Eidal
Molten Core Raider
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Crowfall
- Thread starter Kharza-kzad_sl
- Start date
Big Flex
Fitness Fascist
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you are a scholar, a gentleman, a bone chip rippa, and straight calcium slanga. ty.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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Vitality
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KS update on Unity5
Posted by ArtCraft Entertainment, Inc.
Hello everyone!
I know a lot of you have been asking to hear more about the technical side of Crowfall and I thought with the public release of Unity 5 it would be a good time to talk about how that particular piece of technology has played a significant role in how we've been building the game.
We've been using Unity 5 early on in it's beta and this choice was influenced by a number of important factors. A big part of it was how it brings together an impressive collection of proven, AAA quality modules out of the box. From their new PhysX 3.3 integration for physics simulation (extremely important to Crowfall's unique flavor of physically based combat) to their usage of Mono and the .NET platform - the developers at Unity have been kind enough to assemble a veritable dream team of game development middleware. As a team that has built more than their fair share of game engines as both hobbyists and professionals it's hard to overstate how much time was saved by not having to wrangle all these third party libraries and make them play nice with one another (not to mention those pesky licensing fees!)
For most games this would be enough, but from it's inception Crowfall has been a different kind of game that has very unique requirements. Fortunately, Unity has a well architected extension system - both as editor and runtime managed code as well as a native plugin architecture. This has enabled us to make significant modifications to subsystems that would otherwise be considered "under the hood" of most engines, and bring in our own or additional technology (like the beloved VoxelFarm!) not to mention the massive collection of libraries opened up to us in the .NET ecosystem.
For development, we've also been extremely impressed with the additional workflow and features that Unity 5 has given us. As a programmer, their robust debugging and profiling tools have been invaluable in helping us identify issues and performance bottlenecks early on. Our combat team has been very happy with the improvements to the Mechanim system - especially the new animation state behaviors, and the new uGUI system has helped us build working prototypes of many of the screens you've already seen.
Post launch, Crowfall's unique Dying Worlds concept means we are going to need to be able to deliver new content quickly and effectively, and break up resources specific to each world and ruleset. We've been looking into the new powerful Asset Bundle system in Unity 5 to help us with this.
There's a lot more I'd love to talk and share with you! As always feel free to post on the forums and ask questions, and I'll answer them as best I can. Let us know if you guys find these kinds of posts enjoyable (I'm not sure if they're as much fun as design and art posts) Thanks for reading, looking forward to talking with you some more!
Howard Smith - Principal Client Engineer (And Forgemaster) Howard Smith - Principal Client Engineer (And Forgemaster)
Hello everyone!
I know a lot of you have been asking to hear more about the technical side of Crowfall and I thought with the public release of Unity 5 it would be a good time to talk about how that particular piece of technology has played a significant role in how we've been building the game.
We've been using Unity 5 early on in it's beta and this choice was influenced by a number of important factors. A big part of it was how it brings together an impressive collection of proven, AAA quality modules out of the box. From their new PhysX 3.3 integration for physics simulation (extremely important to Crowfall's unique flavor of physically based combat) to their usage of Mono and the .NET platform - the developers at Unity have been kind enough to assemble a veritable dream team of game development middleware. As a team that has built more than their fair share of game engines as both hobbyists and professionals it's hard to overstate how much time was saved by not having to wrangle all these third party libraries and make them play nice with one another (not to mention those pesky licensing fees!)
For most games this would be enough, but from it's inception Crowfall has been a different kind of game that has very unique requirements. Fortunately, Unity has a well architected extension system - both as editor and runtime managed code as well as a native plugin architecture. This has enabled us to make significant modifications to subsystems that would otherwise be considered "under the hood" of most engines, and bring in our own or additional technology (like the beloved VoxelFarm!) not to mention the massive collection of libraries opened up to us in the .NET ecosystem.
For development, we've also been extremely impressed with the additional workflow and features that Unity 5 has given us. As a programmer, their robust debugging and profiling tools have been invaluable in helping us identify issues and performance bottlenecks early on. Our combat team has been very happy with the improvements to the Mechanim system - especially the new animation state behaviors, and the new uGUI system has helped us build working prototypes of many of the screens you've already seen.
Post launch, Crowfall's unique Dying Worlds concept means we are going to need to be able to deliver new content quickly and effectively, and break up resources specific to each world and ruleset. We've been looking into the new powerful Asset Bundle system in Unity 5 to help us with this.
There's a lot more I'd love to talk and share with you! As always feel free to post on the forums and ask questions, and I'll answer them as best I can. Let us know if you guys find these kinds of posts enjoyable (I'm not sure if they're as much fun as design and art posts) Thanks for reading, looking forward to talking with you some more!
