My Rant At the Gaming Industry

[jhardingame]

You want more reason to be made at Tom Howard? Check out this old Oblivion demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNasjeK4mE0&feature=player_embedded#at=76

 

 

Parallax maps AND dynamic shadows. Where were those in the final product? Cut out for "performance". Pff, I want my shadows back lol.

[ub3rman123]

You want more reason to be made at Tom Howard? Check out this old Oblivion demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNasjeK4mE0&feature=player_embedded#at=76

 

 

Parallax maps AND dynamic shadows. Where were those in the final product? Cut out for "performance". Pff, I want my shadows back lol.

 

You should listen to the latest BethSoft podcast, where they explain this exact thing. Basically, if they included the dynamic shadows they had set up in the engine, you'd pretty much be only able to use Oblivion for screenshooting.

[evertaile]

You want more reason to be made at Tom Howard? Check out this old Oblivion demo:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNasjeK4mE0&feature=player_embedded#at=76

 

 

Parallax maps AND dynamic shadows. Where were those in the final product? Cut out for "performance". Pff, I want my shadows back lol.

 

I always understood parallax mapping to be less resource intensive than Bump and Normal combos, in fact I thought it was lighter weight than using just normal and shadow maps...am I mistaken?

 

 

Quarls texture packs are parallax, right?

Edited February 23, 2011 by evertaile

[ub3rman123]

I always understood parallax mapping to be less resource intensive than Bump and Normal combos, in fact I thought it was lighter weight than using just normal and shadow maps...am I mistaken?

 

 

Quarls texture packs are parallax, right?

 

It is, but apparently there were problems with the way it was set up. Plus I have the feeling it simply took too long to map every texture.

 

(I'm making this up as I go along, I have no clue what goes into the making of parallax mapping)

[evertaile]

It is, but apparently there were problems with the way it was set up. Plus I have the feeling it simply took too long to map every texture.

 

(I'm making this up as I go along, I have no clue what goes into the making of parallax mapping)

 

As far as I'm aware it's an offset coordinate texture, similar to bump mapping. There are a few open source engines that use parallax mapping in favour of other methods. Although the in game models for these are usually circa. 2001 the environs are very rich and nicely polished without clunky frame rates.

 

There's CopperCube and CopperCube 2 - I believe, and IreLicht engine

Edited February 23, 2011 by evertaile

[Persona2005]

What disappoints me with the gaming industry is that they make some games console exclusive and also collector's edition.

[alkaloid27]

[quote name='evertaile' timestamp='1297681149'

The main problem with how Gamebryo is seen is Bethesda's use of it as someone stated earlier, and the fact that the general assumption seems to be that the Fallout GECK and Elderscrolls CS are realistic representations of the engine. For the record, they're not. They are simply a very basic toolset that is severely gimped and in no way whatsoever reflects the actual engine or its capabilities.

 

I'm not sure I can entirely agree. The thing about game engines (and more specifically middleware engines) is that, aside from a few very basic assets and resources, they are usually little more than an out-of-the-box 3d environment with interactive floating camera. Anything else you want it to do has to be coded. Companies like Emergent usually offer a side-service where they will accept additional payment to customize the engine to a developer's needs in terms of genre specific functions that would require hardcoding and/or tweaking of the engine code. Stat and attribute games such as RPGs require vast amounts of data tables to achieve what they do in terms of player progression and growth. So while it's almost certain that Bethesda has employees capable of doing the job, it's also very likely that in order to save time and money they did use such a service. It would definitely go a long way to explain the bugs in Oblivion, because it would mean that they didn't code it from the ground up. Instead they purchased a game shell catered to their afore mentioned needs and built the game as an injection (as an esm) on top of it. Emergent would have also supplied a refined toolkit/sdk to achieve that. Probably very similar to the CS, but with a wider functionality. The reason the CS is 'gimped' as you put it is because it is the product they purchased, and to preserve their license they probably had to tighten its functions to some extent. So while it isn't representative of the actual engine, it does reflect the method that Bethesda interacted with it. If that makes sense.

[hoofhearted4]

the good games are out there, but they arent the hyped up games. Demons Souls for the Ps3 and its predecessor Dark Souls for both xbox and Ps3 are amazingly unique games. not so heavy on the story (its there, its very interesting, but its not told to you flat out. you need to talk to NPCs to get the most of it) but game play and graphics are great, and the AI is good at what its supposed to do. its supposed to be repetitive so you can learn them.

 

MGS4 for PS3 has, by far, the best story of any game ive ever played. and some of the best graphics as well. some of the best game play, and some very smart AI as well. all around one of the best games ive ever played.

 

your right though, how story is falling from games. i tend to look at game play more though (like Borderlands) and some stories are over used, but they can still be unique, like in Resistance. alien invasion, save the world, been done. but this story, its atmosphere, everything about it is unique...though im a sucker for alternate time line stories (like FO3)

 

as for MMOs, while they can be played solo, they really are ment to play with friends. coop or PvP. i only played WoW cause i had a friend who played it (though it only lasted a couple weeks) and same with LOTRO, which ive gotten into lately, cause my friend plays it....you have to care about the universe to care about the story. idc about either of the universes and as such idc about the story. something like SWTOR though, i like Star Wars, and ill prolly pay a little more attention to the story and wont mind killing the same enemies with different colors over and over :P....but going along with my points of the best games not being hyped, the most fun ive had playing an MMO (though obviously i cant include SWTOR) was Champions Online. not exactly and unknown game, but its no Rift or WoW, and ive gone back to that multiple times.

 

Lastly, as far as RTSs go. i never really cared about the C&C stories, however, Star Craft has a really in depth interesting story, and i actually read all the stuff about it when i play........on another note, im interested in the FF13 story too lol. im interested in most stories any game has. or tries to have :P i always listen to audio logs or read battle reports or what have you. you just have to care i guess, and i do for the most part, even on crappy stories

 

basically, the hyped up games arent usually going to be the super awesome ones (like CoD or really any FPS for that matter as they dont focus on anything besides MP and graphics.)