Hastur's Workshop: Busted: 5-D Space

Gary L. Simmons

rev 01/12/06

http://webwonks.org/Marathon/Forge/hastursworkshop/busted3.html

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Busted Question #2: Escher's Revenge

Question: I'm making a cool 5-D space map, but I've got a place where I get stuck. I've done everything you can imagine, nuking and paving, deleting and remaking the whole area. I can't figure it out. What is up?

Answer: Overlapping polygons that occupy the same physical space is called 5-D space in Marathon. Sometimes Marathon has trouble deciding exactly what polygon the player is in. In the case of Escher's Revenge, the problem was caused by a nasty bit of geometry.

The Solution:

Take a look at the picture to your left. The area marks the polygon in which the player gets trapped. The purple marks the polygon that is causing the problem.

By splitting up the polygon (as in the picture to the right) the problem dissapears. Look closely and you'll notice that the purple polygon has the old "solid-transparent" problem. I've addressed this problem on other pages, the best example is:

Monster Path Building


		Look at the diagram. The red polygons should probably be split up, because they have solid-transparent-solid sides. The scheme to split them up with is marked in blue. The purple polygons are like the ones in the above example. They should probably be split up as well. Another potential problem with this map is the old "too many points in a line" problem. I've discussed this already on Acme Station. Download the "problematic version of Escher's Revenge", too see for yourself. Note that this map is unfinished. Please read the README. (Editors Note: This map is no longer available! For the sake of the information archive, the URL used to be : ftp://ftp.doubleaught.com/pub/doubleaught/ eschertest.sit.hqx)

If you have any questions you would like answered, please direct your mail to the most humble Grendel, grendel@doubleaught.com. (Note: this email address is now a dead link)