Specialty Filler Blocks

[Edymnion]

Okay, so as it stands right now the game engine tries to render any part of a ship that could possibly be seen regardless of if anyone is there to see it or not. So if you made a big hollow sphere with nothing inside of it, the game would render the inside of that sphere even if no one was inside of it.

We also know that FPS can be dramatically increased by completely filling in a ship so that there are no such hollow areas for the engine to render.

However, for very large ships, the idea of actually filling the entire thing in solid is... impractical.

Even given infinite resources, the simple mass from filling that much empty space would make many ships virtually impossible to move, so we're stuck with FPS reducing ships, or ships that can't be moved.

Could we instead have some kind of solid block with 0 mass that could be used as specialty filler? 0 mass, 0 contribution to armor and HP, that allow weapons fire to pass through them, and make them manufactured out of something utterly common that everyone has in vast supply already (like rock, lava, or other "junk" blocks).

Blocks who's only purpose is to fill empty space enough to reduce the render load on the engine (since its probably safe to say that the entire game engine isn't going to get overhauled any time soon to make it stop trying to render unseen surfaces).

 

[kiraen]

Or, the code could be optimized so that it doesn't render stuff that can't be seen. No need to waste a block id on a junk block.

 

[Edymnion]

Or, the code could be optimized so that it doesn't render stuff that can't be seen. No need to waste a block id on a junk block.

(since its probably safe to say that the entire game engine isn't going to get overhauled any time soon to make it stop trying to render unseen surfaces).

 

[kiraen]

So you want to give the devs more work to provide a workaround that they will undo later when they fix things properly? I'd rather they just spent the time fixing things properly in the first place. This suggestion makes absolutely no sense to me.

Moving on.

 

[Edymnion]

So you want to give the devs more work to provide a workaround that they will undo later when they fix things properly? I'd rather they just spent the time fixing things properly in the first place. This suggestion makes absolutely no sense to me.

Moving on.

Assuming its ever fixed. A lot of the problems with StarMade at the moment are the result of being written in Java. Its a HORRIBLE language for writing games in. Minecraft's performance got much better once it was ported to an actual language, but that didn't happen until Microsoft put major money behind it.

So I don't think they are going to rewrite the render engine any time soon, which means the problem remains. I would rather see a relatively easy stop-gap measure used than to just say "Well, we might fix it 5 years from now, so no point in looking at it now".

So yes, I would rather see a little work done now to smooth over the issue until a real fix can be done than to let an issue fester indefinitely just because a real fix may or may not ever actually be done.

 

[Valck]

0 mass, 0 contribution to armor and HP, that allow weapons fire to pass through them, and make them manufactured out of something utterly common that everyone has in vast supply already (like rock, lava, or other "junk" blocks).

Blocks who's only purpose is to fill empty space enough to reduce the render load on the engine (since its probably safe to say that the entire game engine isn't going to get overhauled any time soon to make it stop trying to render unseen surfaces).

Admittedly I haven't put much thought into this, but as a stop gap, couldn't you use one of the 0.01 mass blocks? Or maybe even edit the mass of one/some of them down even more, or create a new block with the modding tools or a text editor.
I'm not certain action by Schine is required at this point, but as you said, an engine overhaul may happen, albeit in some unspecified time frame.

 

[hzzzln]

However, for very large ships, the idea of actually filling the entire thing in solid is... impractical.

How so? I always thought you just left the RP interior of your ship empty and have the rest filled with shield/power capacitors. At least that's how I build my ships.

 

[Lecic]

If your ship has huge amounts of exposed internal space, have you considered that your hull is too large for the systems?

 

[Edymnion]

If your ship has huge amounts of exposed internal space, have you considered that your hull is too large for the systems?

I prefer to build an attractive hull then fill it with systems, and stop when I reach the point where I'm just wasting blocks adding capacity I don't need.

 

[lilheartless]

I prefer to build an attractive hull then fill it with systems, and stop when I reach the point where I'm just wasting blocks adding capacity I don't need.

but you aren't ever at that point if your ship has 1 million blocks of non rp open space in it then you just drop another 100k shield capacitors 100k shield rechargers 200k worth of power recharge 100k worth of power capacity and 500k worth of thrusters then you have the same ship you already had which has more shield more shield recharge and more thrust to mass I think thats called....... hmh WINNING.

 

[spunkiethefirst]

I'd recommend setting all the garbage blocks to the settings you mentioned (o ship hp and 1 block hp 0 mass), stuff like burnt dirt or the other garbage blocks the pirates drop.

 

[Bonusinches]

Or, the code could be optimized so that it doesn't render stuff that can't be seen. No need to waste a block id on a junk block.

The game has 9 plain coloured dirt blocks including 2x blocks labelled red dirt, plus 8 blocks of assorted colours of burnt dirt blocks, as well as a block labelled soil ffs. I don't think the tired old argument of preserving block id's really applies here.

 

[Valck]

If your ship has huge amounts of exposed internal space, have you considered that your hull is too large for the systems?

Well yes, but I think the problem also applies to stations with hangars etc, and probably more important, planets with lots of caves... which makes changes to the engine the sensible way to go, and therefore may even not be that far off.

 

[Tunk]

A zero/low mass filler block would be brilliant, especially for cinematic hulls.

 

[karkinosz]

The game has 9 plain coloured dirt blocks including 2x blocks labelled red dirt, plus 8 blocks of assorted colours of burnt dirt blocks, as well as a block labelled soil ffs. I don't think the tired old argument of preserving block id's really applies here.

The burnt dirts iirc were at one point the old L5 ores, they just haven't been changed to anything useful yet. But if those blocks were outright removed that'd cause issues in entities that once contained them. Which is why they became burnt dirt. The others? I assume its the same thing, removed blocks are replaced with dirt until the IDs are reused.

 

[Bonusinches]

No one is saying remove the dirt blocks, just that there is redundancy there and that said block id's could be repurposed, much as you described Karkinoz.

This type of block would be a temporary addition to the game that could be added quite simply, be helpful for some of the playerbase while not being detrimental to gameplay whatsoever for the rest, and could then be reused later for something else once the graphic rendering is optimised and it no longer has a purpose.

 

[Edymnion]

Exactly. The various burnt dirts and colored lava and true junk blocks (that can't even be sold or used, only thrown away) still drop left and right in pirate loot clouds.

Why not simply make them 0 mass gap filler? They're already there, they're already wasting space as drops, they serve no constructive purpose what-so-ever at the moment. Least this way they could be re-purposed into something USEFUL until such a time as a more permanent fix could be done.

 

[Lecic]

as well as a block labelled soil

Uh... you do know soil is a naturally generated block, right? It appears underneath trees on terran worlds.

 

[Bonusinches]

Yeah Lecic, my point was that we already have soil and having all the varieties of dirt as well is largely redundant, unless Schema plans to add an indepth level of agronomy into the game at some stage.