Digging Animation

[Bokke]

I was thinking about the graphical animation of a block being dismounted.
It still looks very Minecrafty. I was wondering how to give it an individual twist.

So I came up with a two alternatives:

Maybe one could morph-animate it. In a way that a block morphs from cubic shape into a sphere, which aagin gets smaller while being dismounted, until it’s gone.
Basically I think this approach would be ok, but concerning the fact that there must be a smaller item left in order to be picked up, this could result into a minor visual problem.

The other possibility could be – Just “flatten” the cube. I mean: Making it thinner – in a way that the cube-plain which the player is directing to while digging, sinks in the cube. This means, the cube morphs from a cubic shape into a cuboid shape. Until it’s gone.
Same problem here: How to make a transition from the diminishing cube into a collectable item.

Ok, so far from me now 🙂

I would be very happy to hear what the developers think about it.

• This topic was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by Bokke.
• This topic was modified 9 years, 8 months ago by Bokke.

[James]

1. The current graphical animation is a place holder – we def. want to replace it.

2. It’s great to get some ideas about a cool / special / and original way to achieve this. More please.

3. There are some technical challenges. Any solution that instantly removes the blocks (even as part of a shrinking animation) will make the space behind the block visible. This requires the game to quickly re-generate the chunk mesh from the voxel world (without the block in) or you’ll see through the world. This often happens in voxel games because the world has not been fully updated before visual results start getting shown. So in an ideal world, we’d find a visually great solution, without needing the chunk to be instantly re-meshed – as this process can take many frames to achieve.

Any other ideas?

[Bokke]

Ok, I can think of 3dimensional textures. Maybe. In a way that the block seems to be crumbling in. I’m not too sure about performance issues in this case.

Another way could be to render a crumbling block in 3d:

Like in the second alternative I described – just instead of sinking in the plain the player is directing to, little smaller cubes get removed. A predefined
crumbling-animation. It does not even need to be smooth – The miniblocks just pop away. It could be a quite neat visual experience.
This would cause the need for the graphic engine to pre-render 4 plains, which outline the shrinking/demolished cube.

[Bokke]

Or the cube which gets removed, sinks in like a sandhole. In a cylinder shape. This way, outlining voxels would not need to be visible instantly.

[Bokke]

I just had the idea of a “vibrating” voxel texture:
There is the usual texture with the animated cracks but when starting digging the texture also could start to vibrate – in a way like stuttering into different directions.
It is just an experimental idea and it would be very interesting to see how this kind of animation appeals to the player. It may convey the impression of the block getting loose.
Is this comprehensible, or do I need to explain differently?

[James]

Let us have a play and see what we come up with. We definitely want the process of mining and building to be really satisfying. So hopefully we can come up with something cool. Thanks for the ideas so far.

[Cirlex]

The ideas are very cool, and I totally agree that it needs another animation than Minecraft.

[Author]

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