Author Topic: Block Party (Terrain Ex. Pg.124 - 2Million Blocks)  (Read 232168 times)

ah i didnt know that. when i use unity on mac and export to PC there are almost no issues, i thought it would work the same around mb

Sadly, no.

Creating a Mac-Build in Unity requires a Mac with Unity installed and the project loaded.

No-one in the team has a Mac... :(



i think there are mac and linux build options during installation. if you didnt install it the first time you can just open the installer and pick it and it will install the build support without re-installing unity, as long as you uncheck everything except the mac build and linux

you dont have to do it if you dont want to, but i did want to give it a try. i know im like one of the 2-3 people on this forum who have a mac so its understandable that you guys dont build one
« Last Edit: May 08, 2018, 12:59:46 PM by thegoodperry »

those builds feel like 2008 all over again

One thing I'm worried about is the optimization for the bricks. Sure you have 10,000 bricks being rendered at a decent framerate, but that's a far cry from the million bricks that Blockland can render with no sweat. Are you working towards octree rendering?
Will the bricks support tessellation in the future?

wats the progress on vehicles
and can they have trailers



i think there are mac and linux build options during installation. if you didnt install it the first time you can just open the installer and pick it and it will install the build support without re-installing unity, as long as you uncheck everything except the mac build and linux

you dont have to do it if you dont want to, but i did want to give it a try. i know im like one of the 2-3 people on this forum who have a mac so its understandable that you guys dont build one
I'm sure there's quite a few members at least who use Mac, so we do hope to include builds for Mac eventually. We do have the option available, but haven't gotten it to compile.


those builds feel like 2008 all over again
It does feel a bit nostalgic at times. Once we start adding maps, I think it'll bring back a lot of memories (especially if some maps are inspired by certain BL maps).


wats the progress on vehicles
and can they have trailers
Haven't gotten to vehicles yet, and trailers are possible.


One thing I'm worried about is the optimization for the bricks. Sure you have 10,000 bricks being rendered at a decent framerate, but that's a far cry from the million bricks that Blockland can render with no sweat. Are you working towards octree rendering?
Will the bricks support tessellation in the future?
Agreed, it's a decent start, but no where near what Blockland can handle. We are using an octree system, which is roughly 15-25% optimized; there are at least 3 other techniques well be adding to fully optimize the brick system. Longor has a lot more experience with data structures, so he'll be helping with that.

The engine supports tessellation for shaders, but right now I'm not planning on adding it. We'll see, that may be subject to change later on of course. But, the bump maps we're using now give an illusion of having 3D geometry, and update dynamically to real-time lighting:


As great as it is to have completely customizable colors, brick shapes, and rotations please keep in mind the load times and memory usage or hundreds of thousands of bricks won't be obtainable.
For example, in Blockland a single brick is between 136 to 141 bits to send over the network. That breaks down to 1 bit for if it is planted, 2 bits for ShapeFX and AngleID, 3 bits for the ColorFX, 6 bits for the ColorID, 12 bits for the datablock, 15-20 bits for the ghost ID, and 96 bits for the position of the brick. To download the info from the server for 200,000 bricks would be around 27Mb of info.
« Last Edit: May 09, 2018, 12:32:43 PM by DurkaDude »

27MB of info.

that's fine. It is 2018 after all, connections should be able to handle some fluff.

-snip- a single brick is between 136 to 141 bits to send over the network -snip- 200,000 bricks would be around 27MB of info.

So... 141 bits per brick is 18 bytes, which multiplied by 200'k gives you ~3.3 megabytes... and that's without clustering and compression techniques. The binary size of bricks is thus a non-issue, unless one lives on a farm somewhere in nowhere.

As great as it is to have completely customizable colors, brick shapes, and rotations please keep in mind the load times and memory usage or hundreds of thousands of bricks won't be obtainable.
For example, in Blockland a single brick is between 136 to 141 bits to send over the network. That breaks down to 1 bit for if it is planted, 2 bits for ShapeFX and AngleID, 3 bits for the ColorFX, 6 bits for the ColorID, 12 bits for the datablock, 15-20 bits for the ghost ID, and 96 bits for the position of the brick. To download the info from the server for 200,000 bricks would be around 27Mb of info.
only dirty data will be sent, so the only time you'll actually feel the 27mb of data will be if someone tries to load all the bricks at once

as long as gameobjects are merged as much as possible, there wont be much data to send
« Last Edit: May 11, 2018, 07:56:40 PM by thegoodperry »

I am extremely happy to see how far this project has gone thus far. Has Badspot ever contacted you about it, though? Not like you need his permission or anything.

It might be that I'm used to "Blockland," but Block Party should either be Blockparty or you need to choose something different.
« Last Edit: May 13, 2018, 01:23:32 AM by Swat 3 »

I am extremely happy to see how far this project has gone thus far. Has Badspot ever contacted you about it, though? Not like you need his permission or anything.

It might be that I'm used to "Blockland," but Block Party should either be Blockparty or you need to choose something different.
Always happy to hear when others are enjoying the progress being made.

We've never been contacted by him. However, we're not using nor will use any of Blockland's assets. Also, this isn't meant to be a clone or sequel to Blockland, but a game inspired by it with a unique identity of it's own. So there shouldn't be any issue.

I have great expectations with this project, and knowing you GSF I know you won't let us down, I'd be glad to make videos for it if you need someday.

Speaking of videos, I know it's a bit early to ask but do you plan to add handy video making tools? Like that filmbots add-on Whirlwind made which records your movements and save it in a bot, and a freeze camera key so I can move freely with the camera positioned somewhere.

Also not sure if thay's possible with a Unity game, but Steam Workshop could be pretty cool.
« Last Edit: May 14, 2018, 07:34:06 AM by Filipe »

I have great expectations with this project, and knowing you GSF I know you won't let us down, I'd be glad to make videos for it if you need someday.

Speaking of videos, I know it's a bit early to ask but do you plan to add handy video making tools? Like that filmbots add-on Whirlwind made which records your movements and save it in a bot, and a freeze camera key so I can move freely with the camera positioned somewhere.

Also not sure if thay's possible with a Unity game, but Steam Workshop could be pretty cool.
Thanks Filipe, videos for the game would be awesome later on, once we have more to show off.

I would like to add filmbots and other content like that, but it may be best to leave that to the community. Although, I was experimenting with camera bricks a few weeks ago; it might be possible to record from external cameras somehow:



i must make the first Block Party weapon pack. thats my one and only life goal