Trespassing - A Trespasser Remake / Re-Telling

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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by machf »

What can I say... it looks very impressive.
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by Dragonlord »

s13n1 wrote:Compare the interaction with weapons and objects in Trespasser to that of Crysis. Every time you pick up a weapon or object in Crysis,
the hand does the same animation every time and objects will 'pop' into the hand before being collected.
That problem I don't have as I make the actor actually grabbing the object. Looks also more natural because you have (animation) control over how you would pick up an object instead of a physics simulation. It's definitely a plus if you need 2 hands holding an object which is something Trespasser could not handle. And I think they tried it as they experimented with a 2-arm system but somehow didn't get it working.
Trespasser's system is very good, it just needs some tweaks and it will be rock solid. I can imagine IK was somewhat new for real-time game use and
the developers were probably implementing their own system and for the first time too.
I think the problem had been not with IK but more with the lack of rotational limits and/or auto-dropping. They had a simple 2-joint IK system (hand is not part of it I think) which can be described with a closed solution.
Your system will work well with small light objects that can be lifted easily, but when you have an object like a tree branch or a long piece of heavy steel,
you really need the IK system to realistically portray weight.
I don't think so. The problem is that weight would not only influence the arm it influences your entire body. Trying to hold out a girder in front of you would destabilize yourself quite a lot. With a pure physics system this can be quite a nightmare to do. Better would be here a clever animation system with a bunch of parametrized animations and using a simple "control physics object" to figure out what forges to let act on you. Something like this I want to experiment with with the Mecha model I've got. Using a pure physics system might look easy to begin with but trying to tune it to not break out of control can be quite a problem. It's certainly worth a try though. Modern physics engines though work mostly on an impulse based error correction in contrary to Trespasser and these have a tendency for wiggling motion (as you never correct the full error but only "nudge" it more or less towards the goal). That's for sure going to be the biggest issue trying to recreate Trespasser.
Both systems work, its just that one looks more realistic and is probably the single most important aspect of Trespassers control mechanics.
I don't know. I never considered the arm physics to look realistic at all. Most probably because it lacks "logic" to look realistic. It worked as game mechanic but in my opinion it's far from realism.
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by s13n1 »

Dragonlord wrote: That problem I don't have as I make the actor actually grabbing the object. Looks also more natural because you have (animation) control over how you would pick up an object instead of a physics simulation. It's definitely a plus if you need 2 hands holding an object which is something Trespasser could not handle. And I think they tried it as they experimented with a 2-arm system but somehow didn't get it working.
Trespassers hands were not animated, there were several hand 'states' that the hand switched to depending on what is being held. You can see these states in TresEd. Adding animation to the hand would add some realism, so that the hand opened and closed over the object its grasping, but how noticeable it is in game though is trivial. You can test it with real life and you will notice that your fingers move very fast when grabbing an object, so it would only want to be a couple of frames between the idle position and the grasping position. The devs probably considered the it not worth the trouble. They probably could have just used an animated mesh with several different frames rather then separate objects for each hand state, then implement some frame interpolation which would do quite a nice job of making up for the lack of actual transition frames.

