VR Dungeon Master is coming....
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2022 6:20 am
......some day, before I die! I can feel it in my bones. Just have to keep the faith 
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VR Dungeon Master is coming....
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Re: VR Dungeon Master is coming....
Posted: Tue Nov 08, 2022 12:51 am
Original version with some tweaks or complete remake?
Re: VR Dungeon Master is coming....
Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2022 8:14 pm
Well, the original version, including cbwin and all others depending on the original graphics.dat and the drawing engine will never work for the simple reason: Missing depth information.
While the dungeon looks 3D, it's under the hood just a bunch of 2D graphics layered on top of each other depending on which elements occlude elements further away, to create that 3d impression. I've created a small animation to visualize this:
Without this depth information, anything VR is for vain, as you can't change the perspective without breaking really anything. It's also not a small task to create real textures for 3D objects out of this, as the 'depth' is inherent in the pictures meaning that the resolution (image information) decreases by 2. Meaning, while you have full resolution (160px) of the floor on beginning of the first tile, you only have about 80 pixels at the end of that tile. Everything further away is just a rough handful to work with. Even if one manages to create these, the resolution, if kept at original "feel" is only 160x110px (or a nearest-neighbor-interpolation of that to prevent washing out) which will then hover about 4 cm in front of your eyes, making even minecraft look like super resolution.
The second problem is VR itself. Every mayor company uses their own VR-standard now, requiring their own headset to test it. OpenVR, which was supposed to change that, never really got it going (after HTC and Valve going separate ways, even they don't fully support it anymore) and with the small amount of VR users and the expected amount of users playing DM and having a VR and then would play it in VR instead having the "good old feeling", the ratio of potential usage to required work to get it done, is basically it's gravestone.
I could think of something like Grimrock, which supports already free mouse look, to have it implemented, if one ignores any economical aspects, that is.
While the dungeon looks 3D, it's under the hood just a bunch of 2D graphics layered on top of each other depending on which elements occlude elements further away, to create that 3d impression. I've created a small animation to visualize this:
Without this depth information, anything VR is for vain, as you can't change the perspective without breaking really anything. It's also not a small task to create real textures for 3D objects out of this, as the 'depth' is inherent in the pictures meaning that the resolution (image information) decreases by 2. Meaning, while you have full resolution (160px) of the floor on beginning of the first tile, you only have about 80 pixels at the end of that tile. Everything further away is just a rough handful to work with. Even if one manages to create these, the resolution, if kept at original "feel" is only 160x110px (or a nearest-neighbor-interpolation of that to prevent washing out) which will then hover about 4 cm in front of your eyes, making even minecraft look like super resolution.
The second problem is VR itself. Every mayor company uses their own VR-standard now, requiring their own headset to test it. OpenVR, which was supposed to change that, never really got it going (after HTC and Valve going separate ways, even they don't fully support it anymore) and with the small amount of VR users and the expected amount of users playing DM and having a VR and then would play it in VR instead having the "good old feeling", the ratio of potential usage to required work to get it done, is basically it's gravestone.
I could think of something like Grimrock, which supports already free mouse look, to have it implemented, if one ignores any economical aspects, that is.