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Post news Report RSS New collision approach, quicksand and inventory features

After long delay, we introduce three milestones at once: new collision approach, which resembles classic (yet optimized) Tomb Raider room collision, quicksand functionality for TR3 levels, and basic inventory features, such as picking up, using and combining various items.

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There was no major news on our project since April, but it doesn't mean that OpenTomb development has stopped. On the contrary, we proud to announce three important and milestone features we've recently developed.

First of all, we've changed the way OpenTomb processes room collision. Before, we have used graphical mesh data for collision calculation, but this method proved itself too flawed, because many places were processed incorrectly - like curtains, vegetation, quicksands, and some other. So, we made a decision to re-use original Tomb Raider collision approach, where ceiling and floor heights were calculated from so-called "floor data", which is basically a set of functions and operands telling engine how to process collision in certain place of the level. Re-implementing this approach was a tough job, as original developers used very cryptic data structures and formulas to calculate heights, and in the process we've discovered serious bugs in Core Design's level editing software, as well as in unofficial level editor (Dxtre3d), which were masked in original TR engines, but were fully exposed in OpenTomb (we won't go into the details, but if you're interested, you can read everything on our Tomb Raider Forums thread). Fortunately, all bugs were ruled out, and now we have clean and neat collisional meshes for all rooms, and all terrain is now processed correctly - meaning Lara now can pass through every single room in all classic Tomb Raider levels!


Another very important feature (which is directly linked to previous one) is a Tomb Raider 3's quicksand room functionality. Making it functional in OpenTomb wasn't possible without updated collision approach, because quicksand rooms were blocked when graphical mesh was used for collision calculation. Now it is fixed.

And finally, we introduce basic inventory functions - at last, Lara can pick up supplies, keys and puzzles, then use them on doors, keyholes and puzzleholes! Additionally, in Tomb Raider 4 and 5 levels, it is possible to combine certain items (or item pieces) to form another kind of item. However, for now it's only working from the console, as actual inventory interface is yet to be developed!


Be sure - there are more interesting things already in development - like movable blocks, trap interaction and... Finally, Lara's ponytail! So - stay tuned!

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brunocar
brunocar

I CANT WAIT TO PLAY IT and havent even played the original just because im waiting to play it on this awesome sourceport

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ChrispGames
ChrispGames

That editor still looks really promising. Great improvements :d

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