Planned slab wedges

[siserith]

simple thin wedges to make my furnature emprie complete. at 1/4 1/2 and 3/4 widths

 

[Criss]

This was discussed during the livestream and it is either something we are considering or already planned. I cannot recall which.

 

[siserith]

to clean somthing like this up. and i know you probably already plan on fixing the colision boxes.
keep up the good work dev team. a lot of these "decoration" blocks have surprising and effective in game uses besides making things look better. they also allow you to build smaller more deatiled things. i mean this update has allowed me to double the gun size in the turret.

 

[jzimmerman4]

Slab wedges have been confirmed.
"Slab versions of special blocks like wedges and corners will follow." -launcher news

 

[kupu]

Looks like your having some rendering issues on wedges, mate.
What is your VBO setting in the advanced options of the launcher?

(If on a Radeon card, this thread has fixed a number of issues; http://starmadedock.net/threads/for-all-amd-radeon-users-read-this.6184/#post-89188 )

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

This isn't even all the possibilities. These are the most basic ones, which ones would you want/need?

Slab size to Nil, Slab size to full block, slab size to one step smaller, slab size to one step larger, slab to slab.

 

[Groovrider]

I really see wedge slabs as just being slices of the upright block, with no change of angle. I think some maybe disappointed.

 

[nightrune]

Definitely need changes in angle!

 

[godmars]

This isn't even all the possibilities. These are the most basic ones, which ones would you want/need?

Slab size to Nil, Slab size to full block, slab size to one step smaller, slab size to one step larger, slab to slab.

I wonder if this is why we didn't get slabs for the other blocks in the last update.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I wonder if this is why we didn't get slabs for the other blocks in the last update.

Slab versions of blocks compress the texture, this is why not all blocks will get slabs. If they texture looks bad compressed they won't have a slab version.

 

[Colt556]

This isn't even all the possibilities. These are the most basic ones, which ones would you want/need?

Slab size to Nil, Slab size to full block, slab size to one step smaller, slab size to one step larger, slab to slab.

Left row of wedges is the only thing really "needed". The others are nice but not really required. I mean all the other wedge possibilities really have little to do with slabs and more to do with simple possibilities of block shapes. The left row means each slab can interact with a wedge the same way a full block interacts with a wedge, giving us the same possibilities only on smaller scales.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Left row of wedges is the only thing really "needed". The others are nice but not really required. I mean all the other wedge possibilities really have little to do with slabs and more to do with simple possibilities of block shapes. The left row means each slab can interact with a wedge the same way a full block interacts with a wedge, giving us the same possibilities only on smaller scales.

The problem with that is there is no way to go from a slab up to a full block. Sure you can step down but you will still have square edges if you need to step up. The full block wedge performs both functions.

 

[Colt556]

The problem with that is there is no way to go from a slab up to a full block. Sure you can step down but you will still have square edges if you need to step up. The full block wedge performs both functions.

The problem with slabs atm is they are basically in the same place blocks were before wedges were added. Everything you do with them is blocky and there's no way to smooth it out.

Ideally we'd have every combination and could smooth it out in any way possible, and that may very well happen one day. But for now simply having SOME way of smoothing out the slabs would help. I view it a lot like how we had blocks, then got wedges, then eventually we had tetras and pentas, each new addition giving us more control over smoothing things out. Slab wedges wouldn't cover every possibility, but they don't need to. It's just one more tool that does one more thing. Slabs themselves don't cover everything, but we still make use of them in the ways we can, slab wedges wouldn't be any different.

 

[luizsilveira]

Left row of wedges is the only thing really "needed".

I'd actually really like the "slab-to-slab" tiny one at the bottom right corner there.

 

[Colt556]

I'd actually really like the "slab-to-slab" tiny one at the bottom right corner there.

I think everyone can chime in with "I want that" because they're all useful and they can all be used to great effect in building. That's why I'd ideally like to see all the variations added some day.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I'd actually really like the "slab-to-slab" tiny one at the bottom right corner there.

Yeah those are all the variations we would need to go from slab to nill, slab to full block, from slab to up and down one size, and the wedges to adjoin two slabs from perpendicular faces. They are the ones I thought would be most useful. There are so many possible slab -> slab wedges once you start thinking about slabs on different planes.

 

[jayman38]

I think it's getting to the point where Schine might seriously need to consider upping the bit count per block. Probably from 3 bytes to 4, to make room for all the Block IDs needed. If you pumped it up to 4 bytes, devoting all the extra bits to Block IDs, you could get half-a-million additional block IDs. Almost-nearly-half-enough. You could move the orientation blocks over to Block ID count, giving additional multipliers to the Block ID count, forcing the different orientations into their own block IDs. Since some blocks don't need 24 orientations, and we don't even use 7 or 8 "other" orientations possible with the current orientation bit count, it would be better to spend those bits on Block IDs, and put each orientation in its own block ID.

Current Block ID bits: 12? (2048 IDs possible). Current Orientation bits: 6 (32 orientations possible). Orientation-enhanced Block IDs with the additional byte: 24 (3 full bytes) (well over 8 million block IDs!)

10 levels hull/armor/crystal armor x 10 colors each x 30 shapes x an average of 20 orientations = 60,000 armor Block IDs (multiply by 4 to accommodate future additions, in addition to the growth we currently expect = ~240k Armor Block IDs)

Plus: 40 system/effect blocks x 30 shapes x an average of 20 orientations = 24,000 system Block IDs (again multiply by 4 to accommodate future additions = ~100k System Block IDs)

Plus: 50 weapon/support blocks x 30 shapes x an average of 16 orientations = 24,000 weapon Block IDs

Plus: 500 decoration/ore/crystal blocks x 30 shapes x an average of 16 orientations = 240,000 decoration Block IDs.
(Probably multiply by 4 to allow future additions and changes = ~1 M Decoration Block IDs)

Left over Block IDs: 7 M! (enough for future growth and multiple massive custom and decoration mods)

22 Block ID bits would yield a total of 2 M block IDs, probably enough for everything in the vanilla game. 23 Block ID bits would yield 4 M block IDs, probably enough for absolutely everything, including multiple simultaneous decoration mods.

 

[Ithirahad]

I think 4 million block IDs would be a bit too much, if not two. Around a million would be good enough :P

 

[Thalanor]

This isn't even all the possibilities. These are the most basic ones, which ones would you want/need?

Slab size to Nil, Slab size to full block, slab size to one step smaller, slab size to one step larger, slab to slab.

I want this so much.

 

[jayman38]

I think 4 million block IDs would be a bit too much, if not two. Around a million would be good enough :p

You underestimate the incredibly voracious appetite of modders and decorators. :D However, if you only want a million Block IDs, you'll need 21 bits. With the current needs of blocks including health, armor, and an activation bit, you'll definitely need 32 bits overall (4 bytes) instead of the current 24 bits (3 bytes) per block.