Updated AO engine movie

[Slakrr]

Trailer looks great. Nice touch with the "Still Alive" Sign at the end

[capncrunch]

I am blown away. The game's current state has made me stop playing. I had heard they were working on an updated engine, this trailer has blown away all my expectations. I honestly expected the same tired textures and just a bit better performance. If this engine delivers what this trailer promises, I'll be back.

[Vickie]

thank you funcom

[Kaitoujeanne]

I thought it was very nice and can't wait to see it!

[Kazurik]

7 pages in? I am pretty sure someone else has mentioned this by now but its worth repeating.

The new engine isn't going to make the game run slower on most computers its going to actually make faster. Right now in DX 7 (direct x 7) all of the graphics are handled by your CPU (the brain of your computer) while in DX 9 it will handle all the graphics in your GPU (the brain of your graphics card). This will free up your processor to handle the game mechanics instead of drawing a picture.

Now I am not a DX master but from what I understand new lighting and water effects wont lower frame rate that much. I'm willing to bet the main reason people associate nice water with bad frame rate is because all the games that have it also have really nice graphics as they have lots of realistic trees/grass and high quality models. This wont apply to AO as the textures are the exact same we have now and the models are also going to remain the same. The end result will a game with crappy models and textures that you wont notice as much sense the environment will be improved.

The most important thing to keep in mind is that Funcom has always maintained the idea that Anarchy Online will run on any computer made in the last 5-6 years.

If you think that they really are going to make it so you need a super ultra powerful gaming computer that you have to spend your child's college fun on then I can definitely help you put your mind to rest on that. A dual core, 2 gig ram, directx 9 compatible computer only cost 500 dollars at your local walmart. I even found one online for you HERE. If you saved 50 dollars every month for 10 months (The engine still wont be public then either) you would have the necessary 500 dollars to buy that computer as it is now, never mind the fact that there will be holiday sales going on in 10-11 months from now.

Short version: Don't worry Funcom is looking out for you and there subscription numbers. They are not going to make you upgrade but even if you feel the need to a new computer is no where near as expensive as it used to be and it will be even cheaper by the time the engine is actually ready for release.

[Ratchet42]

nice but wtf are the players and npcs and shiz...... DONT BELIEVE THE PROPAGANDA........DONT NOT FALL FOR JEDI MIND TRICKS

[Eponyx]

probably too early to ask, but any time frame for release on this update ?

in the Letter From The Game Director 30 November 2007 it says

...the progress that the team are making with the render engine changes. We hope to be able to start showing you some footage from the new engine very shortly. It’s all still on course for mid to late next year (since there is a lot to test with something like this),...

[Cyrinno]

It looks great so far.

I am curious if they will be taking the multiple suns of Rubi-Ka into consideration when they are doing the shadows. During the "hottest part of the day", there would be multiple shadows... one from each sun.

Kinda, but multiple suns would also mean less shadows depending on the suns angles.

[Redadv]

Kinda, but multiple suns would also mean less shadows depending on the suns angles.

not really, the two suns of RK are in rather similar positions to each other.. you notice this if ya watch a sunset/rise on rk.

[Sefus88]

Still Alive



w000000t!!!

[Chrisax]

As it seems that, at the time of writing, the links to the videos (posted on AO forums) are dead (error 404), except the little YouTube one, Athen Paladins made a page with a high-resolution photos gallery from the video.

http://www.athenpaladins.org/aonewengine/index.html

We had many requests from active members but also from old members, away from AO but in touch with us, who wanted to see something of the upcoming new engine.

Many old members state that, with a new engine, they would he happy to come back to AO. As usual, we'll do our best to welcome them back... as I'm sure all the Community will do!


I hope this temporary page will help.

(It can anyhow help anyone who wants pictures.)

[Sweede]

I can imagine that even with the same textures the new engine will make them look better and sharper thanks to improved rendering in dx9.

High res video looks awsome for sure.

[Beefyheart]

As it seems that, at the time of writing, the links to the videos (posted on AO forums) are dead (error 404), except the little YouTube one, Athen Paladins made a page with a high-resolution photos gallery from the video.

http://www.athenpaladins.org/aonewengine/index.html

We had many requests from active members but also from old members, away from AO but in touch with us, who wanted to see something of the upcoming new engine.

