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<p>&nbsp;</p>Vol. 
                2, Issue 13<br>
                February 25, 2000 </b>
             <br>
              
                <b><i>Beaker's 
                  Bent:</i></b></p>
                <b><i> 
                  Making the Outdoors<br>
                  (part 2)</i></b></p>
                by 
                  Rich &quot;Beaker&quot; 
                  Wyckoff</p>
              
              

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               Welcome 
                back, after a long delay, to Beaker’s Bent.  It’s been two months 
                since my last column, where I started to describe some of the 
                techniques I’ve built up over the years for making realistic outdoor 
                environments.  Hopefully no aspiring designers of outdoor environments 
                have been forced into anything drastic out of frustration while 
                waiting for this new installment.  At any rate, they can relax 
                now as I divulge some details about the geometry of outdoor environments.</p>
              Last time, 
                I discussed texturing and lighting, two aspects of an outdoor 
                level which actually supercede the geometry in importance.  With 
                excellent textures and sparkling, sun-like lighting even very 
                simplistic geometry can capture some of the feeling of the outdoors.</p>
              Geometry 
                of an outdoor level is highly dependent on the engine involved.  
                Many outdoor-oriented engines use height-mapped terrain engines.  
                For the true neophytes out there or those who have never touched 
                anything beyond an FPS, a height-mapped engine uses a grid of 
                points of varying heights, with the geometry between those points 
                often out of the designer’s control.  It is possible to programmatically 
                reduce detail in height-mapped terrain as it gets further away 
                from the player, which allows for extended viewing distances as 
                the furthers hills are rendered with the minimum number of polygons.</p>
              It is 
                also very easy to apply fractal algorithms to a grid of points 
                to quickly get mountains and valleys, and to make simple editing 
                tools that can raise or lower hills.  However, this very ease 
                of use contributes to one of the most common problems with outdoor 
                geometry: what I call, until I can come up with a shorter description, 
                the “metal balls in a rubber sheet” look.  In short, the most 
                simple fractal algorithms and editing tools, which are often all 
                that get put into a game editor for height mapped terrain, create 
                a generic and unnatural look to the terrain.  Keep an eye out 
                for landscapes made of many hills and valleys of similar size 
                distinctive, bell-curve shape (as if metal balls had been pressed 
                up through or laid down on a rubber sheet).  You’ll begin to notice 
                this effect in the most hastily assembled outdoor scenes, both 
                real time and pre-rendered.</p>
              There 
                are, indeed, some parts of the real world that look similar to 
                “rubber sheet world,” but the far more interesting parts of the 
                world (those which you would like to put in a game) have much 
                more variation than this.  Achieving this kind of terrain requires 
                much more thought and hard work than merely applying fractal noise 
                and a smoothing routine to a grid of height points, and I’ll write 
                more about the technique in a moment.  However, the very nature 
                of the height-mapped terrain engine also contributes to this.  
                </p>
              The biggest 
                technical drawback to height-mapped terrain is that overhangs 
                or even completely vertical surfaces are impossible to create, 
                since none of the height points could possibly overlap another.  
                A secondary and related drawback is that it is difficult to reproduce 
                very fine detail, such as the branching run-off patterns that 
                you see on the sides of real hills, or the rounded banks of small 
                streams.  Better height-mapped engines have variable-resolution 
                grids, which means that in areas which need high detail such as 
                stream banks or the foundation of a building, the spacing between 
                height points can be decreased.  This also allows for near-vertical 
                slopes, but still not overhangs of course.  The overhang issue 
                can be avoided by using objects cleverly placed on or in the terrain, 
                but it can be difficult to mask the transition between the terrain 
                and the overhang object itself.</p>
</p>
              <br> 
              
             
              
