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Company of Heroes 3: Destruction Overview Part 1 - Modeling & Fracturing

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2 years ago
Jan 11, 2022, 4:16:59 PM

Destruction Overview Part 1 - Modeling & Fracturing


Our art team is super hard at work making things go BOOM in CoH 3. Here's the first installment of a two-part overview of Destruction. I'm sharing today's writeup from Lead Environment Artist Patrick! - JohnT_RE

Hello everyone, I’m Patrick and I’m one of the Lead Environment Artists on Company of Heroes 3. My team’s focus is on the creation and destruction of buildings.

There are a variety of features that drive building destruction in Company of Heroes 3. Although we are proud of how our buildings look in their pristine state, we do enjoy blowing them up! Let’s talk about all the hard work that goes into building destruction.

Before we dive right into CoH 3 destruction let’s take a trip down memory lane and see the progression through the CoH series.  

CoH 1 & 2 Destruction
Company of Heroes 1 and 2, despite their age, were ahead of their time in regard to destruction. A lot of what we were able to accomplish with today’s video cards was simply impossible at the time of CoH1 and 2. However, many of the aspects of what you see today were in previous CoH games. We couldn’t afford the power needed for physics, so we used a lot of smoke and mirrors to accomplish a similar look. Instead of fracturing an entire building we would use transparency maps to punch holes into buildings. Another example would be the debris, which we simulated using camera based FX.


CoH 3 Destruction

The first thing people will notice about CoH 3 destruction is how real it feels. Although CoH 1 and CoH 2 included destruction ahead of their time, they didn’t have the benefit of real physics debris. In CoH 3 we fracture the entire building which results in real geometry pieces of debris as opposed to FX debris used in the past. What makes our debris pieces look even more realistic is that they retain the same textures from the healthy mesh. But we didn’t stop there. Physics are applied which not only give things weight but a satisfying feeling of destruction.


Our building materials are also interactive during destruction. Many of our buildings have a couple layers of plaster on top of some sort of brick or stone. At least three of these texture layers will peel back to not only reveal the layers of plaster and brick but what’s inside the broken brick/stone as well. Adding this into the damage of the building creates more realistic looking destruction.


Physics hulls are also a part of how our debris behaves. When a mortar bomb hits a rooftop, you’ll notice that some of the debris just slides down the roof and falls off the building. In addition, that falling debris can kill the soldiers it lands on.


Once the building has taken as much damage as it can handle you will be gifted with a wonderful building collapse and a husk-like building in its place.


Thank you all for your continued feedback! We appreciate your understanding that this is all still Pre-Alpha and we have many buildings and features to polish and finalize.


- Patrick

Updated 2 years ago.
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2 years ago
Jan 11, 2022, 6:56:04 PM

i think you guys forgot about volumeteric landscape destruction
sure them craters looks "there" but in reality these crater are nothing like other CoH game because they looks straight up flat with just a new colour of crater painted on them
please dont forget about this thing

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2 years ago
Jan 11, 2022, 7:56:05 PM

(Test 1 Video) It looks Really Awesome but need still Improvement Take only MG and shoot with It Only at the Same Point.

1.How will It Look like by shooting with Sturmpanzer IV (Brummbär) or Other One ? ? One Shoot = One Destroyed Building ? Record It Next Time with Big Caliber ??

2. Shooting with Flak 88 ? Would be There a Big Hole ? or has It the Same Effects

(Test 2 Video) ? WTF ? Almost Nothing Hit ? but Building was Destroyed

(Test 3 Video) Wow! This Roof Tiles are Amazing ? Few falls, Few slows down ?GJ. The Sad Thing is... Buildings are Destroyable and Human Parts not ? This Guy (00:17) He could get up and continue His Fight ?

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2 years ago
Jan 11, 2022, 8:01:57 PM

COH has always been about pushing graphical fidelity and it's good to see the ethos continue. Of note, COH3 Destruction Test 4 video seems to have the same building collapse sequence as COH2. Here though the building crumbles realistically with physical debris, though only a for a brief second, and then defaults to a set collapse animation 'texture' mesh? Be nice if it could all be physics based (maybe as higher graphical preset if too taxing).

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2 years ago
Jan 11, 2022, 8:38:28 PM

Test 2 and 4 feels really satisfying to watch, while 1 and 3 still feels kinda off.


