@devs: possibly crazy idea re: terraforming

0x6A7232

I have no idea if this would help or not, but:

What if base terraforming was stored separately from the main terrain files, and then applied as the last step when loading? In other words, world terrain is loaded, then the terraforming is applied from the separate terraforming file(s), so as not to bog down the main terrain files?

I realize that since I know nothing of how Subnautica works under the hood, this may be a ridiculous suggestion, and I'm sorry if that's the case. Just wondering.

Nautical_Nick

Sounds possible, and yes... Crazy!!

HiSaZuL

That would just move data to a separate file. Would accomplish nothing really. What they need is a different method of storing it and sadly considering how terrain is it's hard to imagine it being small. It literally, one way or another, has to save this polygon by polygon. I imagine it's treated same way as when they apply terain a sort of layering that is morphed and a texture with shadow map and material map and reflection map etc is wrapped over it, which requires recalculating polygons before reapplying textures every time it is changed hence the huge size.

Lets say the mountain is saved as outline basically, with all the edges being coordinates giving it a shape, but game loads in cells so you no matter what things have to be broken down that increases amount of coordinates that needs to be stored. Anyhoo my point was they need a more efficient method of storing data which is kind of tied to the engine which isn't theirs and I have no idea how far they can modify it... I heard they upgraded to newer one so I imagine rewriting core of it is not really a good idea since they'd have to do so every time they upgrade.

Unfortunate really -_- terafforming is fun and I despise building when there is no damn leeway at all. Oh no a leaf is blocking my fence... welp. GG. Done. Can't do anything about it.

Julian1337331nailuJ

Great Idea! But Wait. What About The Terraforming Tool?

0x6A7232

If it was possible to find a way to make terraforming not cost gobs of performance, it could probably be kept? I think at this point though we'll have to wait until after terraforming's gone and see if that fixes everything, as they're working on removing it now IIRC.