movies then.

I'm down-

 

Wait, what's that? Server processing power isn't infinite?

 

Animations occur client side, not server side. They are however stored on the server, so the server would need enough space to store them. Bringing up processing power here makes no sense.

 

17 hours ago, Kuritho said:

What if a thousand players made 100,000 "shifters"? I see no reason why the server shouldn't lag like crazy.

 

17 hours ago, Kuritho said:

Hey guys, let's add a nuclear weapon that resets the map and costs 1 voxel of dirt.

I mean, who WOULDN'T use it?

 

What if someone in Eve made 100,000 titans and undocked them from citadels all at once?

 

What if someone in WoW created 500,000 lvl 1 gnomes and marched them all into a city and killed everyone.

 

It wouldn't happen, you're being ridiculous

 

 

[Kuritho]

1 hour ago, Vellnn said:

 

Animations occur client side, not server side. They are however stored on the server, so the server would need enough space to store them. Bringing up processing power here makes no sense.

 

 

 

What if someone in Eve made 100,000 titans and undocked them from citadels all at once?

 

What if someone in WoW created 500,000 lvl 1 gnomes and marched them all into a city and killed everyone.

 

It wouldn't happen, you're being ridiculous

 

 

Hey fun little fact: Voxels are not pre-fabricated constructs. A Titan from EVE has a preset model. Voxels technically have preset models, but you can mix-match them.

And I'm most definitively not being ridiculous.

Most players will have them in their little/large ships.

Some will make doors.

Some will make "hidden armor" (as soon as weaponry is detected, BOOM: metric fuckton of armor pops out.

Some will make short films.

 

100,000 ships with 100 "shifters" is well... A lot. Of them. And that isn't counting the whole "buildings are also a thing."

 

And remember, the server has to sync it across clients. And it also has to send them to the player. And it has to do TestFors such as "is a player currently inside of the voxels".

 

I also truly want this, but I'd also love free downloadable RAM. But neither of them are quite easily feasible, eh?

[AlexCout]

where Vellnn had a fair point is the fact that people seem to overconsider the load of features on the server, Still I don't consider the shifting voxel as a good addiion, but people are often like "no infinite processing power..." and I think that they should at least have a deeper explanation on how and why it would cost a lot to the server rather than just saying no because it looks complicated...

 

there are always different way to make the same thing, some are optimized, some aren't. Everyone who know a bit to program knows it...

[Veln]

Personally I think there should be modules that handle animations and such, rather than making it a quality that you apply to voxels. You want an animation on your building? NQ can make a Billboard Module that renders a gif. Players with bad graphics can toggle it off if their graphics card can't handle it. The storage on the server would just be whatever the gif size is + the transform data for the module itself.

[Veln]

35 minutes ago, Kuritho said:

Hey fun little fact: Voxels are not pre-fabricated constructs.

 

Actually, a voxel IS a pre-fabricated construct. A vehicle/building/anything built by voxels is really just a cluster of pre-fabricated constructs.

 

You aren't creating game assets by making a vehicle or building. You're using NQ's assets (the voxels and modules) to make clusters of voxels and modules that are shaped and function like vehicles and buildings.

[Veln]

39 minutes ago, Kuritho said:

And remember, the server has to sync it across clients. And it also has to send them to the player.

 

IE: Send a 1 byte timestamp