Large maps, terrain

[rikaf]

Hi, my first time here ^_^

I have been planning a game, maybe using the Q3 engine, and was wondering how difficult it would be to modify the Q3 engine to make rendering large maps or terrain better? I am not a graphics programmer, I mostly do more mundane and tedious programming, and I don't know the internals of the Q3 engine, so figured it would be best to ask before deciding on anything.

NOTE: I am NOT a graphiXXX zombie, I do not masturbate to graphics, and couldn't care less about shiny pixels ^^; I know, there are plenty of new and shiny engines out there with superb masturbatory graphics, but that's not what I want. The Q3 engine is fairly lightweight and fast, scalable, and also runs smoothly on lower-end computers, which is what is important. The game I've been planning is similar to True Combat Elite for Enemy Territory, and I never saw any reason to "enhance" the graphics, good as it is. Just to spare me the oh so common graphiXXX zombie rants T_T Just to be on the safe side. Don't really know what kind of people are here, and if anyone shares my "renaissance" views.

Anyway, it isn't perfect, so some modifications would be a must, but it's only a small game so it's not the end of the world. I do have thoughts/plans for an engine of my own, but that would be overkill and too difficult, that comes later.

Any constructive comments are welcome!

[^misantropia^]

Hi, rikaf. The Q3 engine might not be the best pick for you. It's optimized for arena-style close combat, not large open maps. To be more specific, it does support *large* maps (large enough to have you walking for the better part of an hour) but large open spaces bring it to a crawl. You can work around it to a certain extent by carefully designing your maps but, depending on what you want to do, YMMV.

[rikaf]

That's what I was afraid of...guess I'll have to keep looking.

[obsidian]

Yeah, you could do numerous hacks like distance fog culling or carefully portalled valley routes, but to do something along the lines of Quake Wars, id Tech 3 will not do.

[4days]

if you don't mind spending a few quid, torque3d is pretty cool:
http://www.garagegames.com/

another commercial one is:
http://unity3d.com/unity/