A two hand system using animated meshes instead of a skeletal IK system would require specific animations for different size objects or adjustments to the position of the hand models in relation to the size of the object held. Skeletal animation allows you to animate once, and hand positions are handled automatically. Saves time in so many ways.
I think the problem had been not with IK but more with the lack of rotational limits and/or auto-dropping. They had a simple 2-joint IK system (hand is not part of it I think) which can be described with a closed solution.
Thats exactly what i said:
If bone tolerances are set up correctly, then there will be no issues with the arm rotating at excessive and unrealistic angles. This is something
Trespasser was sorely missing and is unusual. You start with the shoulder and define a realistic degree of movement, then the elbow and the wrist. If
an objects weight is too much and tries to rotate any bone past their limit, the weld tolerance will break and the object will be dropped.
I'm pretty sure its 3 bones as well, the hand looks to rotate at the wrist when the 'rotate wrist' command is used.
I don't think so. The problem is that weight would not only influence the arm it influences your entire body. Trying to hold out a girder in front of you would destabilize yourself quite a lot. With a pure physics system this can be quite a nightmare to do. Better would be here a clever animation system with a bunch of parametrized animations and using a simple "control physics object" to figure out what forges to let act on you. Something like this I want to experiment with with the Mecha model I've got. Using a pure physics system might look easy to begin with but trying to tune it to not break out of control can be quite a problem. It's certainly worth a try though. Modern physics engines though work mostly on an impulse based error correction in contrary to Trespasser and these have a tendency for wiggling motion (as you never correct the full error but only "nudge" it more or less towards the goal). That's for sure going to be the biggest issue trying to recreate Trespasser.
You could take the physics as far as you want. The weight of the object your holding pulling on your body is obvious, but is it relevant? Adding such factors would add nothing to the game play of an FPS, but would be expected and critical in say.. a crane sim, where the weight of the object lifted would cause the crane to flex somewhat. The weight of an object may have an influence on the locomotion system, it most likely does, but having it transfer through a parent skeletal system that runs through the entire body only complicates things. And like i said, is it relevant and add anything to the game? You could have multiple diffuse maps for the fingers which you use to portray blood-flow and pressure when an object is grasped tightly, but whats the point? It wouldn't be noticeable unless there were extreme close-ups of the hand.
I don't know. I never considered the arm physics to look realistic at all. Most probably because it lacks "logic" to look realistic. It worked as game mechanic but in my opinion it's far from realism.
I dont think you could label anything in Trespasser as being particularly realistic. The physics are nice and amazing for their time, but they are far from realistic, especially when compared to whats available now. The hand is a very good arm simulation though, again, considering its age. If i updated the hand model to a high poly model with a nice diffuse + normal map, it would be one of the most realistic FPS hand / arms around. How many FPS games can you name that has the same level of interaction with objects as in trespasser? Any?

My whole point is that having to actually crouch, move your arm then press grab / pick up, is far more realistic then nearly every other FPS around. In most games you simply walk over an item to pick it up, or like Crysis, you look in the objects general direction and press grab / pick up.

Trespassers solution is a great balance between realism and fun, and with some tweaks it will be even better.
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by Dragonlord »

s13n1 wrote:Trespassers hands were not animated, there were several hand 'states' that the hand switched to depending on what is being held. You can see these states in TresEd. Adding animation to the hand would add some realism, so that the hand opened and closed over the object its grasping, but how noticeable it is in game though is trivial. You can test it with real life and you will notice that your fingers move very fast when grabbing an object, so it would only want to be a couple of frames between the idle position and the grasping position. The devs probably considered the it not worth the trouble. They probably could have just used an animated mesh with several different frames rather then separate objects for each hand state, then implement some frame interpolation which would do quite a nice job of making up for the lack of actual transition frames.
I know how the player mesh works. I created already a custom player character in Blender with exporting and all. What I mean is though something else, it's the "motion" that is the problem, not the mesh. With one hand you can make an IK chain that somewhat works but looks unrealistic. A two-hand system though yields an entire new dimension of problems: arm stretching. With one hand the pivotal point is the shoulder bone. With two hands though you suddenly have two pivotal points and the distance towards the object you hold is different. They couldn't get this working.
A two hand system using animated meshes instead of a skeletal IK system would require specific animations for different size objects or adjustments to the position of the hand models in relation to the size of the object held. Skeletal animation allows you to animate once, and hand positions are handled automatically. Saves time in so many ways.
No, it doesn't. I'm using a system like that and I don't need many animations. As mentioned, it's a question of having an "advanced animation system" at your disposal and thinking outside of the box. This is also why I threw the question into the room if it is really required to make a one-hand IK system at all costs instead of using for example a mixed animation system. Many interactions in Trespasser are troublesome due to the IK arm. It would make sense to use mixed animation for those situations and only use an IK arm where really needed. Because trying to punch in codes with a wiggly finger or trying to open a door or swiping an access card feels more like trying to swat a fly with a mallet. I think if Trespasser is remade the interaction should be reworked too. A pure IK arm is fun as idea but in many situations more of a problem than a help.
You could take the physics as far as you want. The weight of the object your holding pulling on your body is obvious, but is it relevant? Adding such factors would add nothing to the game play of an FPS, but would be expected and critical in say.. a crane sim, where the weight of the object lifted would cause the crane to flex somewhat. The weight of an object may have an influence on the locomotion system, it most likely does, but having it transfer through a parent skeletal system that runs through the entire body only complicates things. And like i said, is it relevant and add anything to the game? You could have multiple diffuse maps for the fingers which you use to portray blood-flow and pressure when an object is grasped tightly, but whats the point? It wouldn't be noticeable unless there were extreme close-ups of the hand.
I'd like to bounce that question back at you. Is the IK arm really needed for most interactions? Does it really "add" to the game mechanics in those cases? Granted you can say in old games you just used objects in the game world and call it done but here we are looking at a game based on interaction so I think taking this question too far would question if a game based on interaction is worthwhile or not (which I think it is if done right).
My whole point is that having to actually crouch, move your arm then press grab / pick up, is far more realistic then nearly every other FPS around. In most games you simply walk over an item to pick it up, or like Crysis, you look in the objects general direction and press grab / pick up.
Personally I would consider it less realistic as you try to get the physics to do what you want while in real life it just happens. In my case if you want to pick up an object from the ground you walk into grasp reach and press "pick up" command. Then the virtual actor actually bows down and picks up the object from the ground (with fully visible animations and camera movement). It's a seamless transition. Personally that's what I call realistic without me having to rotate every part of my arm like a mentally impaired guy trying to pick something up. I think that the interaction should not be hindered by an overly complicated system... at least not in the majority of simple cases. But you can of course try to make the IK arm.

