Is it possible with Panda to produce the same effect as in the dungeon keeper game where the terrain is dug out? If so can someone give me an idea how you would do this with panda? Would there issues with the map size when trying to do this if it can be done?
it’s actually pretty easy to do =)
a simple way would be to use a 3d-tile-based-like map.
simply load a "wall"model at a place where there are walls.
load a simple “ground” model if there are no walls
and load a simple “wall model without any walls on the side” in case a tile is completly surrounded by wall (so the sides are invisible).
if you digg terrain just switch the models =).
disadvantage: loading hundrets of single wall and ground models onto the graficcard is very inefficient.
solution =) : group them together to larger blocks with “flatten strong”. and if you digg away a piece of wall just ge-generate the whole block.it’s fast and switching the blocks wont be noticeable.
try to group 16x16 or 32x32 single wall-pieces to a larger block (any number will do but these should be good values to start with).
you should see a significant performance gain and you should be able to handle quite huge maps.