           
            Once you 
              are comfortable with the advanced level of editing available in 
              a package like MAX, I recommend getting your hands as messy as possible 
              with your main terrain geometry.  Don’t rely on a fractal seed to 
              generate your whole level – instead refer to directly to real-world 
              terrain as much as possible, through photographs, drawings, and 
              personal visits to geographically interesting areas.  We had some 
              success on Trespasser by starting with a large clay model of the 
              entire island locale of the game, sculpted by our lead artist and 
              then laser-scanned.  Although much of the detail of the sculpture 
              was lost once the scanned mesh was reduced to usable polycounts, 
              it at least gave us a set of existing and fairly believable natural 
              features to work around.  This gave some much-needed direction to 
              the design process (both visual and gameplay – the topic of the 
              next installment).</p>
            I cannot 
              recommend highly enough studying as much real-world geometry as 
              possible.  Real terrain slopes and rolls in ways that simply will 
              not occur to most level designers working with no reference.  After 
              you work on outdoor levels while studying the real world for a few 
              years, you may find yourself getting fascinated and excited by seemingly 
              simple things like how a rock face and the side of a hill connect.  
              When you start to become wistful about natural features that you 
              can’t reproduce well enough with today’s technology, you’ll really 
              be able to call yourself an outdoor level designer.</p>
            My words 
              of advice, which may become fairly irrelevant over the next year 
              or two, are for people making outdoor levels in indoor engines.  
              The key to a realistic outdoor area really is the long vista.  To 
              avoid feeling like you are in a bowl or a maze of canyons, there 
              must be spots within a level where the player feels like they can 
              see all the way to the horizon, or can look out across other parts 
              of the level.  Creating a vista that doesn’t drag the framerate 
              down requires careful planning however.  </p>
            One approach 
              is to use fakery – create a very low detail area, such as a distant 
              river valley, perhaps which the player can not otherwise reach, 
              and allow them to see into it from selected points on the player’s 
              path.  Use geometry for the vista, however, because a mere painting 
              of a distant river valley will almost inevitably be at the wrong 
              resolution, and will seem obviously flat.  For this reason, in fact, 
              geometry in a skybox in Unreal, for instance, is not ideal, because 
              the camera into the skybox is fixed, which almost eliminates a feeling 
              or perspective, although you will get a good parallax effect between 
              your skybox contents and your in-level geometry.</p>
            If you do 
              not use fake forced-perspective vistas, then you need to be extremely 
              careful what parts of the level you allow the player to look across.  
              Conceal as many high-detail areas as possible – your staircases 
              (natural or human-made), cave/building entrances, platforms for 
              jumping puzzles, etc.  If you know exactly the angles your player 
              will look across the level, you can use mid-sized hills to block 
              off the complicated stuff and they’ll even add interest to the area.  
              If you construct them carefully to be as small as possible, they 
              won’t seem like canyon walls when the player walks past their base, 
              even though they are serving the same purpose.</p>
            Finally, 
              know your engine’s strengths and limitations.  Some indoor engines 
              just cannot handle large levels with lots of geometry and actors 
              and textures even if you can never see them.  You may want to create 
              a single, large base terrain for your entire level, and split it 
              up into a variety of smaller actual levels, connected by tunnels 
              and tight canyons where you can put loading points.  If you allow 
              the player to look across a location that is technically in another 
              level, just ensure that its major features (textures, trees) are 
              identical or at least very similar to the ones the player passed 
              through from ground level.  This will maintain the player’s belief 
              that they are passing through one continuous space, even though 
              they are passing through load points.</p>
            There is 
              much, much more to say about geometry building in the outdoors, 
              but hopefully what I’ve covered so far is enough to get beginners 
              started and give experienced outdoor level designers some inspiration 
              and ideas to consider.  Perhaps someday in the future when I’ve 
              managed to work on an outdoor game which is neither cancelled nor 
              a failure, I can return to the topic in some other forum besides 
              Beaker’s Bent, but it’s time to take this column back towards its 
              more-standard topic, game design.</p>
            So next 
              column, in the final installment of Making the Outdoors, I’ll be 
              tackling the big, hairy issue of design in realistic outdoor spaces.  
              There will hopefully be no two-month delay this time!</p>
            
              </p>
              
             
            <i>- Richard 
              &#147;Beaker&#148; Wyckoff is a game designer, not a level designer, 
              damnit</i></p>
             </p>
            <br> 
              
             
              
              On the 
                other hand, making terrain in engines intended for indoor use 
                such as Unreal and Quake III have far fewer geometry limitations, 
                but bring with them the huge problem of visible polygons.  With 
                no ability to detail-reduce distant terrain, outdoor levels in 
                indoor engines must constantly take liberties with reality in 
                order to keep the number of on-screen polygons down as much as 
                possible.  As a counterpart to the “marbles in rubber” look of 
                badly-done height mapped outdoors, outdoor FPS levels often have 
                the “maze of canyons” look. </p>

              Finally, 
                of course, and this is a problem that not even Trespasser solved 
                very well, despite our best attempts, is the issue of object density.  
                Sometime, probably before too long, either raw polygon-pushing 
                power or a breakthrough algorithm will permit the thousands of 
                trees and bushes that will enable outdoor levels which look like 
                something other than bare, rocky wastelands that just happen to 
                be painted in vegetation-like colors.  For the time being, however, 
                there is a tricky balancing act involved in object placement which 
                many outdoor level designers seem to avoid altogether, going instead 
                for the “one tree every quarter mile” approach.</p>
              Now, I’ve 
                listed out the problems with making outdoor terrain, but just 
                knowing what to avoid or work around is not the best way to approach 
                the difficult task of making an outdoor level.  Much of the technique 
                of making an outdoor level can only be gained through experience, 
                a belief that nothing is impossible, and an unwillingness to accept 
                the status quo of outdoor level design. However, I will try to 
                condense some of my own experiences into a few paragraphs of positive 
                advice.</p>
              The most 
                important recommendation I can give is to learn a professional 
                3D modelling package such as 3D Studio MAX and learn how to use 
                it with the engine of your choice.  Internally created editors, 
                especially those created to make simplistic, indoor shooters, 
                are becoming increasingly unfit for creating the complex, sprawling, 
                organic geometry that today’s 3D cards and consoles are actually 
                able to create.  Many companies are actually beginning to move 
                all their geometry creation, world geometry in addition to object 
                and character geometry, over to professional modelling packages, 
                and using their game editor for gameplay editing only, such as 
                placing objects and enemies and creating triggers for game logic.</p>
              Using 
                a 3D modelling program requires a much stronger knowledge of the 
                technology behind today’s games than the average level designer 
                brought up in FPS editors may be used to.  MAX and programs like 
                it allow users to screw around with geometry to its lowest level, 
                right down to removing or adding in vertices and faces, and designers 
                using it for game creation must be acutely aware of what constitutes 
                good and bad geometry for their particular game.  </p>
              The engines 
                I’ve worked with tend to go crazy if geometry has any gaps in 
                it (a missing face – picture a cube with one side gone).  Poly-count 
                has also been a critical issue and removing verts and faces and 
                then rebuilding the mesh is a very easy way to get into trouble 
                and accidentally create bad geometry.  I tend to start with the 
                simplest shapes possible and slowly add detail by splitting edges 
                and tessellating faces minimally.  As high poly-counts and curves 
                become a part of more engines, however, it will probably become 
                necessary to work with geometry primitives in your modelling package, 
                and apply modifiers to them, rather than hand-editing their geometry 
                at the lowest-level.</p>
</p>
              
            
            
              
            
            <br><p>&nbsp;</p> 
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