How SC4 did things

[croxis]

http://simcity.ea.com/about/inside_scoop/3d1.php

The problem with our current method of billboarding will result in problems with shadows.  With my limited knowledge of 3D engines we wont be able to cast them.  However if we can recreate the sc4 system we will be able to have full 3d models in game, and take advantage of shadow casting and dynamic lighting.

[Jonathan]

Shadow casting wasn't perfect in SC4! If an object over a certain height was in the shadow of a building then it would looked darkened/ it was not affected by the shadow.

Jonathan

[croxis]

That just means we will be able to do it right!
Although I do wonder how the casted shadows were so smooth.

[freedo50]

Just thought I'd pick out a paragraph to illustrate how long SC4 has been about:

Yes, we could do this, but doing so to acheive a level similar to what we get with a fixed view would require a prohibitively large amount of memory and disk space and would require much faster 3D accelleration than currently available. How much more memory would we need and how much more 3D accelleration would we need? A conservative estimate would be that the game would require about 4-8GB of disk space, the video card would need to have about 1-2GB of RAM, and the video card would need to be about 10-20 times as fast as a current GeForce 4 card. And AGP is going to have to get 4-8 times as fast is it currently is. We are looking forward to the day when such a PC is available, but until then we'll be sticking with somewhat fixed viewing capabilities.

Isn't it great to look back with 20:20 hindsight? 

Fred

[dragonshardz]

Yes, we could do this, but doing so to acheive a level similar to what we get with a fixed view would require a prohibitively large amount of memory and disk space and would require much faster 3D accelleration than currently available. How much more memory would we need and how much more 3D accelleration would we need? A conservative estimate would be that the game would require about 4-8GB of disk space, the video card would need to have about 1-2GB of RAM, and the video card would need to be about 10-20 times as fast as a current GeForce 4 card. And AGP is going to have to get 4-8 times as fast is it currently is. We are looking forward to the day when such a PC is available, but until then we'll be sticking with somewhat fixed viewing capabilities.

Yes, SC4 has been around for a while.

4-8GB of disk space: This is pocket change to most modern computers.

1-2GB of VRAM: Most new video cards have around 1-2GB of VRAM. The NVidia GeForce GTX 295 has 1.7GB of GDDR3.

An NVidia GeForce GTX 295 is around 10-20 times faster than a GeForce 4, and PCIE is around 4-8 times faster than AGP was when SC4 was in development.

And just think, by the time City Mania has as many people playing it as SC4 does, people will be calling what we thought impressively fast and powerful obsolete.

[Djohaal]

That just means we will be able to do it right!
Although I do wonder how the casted shadows were so smooth.

They are cast from the alphas of the rendered LODs. I beleive they aren't real shadows in the graphics engine processing way. They are more like masks showing the dark terrain. Ocean Quigley's blog (look it up) has an article on sc4's engine. He called it a great layer composing engine...