63 lines
3.4 KiB
Typst
63 lines
3.4 KiB
Typst
#let post_title = "Game Dev"
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#let post_summary = "Creating an open world multiplayer terrain destruction game in Godot and Rust"
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I am currently developing an underground-submarine openworld multiplayer
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physics inspired game. As a gamer and enjoyer of large, rich maps and
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depth to gameplay, I would really like to say thats what I started out
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trying to create. Instead, the story goes that I had this random idea
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for terrain manipulation. Games like Minecraft and Terraria use squares
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and cubes, which just feels boring in my opinion. I thought I could do
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something much more precise. As a sort of tech-demo/proof of
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concept I programmed a shape that could be modified by boolean geometry
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operations, mainly union and subtract with a second polygon. This led to
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a very interesting, but quickly boring "game" to hop around in. However,
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since I could drill through and place prettymuch any shape I wanted to,
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it felt like I could "fly" through the land, much like a submarine
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"flies" through water.
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I implemented some modularly built
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vehicles with use of graphs theory and object oriented programming, and
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terrain generation using cellular noise. The reason I used cellular
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noise is because if you look at the lines between cells, they form a
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network without dead ends. Then by applying an algorithm using a density
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function on depth I am able to fine tune the width and density of the
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caves without impacting their interconnectedness. By using this method
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chunks can generate completely independent of their neighbor, which is
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optimal.
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"Multiplayer is the hardest part of game dev, maybe
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release that later" I have been told by a lot of people. However, as a
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hobby-server configurer and network security nerd, I thought I could
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take it on. I was right, however as a network security nerd I have more
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layers of firewalls than I do braincells. Every single time I have an
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issue with networking, its a firewall. Once I found which ports were
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blocked, yes multiplayer was easy.
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The result? I could fly
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drilling vehicles through terrain, pop out of the ground or into random
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caves, mine materials, play hide and seek with friends, and even orbit
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the planet. One of the things important to me in this game was accurate
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physics: thrust, torque, gravity, mass, all the fun stuff. While I am a
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physics minor, I am more importantly a heavy player of physics and
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rocket science games such as Kerbal Space Program. I was able to glide
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through AP physics simply because it
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_just part of the games world_, it included everything we would
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learn in the classroom. Realistic physics also added to the depth of
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gameplay I was looking for.
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After some formal computer
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science education, I discovered new ways to more efficiently implement
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many of the algorithms I had initially generated and rewrote them
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...multiple times. Currently everything runs _buttery smooth_ and
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framerates are high due to efficient caching of unloaded chunks,
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multithreaded chunk generation, gpu accelerated compute shaders to
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modify chunk density, enhanced use of object oriented programing and
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graph algorithms to build massive modular vehicles, authoritative server
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networking to disable hackers, and other performance tweaks.
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So this sounds amazing, where's the game? Well, a game needs graphics, audio,
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a sound track. As much as I'd love to release it now, its unplayable for
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these reasons along with a few minor implementations left such as NPC's and
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reworking the tech tree. |