cfg – Configuration ASCII files aka “configs”. If you open subdirectory “base”, you will find different types of files. Maybe you can find there more other files or subdirectories, but they are not significant for us. In this directory you can find executable file “Doom3.exe” and subdirectory named “base”. The entire game (executable file, libraries, config files etc.) is stored by default Windows install on the following path: ![]() If you have any experience with previous engines (Quake 2 and higher) from id Software, here will come handy. According to recent reports on upcoming Rage and Doom 4 we can just look forward to.įile structure of id Tech 4 engineAfter quick introduction to id Tech 4 and its important details, we will focus first on how game content is stored and used by engine. Id Software is currently developing new remarkable technologies that will be used in games based on id Tech 5 engine. This was the game where id Tech 4 engine proved its ability to render also huge beautiful outdoor scenes, which were missed by that time in this engine. First game, which used all capabilities of Megatexture was Enemy Territory: Quake Wars. When Doom 3 was released, this technology was still under development. Doom 3 supports Megatexture technology in very limited way. This technology allows us to use high resolution texture instead of small tiled textures on terrains. This also dropped off the need to pre-render map lighting, which saves a lot of time during map development.Īnother important technology is called “Megatexture”. Simply put, that is why the id Tech 4 has “unified” lighting. This separation often led to unrealistic lighting of dynamic objects in otherwise static-lit map. On the contrary, dynamic lighting on the moving models etc. Data for storing lights and shadows in the static map has been made in advance and saved into so-called “lightmaps”. Previous three-dimensional games, such as already mentioned Quake 3, used separated type of lighting for static elements (game environment aka map) and dynamic elements (characters, moving models etc.). The main technological contribution of the engine is feature called “Unified lighting and shadowing”. Despite similar criticisms this game earned its place in the world of computer games and received many awards. Some people claimed that Doom 3 is just “pitch black darkness with sound“. But there was also a wave of criticism aimed particularly at the darkness of the game. But unexpected long development caused that the first game on this engine – Doom 3 – wasn’t released until summer of year 2004. John Carmack began work on id Tech 4 after completing the Quake 3 Arena, so that means in the end of year 1999. So main advantages at that time were kick-ass visuals and also cross-platform support (Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X). ![]() Like previous Carmack’s 3D engines, this id Tech 4 engine was also build under OpenGL. During the development id switched from C language to C++ and so part of an older engine were rewritten too. First alpha versions were based on previous Quake 3 engine (id Tech 3). In the beginning, id Tech 4 engine was referred to as Doom 3 engine. Contrary, main attention will be given to procedures directly related to transferring content to id Tech 4 engine, workflow in associated editors and other useful tools, which will ease our work. For this reason, tutorials will not deal with teaching these areas. In other words, you have to have skills with bitmaps, 3D modeling and animation. Keep in mind that these tutorials require knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, Autodesk Maya etc. These tutorials deal with procedures of content creation and its transfer to id Tech 4 engine (rather Doom 3). One of the most important “rules” is an effort to create optimal and effective representation of content while maintaining adequate hardware requirements and high audio-visual quality. However, there are main “rules” that apply to content for all computer games. And what is worse, each game engine has its own procedures for content creation. Compared for example with creation of models and animations for CG scenes for films, some procedures are similar, other completely different. ![]() Creation of models, animations, environment and all other content for computer games is quite specific issue.
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