Instancing and why
So if you haven’t already heard, we are trying out a new technique for populating un-populated areas in our game world. It’s not new to the industry I am sure, but it sure is new to us. Object instancing. The idea is to help with memory management and performance.
Oh yeah, fun stuff there. The concept is that we build one object, embedded in that object is a bounding box marker that is the actual object that gets placed in our world. Either on the original DEM data terrain, on replacement tiles, or in actual separate objects that get placed on either one. So far, it’s turning out to be a pain in the ass (much like anything new). The damn things like to terrainize to the original DEM data elevations which would be fine if that’s all we used. Unfortunately in the case of replacement tiles, we have extra elevation build up that the instancing stuff just doesn’t care about. Buried telephone poles, static vehicles, etc. Fortunately I haven’t had to mess with it too much, Granik and Dekard have the privilege of doing that. I am sure I will have to muddle with it sooner or later though. Here’s hoping that Jeager gets it figured out.
