Max Map Size?

[AluminumHaste]

So I created a crater map that's 33868 x 33868 units, it compiled fine (took forever lol), but when I try and run it in DarkMod, doom3.exe crashes.

What's the max map size?

[HappyCheeze]

I was wondering that the other day.

[Komag]

I explored this issue extensively a long time ago, forgot some of the details, but one thing is that it doesn't like single HUGE room, but if you make smaller rooms (still large) with visportals then you can make your map extremely crazy huge.

[killhour]

This could help with that.

 

http://www.doom3world.org/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?t=12067

[killhour]

I explored this issue extensively a long time ago, forgot some of the details, but one thing is that it doesn't like single HUGE room, but if you make smaller rooms (still large) with visportals then you can make your map extremely crazy huge.

 

How huge? Oblivion huge? GTA huge? /newmap 16 huge?

[Springheel]

I remember an early test of this on D3W that showed a city map made of massive skyscrapers. There was an imp on the other side of the map that was so far away that you could barely make him out.

[killhour]

I remember an early test of this on D3W that showed a city map made of massive skyscrapers. There was an imp on the other side of the map that was so far away that you could barely make him out.

 

That doesn't really say much anymore. /newmap 16 in the cube 2 engine is just over 3x3x3 miles.

[Komag]

Here is the old thread, and especially at this post of mine for size comparison:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?s=&am...st&p=116729

 

Basically I was able to calculate that all the missions from all three Thief games could ALL fit into less than 10% of the available space in Doom 3.

 

So I don't think hitting the maximum map size is going to be a problem...

[HappyCheeze]

Here is the old thread, and especially at this post of mine for size comparison:

 

http://forums.thedarkmod.com/index.php?s=&am...st&p=116729

 

Basically I was able to calculate that all the missions from all three Thief games could ALL fit into less than 10% of the available space in Doom 3.

 

So I don't think hitting the maximum map size is going to be a problem...

 

Really?

 

Hot DAMN!

 

Thats amazing.

[Springheel]

According to D3W:

 

Someone somewhere made a test map that was effectively something like 1.3km wide

 

Doom3 can handle maps upto just under 10km each way, which can take a decent sized city

 

There are plenty of bounds that limit the size of a doom3 map, but the grid isn't one of them. RAM, sensible load times, and difficulty in even handling such a huge map in the marvellously reliable editor are the most immediate ones that come to mind. Doom3's bound to have various numeric limitations as well, since every game since Doom has had them, things like maximum bsp leaves, maximum visportals, even maximum entities.

 

carmack said that theoretically you could build the world to scale in the doom 3 engine (assuming you had a shitload of ram hehe)

[Tels]

carmack said that theoretically you could build the world to scale in the doom 3 engine (assuming you had a shitload of ram hehe)

 

And your world consists of only 2048 (now 4096) entities

[AluminumHaste]

I see, I guess the issue I'm having is that it's one big room, but there's no other way of doing a crater map. Is there a vertex limit?

[jdude]

I think it all comes down to what your computer can handle. I know if you use to many textures in your map on walls, and in models you end up with a malloc failure which makes the map unplayable. So in theory you could make a huge map, but you'd have to limit your use of entities, models and textures. I'd guess the same would go for the amount of vertexes your GPU can render at one time.

[BEAR]

Does the whole thing have to be accessible to the player? Could an illusion not be created with a 3d skybox or something?

[AluminumHaste]

Does the whole thing have to be accessible to the player? Could an illusion not be created with a 3d skybox or something?

 

Gone are the days of Quake 2 limitations, but the idea behind this requires total access from everywhere. I'm trying to break up the level with actual geometry to see if that helps.

[AluminumHaste]

Gone are the days of Quake 2 limitations, but the idea behind this requires total access from everywhere. I'm trying to break up the level with actual geometry to see if that helps.

 

So I threw in a large square pillar that makes the map more of a square doughnut shape, but it still crashed on map load. So I think I'll try adding some visportals and see if that fixes it, it sucks that it takes about 2.71 hours to compile lol. I think I'll throw in some clip brushes.

[demagogue]

Depending on what you want, you could still be clever with the "total access from everywhere" ... e.g., put in some intervening occluding rocky structures and some cleverly placed indescernable teleports, and you could break the crater into parts without it being apparent (and maybe experiment with distant parts of the crater being skybox art). Or even without the occlusions, if you are careful with the teleports you could even keep the seemingly-full crater view and teleport unnoticed.

 

I've seen a couple of different contexts where this trick has been used to good effect.

Edited October 29, 2008 by demagogue

[Winkler Oszkár]

I have a non-expert, simple question.

 

Can I create a medium sized island with a huge tower in it's center, rounded with lots of swimmable water?

[Springheel]

You can create anything you like. The question is, how many people will have machines capable of running it?

 

A wide open area is very hard to vis-portal, which makes it much more difficult to accomplish. But in principle it's certainly possible.

[Baal]

I wouldn't try that with the doom engine. It's not really suited for big open outdoor areas. If you know what you're doing and with some tricks it could be possible but, as a beginner, you should start much, much smaller.

[Komag]

You could do it very simple, but probably much simpler than you would want, or else you would have get extremely tricky to make a more good looking area work

[Komag]

I got inspired and spend a couple hours whipping this up:

 

http://www.shadowdarkkeep.com/files/KomagIsland.wmv (21MB, 55sec, 3mbps, music - Tangerine Dream)

[Mortem Desino]

Proof of concept: Nice! That island must be one humongous patchwork quilt.

 

I've never seen those palm tree models before, though. Where come from?!?

[demagogue]

It's not FarCry 2, but still very impressive to see how big it really is.

If you're going to make land that big, get a megatexture on it, though. (I know, that would take a lot more work for a demo). Anyway, that's something I want to learn how to do.

 

Now I want to make some demagogueVikings to invade KomagIsland.

Edited March 25, 2009 by demagogue

[SneaksieDave]

Hehe that's great! Is that one parallel shadowcasting light source? Once you get inside the building, if it caused any performance hit I guess you could even kill the sun. It'll be a great day when someone hacks D3's lighting to make it more performance flexible.