EDIT: I think Trespasser has only 2 bones in the IK chain. It has 3 libs (upper arm, lower arm, hand) but I think the IK effector is located at the hand and thus only upper/lower arm is part of the IK chain. That's a 2-bone IK chain with limitations for which a closed solution can be calculated.
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by s13n1 »

Dragonlord wrote:I know how the player mesh works. I created already a custom player character in Blender with exporting and all. What I mean is though something else, it's the "motion" that is the problem, not the mesh. With one hand you can make an IK chain that somewhat works but looks unrealistic. A two-hand system though yields an entire new dimension of problems: arm stretching. With one hand the pivotal point is the shoulder bone. With two hands though you suddenly have two pivotal points and the distance towards the object you hold is different. They couldn't get this working.
I dont see what the problem is. Two hands or one, the arms still have constraints and they cant be exceeded so theres no issues with stretching. The arm in Trespasser stretches and has issues because its not setup properly, that doesn't mean the same issues will plague my project. The only issues i foresee are intersecting issues with the shoulders or the inside of the arms with the body. To avoid such issues though, constraints can be simply multiplied when handling certain size objects.
No, it doesn't. I'm using a system like that and I don't need many animations. As mentioned, it's a question of having an "advanced animation system" at your disposal and thinking outside of the box. This is also why I threw the question into the room if it is really required to make a one-hand IK system at all costs instead of using for example a mixed animation system. Many interactions in Trespasser are troublesome due to the IK arm. It would make sense to use mixed animation for those situations and only use an IK arm where really needed. Because trying to punch in codes with a wiggly finger or trying to open a door or swiping an access card feels more like trying to swat a fly with a mallet. I think if Trespasser is remade the interaction should be reworked too. A pure IK arm is fun as idea but in many situations more of a problem than a help.
Yep. I said in a previous reply that there will be simplified interaction with certain objects to guarantee precise control:
s13n1 wrote:Compare the interaction with weapons and objects in Trespasser to that of Crysis. Every time you pick up a weapon or object in Crysis, the hand does the same animation every time and objects will 'pop' into the hand before being collected. For large objects like boxes and barrels this doesn't really matter, because you cant see the hands anyway, and in real life if you were to wrap your arms around a barrel and lift it (bear hug), you wouldn't see them, so its a good solution and one which i will use for boxes and barrels. (Boxes and barrels being probably the two most stacked items in the game and will require the most precision)
I'd like to bounce that question back at you. Is the IK arm really needed for most interactions? Does it really "add" to the game mechanics in those cases? Granted you can say in old games you just used objects in the game world and call it done but here we are looking at a game based on interaction so I think taking this question too far would question if a game based on interaction is worthwhile or not (which I think it is if done right).
I dont understand what you're getting at. In Trespasser, the hand was the players only means of interaction with the world. To expand this interaction and improve it is the obvious solution and one which most fans of Trespasser would agree with.
Personally I would consider it less realistic as you try to get the physics to do what you want while in real life it just happens. In my case if you want to pick up an object from the ground you walk into grasp reach and press "pick up" command. Then the virtual actor actually bows down and picks up the object from the ground (with fully visible animations and camera movement). It's a seamless transition. Personally that's what I call realistic without me having to rotate every part of my arm like a mentally impaired guy trying to pick something up. I think that the interaction should not be hindered by an overly complicated system... at least not in the majority of simple cases. But you can of course try to make the IK arm.
I really don't think you understand Trespasser's gameplay, or are much of a fan of it if you cant see how the arm plays a very important role in the gameplay. In a fast paced FPS, Trespassers arm would be out of place and just get in the way of the action. Trespasser is a much slower game and having to actually stop, and pickup the objects and weapons is what increases the excitement, as you scramble to pickup a weapon while a raptor gives chase. Or when in the heat of the moment you drop your gun and you need to avoid an attacking dinosaur while you try to pick it up again.

