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printz

Will Eternity have both 3d floors and linked portals?

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I hope this question doesn't annoy the developers, but I feel that the 3d floors and linked portals in Doom can complement each other. The 3d floors are better than portals when it comes to simple things like bridges, scaffolds or detail in general, while portals are better than 3d floors when you want to make multi-storey, multi-layered complexes.

Trying to either make multi-storey with 3d floors or beams/scaffolds with linked portals would be unwieldy.

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It has (though the physics/clipping part isn't complete yet); but not 3D floors.

SoM implemented software 3D floors in Legacy, but in retrospect decided that portals were a better idea.

From the very little I understand of ZDoom's software 3D floors, they actually get turned into portals on-the-fly: the rendered splice the geometry at the heights of the floors, which is why sloped 3D floors are not supported. There's a development branch for using a different approach, which would support slopes, but it's stalled at the moment since Randy has had to deal with a flood and now he seems to concentrate on fixing bugs to prepare a 2.6.0 release.

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Gez said:

but it's stalled at the moment since Randy has had to deal with a flood and now he seems to concentrate on fixing bugs to prepare a 2.6.0 release.

Well, once he gets everything back on track (assuming he's insured), he'll be back in no time to do what he likes.

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3D floors have been shot down before and will likely continue to be so treated in the future. We consider linked portals a superior feature that can handle most of the same situations.

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I doubt that very much. Just try to replicate the stuff being done in Hi-Tech Hell 2 with portals. I'd say it's impossible.

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Sorry, I forgot that Eternity already has the 3dmidtex lines as "3d floors", with the only drawback that they're mostly transparent. I guess for the time being that if I want structures that shouldn't add layers, use 3dmidtexes.

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The implementation of linked portals isn't finished, so I don't think the match is quite decided yet.

3D floors have the big advantage that they can be placed anywhere, in any shape and at any height. A 3D staircase can be implemented with the minimum of fuss. The disadvantage, as far as I can see anyway, is that you still have to fit these 3D floors into the normal room geometry which limits its use.

Linked portals have the big advantage that the different layers are just that: 2 or (much, much) more sections of (wildly) different geometry that is glued together into a single multi-layered room in-game. The disadvantage is that every '3D shape' situated on a different height needs its own portal. And any portal layer needs to be bordered by solid geometry. That makes implementing a 3D staircase very hard and cumbersome.

My 2c.

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Agreed.

Both have their strengths and both have their weaknesses and in many cases one's weakness is the other's strength and vice versa.

They are totally different things for different purposes and should not be compared.

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Graf Zahl said:

I doubt that very much. Just try to replicate the stuff being done in Hi-Tech Hell 2 with portals. I'd say it's impossible.


Kristus's maps for vapor would have you say otherwise.

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I doubt that very much. Sure, you can do some effects with portals but at what point does it become an unmaintainable hassle?

A staircase between 3 floors with 30 stairs inbetween? Some open crates and handrails nearby? You can quickly end up with >20 3D floors of different height in view all at once. Good luck doing that with portals efficiently.


I still say 'different tools for different use'. Mash them together and the result will be a mess.

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