Hello everyone,
Last week we talked about Air staging, and this week we will be talking about the world borders. Additionally, you can see more on our development streams.
If you can make drawings, or make models, we need your help. Click the link below. Also click it for any other reason:
Nomads discord server: https://discord.gg/eV3wmAX
World Borders
So, it might not be clear what a world border is. Check out the image below for an explanation. Its the thing that appears around the map so you arent staring into blackness.
What you see here is a quick test to make sure our model is going to work in game. There is quite a lot of stuff going on here, even though it doesnt look like much. For example, we are taking a different approach to texturing and polygons, which means that we can expect to have a lot more details to play with than the other factions borders. To make things more clear, the model in the game has around 6000 vertices, while the UEF world border has about 35000. So we are at a fraction of the complexity, which we will be increasing back up to the same level, but ending up with a lot more details in our world borders.
the downside of this approach is that our texture resolutions will be lower in some areas of the model. This is a manageable problem though, and by using clever methods we can really make the most of things without impacting game performance.
For instance, we can place most of the details in the centre of the model, since the edges of the model are rarely visible, and when they are, they are often obscured by fog, so texture density doesnt matter much over there.
Lastly, just earlier today Utter has made a great contribution to the model by adding some extra details to it, which are shown in green.
A thing to bear in mind is that this is a version thats not the same as the ingame screenshots, so there are other things that are not green, but also different. Maybe you can spot some differences with that version from here.
Lastly, note that this is still a work in progress, but when we are done we can expect to have the best world borders ever, and with no performance impact. Incidentally, the black plane bug is fixed with these borders, so if they are finished soon you can play on those maps without anything breaking.
And thats it for now! If you want to see top secret stuff, join the discord server where you can chat to the devs, ask questions, spy on the process and get all the exclusive goodies and more! Also feel free to leave feedback either on the forum thread or in the discord. Remember, feedback is very important!
Lastly, we are always looking for more contributors, so if you are interested in creating things, whether thats code, 2d art, models, music or anything else, do get in touch! We also provide all the resources and guidance needed, so don’t worry if you think you are missing any skills, we will be glad to see you!