Because things 'just happen' in real life doesn't mean these actions must be simplified to make them more realistic in a game, thats a ridiculous statement. The hand creates a bond between the player and Anne. Its a link between the game world and reality and regardless of how realistic it looks or behaves, it helps immerse the player in the game world and gives them a greater sense of involvement.

If you prefer more simplistic methods of interaction and animation, thats your opinion and you're entitled to it.
I personally don't, particularly when its an integral part of the game in question.
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by Dragonlord »

s13n1 wrote:I dont see what the problem is. Two hands or one, the arms still have constraints and they cant be exceeded so theres no issues with stretching. The arm in Trespasser stretches and has issues because its not setup properly, that doesn't mean the same issues will plague my project. The only issues i foresee are intersecting issues with the shoulders or the inside of the arms with the body. To avoid such issues though, constraints can be simply multiplied when handling certain size objects.
I take it then you never worked with IK systems like that. The problem comes from a different direction and has to do with a simple "triangle".
I really don't think you understand Trespasser's gameplay, or are much of a fan of it if you cant see how the arm plays a very important role in the gameplay. In a fast paced FPS, Trespassers arm would be out of place and just get in the way of the action. Trespasser is a much slower game and having to actually stop, and pickup the objects and weapons is what increases the excitement, as you scramble to pickup a weapon while a raptor gives chase. Or when in the heat of the moment you drop your gun and you need to avoid an attacking dinosaur while you try to pick it up again.
You keep comparing Trespasser with an FPS. It is not one at all. Trespasser is about "interaction" not "arm physics". The arm physics has been chosen in an attempt to achieve the interaction goal. The arm physics is the tool used for the goal: interaction. The problem is that the tool has various implications that get in the way of interaction in different situations. But since you keep on comparing against FPS I take it you played only FPS to compare against in terms of interaction. Interaction is a broad term and one has to stake the question what your actual goal is. Is it interacting with the world to solve your problems/tasks/challenges? Or is it fighting against the controls to get interaction working? This is why the arm should be carefully re-though while trying a re-trespasser. Is the essence of trespasser the world, the survival, the puzzles, the exploration? Or is it fighting with your arm? If the later only then there is a problem. Trespasser is much more than a whacky arm... much more. But I agree that there are different views. I just think a re-trespasser deserves rethinking of the tools (the arm) and this can also means to potentially redesign this tool in a way it is different than the original, especially since many problems (like dropping weapon) stems from questionable design choices (nobody hols a SPAS one handed with a fully stretched arm).
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by s13n1 »

All your doing is stating the obvious, covering issues ive already addressed or mentioned elsewhere and trying to undermine my intelligence and understanding of how things work.

