Idea/Question: 3D client for Wesnoth

[theotherhiveking]

All people in the world know that a 72x72 sprite would look horrible in a 300x300 or more size. The main problem here is to make all the art in 3d. I can do 3d models. But I can't animate or texture.

[toms]

All people in the world know that a 72x72 sprite would look horrible in a 300x300 or more size. The main problem here is to make all the art in 3d. I can do 3d models. But I can't animate or texture.

Even if you could model, texture and animate darn well, it would be an amount of work that you never could master.

[Iris]

No, but what about using the same 2D graphics and render everything 2D but using 3D acceleration? Supertux does that.

[irrevenant]

AFAIK, the current version of Wesnoth uses OpenGL to render the sprites. That enables 3D hardware acceleration and is largely responsible for the recent vast improvement in scrolling speed.

[Jetrel]

I think 3D graphics in the size of the Wesnoth sprites will just look terrible.

Obviously you've never played any RTS games. Like Myth, Warcraft III, Dawn of War, the upcoming StarCraft II, etc. There's an entire industry based around games like that, so clearly they look quite good for some people's taste.

[theotherhiveking]

Heres an example:


Yes it is an rts, but it look like a 2003-2004 fps.

Actually rts games have very good graphics thanks to ddr illumination and these effects. Of course to have a good 3d wesnoth you dont need any of these effects.

Unlike 2d sprites, 3d models don't get 300x300 size pixel when you zoom in.
all you need is a 600X600 texture, and you have a very nice quality and good looking model ready for use.

[Iris]

You should be careful about using the "fps" acronym. FPS stands for "First Person Shooter" (the genre), while fps stands for frames-per-second/frame-rate (the technical term which is god).

AFAIK, the current version of Wesnoth uses OpenGL to render the sprites. That enables 3D hardware acceleration and is largely responsible for the recent vast improvement in scrolling speed.

Ah really? How didn't I notice? I mean, 1.3.3 has it already? And why the graphics code (C++) looks the same as 1.2.4?

[theotherhiveking]

You should be careful about using the "fps" acronym. FPS stands for "First Person Shooter" (the genre), while fps stands for frames-per-second/frame-rate (the technical term which is god).

I know that, the thing i did know was there was an difference between FPS and fps.

AFAIK a developer was implementing it, I read it in a thread of openGL coder trying to help, so I don't know if it is implemented yet, but is in the list of ToDo.

[Iris]

Well, I don't really like games that are 3D without need (i.e. some recent sidescrollers). I do however like those that use pseudo-3D graphics (i.e. perspective).

Battle for Wesnoh already satisfies that point, as all unit graphics have perspective.

BTW, I'm not really sure about the uppercase/lowercase difference but some people I know can tell the difference between Mb and MB (Megabit and Metabyte).

[Prometheus]

#http://testdrive2.freehostia.com/images/swordsmen.JPG

Evidently my web host is too cheap to allow direct linking to files?

Anyway if you go to the above website, which you will have to do manually after removing the # character, you will see my wesnoth 3d example. I don't think it looks too bad, a lot like medieval total war.

While something like theotherhiveking shows is out of the question, converting Wesnoth to 3d, meaning a perspective view, would not actually be especially difficult. No more difficult than many changes that have already been made.

[nightcrawler]

Anyway if you go to the above website, which you will have to do manually after removing the # character, you will see my wesnoth 3d example. I don't think it looks too bad, a lot like medieval total war.

I recall some campaign cut scene art that looked like that. Is that hard to do?

[Darth Fool]

This would be roughly as difficult as programming a whole new game in 3D.

Given that that is the case, instead of doing all that effort and having two interfaces to one game, why not just program an entirely new game, and then we could have two nice quality games instead of one?

David

[Prometheus]

It's easy to do if you know how to work with a 3d engine like Irrlicht, or OGRE, or you can make you own, like I did, since all you need is basic functionality- importing textures, billboards, terrain, and a skybox.

I think there is confusion here between 3d, which just means using a perspective projection. It's just as easy to display bitmaps in perspective projection as orthographic projection. When people say 3d, they sometimes seem to mean using animated 3d models. Creating even a single model is an enormous amount of work- first the model has to be created, then the texture created, then the texture has to be mapped onto the model, and then model animated. Recreating all of Wesnoth's art in 3d form would take tens of thousands of hours.

[nightcrawler]

I started playing with a program called Bryce, which mainly does terrain. It's very nice making things like canyons, mountains, and hills. I am having a hard time making objects like buildings, but Google sketchup is very easy to use in that regard. Now to get the two together...

[theotherhiveking]

I can do the 3d models if you want. also i can create terrain with particles if you want too. (waterfalls)

If I get pyogre working soon I can try to write the whole code too, and making binaries of linux and windows.