Sanctimonia: Block Texture Breakthrough
Kevin Fishburne didn’t have a great start to the month, as he struggled to get block textures on persistent world objects implemented in Sanctimonia, his Ultima-inspired PvE MMORPG:
Working on getting block textures to wrap around the edges. Not my forte, but acceptable results so far. I'm pretty excited about buildings.
— Eight Virtues (@eightvirtues) July 2, 2013
And his luck didn’t improve by the time the Independence Day weekend was imminent:
Brutal and torturous work tonight on getting block textures to wrap properly. Not quite there yet, but when it drops it will be outstanding.
— Eight Virtues (@eightvirtues) July 4, 2013
As the following week began, however, things began looking up:
I'm close to defeating block texture coordinate calculations, after which I'll create key block types and an in-game editor for build plans.
— Eight Virtues (@eightvirtues) July 8, 2013
Two days later, he nailed it:
Breakthrough on block texture coordinate wrapping after more than ten days of head-banging into walls. Demo video encoding as I write this.
— Eight Virtues (@eightvirtues) July 10, 2013
And true to form, he put up a video about it:
Textures on blocks wrap smoothly, as well as play nice in depth testing and when submerged in water in-engine. It’s pretty significant progress for the good Mr. Fishburne to have made in the span of a couple of weeks!
It has been brutal. I’m not sure if I’m just unfathomably stupid (though there’s an excellent chance) or if this is just one of those things, but it’s all wrapped up except for one last bit of code. Of course the last bit, even though it’s just a variation of the previous bits, doesn’t want to work.
I sent out a tweet and emailed Jc (Fearyourself) hoping a fresh mind could drive in the final nail. I’m trying to be optimistic and am framing it as a horrific prelude to an equally affecting rush of ecstasy as I see homes and fortifications rise from the earth.
If anyone’s interested in viewing and perhaps helping me with the offending code, I have a link to the BlockQuad prodecure in a recent tweet. The four lines of pain have the comment “WRONG” at the end. If anyone needs a wider context or more information please let me know.
In any case, thanks WtF for the writeup. Also, when’s your new kid due? I remember you mentioning that a while back and was talking to my wife today about it. Geoffrey’s doing awesome. Even a hardened bastard like myself can’t help but soften a bit for the love of a child it seems (and I thought I was immune).
Kids have that effect…strangest thing, really.
We’re due any day now, as it happens.
Another kidlet!? Wow, congrats! ^_^
Three, now. (And counting?)