Building a 2D World from Polygons

In my tactical project, I am building my world from polygons:

There are however a variety of polygon types to serve the functions of the world:

Platform

A floating platform shape, suspended in 3D space.

They have a collisionable floor and are given a specific designated height for wall structures to occupy.

By constructing a prism in the virtual space, each platform can be assigned a “field region”, the field region of two platforms can never overlap, but can touch on their extremity.

A floor thickness may be possible, but probably not until later in the project, especially since platforms won’t support 3D suspension completely anyway… Not for a long time…

Exclusion

This marks a part of a platform that isn’t occupied by floor; this way creating a hole in the floor isn’t the excruciating process of drawing a tightly folded C-shape. (which would no doubt result in collision errors if things fell smack-on the seam) This way the holes can also be more manipulable as well. (In both level editing, and in meta blocks.)

Block

Block is another word for wall. A block is a polygon that is set inside of a platform polygon; the polygon represents a wall with the height associated with the platform.

Blocks are, of course, collisionable.

Properties such as visibility (glass) and penetrability (plaster/otherwise thin walls) are so far unconsidered; they would likely take on a specialized polygon based off of the Block.

Meta

Meta-blocks are also set within a polygon. The specifics can be explained in a future post, but a meta is an alternate map for the platform, alongside programmable property systems that would allow you to control when, and where, the alternate mapping would replace the current one.

I don’t know if that makes sense, but the system I have in my head allows for the creation of destructible terrain, interactive elements such as oil slicks, and special map triggers, for all of your map-making needs.

Effect

The just-now named “effectygons” will be what manages certain live gameplay aspects of the game.

Effectygons will always hold the kinds of property that meta-blocks use as input, and will also have the possibility to interact quite heavily with meta-blocks. (as well as other effectygons. So then an oil slick would probably work better if it were just an effect!)

The flame of a flame-thrower, the smoke or explosion of a grenade, and specialties such as liquids and chemical coverings are all possibilities of this system.

The exact extent to which they will be programmable is currently unknown; the only thing I really understand is how properties and timers will work, and how meta-blocks can be used to extend their effects in map-specific ways. Things like fluid dynamic, or projectiles parting smoke would be fun and ideal, but not confirmed… I don’t know yet how it might work.

Kinetic?

Moving and functional blocks that have a height independant of their platform could be useful for map design.

Tables, working doors and miscellaneous objects and blocks would be ideally constructed in this manner… the possibility of vaulting low objects is an immensely exciting idea for a tactical shooter design as well.

The problem is that having non-rigid objects would create complications in that certain situations may desire explosions, and physics, the latter of which I am undoubtedly incapable of delivering; even if I could it would be very displeasing to have objects that behave with physics but cannot pitch or roll due to their 2D constrictions… it would be even more displeasing if they actually did pitch and roll in what is otherwise a beautiful and elegant design scheme.

As indicated by the question mark, I am not certain enough of this to really give much speculation or implication about how it would work; my first priority is working that out on a semi-technical level, to get an idea of complexity and direction.

Time Stamp

These are my thoughts and ideas so far!

They have been a few months in the making, so hopefully they are going to be good.

I’ll post some follow-up as more ideas and thoughts come… but first I am going to be posting about the technical side of collision detection in a tactical game environment such as the one I am planning and making.

Polygons

The tactical project has been long in planning, and as is often the case with me, it is the final design scheme coming out of several similar or connected design goals.

The newest element of this complete plan is the use of polygons for all terrain design.

The idea was for the concept of having a mass horde fighting game which was meant to feel like L4D in many ways, and the polygons would allow for terrain that would feel nice and dynamic in a way that rectangles or tiles can’t achieve.
A point of note here is that my main concept vision was a pair of cliff faces with a path between, a horde of circles rushing in one end and a foursome of circles with guns standing on the opposite end. In a tactical environment that could be very fun to watch and manipulate.

The advantages with polygons I have in mind are:

calculations are easy – Detecting if two lines are touching isn’t very difficult, and relevant ray-casting calculations are well within my reach.
works well with top down – Complex object designs aren’t very friendly with a top down 2D view. I’d like to go directly top down and polygons are my friend here.
no losses – Tile designs and orthogonal designs can be made with polygons anyway.
rendering is easy – There are functions available within the windows api that allow for polygon rendering; super easy.

Using block color polygons to build a world populated with block circle entities and projectiles looks very nice in my head; although special visual effects aren’t within my reach, I can see things working quite well, and being quite low demand to build and operate.