Friday with Means - March 13th, 2009

[Berinda]

With how detailed those new heads are, it's going to be creepy as hell if they don't blink.

Also, from a technical standpoint, will it be possible in the future to have custom faces like AoC or The Perfect World?

[Lupusceleri]

Made by an orgmate, Dheliver..

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[Trebie]

The whole "trying to make coding" interesting part sounds quite disheartening to me honestly. That honestly IS interesting stuff, because it lets us know where it's at! We need to know these things.

[Quilluck]

Made by an orgmate, Dheliver..

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I support that amount of cleavage.

But yes, as many have mentioned already... while the screenie definitely shows a much better graphical look, it simply does not look like an opifex.. it looks like some sort of deformed gnome ^^

[Trebie]

That too is impressive work!

[Amosco]

I, for one, am very impressed with the new head that Means showed (both the early one and the updated one). I'll agree with many here that it doesn't exactly mimic the opifex head it was meant to replace, but it still shows technical advancement which I'm really excited about.

Also, seeing some of the spectacular work that several of the people have presented in this thread, I wonder if Means could contact some of the artists within the AO community and get their help on converting the heads (at least getting the meshes correct, if not the possibility for animated facial features). If Windgaurd is correct about the number of heads currently in game, it seems like ALOT of work for just a few artists on the AO Dev Team to undertake.

[Spart]

can you get us a picture of a leet?

[kickboxer74]

Means,


very good FwM-posting, this one. Everything said is really good. Great to hear about the progress being made on the engine along with all fixes in the next update.

However, none of the opifex-pictures posted were any good, really. Sure, better from a technical point of view, but talking about pure aesthetics, the old opifex is much hotter, especially the eyes, nose and lips. The new one looks like a, sorry to say this, retarded solitus-gnome-combo.

The new face doesn't look like a new "version" of the old one, but just as a new solitus/gnome one. A completely new face. Please make sure that the graphic artists make sure that breed characteristics are kept. It's bad enough with the prof descriptions being false these days, don't make the breed appearance change as well.

However, all in all, a good update and I'm dying to see a new video clip with the new engine.

[rustinel]

First of all....mmmmmmmmmmm, opis!

Now thats out of the way great news about Battlestations \o/

And as a few have said the artwork done by some of the posters here is very good. My first impression of the work done by FC artists was 'hmm, still prefer the old one'
I think thats as much to do with me and the rest having grown to love the faces around us for all these years.

In any case, it would be a cool thing(and could save you guys some work) if members of the community were set to work on redoing the heads for the new engine. We love this game and as I said we have spent years with/looking at these faces. Thats the kind of community interaction other games would kill for.
Hell, they've already finished two without even being asked.

It would be truly legendary

[Vhax]

I thought they are using TIDE engine? or is that the in-house world building engine?

Means has previously stated (few FWM's back) they're using Ogre as new graphics engine.

[Nethelus]

There will of course be some graphical updates with the new engine...the full extent of which isn't fully decided. New trees to freshen up the outdoor environments are definitely coming. Character bodies are going to be "smoothed" and better optimized for animation to lose some of the nasty poly issues. One test in progress at the moment is new character heads...AO has a huge number of these...so we are currently working on a "work in progress" opifex female head as a test case for possible production of new heads. I imagine it is unlikely we will simply replace all the heads in game as all of us have some attatchment to these...but more likely offer a choice to move to a "new" head if we want...and remove the old ones from character creation so all new characters will get new heads. Like I said...this is in the early phases...and not final yet...but exciting so I wanted to share an image with you for this week.

As for faces, I was hoping that they would introduce a more flexible character creation process, not one with just a set of 371 faces, 3 height and 3 weight options... there are thousands of gamers... and too many are "clones" of one another.

Call me a dreamer, but I have always visualized the creation process with sliding bars to adjust face features, like jaw, cheeks, nose, forehead, eyebrows, ears, mouth, and palette options for eye/hair color and hair style. This would make the game much more appealing from the start with a highly custom made option for avatars.

I really like the idea of a more customizable character creation and is something I've thought about alot, but just never brought up. I had a stint playing SWG for about 4-6 months just before SL came out, and that was one of the main things I really enjoyed about that game. When making a new char I would sit there, sometimes for a couple hours, just playing around with the different settings. Having something with a sliders option like Windguaerd was saying would be awesome.

[Nuclearsmeg]

Made by an orgmate, Dheliver..

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Amazing. Love it.

[ArienSky]

Just "force" us to pick a new face like everyone else. But do like you did with the old title system. Make it 'Legacy' or so. Basically you have to pick a new face, but you can always have access to your old, and new face.

So old players that dont wanna give up their old face don't have to, but they can also have the new content as well. Players just can't adjust their "old" face anymore. They can still adjust their "new" face at surgery clinics though? Just make an extra option under f10 to show your new or old face. If players don't have an old face, the option is greyed out.

I don't know about you, but I have 2 (3) faces I use regulary..
It is already a minor pain to switch between them using Advanced Face Graft..
adding more heads would make it even worse.
I would rather keep the good old nanoes and then have nanite enhanced versions for the new heads. Preferably with the same QL and requirements, just another name.

Kind Regards
Ariensky

[Trebie]

Any updates on if we can get the devs to get a journal or something going, means?

[gergiskoo]

like mesh instancing (load that tree once with a single call...and populate it out at no real framerate loss) was one aspect of the coder work this week.

this is f***ing awesome.

[jorricane]

I thought they are using TIDE engine? or is that the in-house world building engine?

TIDE is the in-house world builder, Ogre is the 3d party graphic engine they are using.

[Kurasaki]

Loving some info on the new engine and the faces , Btw Solstiare Thats really impressive.

[Darkirbiskaa]

Made by an orgmate, Dheliver..

click

Hmm,boobies

[rustinel]

Back off! I saw her first!

mmmmmmmmm, opis....

[Trebie]

I really hope opi's retain their looks. I love the little pale faced speed freak look with the raver hairstyles/colors. It's hot, imo.
Don't ask me why, but that skunk lookin hair style just looks sexy to me.