Limited Custom Texture Options for Terrain on maps

[Lasairfion]

I know that it's been said a bazillion times across reddit and these forums about "I wish I could use snow textures on my tropical map" etc. And the answer has always been something along the lines of "well the engine can only support a limited amount of textures at once". Okay fine.

BUT when I load up each different map, essentially the type of map I choose is also in effect choosing the textures associated with it. So what if we had the option to choose the textures we wanted from those terrain textures available for all maps, but for our custom park map.

So you'd still be limited to the textures that are already in the game, and you'd still be limited to the number of textures the engine can handle, but when you first set up the map, you choose which terrain textures those are.

Second Life estate menu essentially has this option where you can pick the 4 textures your sim (or map, essentially) uses.

 

[WarriorMe]

"well the engine can only support a limited amount of textures at once" well, this is the only logical reason i've heard so far, but really? It was possible to do in RCT3, has engine technology gone backwards so much?

 

[gregorburns]

"well the engine can only support a limited amount of textures at once" well, this is the only logical reason i've heard so far, but really? It was possible to do in RCT3, has engine technology gone backwards so much?

See here: https://forums.planetcoaster.com/sh...and-more-restrictions/page8?p=98521#post98521

To be honest ... a texture of an object is normally just a bitmap, a normal map and a bumpmap.

If only things were that simple... We live in much more complicated times now.

The "CryEngine" can handle lots of materials in the voxel sandbox if I'm not mistaken

Yes, but it doesn't have to render 120,000 objects. Things in game development are a delicate balance between conflicting desires, and while "you can just add another bitmap" sounds like the simplest thing in the world, things just don't work this way in modern video game engines, Cobra included.

There are many factors in play here - the resolution of the voxel terrain, the size of the buildable area, the memory usage (both CPU and GPU-wise), the cpu usage required to edit the terrain structures and the GPU cost of the shaders to actually draw the terrain.

Cheers

Andy

 

[breezerHOG1]

Theres dozens of threads that have discussed this. Having a limit to the number of textures (or "biomes") is said to be due to causing the frame rate to drop if there is more than 8 or 9 textures. The idea of allowing us to choose which of those textures we want has been requested a lot, and the devs even acknowledged the possibility of improving this in the future, but they said its not that easy and will take a lot of work and time.

It is depressing to think we cant have a little snow at the top of a mountain in a grass location. At the very least though, it seems like it would be possible to make snow as a scenery object?



@gregor - that thread must be alpha only? Many people can't access that part of the forum, which I don't know why I mean I played alpha I should be able to visit the alpha forums. At least let people view them if not to post.

 

[gregorburns]

@gregor - that thread must be alpha only? Many people can't access that part of the forum, which I don't know why I mean I played alpha I should be able to visit the alpha forums. At least let people view them if not to post.

Edited my post with a quote.

 

[breezerHOG1]

The OP wasnt asking to add new biomes/textures, but to let us choose which ones we can use.

 

[gregorburns]

The OP wasnt asking to add new biomes/textures, but to let us choose which ones we can use.

I know that, I was explaining the technical reasons to WarriorMe. [yesnod]