Oblivion. And then what?

[Povuholo]

Every game of tes makes a shadow of the one before, you could say. Imagine... with the newest computer technology in a couple of years.... what would the game after oblivion would look like

 

(starts having strange dreams about perfect worlds)

[Switch]

Haha yeah, I've thought about this. Knowing Bethesda, as soon as TES IV is released they may well start contemplating plans for a TES V. :D

 

2 years ago I could have never imagined in-game graphics like we have now. And the same is true now. Whatever comes out in 2 years time, you can guarantee it'll take your breath away. ^^ We're not far off photo realism now, I reckon given 5-10 years we'll have it. But how capable PCs will be of running said graphics is another thing, if they keep increasing in power as they are then it probably won't be a problem.

 

Just speculating here, of course.

[edstamos1]

Forgive the necromancy, but I had the urge to reply to this ^^

 

Rather than focusing on graphics improving at an exponential rate, what I believe we will see in the next iteration of TES (or whatever else comes out of bethsoft at around that timeframe) is actually improvements in other areas.

 

Sure we'll see smoother faces, sharper images, more detailed textures, but the greater improvements will be in more detailed AI, more realistic physics (real cloth physics anyone?), and features that simply cannot be implemented with todays hardware. Wouldn't it be nice if TES5 supported fully deformable terrain for epic battles? Or even just to be able to dig a hole to bury a carcass.

 

How about seeing an actual war in game with every soldier having fully independent AI? Spells ranging from the "ready to fire" type we see in morrowind and oblivion, to full blown incantations where you create a summoning circle or use complex hand gestures in conjunction with daedric verses to cast something more powerful (different spells having different gestures and words of course). This kind of detail isn't important to game mechanics (except for the casting delay), but it adds another level of richness to the game. with limitted resources you wouldn't want to waste time on them, but as technology advances and new engines are written, doing this kind of thing would become easier.

 

With the advances in processing power and memory capabilities, these are a couple advancements I would like to see in future TES games (or similar RPGs). However, as long as Bethesda keeps raising the bar with every iteration, I'm sure everything will be kosher :)

[loveme4whoiam]

Absolutely E D. I have high hopes for the future (assuming the b*****-swine marketing people don't get in the way, see that other thread about mature games). Photo-realism is nearing us, and I don't doubt it'll be wonderful to look at.

 

But the first generation of physics processing cards are soon to be released (I think - I know they exist at any rate) which does what your graphics card does only for physics. Realistic cloth physics? I imagine we'll blaze through that within a year or two. Now, if they brought out an AI processing unit, THEN I'd start getting excited...

 

The idea of deformable terrain is one that I wish would get off the ground properly. A couple of games had it a couple of years ago (the pretty poor-average Red Faction is the only one I can remember off the top of my head) but it was a mere gimmick - invisible walls got in the way most of the time. The scenario of having a big battle, such as the one you described E D, is my dream of gaming heaven. Imagine a line of mages loosing fireballs across a field, each one setting fire to the grass that is passes over; spells with real kinetic energy that could batter down walls and raise craters (raise? Maybe that should be blow) into the ground. Wow, nerd attack, I can feel a "That would be SO COOL!" coming on :unsure:

 

The prospect of all this isn't all that far away - the Unreal 3 engine is sumptuous (if you haven't seen the videos, go here and watch them - put a bowl under your chin to catch the drool first though), although I'm not sure if it features any kind of deformable terrain. The "Next Generation PC Game" being developed by Bohemia Interactive (OPF2 or whatever its being called now) will have completely scalable and deformable buildings - you can blow them up brick by brick, and with a detail slider change how much of it is turned into generic rubble depending on your PC. It must simply be a matter of time before all this stuff is put together, and I'd be willing to bet Bethsoft will be on the forefront of it all. Screw Oblivion, bring one TES V! :D

 

Ahem. I may have gotten a bit over-excited there. :ph34r: Bring on Oblivion first!

