I know questions like these have been posted before, but they didn’t cover all I wantet to know. So i’m making my own, thanks in advance;)!
Hey! I was planing on making an Rpg/mmo And was wondering how I should go with making the terrain, should I make one big map? Or smaller maps? And if smaller maps? How would I make it work? I pretty much want something similar to World Of Warcraft, Where it loads while running around, or at least something like that, where the player wont have to have loading screens every second, just to get to the other side of the current map.
Basically I just want to know the best way for creating a world for an MMOrpg/rpg game.
My plan until now, and I really think this will work is making a main map, A really big one, which will lead to smaller maps, other areas and so one. wouldn’t that work? I think that’s one of the ways they’re doing it, in other famous Mmorpg’s.
Unity is capable of very large terrains, yes. And you can load different levels at any time. Unity’s networking, however, is not suited to that type of MMO development. You’ll want to look into SmartFox or Photon, both of which integrate easily into Unity.
As for which way you should do it, that just depends on your design. Larger worlds require more art, more resources, etc.
I highly recommend looking through Gamasutra’s articles on MMO design and development. You’ll want to write out at least a basic outline of what you plan to do before you even begin making terrains or content.
The way I handle this is to make smaller terrains in a 3x3 grid with the center being high resolution and the surroundings being lower resolution with just basic terrain stuff, meaning I turn off all architecture, particle effects, sounds, and other such stuff. Then I make 4 separate boxes around the center equal to the height of the heightmap, and equal to center terrains width or length depending on if its top or bottom. I also have a large box with a collide at the hightmap,
When a player Character runs into a box then it gets the x or y position depending on which box it hits x for east and west and y for north and south and facing direction data and always the z position and loads the high resolution of the new area and switches the previous one to a low res and makes a new 3x3 grid centered around the high res terrain, this is how I do open world things
A better way, In my opinion is to use a chokepoint geography and when making the 3x3 grids first just start with nothing more than the terrain editor and make it so that there are paths between the terrains,
Use a finite state machine with current level state, hidden, low res, and high res to trigger each as you progress you can add new things, in my current game I have something called generations which reflect time traveling added to the level state. Always assign sky boxes to your player character camera so that different players can get things done simultaneously but will allow them to seem like their in different time zones
Oh and if you are looking into making instances like in wow, you should make an on trigger thing to your entrance and make a separate mape just for that with higher detail, Im not a big fan of things like that but sometimes its fun.
Also keep all maps and models to the minimum detail necessary to accomplish your goal unless thier important, This means checking polygon count and keeping only that which is critical.
I hope this helps and get back to me if you need any other advice. Even though they say its to ambitious, there is training available for making a mmo at 3dbuzz.com for member sponsors and if you need any more help on how to do things let me know. Best of luck.
I am not posting this as an answer, because it is not. I am posting it more as a rebuttal to those who would encourage you to give up on pursuing your dreams.
I wonder how many people told Edison he wouldnt be able to create the lightbulb simply because it had not been done before and they could not fathom his abilities or determination.
It seems that there are many naysayers here who would call their discouragement of someone following their dreams bluntness or good advice.
Discouragement disguised as advice is never helpful, and no one knows what you are capable of except you.
Should you continue to work on your MMO…i say absolutely! Will it be difficult…Certainly. Will you regret not continuing if you stop…Most likely if it is truly what you want to do. Will the rewards be worth it if you succeed…I would venture to say yes, and probably in ways you havent even imagined yet.
Never let others determine your ceiling for you with their disuading remarks, you mayfind that you hit your head prematurely if you do.