Intuitive Hull Block Smoothing. Blocks, wedges, corners, etc.

[Thwomp]

Hello,

I am watching this game develop with high hopes, and I thought of a suggestion that I couldn't find mention of. An intuitive system of placing hull blocks that places hull blocks, wedges, corners, etc. depending on neighboring hull blocks as well as modifying neighboring hull blocks to suit the newly placed block. It would remove a great deal of the tedium that involved in making smooth and hopefully better looking ships.

How I see it working is that there is a generic hull block in inventory by type (standard, hardened, etc.). So, with only standard, hardened, and glass for instance there are only three hull blocks in inventory. No shape or color permutations, just the simple block. The properties of each placed hull block include a variable for colour, shape, and orientation and are rendered accordingly. This has the additional benefit of reducing inventory clutter.

In the advanced build menu (build mode +ctrl), there would be a tick box the enable or disable automatic hull smoothing. When disabled, block shape and orientation may be manually changed as per the current system to allow total control. When enabled, upon placement of a any block, it checks for the presence of neighbor blocks in all directions and if the placed block is a hull type block, it is assigned a shape and orientation to suit its location for optimal hull smoothness. Then, each neighboring block is checked and if it is a hull block, its shape and orientation are updated to accommodate the newly placed block for smoothness.

Sorry if it sounds like I am over explaining it, or not explaining it well enough. Also, if I am just repeating a previous, but excellent, suggestion.

 

[MisterVec]

I think the big problem with that from a user standpoint is that you NEED fine control for doing detail work. From a design standpoint, I think that would require schema to add a function to the game engine where it tries to infer what the player is trying to do and then swapping out block types based on its assessment. I'm not sure it's worth the effort when there's so much other cool stuff he's still working on adding to the game.

 

[rece ktore leczo]

With enabled box for automatic smoothing, there may show additional boxes for each block shape - wedge, corner, tetra and penta, so this mechanics would use only the blocks we wish to have.
Also, if i got it right, Your idea is that adjacent blocks would be smoothed automatically? If yes, then it's not good idea, i would prefer that smoothing would be done only where we are pointing.

And i'm not for changing cubes into another shaped blocks, but rather adding new block on top of the existing ones.

Btw, in previous versions of SMedit it was possible to smoothen the ships, probably we will also have this option in the new editors, so if not implemented in game, there would still be a way

 

[therimmer96]

So basically what you want is Connected Textures for Minecraft but in SM?

I agree as a person who builds startrek ships, which can be huge white and look silly with those bolts on the panels

 

[Thwomp]

I agree that it wouldn't be a priority at present, but a point of polish later on. Five different shapes of hull blocks times all the colours of the rainbow times 24 orientations makes for a cumbersome and tedious build. I know a lot of people have done awesome things but, I reckon they're investing an awful lot of time to do it. My combination of lazy and competing distractions has relegated me to working mostly with grey or transparent cubes with occasional splurges into a couple of colours when I'm feeling adventurous. I may be alone, but there might also be a lot more like me.

Not connected textures. Instead of having separate inventory items for solid, wedge, corner, penta, tetra, etc., just have a single generic hull block item. As currently done with orientation, shape and colour would be changed via the advanced build menu and hotkeys. With smoothing enabled, orientation and shape are not under manual control and instead would be interpreted based on the blocks surrounding a placed block. Surrounding blocks would need to have their orientation/shape updated to maintain consistency.

For example, a block placed between two blocks at 90 degrees would be a wedge. A block placed between three blocks at 90 degrees to each other would be a corner, tetra, penta, or even wedge depending on the shapes of those three blocks.

 

[therimmer96]

I agree that it wouldn't be a priority at present, but a point of polish later on. Five different shapes of hull blocks times all the colours of the rainbow times 24 orientations makes for a cumbersome and tedious build. I know a lot of people have done awesome things but, I reckon they're investing an awful lot of time to do it. My combination of lazy and competing distractions has relegated me to working mostly with grey or transparent cubes with occasional splurges into a couple of colours when I'm feeling adventurous. I may be alone, but there might also be a lot more like me.

Not connected textures. Instead of having separate inventory items for solid, wedge, corner, penta, tetra, etc., just have a single generic hull block item. As currently done with orientation, shape and colour would be changed via the advanced build menu and hotkeys. With smoothing enabled, orientation and shape are not under manual control and instead would be interpreted based on the blocks surrounding a placed block. Surrounding blocks would need to have their orientation/shape updated to maintain consistency.

For example, a block placed between two blocks at 90 degrees would be a wedge. A block placed between three blocks at 90 degrees to each other would be a corner, tetra, penta, or even wedge depending on the shapes of those three blocks.

Oh, well then. I amsrry but i disagree strongly with this then. I use wedges for more than smoothing the basic shape of my ship. I use them for things like vents, to mark shuttle landing areas and many other things. This is a well thought out idea, and I can see the premise, but I don't want, nor think it will be, in the game because of the reasons I just mentioned