I'd appreciate it if in the future you kept all questions and suggestions to yourself.

End of discussion.
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by LtSten »

While I'd agree that further discussion like this probably wouldn't benefit towards the project, this is a public forum, there are going to be people who disagree with your opinions. As a note towards the project, you may disagree with what Dragonlord has mentioned, but there are some valuable points which he's mentioned that you should consider, based on previous experience - not to say you haven't as well, but it's hard to criticise your own project and find faults, even I know that from experience. :P

...moving on, from what I've read and the screenshots I've seen, this is looking pretty good, and as long as you keep up the good work, I'm pretty sure this is going to be very nice indeed. ;) Although at some point it might hit some variation of the PV curse...
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by s13n1 »

Here are some samples of some of my other work.

I originally started this project back in 2007, i'm not sure if I've mentioned that before, so I have a huge collection of models, textures and other assorted
assets that will most like need overhauling or replacing.

Here's a raptor i made, which is quite low poly, but i was building this for lower spec machines at the time.
raptor_pose.jpg
raptor_pose.jpg (35.56 KiB) Viewed 15241 times
Lots of areas can be improved and the lack of detail around the claws and feet are obvious.

Texture wise i have lots of textures and have started working on some more recently to keep my work varied.
I'm going for extreme realism with my textures, using displacement mapping for terrain and keeping resolutions as high as possible to minimize repetitive
patters while maintaining detail.

All my textures are made from my photography. Taking photos when the light is very bright and when the sun is behind the clouds, removes nearly all directional
shadows, and makes it easier to create textures for modern games. You must ensure that white balance is set manually otherwise your camera might change between
shots and cause more work for you later.

Here are some samples of my texture work, some new some old:
dirt_rocky_ground.jpg
dirt_rocky_ground.jpg (439.4 KiB) Viewed 15241 times
pebbles_cream.jpg
pebbles_cream.jpg (392.2 KiB) Viewed 15241 times
pineneedles_disp&normal.jpg
pineneedles_disp&normal.jpg (443.84 KiB) Viewed 15241 times
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by s13n1 »

texture_disp_example.jpg
texture_disp_example.jpg (408.64 KiB) Viewed 15239 times
pineneedles_pebbles_disp.jpg
pineneedles_pebbles_disp.jpg (381.54 KiB) Viewed 15239 times
The two textures with pine needles are only 2048x2048, where as the others are all 4096x4096.
The final size will most like be 2048, but what format yet is unknown. Whatever yields best results for minimum size.
A 4096 size tiff is pushing 95mb just for the diffuse. Add to that the displacement, normal, specular and occlusion (if an engine needs it),
and you're looking at 300mb for one texture!

The above samples are all flat lit with no lighting, this is why they are full bright.
It gives you a better view of the details.

All shadows will be produced in game, so they must be removed from these diffuse layers.

I'm making good progress on the island.

I have linked the road at the start of Pine Valley, near the Dam, with the dead end road form Ascent2.
The road wraps around the mountain a little then descends a few switchbacks before joining at the gate.
It looks really good and will be put to good use.

I have built a road that runs around the Dam's reservoir, as well as linking the two valleys in Industrial Jungle with a road that ascends where
the monolith is. What used to be a creek leading down from the monolith is now a road, and the creek has been moved to the base of the water
pool where you jumped down. These changes add realism to the island layout by linking the island a little better. Gates will be used to control
accessibility so it doesn't upset the progression.

The aviary is taking shape. It leads to a river that flows into an area i'm calling the Western Plains. This area is nothing compared to the Eastern Plains, but
it is an open area with similar design. The river flows into more intimate jungle, then into a lagoon that is the same area featured in the 3rd movie with the
spinosaur boat attack. The crane Kirby climbed will be here and an area near by will be a storage area for vehicles and equipment used during the islands
construction. This vehicle yard is where the water truck Eric was hiding in originated from. Someone crashed it into the swamps nearby and its been there ever
since.

