really cool! CSG: The Game!
I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
21–30 of 81 posts
Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#22This is super cool, and I like the no-nonsense presentation.
I'm curious to know where he takes the gameplay. He mentions it being digging-focused, and also mentions the digging/terrain deformation aspects in other games like No Man's Sky are relatively low-fidelity. I wonder what a "high-fidelity digging game" looks like (:
Aside, if I may self-plug: I wrote a small series on SDFs, for those who might be interested[1]. I'm also using them in my game engine (though it's 2D, for me).
[1]
* https://festina-lente-productions.com/articles/sdfs-1/
Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#23Almost every 3D game uses textured polygons almost everywhere (except sometimes for fog or clouds), so this SDF engine is nice to see. However, he doesn't mention animations, especially skeletal animations. Those tend to work poorly or not at all without polygons. PS4 Dreams, another SDF engine, also had strong limitations with regards to animation. I hope he can figure something out, though perhaps his game project…
His SDF probably puts out a depth buffer, so with some effort (shadows might be hard?) you can just mix it with traditional polygons. The same way raytracing and polygons mix in AAA games.
He's using the SDFs to fill a space sort of like Unreal's Nanite virtual geometry. Nanite also doesn't support general animation. They only recently added support for foliage. So you'd use SDF / Nanite for your "infinite detail" / kit-bashing individual pebbles all the way to the horizon, and then draw polygon characters and props on top of that.
In fact I was surprised to see that Nanite flipped from triangle supremacy to using voxels in their new foliage tech. So maybe the two technologies will converge. The guy who did the initial research for Nanite (his talk also cites Dreams ofc) said that voxels weren't practical. But I guess they hit the limits of what they can do with pixel-sized triangles.
Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#24This is super cool, and I like the no-nonsense presentation. I'm curious to know where he takes the gameplay. He mentions it being digging-focused, and also mentions the digging/terrain deformation aspects in other games like No Man's Sky are relatively low-fidelity. I wonder what a "high-fidelity digging game" looks like (: Aside, if I may self-plug: I wrote a small series on SDFs, for those who might be interested[…
I am interested in the small series and also the game engine (if not covered in the series). I will read these, thank you for sharing.
Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#25stupid question to anyone reading this: not a gamedev, not even by a long shot but i had to ask
- with the advent of all the AI tools, is it actually possible to vibe code a 3D FPS shooter from scratch like if you wrote a 2000 page prompt, can it actually be done?
Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#26stupid question to anyone reading this: not a gamedev, not even by a long shot but i had to ask - with the advent of all the AI tools, is it actually possible to vibe code a 3D FPS shooter from scratch like if you wrote a 2000 page prompt, can it actually be done?
Elon Musk is working on this(XAi)
Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#27stupid question to anyone reading this: not a gamedev, not even by a long shot but i had to ask - with the advent of all the AI tools, is it actually possible to vibe code a 3D FPS shooter from scratch like if you wrote a 2000 page prompt, can it actually be done?
I mean you can download a free sample project for Unity or Unreal and have a 3D FPS Shooter even without AI. If you want to make one from scratch using AI, you’ll still need to provide some kind of art…
With that said, yeah Claude Code CAN build one, but for action games a big part of them comes down to “game feel”, something that can’t be captured in a screenshot. You really need to have taste and the ability to describe what isn’t working and why.
Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#28stupid question to anyone reading this: not a gamedev, not even by a long shot but i had to ask - with the advent of all the AI tools, is it actually possible to vibe code a 3D FPS shooter from scratch like if you wrote a 2000 page prompt, can it actually be done?
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Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#29stupid question to anyone reading this: not a gamedev, not even by a long shot but i had to ask - with the advent of all the AI tools, is it actually possible to vibe code a 3D FPS shooter from scratch like if you wrote a 2000 page prompt, can it actually be done?
A big challenge of game dev is the asynchronous nature of all the requirements, and that the game will develop its direction continuously throughout dev. That is to say you don't know what assets etc you need until you've developed the part of the game that generates that requirement. I find it hard to imagine even a 2000 page pre-planning could capture that process.
You could try planning ahead and restricting assets to an asset library, that could fix some of that problem. But having used coding agents for complex software work, and games being one of the most complex software tasks in the industry, I just don't see it happening quite that easily.
I also think the outcome would be shit, pure and simple. The development of a game is usually the stylistic input of dozens to thousands of humans over the course of years. They are not trivial pursuits. There's a lot of variance in there, but generally speaking I expect this to be one of the final frontiers for AI development. There's not heaps of training data since game code is usually proprietary, which doesn't help.
Re: I'm making a game engine based on dynamic signed distance fields (SDFs) [video]
#30Reminded me of Red Faction, a FPS where you could destroy the environment.
Kind of like Quake in a Lemmings world.
This is quite more polished to say the least.