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Airfield? or Crossbow Frag? Oh?
Airfield? or Crossbow Frag? Oh?
| Name: | Apparatus |  |
|---|---|---|
| Date Posted: | Jun 20, 2008 | |
| Rating: |  3.0 out of 5 | |
| Public: | YES | |
| Comments: | YES | |
| RSS Feed: |  or Subscribe with  . | |
| Profile Page: | View profile page for Apparatus |
Blog post
Four years ago I purchased Torque game engine. At the time i think it was version 1.2 or something; I remember it presented me with a pass and CVS repository address w I had no idea how to use. Eventually I managed to pop in and compile the code; Wow.
Right and long time before that I was in the halflife mods business; I enjoyed working with Valve's Hammer editor (at the time still called something-else-can't remember: Worldcraft? I think).
Anyway.. I recall going every night at a local iCafe with a floppy disk (sometimes more) and grabbing tutorials. At the end of that long winter I had successfully collected over 4 GB (!) of tutorials and stuff via floppy disk transport.
When the first leaked screenshots of HL2 showed up on internet, in particular those of Hammer editor, I said, heh, ok; lets see. It was another year (Gabe Newel leaked a stripped version so nobody get's pissed while waiting) and finally HL2 arrived. With a completely new engine, Source, and everything else: bells and whistles.
It was way too complicated though. With Steam and the new tools all hooked on a new approach, everything seemed so commercial and shiny - so much different than the old Half-Life modding feel. I looked up alternatives because I needed a toolset to play with and create something, a game, anything. I am an artist, not a coder, level design skills are there, bits of game design via self-education and all as well, tons of enthusiasm and a youth to spare.
I ran into Torque someday and I loved it the first minute. Here's something I made in Hammer and imported into Torque in January 2005:
Not much but I loved doing it at the time. I ran into GUI editor as well, changed everything around and I must say after this time I am good friends with pretty much every (graphic) file inside TGE. Hehe.
I got busy meanwhile with life and periods of time I had to let go my 'toys' and do something for a living. But I kept coming back, over and over again with promise to stay, each time.
Now I am here again and I think this time is it. I like what I am doing with Torque and wherever leads me, I am going.
Here's something I did in the past few days, things I never considered possible (or thought of for that matter). Most if you already seen it i presume:
I discover new things every day, I keep pushing the envelope on things to see what;s coming out of it. I am so pissed with nowadays business approach on the game industry.. I understand people need to make money out of it but this is also a life style, and educational route and everything else you think of: it's not only profit. C'mon people. Hardware and software is shifting natural development routes towards profit. Profit and profit again. Look at the bloated Vista. It's still there, nobody challenges Microso*t for this crappy product. On the other hand, Garage Games and their line of products kept getting better - and guess what: it's still affordable! It's still here, nearby, listening, letting developers involve and improve. Nah, forget it. This can go forever.
So what's my point? My point is, TGE should not let go. TGEA is great but it shouldn't replace TGE; never; there are still so many people unable (or unwilling) to upgrade their hardware for the sake of graphics alone. Where the fu*k is the game in all this? Crysis (top line right) is the perfect example. Hit Enter about 6 times in the entire game and that's the gameplay? Really? How about... no?
How about use the current hardware and the good ol' software/tools to make games a bit more fun? a bit more rewarding? I get astonishing framerates in TGE with loads and loads of objects and particles and stuff - and my screen looks nice. There's no normal map or fancy water - do I care? No. Interaction is a bit more important. Shaders at this point are really eye-only. How about something for the brain?
I am not saying next gen is not good. O ho, I like next gen stuff. But please don't overuse it. Don't bloat your engine or map or mission with eye candy that is not needed. Again, this can go forever. The image above with the creek is really dragging people in but what we have there 2 a texture scrolling across a plane and 1 particle effect, splashing around. No shaders. Nothing fancy. Add in your mind the movement of the water (you'll get a video soon, for now check this test), add sounds and we conveyed something almost real. We suspended the disbelief.
Cause that's it ladies and gents. After all, people buy games to play not to watch.
So what's the catch with the title? Oh, that? I am very much interested in the pre and post Victorian era, early airplanes and industrial machines. I also like medieval style stuff a lot. So my question (for me) is, what game to start actually working on? The Airfield or the Starter.FPS-gone-wild? Because, you know, they are both possible.
note I mirrored this blog on Occlusion Fields, my other blog, moved from wordpress under my new domain.
edited links
Right and long time before that I was in the halflife mods business; I enjoyed working with Valve's Hammer editor (at the time still called something-else-can't remember: Worldcraft? I think).