[Peregrine]

The idea of deformable terrain is one that I wish would get off the ground properly. A couple of games had it a couple of years ago (the pretty poor-average Red Faction is the only one I can remember off the top of my head) but it was a mere gimmick - invisible walls got in the way most of the time. The scenario of having a big battle, such as the one you described E D, is my dream of gaming heaven. Imagine a line of mages loosing fireballs across a field, each one setting fire to the grass that is passes over; spells with real kinetic energy that could batter down walls and raise craters (raise? Maybe that should be blow) into the ground. Wow, nerd attack, I can feel a "That would be SO COOL!" coming on unsure.gif

 

Unfortuantely, it isn't going anywhere until the hardware technology sees major improvements. With deformable terrain, there's pretty much three choices:

 

1) Script it all. Every model and terrain area is built to be destroyed. The obvious problem here is the exponential increases in modeling work to do it. And third-party additions wouldn't have this feature unless they also devoted the extra time to it.

 

2) Do it realtime, with a good looking game. This is not possible at the moment, the processing demands are just too high.

 

3) Do it in realtime, but sacrifice features elsewhere. This one is possible, if you cut enough features elsewhere you can free up the processing power to add realtime deformations. But are you really willing to sacrifice HDRI lighting and Radiant AI (for example) to get deformable terrain?

[_Atti_]

Sure i would happily sacrifice stupid hdri lighting for anything that improves gameplay :P

 

btw cpu-s are being developed that will be dealing with physics only...that will make possible a lot things..dont know where could you find them but they allready released some tech-videos showing what this stuff will be able to do.

[Switch]

I've heard about that... the Ageia PhysX processor. Seems Unreal 3 and a few other next gen titles will have the capacity to use it. Can't say I've seen the demo videos of it yet, will have to take a mooch.

 

EDIT: Humminahumminahummina... just viewed the PhysX demos. That is some serious power.

 

Anyway, this is probably veering a little off-topic...

[loveme4whoiam]

Not exactly. How TES V will use physics is interesting - I can't see how the devs could slap-dash a gravity gun into the game, can you :P

 

Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favour of decent physics in games - if done well it all adds to the immersion factor, which is why what I've seen of Oblivion's physics is so encouraging, although the set-pieces with physics-based traps are a little bit too obvious for my tastes. Was I the only one who found the last level of HL2 played the second time around incredibly stupid and, dare I even say it, boring?

 

When realistic physics becomes second nature and we stop making a big deal about it, then I'll know that we've achieved the right balance with it. It's a fact that the best things in life are the things you don't notice - when we stop being wowed by pretty graphics, fancy physics tricks and the right sound of a MG42 firing (although sound still has some ground to catch up against graphics IMO), then developers will have to start making decent games, with proper AI and involving stories. Hope we don't have too long to wait :unsure:

 

Oh yeah, that was off-topic :wacko: . Erm, I imagine that TES V will be at the cutting edge of all that I just said, if not meeting the requirements than at least pushing the limits forward to that perfect point, just as they have been doing. There, a little bit of Bethsoft-kissing and the thread's back on track, and everyone's forgotten about my sudden rant :happy:

[Wookiee]

The idea of deformable terrain is one that I wish would get off the ground properly. A couple of games had it a couple of years ago (the pretty poor-average Red Faction is the only one I can remember off the top of my head) but it was a mere gimmick - invisible walls got in the way most of the time. The scenario of having a big battle, such as the one you described E D, is my dream of gaming heaven. Imagine a line of mages loosing fireballs across a field, each one setting fire to the grass that is passes over; spells with real kinetic energy that could batter down walls and raise craters (raise? Maybe that should be blow) into the ground. Wow, nerd attack, I can feel a "That would be SO COOL!" coming on unsure.gif

 

Unfortuantely, it isn't going anywhere until the hardware technology sees major improvements. With deformable terrain, there's pretty much three choices:

 

1) Script it all. Every model and terrain area is built to be destroyed. The obvious problem here is the exponential increases in modeling work to do it. And third-party additions wouldn't have this feature unless they also devoted the extra time to it.

 

2) Do it realtime, with a good looking game. This is not possible at the moment, the processing demands are just too high.

 

3) Do it in realtime, but sacrifice features elsewhere. This one is possible, if you cut enough features elsewhere you can free up the processing power to add realtime deformations. But are you really willing to sacrifice HDRI lighting and Radiant AI (for example) to get deformable terrain?

 

 

two words... magic carpet. :)

[super squirrel]

/\ /\ huh?

 

 

how about being able to input 3-10 photos of yourself, at different angles, into the game, and you would be able to play as yourself!!