The Western Plains has a road that leads to the aviary building on the top of the cliffs. This is the small round building they hid in to escape the Spino. This area
links with the jumpy challenge after the canyon in I.J. I'm using the jumpy section as a sort of land slide that's washed away the road that links the aviary building
with the new road ive added where the monolith is.

It might be a little difficult to visualize, ill post some images soon with an overlay that details where everything will be and some possible storyline details.

I have decided to add a second Harbor, this will be called the Eastern Docks and will fill the space between the Eastern Plains and the starting Beach. These docks are
much smaller and were used for.. well, cant say.

I'm building locations for radio towers, which will be the towers used for the Radio Data Network featured in the book. How these tie into the storyline i cant say
yet, but will play a major role.

When i get a chance ill do another render of the island in WorldMachine and post it here.

Stay tuned.

P.S I'm also building a Saw Mill in the area between the Harbor and the start of Ascent 1. If you're wondering how all these areas are tied into the story and overall
level progression, dont worry. You cant access any of these new areas until you have reached the Summit. That's a pretty good hint.
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by vagrantart »

Ground textures look great,What engine are you using or planning to use? Is the modelling all blender?
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by awesome24712 »

vagrantart wrote:Ground textures look great,What engine are you using or planning to use? Is the modelling all blender?
I think he's using Unigine... either that or one of the CryEngines.

Oh, and some nice ground textures. :wink:
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by s13n1 »

vagrantart wrote:Ground textures look great,What engine are you using or planning to use? Is the modelling all blender?
Thanks!

So far i have used Lightwave 5.6, which was used to join the maps together and build the initial island. Lightwave was also used to
make the raptor model and pretty much all my models so far.

I have used Blender 2.60 for UV creation and some other 3d work.

Mudbox, which will be used to sculpt the island further, when im finished with it in Sandbox3. The shot of the raptor was taken in Mudbox
using one of the lighting presets.

CrazyBump was used for initial displacement map creation, then further sculpting was done using Mudbox, to remove any false impressions
and depressions created by light or dark features. A black rock on the sandy pebble texture will actually create a hole, because it thinks its
negative height information. The same goes for a white rock on a dark texture, it makes it bulge, thinking its a high point. CrazyBump does
an amazing job, but to get good results you still need to tweak things by hand.

Engine wise, i'm pretty sure its going to be CryEngine2.

Unigine was just some testing, to see how it works and to check its performance. Its performance is nice and i think it has some really nice
features that allows fine control over many elements, but its lacking some pretty important features. Its also in many ways overkill, but its the
limitations and cost of it that have turned me off of it.

I'm using Sandbox3 / Cryengine3 for all my level editing at the moment, because Sandbox3 is just so much more stable then Sandbox2. Memory
is a huge issue, and once you have exceeded a certain amount, then Sandbox2 just stops working. Its too risky to keep using it, because one day
it wont save after the crash and ill lose lots of work.

Sandbox3 / CE3 has issues with heightmap accuracy at high altitudes though, which is why ill be using CE2. I have no idea why the CE3 has these
issues, but some think its because Crysis2 took place in a somewhat flat environment compared to Crysis1. The levels never really went above a
certain height, so they gave preference to the lower end of the terrain and precision is lost above the 300ish metre mark. It basically means you
cant get the terrain smooth.

I'm really looking forward to the latest version of the Leadwerks engine, which will be called Leadwerks3D. It should be a significant leap in features
and hopefully performance, but when its due is unknown. And the developers decision to start pushing multi platform is a bit worrying. I honestly
think that when an engine goes PC / Console / Mobile, then it starts to limit its potential. The feature gap between platforms cant be too huge,
so the PC builds will never be too far ahead of the consoles.

Gone are the days when we upgraded our systems in preparation of a new game from id software..
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by Slugger »

Those textures are fantastic!
0066521C: 'Cannot create local swap file - Is Trespasser installed??',0Ah,0
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Re: All levels combined into one mesh. W.I.P

Post by awesome24712 »

Nice to see you're looking at all of the options, deciding which one's best. :wink:
Check out the HL2 mod I'm helping with: Image
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