Anyway.. I recall going every night at a local iCafe with a floppy disk (sometimes more) and grabbing tutorials. At the end of that long winter I had successfully collected over 4 GB (!) of tutorials and stuff via floppy disk transport.
When the first leaked screenshots of HL2 showed up on internet, in particular those of Hammer editor, I said, heh, ok; lets see. It was another year (Gabe Newel leaked a stripped version so nobody get's pissed while waiting) and finally HL2 arrived. With a completely new engine, Source, and everything else: bells and whistles.
It was way too complicated though. With Steam and the new tools all hooked on a new approach, everything seemed so commercial and shiny - so much different than the old Half-Life modding feel. I looked up alternatives because I needed a toolset to play with and create something, a game, anything. I am an artist, not a coder, level design skills are there, bits of game design via self-education and all as well, tons of enthusiasm and a youth to spare.
I ran into Torque someday and I loved it the first minute. Here's something I made in Hammer and imported into Torque in January 2005:
Not much but I loved doing it at the time. I ran into GUI editor as well, changed everything around and I must say after this time I am good friends with pretty much every (graphic) file inside TGE. Hehe.
I got busy meanwhile with life and periods of time I had to let go my 'toys' and do something for a living. But I kept coming back, over and over again with promise to stay, each time.
Now I am here again and I think this time is it. I like what I am doing with Torque and wherever leads me, I am going.
Here's something I did in the past few days, things I never considered possible (or thought of for that matter). Most if you already seen it i presume:
I discover new things every day, I keep pushing the envelope on things to see what;s coming out of it. I am so pissed with nowadays business approach on the game industry.. I understand people need to make money out of it but this is also a life style, and educational route and everything else you think of: it's not only profit. C'mon people. Hardware and software is shifting natural development routes towards profit. Profit and profit again. Look at the bloated Vista. It's still there, nobody challenges Microso*t for this crappy product. On the other hand, Garage Games and their line of products kept getting better - and guess what: it's still affordable! It's still here, nearby, listening, letting developers involve and improve. Nah, forget it. This can go forever.
So what's my point? My point is, TGE should not let go. TGEA is great but it shouldn't replace TGE; never; there are still so many people unable (or unwilling) to upgrade their hardware for the sake of graphics alone. Where the fu*k is the game in all this? Crysis (top line right) is the perfect example. Hit Enter about 6 times in the entire game and that's the gameplay? Really? How about... no?
How about use the current hardware and the good ol' software/tools to make games a bit more fun? a bit more rewarding? I get astonishing framerates in TGE with loads and loads of objects and particles and stuff - and my screen looks nice. There's no normal map or fancy water - do I care? No. Interaction is a bit more important. Shaders at this point are really eye-only. How about something for the brain?
I am not saying next gen is not good. O ho, I like next gen stuff. But please don't overuse it. Don't bloat your engine or map or mission with eye candy that is not needed. Again, this can go forever. The image above with the creek is really dragging people in but what we have there 2 a texture scrolling across a plane and 1 particle effect, splashing around. No shaders. Nothing fancy. Add in your mind the movement of the water (you'll get a video soon, for now check this test), add sounds and we conveyed something almost real. We suspended the disbelief.
Cause that's it ladies and gents. After all, people buy games to play not to watch.
So what's the catch with the title? Oh, that? I am very much interested in the pre and post Victorian era, early airplanes and industrial machines. I also like medieval style stuff a lot. So my question (for me) is, what game to start actually working on? The Airfield or the Starter.FPS-gone-wild? Because, you know, they are both possible.
note I mirrored this blog on Occlusion Fields, my other blog, moved from wordpress under my new domain.
edited links
Recent Blog Posts
| List: | 11/04/08 - Kork 2.0, halted work 09/24/08 - Constructor Pipeline (I) 09/23/08 - Interior Guide Pack Free Download 09/23/08 - Kaboom! Pack for TGEA 09/15/08 - About Constructor 09/11/08 - Interior Guide Pack Released 09/10/08 - Associate Rant 09/08/08 - Interior Guide Pack update |
|---|
Submit your own resources!| Morrock (Jun 20, 2008 at 23:40 GMT) |
Though I don't agree that effects that do nothing but provide eye-candy should be left out. Even if it has the same interactability, and player involvement, highly-detailed graphics and physics can make the game just look and feel nicer. It also gives a much greater supsension of disbelief, and the physics of objects just make some elements of gameplay feel nicer. Splashes and water pouring around the player as he runs through flowing water, bodies going limp and ragdolling after being shot. And the water effects in BioShock, pouring down stairs, casting reflections and shadows on walls an ceilings give it a great eery feeling.
