First of all, your probably gasping at the amount of matrices with 60x60 polygons I've used. Don't worry about that, the poor fps is not a problem. I've already found a way around that. I am building a base constructed from several matrices and objects. I DO NOT HAVE THE MEANS OF USING OBJECTS INSTEAD OF MATRICES.
I have 3 problems:
My first problem is simple. Why is it that some objects look as though they are in front other objects or that some TEXTURED matrices look as though they are in front of objects when they aren't? And how can I fix this without altering the camera range?
Secondly, it seems to have taken me ages to do what I have done so far, so what I am going to do is create an editor for the game which lets me deal with:
1) Matrices
2) Objects
3) Lighting
First of all, I need to transfer all the work I've done to separate data files. If you look at my source code pass the definition of the function makeCarlsBase(), you will see a function called writeMatrixFiles(...). This function will write all the information of ONE matrix to 4 files:
status.alm (information on size and amount of polygons)
yvals.alm (different heights of each grid in the matrix)
pos.alm (matrix x, y and z positions)
texvals.alm (the tile texture of each grid in the matrix)
I can successfully read and write the information in the files status.alm, yvals.alm and pos.alm. But I don't have a clue how to get DarkBASIC to return the number of a tile texture at a specific grid co-ordinate so I can write it to texvals.alm.
My third problem is when it comes to writing the data for the objects. So far, there are 1197 objects in and outside the base and there will be more to come when the editor is done. I have an idea on how to write all the information of EVERY OBJECT to one or more files IN ONE GO by specifying the position, size, path where it can be loaded ect... But what if I have just created a plain or box using DarkBASICs built in 3D primitives and just coloured it or textured it. The variable path$ would be empty and it would cause an error to occur. Also there's the fact that I have enlarged most of the objects and the command object size x(object number) will only return the original size of the object and not the enlarged size. I do not want to have to specify each detail for all 1197 objects one by one. What can I do?
D.D.D Productions
Specializing in game creation
