Friday with Means - December 18th, 2009 - Busy day and Leet infestation

[Igri00]

I can't recall the number of times I've had casual conversations about players and I've said "do you see 'X'" and they can't because they've turned off 90% of everything to get the game to a playable frame rate. And I shake my head sadly because I realize just how much of the immersiveness they are missing in the current engine...my goodness that means they will miss 99.99% of the game in the new engine...what are they looking at stick figures and stats?

Yea, I found that in another space based game I played for a while. All of the real experienced players had their settings turned down so far that none of the cool looking stuff was being displayed. I thought to myself that it was such a waste to play a game that looks so go, in a mode that it might as well be pong.

[NoGoal]

I can't recall the number of times I've had casual conversations about players and I've said "do you see 'X'" and they can't because they've turned off 90% of everything to get the game to a playable frame rate. And I shake my head sadly because I realize just how much of the immersiveness they are missing in the current engine...my goodness that means they will miss 99.99% of the game in the new engine...what are they looking at stick figures and stats?

Like this? :P Sometimes it's not always for the framerate tho, it's also for visibility/playability. What effects really increase the immersion in the current engine? Can't find any.

[Chrys]

Like this? :P Sometimes it's not always for the framerate tho, it's also for visibility/playability. What effects really increase the immersion in the current engine? Can't find any.

From those pics I'd actually prefer #4 or #6 and turn it down manually if it was #0 or #2 especially in an FPS - too much pixel detail makes it harder to spot players at distance. If it's a single player game though, I'd be happy to max everything for the immersion.

[IHaveHugeNick]

Yeah #6 is pretty common solution for online shooters. All you really need is to see opponents and see enviroment good enough not to bump into walls. The rest is a distraction, especially when being distracted for fracture of second will cost you your life.

In AO it doesn't really matter much though because fights either take +15 minutes or are decided in 95% through rock paper scissors mechanics and equipment differencies, so you are free to use maximum pf visual effects

[wormx]

Like this? :P Sometimes it's not always for the framerate tho, it's also for visibility/playability. What effects really increase the immersion in the current engine? Can't find any.

Ahh, good old .. hmm wasnt it called mipcap?

Wish I had more screenies from QuakeWorld

Edit:

+mlook
joystick 0
alias drawon "r_draworder 1 ; bind / drawoff"
alias drawoff "r_draworder 0 ; bind / drawon"
bind "/" "drawon"
hostname Le-Burch
cl_rollangle 9
scr_conspeed 7777
r_waterwarp 0
alias rocketjump "impulse 7; cl_pitchspeed 5000; +lookdown; +jump; +attack; wait; -jump; -attack; -lookdown; cl_pitchspeed 150;force_centerview"
bind "*" "rocketjump"
gl_polyblend 0
d_mipcap 3
setinfo topcolor -1
setinfo bottomcolor -1
noskins 0
exec 77
exec i.cfg
sensitivity 25
r_waterwarp 0
fov 130

Oh and fov! haha, good times

[Metafly7]

Im gonna do somewhat of a strange suggestion here Means, but about the mentioning of a date for Engine to go live.... Dont give any date. Make it work and make it work propperly. Once its ready give a few days notice maybe but otherwise just insert the Engine and have ppl pleasantly surpriced.

If it fails when u do set a date that will be the so maniest time. Some ppl wont take that and jump ship. Others will probably stop trusting at all.

Just dont let urself get pressured by the community and do it in ur own time. The less time mentions we get the less speculations and hopes we develop as a community. Crushing hope is what has made alot of players that arent playing anymore, quit.

Pictures of the proggresion are good tho since that shows that work is being put in. But a solid date gives u stress and gives us demands when the clock strikes that date.

[Crowena]

plz plz plz, set AO's minimum recommended specs slightly higher than AoC so that in 8 years we don't have peope impeding the 3rd engine redesign because they refuse to overspend more than the bare minimum amount on a pre-built computer as opposed to buying a parts machine with 3x the performance. And more importantly when the scrooges actually part the the cash to upgrad they actually have an enjoyable experience as oppossed to the bare minimum experience to which they are used to?

If I have to use the desktop computer instead of my laptop for AO then there will be three accounts less paying for this game. I know there are also others that are playing AO because it runs on crappier computers.

[Technogen]

I use to run AO on an old sempron I couldnt ever figure out how people were seeing that I was turreting and attack me to stop it, then when I upgraded my system I could see that there was a turret animation.

Biggest problem with the effects in AO right is that on systems that can run them all very well they are all blown out of scale. Casting a heal on my system currently just blinds me as 80% of my screen is some huge white/red heal effect.

[shadowgod]

I use to run AO on an old sempron I couldnt ever figure out how people were seeing that I was turreting and attack me to stop it, then when I upgraded my system I could see that there was a turret animation.

