Re: [Algorithms] Scalability costs

[Jamie F. <j.f...@re...>]

Jim Offerman wrote:

> > It's a nice idea, but is it worth the cost in development time?
>
> I think that any form of scalability (whether it is achieved through some
> pre-calculated LoD levels or through advanced techniques, like the
> forementioned VIPM, or even just scalability/modularity of your engine it
> self) is worth the cost in development time, since it potentially increases
> the replayability of your game and/or the reusability of your engine.
>
> So your game can potentially sell more copies of a longer period, since it
> can still compete with the newest releases (hence you earn more money with
> it)

Is this true in the PC market? For consoles, you get most sales in early days,
very little afterward. Tom's suggestion that you can still be looking good in n
years time isn't matched by sales in our circumstances.

> and you can potentially reduce the development cycle of your next game,
> since you already have a good basis to start from.
>

Great idea, does it really happen in practice? We seem to end up starting from
scratch every time. Or at least taking the old stuff, using it as a base, and
then rewriting most of it. New consoles don't help, of course :)

>
> Scalability combined with modularity can even save you development time. If
> you implement a general case CLOD algorithm in your engine, you can apply
> this technique to both your game entities (units, buildings, etc.) and your
> terrain. Such a decision may have far reaching consequences: Since all your
> geometry is essentially the same, you can also handle all your geometry in
> the same way, which means less special case algorithms (which makes sense,
> since everything is evolving to more general case algorithms anyway...) and
> thus less code to write and debug.

That definitely makes sense. All our geometry is going through the same
pipeline. CLOD does not make sense for us given time constraints, and it
doesn't fit the hardware too well either (according to our somewhat limited
research :). Next generation of games, we may try something a little more
procedural, but not for the mo....

Algorithms that scale well are a good thing... he says, frantically trying to
convince himself the thread's not OT.... :)

Jamie