torpid plinth
This is sort of a broad yet consice question:
What is currently/what is the plan for rendering the complexities of the ship, seeing as (I'd imagine) quite a few pieces of logic are physicalized/dependant on a fully loaded entity? How do NPCs, Multiplayer, and external views such as planetary landings, drones, and shuttles affect that/will they load at the same scale?
Thank 'ya for all the work so far, and here's in-advance to the future,
north valve
Things are basically only going to be rendered if visible. They're actually using the ship's hull itself as a giant collusion mesh. From the streams, and my own personal experience playing on a potato, Dan's giving performance some serious thought 👌
mystic chasm
Everything is centered around the ship. The ship isn't moving, the universe does.
All external models are, as @north valve said one mesh. So nothing is actually simulated in detail on the other end.
If you enter your shuttle\yacht, you will 'teleport' (not a in-game teleport) to a shuttle that is in-game simulated while your actual ship is unloaded and shown as one big mesh/model without detail-simulation. Also, when visiting a planet, there will be a very short transition period between the galaxy and the planet. (I think, like Empyrion does)
In multiplayer, I'm not 100% sure how it'll be done technically, but the same goes as before, but with different viewpoints. So your ship #1 will view Ship #2 as one big mesh. The opponent sees it the other way around. If you shoot, the damage is calculated on the receiving end because only that side will know the details of all simulated parts. The number of ships in MP will depend on how big the ships are, aka how many the simulated parts they have. So for example 2 big ships OR 1 big ship and 3 shuttles OR 6 shuttles.
Other interesting info about this:
Multiple ships:
#1223338088332398602 message
Do note:
#1226822920530034698 message
torpid plinth
Everything is centered around the ship. The ship isn't moving, the universe does...
So, to be clear, the game is pretty much just instanced/cell-based, based on what you know?
mystic chasm
Well, that is more of a MMO-term and this is not a MMO. The terms do not apply in any sense of it.
It just a perspective of where you are. Just like a FPS is just a bunch of different maps that load in when the games needs you to be on that map, this is just that. Think of it as this: one map is the ship, another is the shuttle and yet another is a planet. It is not 100% seemsless, but very close to it.
torpid plinth
Well, that is more of a MMO-term and this is not a MMO. The terms do not apply i...
I suppose I get that, but as I understand it, visibility could mean a lot of things- On-screen, calculated, in the area, etcetera, so it's got to have some sort of standard, like how Creation Engine uses cells. I get that instancing is generally focused on server-side differences, but from a multiplayer stance, it matters if other clients connect directly to the host's client, or if they instance their own copy and sync, or...
Anywho, thanks so far.
mystic chasm
I suppose I get that, but as I understand it, visibility could mean a lot of thi...
Now that I gave it another thought, this is zone-based I'd say.
And within each zone there are no cells or instanced. (The ship is zone 1, the shuttle-in-space is zone 2 and a planet zone 3. I'm not sure how shuttle on the planet map are done technically)
torpid plinth
Now that I gave it another thought, this is zone-based I'd say.
And *within* eac...
Hmm... That still leaves lots of performance on the table if all the complex CAD is loaded behind the walls, or still-so even if the ship is just fully loaded minus the CAD, but that'd certainly make sense.
mystic chasm
Hmm... That still leaves lots of performance on the table if all the complex CAD...
The idea is that only the one ship with all it's part, a few stellar bodies in space and some single object entities like stations or ships are simulated which is why the performance should be quite good.
Besides, (detail) rendering isn't something that should take a lot of performance due to Unreal's Nanite system. It isn't free of cycles ofc, but shouldn't be a great hit on your system.
So, practically speaking, only the AI and the simulation of all parts will be the ones causing most calculations done.
I wouldn't know how it's technically done with using the video card with non-visible items, but they are there in the sim ofc.