Theme Park Builder 3D - Rock Generator

I thought I'd post this to continue the discussion on the rock generator. My original idea was to allow players to great a giant mesh for the rock, but now that's a bad idea. My new idea is to make it work like the Spore Creature Creator where players can drag on rock shapes and they all join to each other. The rocks should also snap onto edges of water slides and bottoms of track pieces.

A possible rock generator could perhaps be a derivative of the landscape modifier, with rocks pushed and pulled into shape like we would do the landscape, but with somewhat different characteristics. We might then apply one or several choices of ‘rock’ surface to our results.

The other alternative would be to submit a rock rig to the Repository. That way if someone wanted to make custom rocks/boulders they would do so in Blender and import their results into the game.

I’m sure someone will eventually create a rock scenery pack with a selection of rocks and this would be another option, although a limited option.

When you say "rock rig" do you mean supplying the mesh but other modelers apply a different texture? I don't really like that idea. It would be better for each rock to have it's own custom shape. All rocks aren't the same, ever. But it is a good idea if you want to save some memory.

I love the first idea, it would make rock formations like this very easy to do.

[Image: pic1.jpg]

GermanTaco Wrote:When you say "rock rig" do you mean supplying the mesh but other modelers apply a different texture? ……

Exactly, but this idea for a few scattered rocks/boulders used decoratively. One would open the rig file in Blender, perhaps stretch or scale it as desired and then add the textures they like – textures that might not otherwise be included in the game.

Eagle Eye Wrote:I love the first idea, it would make rock formations like this very easy to do. ......

For edges of water rides and bottoms of track pieces the first idea is certainly best. For huge rock formations like in your photo my rig suggestion would be too big a deal for this purpose.

We would need to combine both ideas.

Might need to extend the building generator to provide rock formation tools or just extend the landscaping tool.
Smaller rocks could be modeler stock parts.

A rock generator would help considerably in the optimizations department. Unnecessary polygons can be put out. Generating generic, single rocks would also be a good idea for variation, but depending on how TPB stores the file, generated rocks may change upon each loading. (which may cause trouble for some cases)

If you use anything generated then it's up to the program to store the generation parameters so that it reproduces the item to form. This is also true if you play the multiplayer game, the network subsystem will have to reproduce your park and furnishings with other players.

Forrest Timberland Wrote:
Eagle Eye Wrote:I love the first idea, it would make rock formations like this very easy to do. ......
For edges of water rides and bottoms of track pieces the first idea is certainly best. For huge rock formations like in your photo my rig suggestion would be too big a deal for this purpose.

Sorry, but I meant Meph's idea.

I would definately like to see if anyone can come up with a simple interface for a rock generator, or at least some general concept that we can shoot for, because I'm stumped right now.

C-A_99 Wrote:A rock generator would help considerably …… but depending on how TPB stores the file, generated rocks may change upon each loading. ……

AlabamaCajun Wrote:If you use anything generated then it's up to the program to store the generation parameters so that it reproduces the item to form. …… the network subsystem will have to reproduce your park and furnishings with other players.

Just so. We would expect generated individual rocks to store and then correctly load properly exactly as if we had generated a tree or other item of scenery and had closed the game and re-opened it later, expecting that to load true to form.

Forrest Timberland Wrote:~
Just so. We would expect generated individual rocks to store and then correctly load properly exactly as if we had generated a tree or other item of scenery and had closed the game and re-opened it later, expecting that to load true to form.

Yes. Buildings, rock formations and terrain are all parametric entities meaning that they are rendered from parameters. Thus when you store and load the object it should regenerate the same results. All stored scenery objects such as small rocks, bushes may or may not be the same each run. This is just the result oh how we store parameters to maintain the same shape and orientation. In fairness this should not have any impact as we rarely look to see if rocks in real life are the same as we saw them yesterday. Maybe the gardener move them to get rid of a gopher. :golf: If it is a big deal then we may have to push the extra parameters out with the data stream.