Prey and physics

[vivftp]

I was wondering, do we have any info on what physics engine Prey is using? Did they license Megon for it? Or the one used on Doom III? Or some other one?

The physics we've seen thus far in the game are very impressive... if it's Megon, then we might have an idea of what the quality might be like in DNF http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Parkar]

My guess is they are using the one in doom3.

[Cerberus_e]

I was also wondering that, I thought doom 3's physics are good, but some guys that have huge knowledge about physics and technical terms say the physics lack certain things. so I believe them and now wondering what physics engine it uses.
my guess is meqon, 3DR already pays for that http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[FireFly]

I think for speed and robustness Doom 3's physics system is probably up there with Meqon. The problem is that the system is collision based, so interacting with a pile of static objects poses a problem.

[Antosa]

I have seen in the video of Prey that physics is truly much good one and the use is much extending, I task that will be much heavy one to manage for the PC.

Prey use the AGEIA PhysX chip?

[Halford]

As far as i know, PREY uses Doom3's physics engine.

In the making of Quake IV, Raven Software tried replace Doom3's physics to other physics engine. But they couldn't replace it. Because Doom 3 engine was very very inflexible. Alike, PREY would uses Doom3's physics engine.

sorry for my poor english http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Gabrobot]

Halford said:
In the making of Quake IV, Raven Software tried replace Doom3's physics to other physics engine. But they couldn't replace it. Because Doom 3 engine was very very inflexible. Alike, PREY would uses Doom3's physics engine.



That seems unlikely since Doom 3's physics engine is actually in the SDK and can be modified or replaced modders. And besides, Splash Damage did completely replace the physics engine (no doubt to make it more multiplayer friendly...the main problem with D3 MP's lag was all the physics data being transferred).


As for Doom 3's physics engines problems, from what I've read the actual physics are pretty good, but the engine is very aggressive when it comes to disabling the physics (I guess to improve performance on slower systems). I assume it would be fairly easy to simply modify the physics engine so that physics objects are enabled properly.

[Halford]

Splash Damage did replace the physics engine? I didn't know that. Could you disclose the source, please?

And, ET:QW using different engine from Doom 3. It's not current build of Doom 3 engine but 'MegaTexture' engine. John Carmack's new(last?) engine, MegaTexture was 100% rewritten rendering engine code, but MegaTexture engine's base(network, AI, physics, UI, etc...) is still Doom 3's. As far as I know, id software replaced 'only' renderer from Doom 3 engine.

[SyntaxN]

In the making of Quake IV, Raven Software tried replace Doom3's physics to other physics engine. But they couldn't replace it.


Never heared that!
I thought megatexture is just a part of the DOOM³ renderer, the commands are included in the original game!

[Gryph]

Halford, where do you get your information from? I think you're wrong, absolutely wrong. Megatexture is part of the Doom 3 engine, it's even in iddev.net.

[Parkar]

Megatexture is the part of the doom 3 engine that enables them to texture huge terrain without the usual reapeted patterns that you usualy get in these cases.

[Malgon]

Listen to Gryph and Parkar, they're well informed on such things I believe. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Gryph]

I just get my info from guys like Parkar. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif I know nothing about the actual tech.

[Parkar]

I know nothing more then what I just posted about mega texture though but my guess is its some procedural shader kind of thing.

[FireFly]

Actually, I think it's just a Very Big Texture ™

From a visual standpoint, I don’t think there’s really anything that can touch it in its field. We started with the Doom 3 base of technology and created what we call "mega-texture technology," which allows us to have a unique texture that covers the entire surface of the planet. Most games use tiles, so you have repeated textures that are spread across on different tiles. This is different in that every single pixel is unique. The artist has free reign to draw every single pixel on the entire surface of the battlefield.

So we can have nighttime missions where headlights have real-time interactions with the surfaces. Especially with the vehicles and vehicle physics that we use, it allows the vehicle to have different interactions with the surfaces. So driving on a paved highway, you will have better traction and speed than if you’re off on the dirt, where you’ll slide around and won’t be able to go as fast. You can even get bogged down in the mud.

http://www.g4tv.com/g4tv/features/51945/Enemy_Mine_Todd_Hollenshead_Speaks.html

[Malgon]

@ Gryph - Yeah but your one of the guys that actually looks up some info on a topic before you post, even if it is from knowledgeable people like Parkar. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

@ Parkar - Hey I always trust your word, especially when it comes to coding, or engine workings and tech info like that. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

@ Firefly - Is that the Carmack log on megatexturing? I remember reading that a while back. So from what I gather it is something that was implemented already in the Doom 3 engine, but it just had to be used effectively?

[FireFly]

I'm not sure what you mean by "log". It's from the an interview with Todd Hollenshead. I've heard people say that "mega-texture" might have been an existing part of the Doom 3 engine, but I haven't seen any confirmation of that.

Remember though that Human Head had access to the Doom 3 engine right from the start and only fairly recently was the feature offered to them.

[Malgon]

Sorry, it's late night/early morning, and got "log" stuck in my head, when you clearly had a link to an interview about mega-texturing about it. My bad. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Gabrobot]

Halford said:
Splash Damage did replace the physics engine? I didn't know that. Could you disclose the source, please?

And, ET:QW using different engine from Doom 3. It's not current build of Doom 3 engine but 'MegaTexture' engine. John Carmack's new(last?) engine, MegaTexture was 100% rewritten rendering engine code, but MegaTexture engine's base(network, AI, physics, UI, etc...) is still Doom 3's. As far as I know, id software replaced 'only' renderer from Doom 3 engine.



I got the info about the physics engine from this ActionTrip preview (http://www.actiontrip.com/previews/enemyterritoryquakewars.phtml).

And ET:QW is using the Doom 3 engine...MegaTexture is tech that is in the Doom 3 engine, not an engine itself. You're getting confused with Carmack's next engine which has yet to be revealed. Carmack started full work (not just Doom 3 tests) after Doom 3 came out last year, whereas the MegaTexture tech has probably been around for a year or two (when Splash Damage started development). There are MegaTexture commands and stuff in Doom 3, but no one really knows how to use them (no one really knows exactly what MegaTexture tech is).

Speculation so far seems to indicate that MegaTexture tech allows for an enormous texture to be streamed off the hard-drive as it's needed (presumably scaling the resolution based on distance judging by the screenshots). In order to get such a huge (untiled) texture without including a 1GB texture file for each level makes me think they use procedural texturing mixed with their material system. This coincides with Splash Damage hiring people with experience making procedural textures.

Sorry, I guess I kind of got side tracked from physics, but I thought people might be interested. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif