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Old 04-26-2008, 02:11 PM
Dorkybob Dorkybob is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Posts: 19
Quote:
Originally Posted by Kyle View Post

Heightmaps: This is an area that is holding us back in the area of NPC movement and structure placement at the moment. We know a number of ways to implement this, but are searching for an efficient alternative to the methods we already know. Currently, we will be able to generate a huge file with all the z values for every x/y coordinate pair, but the problem we have is being able to manage all that data in a sensible way (save memory, fast request time etc). Educated idea's on how to manage huge heightmaps are welcome.
There is something that I had always wondered about and I know that you are in the development stage of this process, and this would be the time to consider this I think. Rangers used to be able to place tents of varying sizes and shapes, and those tents would adjust the heightmap and level the ground no matter where it was placed. Could this general idea be applied to the City Halls of cities? That way there is no real concern about terrain for city construction, because every city will get a nice flat surface to build on. The "Flattened" land could also be the diameter of the limits of the city size, and grow as the city size increases.