Problem is, for example, since its a brick building, for some reason projectiles hitting the roftop randomly knock out parts of the brick wall, which looks really strange. Because since its not a direct hit, but rather a shockwave which knocks out parts of the wall which again looks very unrealistic.


Not to mention that brick buildings tend to be quite resilient to damage. Its rather a holding matterial (cement) getting damage from either shockwaves or any other type of damage, resulting a collapse of larger sections of the building or a direct damage to the bricksthemselfs resulting a destruction of the bricks. 


Right know, mentioned destruction on the brick building looks like, bricks were just placed like a domino which can be just knocked off in pretty much any place by any kind of impact.


There is a good game called "Teardown" focused on pretty much simulating destruction of buildings\objects made of different materials and here is how brick destruction looks in it



Updated 2 years ago.
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2 years ago
Jan 11, 2022, 9:14:55 PM
PlugDoctor wrote:

Test 2 and 4 feels really satisfying to watch, while 1 and 3 still feels kinda off.


Problem is, for example, since its a brick building, for some reason projectiles hitting the roftop randomly knock out parts of the brick wall, which looks really strange. Because since its not a direct hit, but rather a shockwave which knocks out parts of the wall which again looks very unrealistic.


Not to mention that brick buildings tend to be quite resilient to damage. Its rather a holding matterial (cement) getting damage from either shockwaves or any other type of damage, resulting a collapse of larger sections of the building or a direct damage to the bricksthemselfs resulting a destruction of the bricks. 


Right know, mentioned destruction on the brick building looks like, bricks were just placed like a domino which can be just knocked off in pretty much any place by any kind of impact.


There is a good game called "Teardown" focused on pretty much simulating destruction of buildings\objects made of different materials and here is how brick destruction looks in it



Battlefield + Brick Rigs = This Game heh 

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2 years ago
Jan 11, 2022, 9:56:27 PM

Looks really awesome, hope you guys polish it with dust on the remains of the buildings, it looks great.

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 1:03:02 AM

Looks like it needs work but I like the sub material such as the wood and stuff below the roof tiles.  The buildings collapse look horrible, I get the building falls through the map or disappears or is swapped with a new model when destroyed but it needs smoke/dust to cover that transition when the building collapses.   The micro destruction also looks off, some of the material feels like it has no weight and either slowly slides off the roof or just feels off, doors and windows are unshattered or destroyed, it just looks off. When mortars/arty hit the roof they don't just stop at the roof, make them hit the second floor or have different types of damage depending on the size, it looks weird to just stop on the roof and to see an attic. 


I think the best one is the first 1st in total. The worst is the 2nd followed by the 3rd.

TLDR: It needs more VFX, smoke, directional dust, more polish.

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 2:59:02 AM

very nice, please continue push the technicalities of the enigne. please use as many cpu cores as logically to scale upwards for the next 5 years.


today we have mesh shaders, vrs and dlss, to also display destructions with resources saving.


please also look to model this physics to other ingame world objects. like walls, vegetation, bridges. 


i hope small arms and pintle mgs can damage cover and inflict some deflection damages too. with new physics engine, cover can have more realistic and gameplay affecting logic

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 3:15:37 AM

Any chance some of the larger buildings could leave an enterable husk? or a husk troops could climb/walk over? Thinking of monsters like the church.

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 4:41:05 AM
thefonztm wrote:

Any chance some of the larger buildings could leave an enterable husk? or a husk troops could climb/walk over? Thinking of monsters like the church.

this is good idea and adds to the verticality goals of coh3 instead of restricting to pre-made higher hills or landforms.


ability for infantry to climb up any debris and get a slight height advantage. means big debris should have a height values. even adds uses to BD sherman to be able to bulldoze a height structure. 


relic do let us know what stats are boosted with verticality. 


more sight? more firing range? smaller target size to small arms, but bigger target size to arty and tank shells. 

Updated 2 years ago.
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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 6:54:06 AM

And again no word on the missing terrain deformation!


Ich thougt that of you remove that from coh you should tell us. It was a major graphical feature from coh 1 and 2. 


Please tell us if it has not been added yet or if it is removed for other reasons. 

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 9:00:30 AM
ItsATrap wrote:

And again no word on the missing terrain deformation!


