The sheer volume of trains/trolleys/mine carts with static wheelsets in our games
In the grand scheme of things this is a non-issue, but have you ever noticed how many virtual trains and their like lack working, rotating wheels?
I was watching a Let's Play of Skies of Arcadia tonight for god knows what reason when I noticed the mine carts in Moon Stone Mountain did possess working, spinning wheels (or at the very least least one did), which caught me off guard. This got me thinking about all the trains in games that don't: GTA 3/San Andreas/4/5, Infamous 1/2, Half-Life 2, THUG 2, Hitman: Contracts, Uncharted 2 -- my memory's not what it used to be, but the list is long.
I can understand why this happens. In GTA 3, and possibly San Andreas, the wheels and trucks of the subway train are merely a single texture. Why waste any memory on a subway car rigged with actual wheels? I guess that could go for open world games in general, though in Infamous 2 we're talking one lonely tram that roams New Marais - it could've used some love. But that case could be another common explanation: it's a detail so tiny or considered so inessential it's easily overlooked or deliberately not prioritized. And in some cases, like Half-Life 2, you've got a common asset that's usually static and thus not rigged for moving parts repurposed for rare and brief instances of activity (though this doesn't explain the razor trains).
But none of that explains Uncharted 2, barring the possibility they overlooked it, so considering that game's train level is a high profile set piece my question comes to this: is there any other internal logic at play that accounts for so many examples of this? Is it ever an optimization consideration outside of open world games, if it even is there? Or is just mostly overlooked?
edit: I guess you can tell those train wheels in Uncharted 2 are just barely there as an element of the level, likely intentionally, but you start the level on the side of the train and you're hanging off the side enough that you'd think they'd at least be spinning. Even the sagging remnants of those skylights you can knock out get a little looped animation.
In the grand scheme of things this is a non-issue, but have you ever noticed how many virtual trains and their like lack working, rotating wheels?
I was watching a Let's Play of Skies of Arcadia tonight for god knows what reason when I noticed the mine carts in Moon Stone Mountain did possess working, spinning wheels (or at the very least least one did), which caught me off guard. This got me thinking about all the trains in games that don't: GTA 3/San Andreas/4/5, Infamous 1/2, Half-Life 2, THUG 2, Hitman: Contracts, Uncharted 2 -- my memory's not what it used to be, but the list is long.
I can understand why this happens. In GTA 3, and possibly San Andreas, the wheels and trucks of the subway train are merely a single texture. Why waste any memory on a subway car rigged with actual wheels? I guess that could go for open world games in general, though in Infamous 2 we're talking one lonely tram that roams New Marais - it could've used some love. But that case could be another common explanation: it's a detail so tiny or considered so inessential it's easily overlooked or deliberately not prioritized. And in some cases, like Half-Life 2, you've got a common asset that's usually static and thus not rigged for moving parts repurposed for rare and brief instances of activity (though this doesn't explain the razor trains).
But none of that explains Uncharted 2, barring the possibility they overlooked it, so considering that game's train level is a high profile set piece my question comes to this: is there any other internal logic at play that accounts for so many examples of this? Is it ever an optimization consideration outside of open world games, if it even is there? Or is just mostly overlooked?
edit: I guess you can tell those train wheels in Uncharted 2 are just barely there as an element of the level, likely intentionally, but you start the level on the side of the train and you're hanging off the side enough that you'd think they'd at least be spinning. Even the sagging remnants of those skylights you can knock out get a little looped animation.
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