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Footprints (Really, Bethesda?)


Moogiefluff

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Footprints are more complex than you're thinking...

 

Leaving them in snow makes sense, but if you just apply a decal where you've been walking, you'll also leave footprints on other textures, including rocks, dirt, water... that would make no sense and break immersion more, if that tiny bit of immersion is what you're craving.

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I touched on this issue in another post, some of you may find it interesting. But I agree, this detail should not have been over looked.

 

My link

 

but, here is what I said if you don't want to read another review.

 

No footprints in the snow? Yeah, I have to agree on this too, again, a minor detail, but an important one. Going back to Fable 3, you had footprints in the sand, and they even went to the detail of the sound of you walking or running. To add to this detail, the game even knew if you had boot/shoes on or in barefeet. With the shoes, you heard a 'clumping' sound and in barefeet, you heard the soft sound of your feet. There was even sand being kicked up by your feet as you walked.

 

and I'll add, Fable 3 is a console game, is it not? It is a detail that should not have been over looked. There are some that will say it takes to much in the way of resources...not buying that one at all. I have an older Xbox 360 that has not had any problems showing this detail and does so just fine. In this instance, you should see foot prints in the snow. I think you do hear the 'crunching' of the snow as you walk, but not sure on that as I write this. They dropped the ball on this detail. :tongue:

 

And don't jump on me about Fable 3 please, I did not particularly enjoy that game, but I was impressed with the details and visuals of it.

Edited by BarefootWarrior
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Footprints are more complex than you're thinking...

 

Leaving them in snow makes sense, but if you just apply a decal where you've been walking, you'll also leave footprints on other textures, including rocks, dirt, water... that would make no sense and break immersion more, if that tiny bit of immersion is what you're craving.

This... In addition to having to track literally hundreds of decals if you happen to have a few people fighting on any surface that might have them. Count how many times you step in a new spot while fighting. Then add that to the number of steps your opponents make. Then add the steps of things which might not be fighting there, but are wandering around in a nearby loaded cell. Decals would add up quite significantly and get more numerous as fighting continued, which equates to slower fighting.

 

And, even in the case of hunting, it would make ABSOLUTELY no sense with the way anything spawns in the world since animals don't migrate, so would not be moving about in the snow unless actively loaded and currently attacking something.

 

Thousands of persistent spawns just simply, won't happen. Ever. The processing and memory needs are just far in excess of what even top end machines could handle. Currently, Skyrim only actively tracks about 100 things at a time, and most of these are not being updated in realtime. For any sort of hunting system like you're expecting, it would have to track everything in order to know where to place the decals... Then track each of the decals for time visible, type of footprint, what material its on, what position/rotation, ect.

 

 

Other games with footprints, quite simply don't have anywhere near as much going on as any moment in Skyrim, so they can have those sorts of features.

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[Other games with footprints, quite simply don't have anywhere near as much going on as any moment in Skyrim, so they can have those sorts of features.

*cough*Fable*cough*

 

Open world my aching ass! My goodness, was Fable ever a letdown! Looked like garbage, too.

 

 

Maybe in the age of voxel technology...

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[Other games with footprints, quite simply don't have anywhere near as much going on as any moment in Skyrim, so they can have those sorts of features.

*cough*Fable*cough*

 

Open world my aching ass! My goodness, was Fable ever a letdown! Looked like garbage, too.

 

 

Maybe in the age of voxel technology...

 

LOL!!!! ok, I give. I think this one was pointed at me and not Vagrant0...that's ok. Hey, at least I said I didn't particularly enjoy the game...but I did enjoy the visuals and details. That's my story and I'm stickin to it. :P too funny...

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What? No, I wasn't trying to insult you or anything. I was just so pissed off after I popped in Fable III and it turned out to be a stinking pile of dog schist. It was not a gneiss experience for me, particularly after Fable II sort of got my hopes up.

 

Mineral puns aside, this game and the mod community are the bee's knees, and the creation kit isn't even out yet! :D

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What? No, I wasn't trying to insult you or anything. I was just so pissed off after I popped in Fable III and it turned out to be a stinking pile of dog schist. It was not a gneiss experience for me, particularly after Fable II sort of got my hopes up.

 

Mineral puns aside, this game and the mod community are the bee's knees, and the creation kit isn't even out yet! :D

 

naw, no worries. I knew if I mentioned Fab...errr...that game I would get some flack. :tongue: But to be honest, yes, I agree with you..it was a let down. I'm not even thinking of the next one, pretty much done with it. I would invite you to take a look at my link in above post and read my sorta-kinda impression of this game though. Sometimes I have more fun going through these forums then the game...LOL! :thumbsup:

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Please don't apologize for Bethesda's incompetence. They made so much money off Skyrim (which is essentially an Oblivion Xpack in its current state). Something simple like footprints is not a lot of development time or money. They chose not to implement it to cut costs.

 

I don't think anyone's implying the footprints should exist for 24 real time hours, made dynamically by some footprint-creation algorithm -- the least that can occur is for footprints to be created by things within your view/draw distance and for them to fade as you walk out of such a distance, or for them to fade after a set 5-60 seconds.

Edited by fourtylashes
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Please don't apologize for Bethesda's incompetence. They made so much money off Skyrim (which is essentially an Oblivion Xpack in its current state). Something simple like footprints is not a lot of development time or money. They chose not to implement it to cut costs.

 

I don't think anyone's implying the footprints should exist for 24 real time hours, made dynamically by some footprint-creation algorithm -- the least that can occur is for footprints to be created by things within your view/draw distance and for them to fade as you walk out of such a distance, or for them to fade after a set 5-60 seconds.

 

I think you are quite right on this. The footprints would simply fade off after, say..30 seconds and that's all it would take. In the games I mentioned, the foot prints do fade after a short time.

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