I’ve learned that video game ‘clipping’ is caused by high velocity, thin colliders, and too-slow physics updates. Why are terrain surfaces in most 3D video games paper-thin? Why isn’t terrain given extra fill/thickness inside and under it to prevent ‘falling through the map into the void’?

Question

I could see why you might not want to fill under the terrain in a game that features things like underground caves, but thin terrain seems to be present in a huge majority of 3D games (even those without underground features) and is not engine-specific. Why is terrain almost always a fragile piece of origami that’s so easily punctured?

In: Technology

Answer 1

Short answer is that basically, you cannot. In games, everything is made of various surfaces. Even in 3D modelling, if you make a “solid” part, it’s only shown as solid (e.g. it shows another surface in cross sections), but aa pc can only display a “surface”.

Normally, you can’t see or move under the surface, but glitches happen…