Ich thougt that of you remove that from coh you should tell us. It was a major graphical feature from coh 1 and 2. 


Please tell us if it has not been added yet or if it is removed for other reasons. 

good observation.

please dont remove this. 

just push back deploying more factions at launch. 

relic must get the basics right first


coh1/2 all start with 2. I am nervous when relic promises coh3 will start with 4-5 factions?

here you say you are a small team. so dont. 

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 10:11:52 AM
TomJX wrote:

just push back deploying more factions at launch. 

relic must get the basics right first

Well, not according to this community. They prefer Italy faction above proper building and terrain destruction and deformation...


thefonztm wrote:
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Now seriously, this is pretty much needed. Flattening buildings with artillery/demolition charges should allow sight and firing through them and unit traversal (slow movement & green cover for infantry?)

Updated 2 years ago.
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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 2:01:49 PM

test 4 of the full collapse kinda looked a bit mehh... but the otheres sounded and looked amazing  =) roll on beta !!!!

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 4:01:35 PM

Hopefully you guys will slow down the collapse of the buildings, right now it looks kinda weird with how fast the collapsing part disappears.

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 5:05:47 PM

Thank you Patrick for the showcase!

It looks decent, but with room for improvement. Before I post the negative points, I would like to point out the good stuff. I'd be happy if you or someone else of the team could also answer some questions.


Good stuffs:

- Attention to detail. I really love how much thought you put into materials and consistency of debris. Looks like a small point, but what makes Coh2 great for me is how authentic the battlefields look. In CoH2, there are single stones sticking out of half-destroyed brick walls. This makes it MUCH more immersive. Whenever you guys feel like you work on irrelevant details, be assured: I notice, and I am sure others do as well. And we also appreciate, because it sets CoH apart from other games.

- Damage effects on the buildings look great.

- Layering of textures looks very authentic, making holes and damaged walls believable

- I love how debris falls out of walls.



Now, the negative part:

- How much computational power will this take? Will there be options to reduce effects for older machines?

- Generally, some effects feel overdone

- Some debris chunks that fly off spin like crazy (clearly visible in the first seconds in vid #1). This looks odd.

- Some debris pieces fly VERY far off the impact. This looks odd especially if they are large pieces.

- collapsing of buildings looks sub-par. Half of the building falls visibly into the map and/or through lower floors. In previous games, this was covered up with a lot of smoke, and it should be done here probably as well. It looks especially out of place if so much work is done to keep debris consistent before the building collapsed.

- In vid #3 at 0:06 , the impact seems to spawn additional debris parts. Other debris chunks near the impact just slide down without any acceleration, while the additionally spawned parts get tossed across the map. This discrepancy looks odd.

- I'd like to see more dust emerging when debris falls out.


- the shell impact of artillery felt, well, unimpactful. There was no real punch to it. Maybe you guys scaled down the effects for the showcase to not obscure the buildings. If not, this should be looked at. Games like Post Scriptum in my eyes did explosions exceptionally well.

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2 years ago
Jan 12, 2022, 11:09:19 PM

A lot of feedback has already been provided on the destruction, but I feel that the explosion effects need some work (see attached images for reference from the multi-player pre-alpha). I like the white flashes and little touches. However the dirt/dust effects feel off and lackluster. The reasons are manifold, and being neither an animator nor an artist, I don’t feel qualified to suggest improvements. However, here are areas that stood out to me:

  1. Dirt plumes look blurry and low res (compare this to COH1 from 2006, where explosions arguably look more visually appealing);

  2. Debris flying away from impact locations is often exaggerated;

  3. Debris awkwardly flies straight through the ground;

  4. Physics don’t seem to be shown at the same FPS as gameplay (which is jarring - DOW2 had this issue already and it’s one of the reasons its graphics haven’t aged as well as COH1’s);

  5. Explosions have some pre-rendered debris that looks scripted and out-of-place (it falls too fast and disappears awkwardly); 

  6. Explosion ragdoll physics is largely missing (what happened to those juicy explosion ragdolls and dismemberments from COH1?


All that being said, I’m very hopefully for COH3: I love the faction and gameplay design. I also love the attention to detail I have been seeing so far (various impact effects, dust being whirled up by cannon fire, etc), it’s very reminiscent of COH1 and something that was a bit lacking in COH2. 



Updated 2 years ago.
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