Remember Brink?
This talk, delivered at GDC 2012 by Splash Damage’s Arne Olav Hallingstad, presents a detailed programmer-oriented overview of the freedom of movement implementation in the studio’s 2011 multiplayer shooter Brink.
From initial prototype to the shipping-quality implementation three years later, Hallingstad went into detail on how generating a list of all freedom of movement possibilities via an analysis of the world geometry in a precomputation phase can drastically reduce run-time cost, as well as avoid the need for manually placed hint objects by level designers.
It was surprisingly interesting, and Hallingstad also gave devs a deep look at the studio’s lightweight run-time implementation for real-time ledge detection, ensuring a Brink player enters the correct physics states and correctly connects with world geometry as they move.
Brink’s traversal system was one of its most talked-about features at the time, so if you missed seeing Hallingstad’s talk live, take advantage of the fact that you can now watch it for free over on the GDC YouTube channel!
About the GDC Vault
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