Turbine Games Q&A/Graphics/Q-18
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Original Link (now dead) - http://www.turbinegames.com/qa/view_questions.html?id=747
Z Buffer: aka, "That boulder is eating your head"
| Asked: | 2000.11.01 |
| Name: | Anodos |
| Question Title: | Z Buffer: aka, "That boulder is eating your head" |
| Category: | Graphics |
| Question: | Are there any plans to have real Z buffer support in AC? There are quite comical graphical blunders that often appear due to the lack of full Z buffering (such as someone being half way sucked into a rock or something). Good show on your submit button, btw (Edumacate me). :-) |
| Answered: | 2000.11.07 |
| Name: | Sean |
| Answer: | The graphics engine for AC was designed from the ground up to use the painter's algorithm, which means it draws items from back to front. Sorting among objects can be a real problem with this system, but its benefits are that it is fast, and requires less memory. Since all game art was designed without Z-Buffering in mind, adding Z-Buffering now is not an easy task. It may require the redesign of whole buildings, creatures, and certain tricks used on the landscape would have to be reworked from scratch. Which is a lot of dev time to fix some sorting issues that are really quite livable... Sean. |