Many old members state that, with a new engine, they would he happy to come back to AO. As usual, we'll do our best to welcome them back... as I'm sure all the Community will do!


I hope this temporary page will help.

(It can anyhow help anyone who wants pictures.)

real nice screenies im still real amazed at the pic of DAV of the swamps...*slobbers* but ahh that picture thats listed as "Old Athen port" is actually not old athen, the photo is taken right outside of omni trade

[Stabbah]

in the Letter From The Game Director 30 November 2007 it says

Then they are a little late, but AOC has been delayed too. And FC's stocks have fallen drastically too.

However looking forward to this BIIIG improvement!

Sil, any news on when it comes ingame?

[PingBong]

looking good now imagine if all the ground/wall meshes were reworked with different lvls of vertex noise/texture patterns how awesome it would look then

[Healyhatman]

Many many yays :P

[Chrisax]

As it seems that, at the time of writing, the links to the videos (posted on AO forums) are dead (error 404), except the little YouTube one, Athen Paladins made a page with a high-resolution photos gallery from the video.

http://www.athenpaladins.org/aonewengine/index.html

real nice screenies im still real amazed at the pic of DAV of the swamps...*slobbers* but ahh that picture thats listed as "Old Athen port" is actually not old athen, the photo is taken right outside of omni trade

You have been damn fast to look at the gallery with a smart eye. The time we realized the error ourselves you had already posted, congratulations and thanks! (There is a port between OA an WA, but it's not the same, and the gates of OA are visible from the port; not to mention there is less water near OA.) It's fixed now, of course.

And the swamp picture is also probably my favorite. I really want to see how the lush Elysium or the impressive city of Adonis will look like, too.


Edit: we also made more accurate the caption of the WA picture, with the shadows of the trees getting longer. (The page was made fast as soon as we started to have people complaining about 404 errors on the trailers. But the page should look really good now. )

[Mastura]

Take it easy on FC guys, they are doing the best they can. The truth is, get something better than WoW and the other *** out there, then they are onto a winner! Especially since AO already has it where it counts. (See my earlier post, almost exactly one year ago: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=484501)

Anyway, my thoughts on the matter are more or less this:

1. It should run faster, and be compatible with a wider range of video cards (less glitches between what the devs see and what the users use). That is unless there is problems with the network code, but this can be fixed after the engine if it even is a problem (it's probably perfect)

2. If it required an upgrade to my PC, SO WHAT. You think M$ care about that when they write software? Every new release doubles or higher your requirements. I don't mind if we need newer machines, but at least now they have a compatibility matrix that is industry standard and if you are using something outside of that scope, you're out of luck. And given they don't provide public info on what is used by devs/betas, then we can't go out and buy hardware to match. At least now we will be able to do JUST that with DX9 compatibility. Either you buy what they tell us and we are guaranteed to work, or you wing it and it doesn't but dont whinge. Right now the poor support section must be going nuts.

I want AO to have wealthy, non-whining users, not poor/stingy/i-cant-afford-a-new-pc users. This will make FC wealthy and provide better upgrades and more stuff for AO

3. DX9 is good. DX10 is also good.

4. Personally, I would really like an upgrade to the textures as well. Badly needed, not too much work. I know team of texturers and modellers that I can lend to FC for CHEAP Hell I'd volunteer for free! But I understand - this comes after the engine obviously.

5. And last, but not least.....

WTB PIX/VIDS of what the inside of the grid looks liek!!!!!

Thank you FC!

[Ebag333]

WTB PIX/VIDS of what the inside of the grid looks liek!!!!!

I doubt it looks much different. It looks like the new engine uses the same models/textures (no doubt for backwards compatiblity and quick(er) conversion) and the grid is *VERY* simple structurally....basically all squares/triangles with textures over them.

No water, no grass, no fog, no clouds, no sky, no sun, no moons, none of that 'ambient' stuff that the graphics engine is actually changing.

Now if they start updating the textures/models and/or the way the engine handles them (IE: dynamically modifing textures on the fly to remove the 'repetitiveness' of them), which could be done at any point down the road, then we'll see some differences.

[Healyhatman]

NOT TOO MUCH WORK to upgrade the textures? Are you slightly insane?
Have your tried counting the number of textures ingame lately? :P