I'm not saying that better graphics make games better, and I do agree with you that developers do focus too much on graphics and not enough on gameplay nowadays. I'm just saying that you shouldn't leave out next-gen effects just because they do not directly affect gameplay.
Oh, and great work on your graphics in TGE, I love the rainbow over the waterfall!
| Apparatus (Jun 21, 2008 at 00:17 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
I am fully supporting next-gen as long as it comes alongside smart gameplay; nowadays the push to eye-candy is a candid (if not stupid) hope that gamers (customers) will let the shining colored box replace the actual scope of the product - that of entertainment. It is as if they reduced the entertainment to a big tv-screen. Looking good; not very bad if you forget that it comes with the price of an upgrade. And that upgrade is expensive, more or less.
Whatever we say, the push to next-gen is merely a disguised attempt to help sales of hardware.
Indeed better graphics makes games look better; but the greater the disappointment when you invest in good looking games and end up digging those good old games - not so good looking but oh so rewarding - and you keep asking yourself if it's worth the effort.
| Morrock (Jun 21, 2008 at 02:08 GMT) |
| Novack (Jun 21, 2008 at 02:18 GMT) |
You are like the Good twin of GlaDOS.
| Apparatus (Jun 21, 2008 at 02:19 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
Edited on Jun 21, 2008 02:20 GMT
| Adib Murad (Jun 21, 2008 at 03:20 GMT) |
And I gotta say, you're gifted. The movement of the waterfall is the work of a true artist. Top notch art on fixed function pipeline. It's a lesson for all of us. Congrats, man.
Now answering to you question: Airfield! Forgotten futures aesthetics!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forgotten_Futures
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Those_Magnificent_Men_in_Their_Flying_Machines
www.imdb.com/title/tt0054387/
And 1960's science fiction! Valve-powered Robots! Lost in Space! Yay!
Edited on Jun 21, 2008 03:21 GMT
| Apparatus (Jun 21, 2008 at 03:34 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| Jaimi McEntire (Jun 21, 2008 at 03:55 GMT) |
Quote:
there are still so many people unable (or unwilling) to upgrade their hardware for the sake of graphics alone
TGEA now has a fallback renderer, it can support older video cards now as well as fancy shaders. Come over to the dark side, Apparatus! It's faster, and there are more tools and features! <g>
| Apparatus (Jun 21, 2008 at 03:59 GMT) Resource Rating: 5 |
| Jaimi McEntire (Jun 21, 2008 at 04:04 GMT) |
| Javier Canon (Jun 21, 2008 at 05:10 GMT) |
In the world exist two flavor of people:
The people that understand binaries (strategy, think think think)...
and the people that not (only shoot shoot shoot, FPS shooters)
So, for my is better important the gameplay that fancy graphics...
Edited on Jun 21, 2008 05:13 GMT
| Morrock (Jun 22, 2008 at 01:07 GMT) |
Just saying, if your goal is to develop great graphics and fx for lower quality hardware and shaders, it's better to use the engine made for those shaders than an engine designed for new shaders with fallbacks to the old ones. Though either way I'm sure Apparatus could make it work XD
| Benjamin L. Grauer (Jun 22, 2008 at 23:22 GMT) |
Just... people confuse too much good art with good technique. A game technically excellent can be ugly because of poor art direction. While a game technically obsolete can looks good with good art direction.
But, a game with good arts AND supported by a powerful engine will look and feel way more awesome. Improving the graphical ability of TGEA is not a waste of time, it enhance the whole experience for everyone.
Right now I find TGEA pretty good, it lacks only one thing: true motion blur (like the one in crysis) because it make the animation and camera move feel natural, way less artificial and tiresome for the eyes than the actual games without this effect. I don't care for everything else, just make this one into TGEA.
Edited on Jun 22, 2008 23:23 GMT
| Morrock (Jun 23, 2008 at 01:54 GMT) |
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