Biggest problem with the effects in AO right is that on systems that can run them all very well they are all blown out of scale. Casting a heal on my system currently just blinds me as 80% of my screen is some huge white/red heal effect.

run a higher resolution yea n00b.

[erozc]

Ahh, good old .. hmm wasnt it called mipcap?

Wish I had more screenies from QuakeWorld

Oh man, I remember Quake 1 pre-QW, teh lag (affected aiming too, and 200ms was good) and mipcapping that was necessary to get it playable. Even then Death32c was super slow with any number of players, though that came later. And the noobs with white skins forced on all players...

alias rocketjump "impulse 7; cl_pitchspeed 5000; +lookdown; +jump; +attack; wait; -jump; -attack; -lookdown; cl_pitchspeed 150;force_centerview"
bind "*" "rocketjump"

n00b I actually miss the time when FPS weapon swaps were instant, I had a funky setup with the axe out only swapping for the appropriate weapon upon the pressing of the appropriate firing key. I miss the "omg hax rocket axe" comments.

fov 130

Oh and fov! haha, good times

Oh yeah, nothing like the immersion of having the vision of a dopefish. Remember wallhugging to get more run speed?

[Snakebite]

It is not the policy of my team to delete the characters of people who will be out of prison soon. (Please don't hurt us!)

A classic that I'm just not sure what to do with yet...


However, you talked about a character wipe Means, what level and below are we talking about? Level 5 & under? Level 10 & under?

[Cholis]

What is interisting but not mentioned in the FwM is that the merge will start in january.

Means talked to some people on RK3 yesterday and he told them that we will be able to play our chars on RK1 (for example) within the the next 30 days.

Don't know why he didn't wrote that here.

[Talita]

Character Transfer

The code used to generate in-game ID's for items etc exploded this week generating 500000 bogus ID's during testing. Cleaning up this mess took a great deal of time. Macrosun quit a record 103 times this week. It was not fun as it was not even remotely his fault or his code that made the mess. Work will continue on this initiative when and if he returns from vacation in January. Getting this to work properly requires work from the biling team, the database team and Macrosun himself. Blowing things up when any of these guys are away on a well deserved break would be a disaster...so January is what we are looking at...assuming again that Macrosun comes back. Hail Macrosun...pleeeze don't leave us.

It's there where he mentions the January window, but only if they can sort the explosion of ID's.

[Cholis]

Yes but in his post in sounds not very certain opposed th the tells on RK3 where it seemes to be 100%.

[Technogen]

Yes but in his post in sounds not very certain opposed th the tells on RK3 where it seemes to be 100%.

He was most likely telling them for sure since they got the system in place just before he talked ot them, then after he did they had the ID problem. Macro is a very smart person, I'm sure he will come up with an answer and 500 or more quits before the next of next month.

[bitnykk]

thanx for keeping us aware. wtb some pix/viddiz soon

merry xmass to all !

[wormx]

Oh man, I remember Quake 1 pre-QW, teh lag (affected aiming too, and 200ms was good) and mipcapping that was necessary to get it playable. Even then Death32c was super slow with any number of players, though that came later. And the noobs with white skins forced on all players...

200ms was good indeed hehe... 14400 baud modem sucked.
I found it more irritating with those camper skins people made.
Cookie monster was my skin of choice

n00b I actually miss the time when FPS weapon swaps were instant, I had a funky setup with the axe out only swapping for the appropriate weapon upon the pressing of the appropriate firing key. I miss the "omg hax rocket axe" comments.

That rocketjump macro was only usable when playing against bots tho.
Online you had to use more skills
Rocket axe sounds fun

Oh yeah, nothing like the immersion of having the vision of a dopefish. Remember wallhugging to get more run speed?

Dopefish!
Hmm must have missed wallhugging or just can't remember that.

Some nostalgia :
http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/1601/5uake06.gif
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/8840/quake02.gif
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/9086/rb00023.gif
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6254/uake03.jpg
http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/4681/warb002.gif


Btw, I wish we had grappling hooks in AO.
That's why I liked the ninja rope in Worms World Party so much

[Keldros]

Characters are "naked". Meshes (like shoulderpads) and weapons are displayed but the textures on the character are not "swapped" to display the correct armor. This is a feature missing from the new engine and we are waiting on work from the Montreal office for this feature to come it. This is not complicated but has been delayed by the expert in our Canadian office somehow breaking his leg horribly while actually IN the Canadian office...I don't know how he did it...but I am sure he was "compiling" at the time. He is back on one leg now and this work should be coming along soon.

Here's a pic, so it obviously did happen.

[Means]

Here's a pic, so it obviously did happen.

Haha...that is EXACTLY the image I was thinking about when I heard the news. The internet is a small world :P

[IHaveHugeNick]

Since this has diverted into a nostalgy thread, in before someone metions Turbo buttons on PCs.