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Questions about float accuracy and large worlds ...
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Zervox Offline
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Post: #46
RE: Questions about float accuracy and large worlds ...
oh please, in actuality almost no game actually uses realistic ranges they use clever tricks to avoid floating point precision errors.

The engine does support it, if it has a sample world manager already done for you to do it, then no.
and even if it did you would probably have so many complaints about it due to not supporting your exact specifications.
UE4 might support world local coordinates, but this system works for x approaches and for some others just completely breaks down.

PS: you do not need source to make your own world manager which is what you would most likely have to do anyways to get the functionality you need.
(This post was last modified: 12-12-2015 03:38 PM by Zervox.)
12-12-2015 03:23 PM
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Pixel Perfect Offline
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Post: #47
RE: Questions about float accuracy and large worlds ...
I fail to understand why this discussion is still on-going.

Esenthel uses 32 bit floating point arithmetic and despite the theoretical ability to stream infinite chucks of terrain into the engine the practical limitation is clearly determined by the 32 bit numbers and the fixed point of origin.

Greg has already cited the fact that 20kmx20km terrains have been tested and without doubt this is acceptable to the majority of game designers using the engine.

For the few people requiring world/universe sizes considerably in excess of this; use an engine that clearly supports special techniques for this or write your own engine/specialized level manager as Zervox suggested.

Whilst inbuilt support for this would always be nice, as would support for a hundred other things (just see the roadmap), commercial decisions come into play and from Greg's response to date I'd say he judges the commercial justification for this as non existent!

@ wysardry
In short, if your game requires this I wouldn't hang around hoping this is going to be implemented. If this is just purely an exercise in pointing out the marketing of 'Unlimited Sized Worlds' support is strictly speaking factually incorrect, then I think you have a point.
12-13-2015 02:01 PM
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wysardry Offline
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Post: #48
RE: Questions about float accuracy and large worlds ...
I do check up on the progress of various engines from time to time, but what brought me back here was noticing that Esenthel is now available on Steam and its description there also states that it supports Unlimited Sized Worlds. I thought that maybe - just maybe - they had finally added that.

I'd like to see the feature implemented in some form as standard, or the phrase "Unlimited Sized Worlds" (in the feature list, documentation, Steam description etc.) changed to something like "Large Terrain" as that is a more accurate description of what the engine offers "out of the box".
12-13-2015 03:35 PM
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