3d floors and current graphics engine.

[AnalOpportunist]

More and more map creators are using 3d floors and models. Zandronum engine is not optimised to use those, as explained here.

Because of that I have some questions.

I imagine that a possible fix could be rewritting the graphics engine, so it would not use raycasting to generate graphics. Possibly that would affect also game logic. It's a shitload of work, but is that all or is there something more, I forgot to mention? How invasive would that change be? How much time would it take and would it be worth the effort? Am I even asking this question right people, or should I go with it to GZDoom creators? Are Zandronum creators planning to do it in close or distant future? What would the community think about such change? Would they be glad or they wouldn't consider it Doom anymore?

[mr fiat]

afaik vavoom is polygonal based (doesnt even have a software render) as it has allot more quake related code in it then zdoom and derivatives, so it is possible but i dont think devs wil do it as it would take too much time and eventualy just cater to very few people that have bricks for PCs.

[AnalOpportunist]

Thanks for information.

very few people that have bricks for PCs

However, I can't agree with that part. First, it's not a few, because maps like Echo Ridge from Who Dun It are constantly skiped due to lag. Secondly, someone might want to build a big area with 3d floors/models and with big enough room and amount of models, even the newest GPUs might choke.

[mr fiat]

hmm i gues that is true to a extend as my relatively new system does choke on "dawn of reality" but the thing is, if you were to recreate similar scenarios in modern game engines or slightly newer polgyon based engines i think it wil be pretty bad too, as the aforementioned mod uses a enourmous open map with 700+ monsters roaming the area and a boatload of details and hi-res textures.

[StrikerMan780]

Right now, Zandro is mostly CPU-Bound, even in it's OpenGL Renderer. In maps like Echo Ridge, my GeForce 9800 GT performed just as well as my GeForce GTX 560, a much more powerful card. It wasn't until I upgraded my CPU that the framerate improved.

I kind of wish ZDoom and Zandro could adopt Mocha Doom's Multi-threaded rendering technique for Columns and Visplanes for starters... that'll help software users' performance first. Zandro/GZDoom needs some proper Hardware T&L for 3D Models... Right now all vertex transforms are in Software like in Quake 3 Arena, as far as I'm aware. That wouldn't help with map-related lag, but it would be an improvement.

I also wish Doom's Nodes/Vis worked like Quake BSP/Vis in that it also optimizes rendering and culling of unseen stuff on a third axis. It would mean big void pillars to block areas off would be less necessary.