FPRL

So, after implementing some good 'ol procedural cavern geometry, here's the result as of last night. It's using the free debug camera for a first-person view. This is a really rough pass, lots of issues with the nature of the functions used etc. Plus normal mapping is currently broken, and the textures are very blargh. Lit by a yellow point light, with no falloff or shadowing, located behind the camera. Changing colour, adding shadows and falloff would hopefully make this look rather more like the view of an intrepid adventurer with a torch/lamp... in an incredibly boring, sterile and regular cavern.


The biggest problem I'm facing right now is the massive temptation to use the new shiny generation in a less restricted way. At the moment it's still using a simple grid and a heightfield, which is quite visible in the screenshot. What I increasingly want to do is switch to an entirely arbitrary environment, and then use a Wizardry 8 style combat system. Or even go entirely realtime. Blarp.

Anyway, assuming I resist the temptation to drift even further from RL-land, I need to find a nice elegant way to peel the top off of the dungeon, so we can see into this wonderland properly. Other important decisions: streaming world or discrete dungeons? Overland travel? Outside areas? Generating the dungeon mesh chunks isn't cheap, which makes me want to stick to discrete, small dungeon levels. It just doesn't feel particularly natural to do so, especially given the crazy environments now possible. Hmm.

Well, that'll do for now. Much to think about, but first priority will be sorting out normal mapping and other rendering tweaks.