How Games Do Destruction

Summary: The video discusses different techniques games use to represent destruction, focusing on pre-baked animations, physics simulations, and procedural techniques. It highlights how games blend these approaches for realistic and performant destruction.

Destruction Techniques in Games #

• Pre-baked Animations:

  • Destruction is pre-animated sequences.
  • Examples: Buildings collapsing in Battlefield, specific objects shattering.
  • Pros: Controllable, cinematic, good performance for complex events.
  • Cons: Limited interactivity (can't destroy in different ways), repetitive.
  • Often used for large-scale, impactful destruction moments.

• Physics-Based Destruction:

  • Objects broken into smaller pieces (meshes) with rigid body physics.
  • Examples: Walls crumbling, vehicles deforming.
  • Pros: Dynamic, interactive, unique destruction every time.
  • Cons: Computationally expensive, requires careful optimization.
  • Often involves "chunking" or "voronoi fracturing" objects into pre-defined pieces.

• Procedural Destruction (Run-time Generation):

  • Damage and destruction are generated on the fly based on impact.
  • Examples: Bullet holes, surface deformation, progressive wear.
  • Pros: Highly dynamic, realistic damage accumulation.
  • Cons: Even more computationally intensive than pre-baked physics for complex objects.
  • Combines well with other techniques for localized damage.

Blending Techniques #

• Most games use a combination of these approaches.
• Large structures: Pre-baked animations for collapsing, transitioning to physics for debris.
• Smaller objects: Fully physics-driven.
• Surfaces: Procedural damage overlaid on pre-defined destruction areas.

Performance Considerations #

• Limited "pieces": Game engines often limit the number of individual pieces generated by destruction.
• Decals: Used for bullet holes and surface scarring without creating new geometry.
• LODs (Level of Detail): Simpler models and physics at a distance.
• Culling: Destroyed pieces disappear after a certain time or distance.
• Optimization: Aggressive culling, simplification of physics, and visual trickery are crucial.

Examples in Games #

• Battlefield series: Masters of large-scale, pre-baked destruction.
• Red Faction: Guerilla: Pioneered voxel-based, highly dynamic destruction (though not covered in depth, it's a significant example of procedural destruction limits).
• Control: Excellent example of physics-based destruction and environmental interaction.
• Minecraft: Voxel-based destruction, a unique form of proceduralism.
• Teardown: Purely voxel-based, fully destructible environments, prioritizing destruction as gameplay.

Future of Destruction #

• Continued blending of techniques for realism and performance.
• More sophisticated procedural generation tools.
• Greater ambition for fully interactive and destructible environments.