Howard Smith - Principal Client Engineer (And Forgemaster) Howard Smith - Principal Client Engineer (And Forgemaster)
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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I think the usage of Unity in the development community in general is good. I hope it is also be good for CF. Reusing an existing engine is usually a huge help and cost saver, but can lead to problems when you run into limitations of the system.
CU seems to be building an engine from the ground up and their engine might be one of the most interesting parts of their project because it's built to handle mass PvP. It'll be interesting to see how they handle the n^2 problem of client network traffic in mass PvP.
CU seems to be building an engine from the ground up and their engine might be one of the most interesting parts of their project because it's built to handle mass PvP. It'll be interesting to see how they handle the n^2 problem of client network traffic in mass PvP.
Balroc
Molten Core Raider
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Female centaurs? Who cares. Improved particle effects? I wonder how much of a difference there is between improved and "normal" particles. The carrot just doesn't look that attractive, but at least $1.3m seems like a much more substantial addition.
Vitality
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I don't know too much about it or it's interactions with .net framework etc.
I do know however that Shroud of the Avatar is being made with Unity4 and it's controls are pretty fuckin bad. Input delay, sluggish character movement, etc. Not sure how much of that is a unity restriction.
I do know however that Shroud of the Avatar is being made with Unity4 and it's controls are pretty fuckin bad. Input delay, sluggish character movement, etc. Not sure how much of that is a unity restriction.
I wonder how close in proximity and communications this studio is to Richard Garriott's new Austin based MMO company and how many people are interlinked in these two companies....
Austin has become Indy Kickstarter MMO central, it seems.
Austin has become Indy Kickstarter MMO central, it seems.
Tuco
I got Tuco'd!
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I agree, they should conduct a poll of people who want to play female centaurs and then ban the people who vote yes from their forums. My hope iwth stretch goals is that whatever garbage carrot they kick out for the stretch goal only represents a fraction of what they'll spend that money on.
Vitality
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I agree with balroc on this one, I don't give a crap about graphics or spell particles, I want hard deets on victory condition development and campaign rulesets and world structuring.
I don't care if this game looks like runescape, gimme the deets.
Stretch goal one should have GvG development, Stretch goal two should have been Faction development.
Every game on the planet that went graphics first bit the dust.
I don't care if this game looks like runescape, gimme the deets.
Stretch goal one should have GvG development, Stretch goal two should have been Faction development.
Every game on the planet that went graphics first bit the dust.
Big Flex
Fitness Fascist
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Bruman
Golden Squire
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I suspect it's really more about them just needing another art person. Those are the two immediate tasks they want done. And while female centaurs might not be as much, pretty particles will go a long way to making the game attractive and helping sales (as dumb as it is). Particle effects are everywhere.
It's a pretty great time to be in the indie game arena. Unity3D, Unreal4, and now Source2 are all coming out with ways for the general public to use their engines. Each has different revenue models, different communities, and even different languages, which gives people some cool options.
Bruman
Golden Squire
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As did every game on the planet that ignored graphics (and UX in general). There's a reason we all aren't playing Wurm Online right now.
Vitality
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I'm not saying ignore graphics, I'm saying have some kind of idea how your game is going to work before you focus on making it shiny.
Right now this is an "I don't know, sounds cool" game that's getting gold plated.
Also, I wouldn't play this game if they pulled design decisions from community polls because their official forum goers are extremely terrible.
Bruman
Golden Squire
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I understand where you're coming from, and don't disagree, but the reality is they have to move forward on all things at the same time. Making pretty graphics, while getting basic server structure working, while getting game design implemented and tested, etc.
And as they've said - a lot of it won't really flesh out until they get into play testing. If they opened up play testing with shitty animations and crappy particle effects, all the feedback would be about that. It'd just be too distracting. It's needs to be decent enough to let people enjoy the game, and be able to give feedback on the deeper design. They can't say how everything will 100% work, because they don't know, and won't know until multiple alpha and betas. And even after that, just like WoW, they'll continue to change and refine over time.
I think the campaigns, eternal kingdom, vault system, hunger system, class system, and variable rulesets give more than enough for everyone to get a good grasp of what they're going for here. After that it'll just be how they can creatively deal with the nuances (some small, some larger) once people are in and playing. As always, it'll come down to execution and implementation.
A bigger shock to me is that mounts and caravans are a stretch goal. That can have such a huge impact on game design, seems like it should either be in, or not be in.
I feel like the number of people who are going to play a Centaur is low. I feel like the number of people that are going to play a female Centaur is in the negatives. I'm not trying to beat a dead horse, but I equestrian their decision.