Replacing DF Trees with actual Trees

Discuss Daggerfall Unity and Daggerfall Tools for Unity.
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Gormanilius
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Joined: Sun May 08, 2016 1:09 am

Replacing DF Trees with actual Trees

Post by Gormanilius »

Are there any plans to replace the 2d objects like trees with actual 3d trees? I found this tool with unity that could be supposedly used to accomplish such a task: http://www.speedtree.com/unity/

I have little to no knowledge of game design, I do keep up with the OpenMW and Tamriel Rebuilt projects, so when I found out about Daggerfall Unity, I became excited :) Took the plunge 2 weeks ago to finally try playing Daggerfall, and I am liking it after changing up the controls. Did install Daggerfall Unity to check it out.

Would the tools be considered, essentially, a Construction Set for Daggerfall?

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LypyL
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Joined: Sun Mar 22, 2015 3:48 am

Re: Replacing DF Trees with actual Trees

Post by LypyL »

Welcome to the forums! :)
Are there any plans to replace the 2d objects like trees with actual 3d trees? I found this tool with unity that could be supposedly used to accomplish such a task: http://www.speedtree.com/unity/
I've done some smaller scale tests using scripts to replace 2D flats w/ 3d models in city blocks, but that's about it afaik. There won't be anything "official" for this, it will be up to a mod to do this.
Would the tools be considered, essentially, a Construction Set for Daggerfall?
In a way yeah, it's not quite that straightforward though :) One thing that's in process that will definitely make this a better comparison is a modding framework using the unity toolset (and Daggerfall Unity). The rough idea is for mods to work in a fashion to how they do in later Elder Scrolls games.

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Jay_H
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Re: Replacing DF Trees with actual Trees

Post by Jay_H »

Welcome to the forums, and we're glad to have you.
Gormanilius wrote:Are there any plans to replace the 2d objects like trees with actual 3d trees? I found this tool with unity that could be supposedly used to accomplish such a task: http://www.speedtree.com/unity/

Would the tools be considered, essentially, a Construction Set for Daggerfall?
The project lead, Interkarma, appears to have quite a lot of IRL work right now, so you may not get an immediate answer. Meanwhile, I'm hardly a contributor (more like an observer at best), but if you'll indulge me, I'll share what I understand about your questions, with the implicit expectation that if any of it is inaccurate I'll be corrected by a better source. My opinion follows.

The original whole intent of the project was to write tools to recreate Daggerfall and create Daggerfall-esque games using the Unity engine, called Daggerfall Tools for Unity (herein DFTFU). Interkarma eventually decided to recreate Daggerfall itself first, presumably writing the necessary mod tools on the run as needed by the new Daggerfall (herein DFU). This means that the focus has shifted, temporarily, from universal mod tools for Daggerfall-likes to specific tools for what DFU requires. Thus, it's difficult to know what specific form, input, and output the mod tools will eventually have; Interkarma himself may not yet have a full grasp on the various kinds of data which will be required and what formats and manipulations will be required for them. Furthermore, there's some possibility that certain intermediate tools will be created for DFU, and then dropped in favor of more comprehensive tools for DFTFU. Thus, we may certainly have expectations on what DFTFU may be capable of, and then those expectations could be exceeded in the future when DFU is complete.

In short, what you're proposing appears to be possible within Unity. To replace a 2D object with a 3D one is certainly a programming feasibility. The greater question, I believe, is when that would be made possible; I have speculated that DFTFU itself would be made user-friendly by some point in 2017, but that's just my own guess. Of course, if additional programmers entered the scene, the presumption is that the project would accelerate its progress.

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Interkarma
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Re: Replacing DF Trees with actual Trees

Post by Interkarma »

Lypyl and Jay have answered exceptionally well, so I don't have much to add. Thank you guys.

From my end, I'm going to focus on the core gameplay elements first, but I would love to see this kinds of enhancements in the future as well. It's something that always on my mind, even if I'm not actively making provision for it right now.

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