Unreal 2007 Mods "Nuts"?
polycounter lvl 18
I know this is a month old, but this is the first time I read it.
"We're going to go nuts with mods once 'Unreal Tournament [2007]' (another Unreal Engine 3 title) ships," he said. "The developer tools are much, much easier to use. In fact, now we have the potential to offer mods via the PS3."
Link
Interesting considering the debate on the future of custom game content.
"We're going to go nuts with mods once 'Unreal Tournament [2007]' (another Unreal Engine 3 title) ships," he said. "The developer tools are much, much easier to use. In fact, now we have the potential to offer mods via the PS3."
Link
Interesting considering the debate on the future of custom game content.
Replies
Scott
EDIT:"While Epic will continue enhancing and improving Unreal Engine 3 for the next four or five years, work has already begun on Unreal Engine 4, which the company sees as a powering force for the fourth PlayStation and third Xbox machines."
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There was some doubts in the Polycount web design thread about the continued vitality of custom game content. Specifically about whether the front page should continue putting PPMs front and center.
While PPMs may seem "old hat" to jaded PC gamers, I'm sure they will seem fresh and new to console gamers. Also, it seems to me that it would be harder to cheat if you were running the game on a game console.
Scott
Oh, so they perfected the "create super cool million poly model" button, did they?
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Huh? Did I miss something?
Ahh well, I can't wait for UT2k7 and the U3 engine.
Over 5000 maps were made for UT99(nali city), don't know how many were made for UT2k3/4 but I have I feeling that it was a fraction of that. So, with all that work involved I don't see too much coming from the mod community for 2k7.
Could be wrong, hope so. Personally I'm looking forward to the new engine. Sure won't miss the last one.
Oh, so they perfected the "create super cool million poly model" button, did they?
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they did, but for some reason, everything looks like a tea pot. normal mapped, high tech tea pots with glowy bits, but still tea pots.
We like our teapots here.
r.
I think dfacto's point is that while a highly modifiable game engine is swell, it takes more time and skill than ever before to create art assets that push those engines. Five years ago, you made a 1000-poly model with a texture map. Today, you make a 10,000 poly model with diffuse, specular and normal maps. Looking at the UT2007/UE3 demo footage, it seems that none but the very best amateurs will be able to produce professional results.
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Now this is one thing the I disagree with. Yes next gen is coming and if you want to produce a fps that looks next get you have to suffer through the long hours of producing that art but who says you have to. Some of the most influencial games of the later 3 years have been games that use rather low poly counts and go more for playability, storyline, and style. For instance Psyconaughts, World of Warcraft, and Katamari Damacy. Each of these games have sold very well in an age of high poly counts and multiple texture maps.
Its actually a hope that more mods will start to take this same approach and stop trying to compete graphic wise with big name companies. If a mod team can use the limited polycount as World of Warcraft did with the new Unreal Engine3 then they can make huge games that do not hang on whether they are next gen looking.
Games should be purely about story, art style, and playability. Not this over grown obsession with realism because as we have seen when big companies do this, the games tend to be very boring because it seems that all they wasted time on were the graphics.
Just my two cents.
Isn't it about time that an online deathmatch game had a built in "create your player" option (like an MMORPG, or Oblivion)?
How about a lego-like player creation system that lets you snap custom segmented meshes to a skeleton. Then people could customize just a head, and not ever have to worry about animation, etc.
Maybe these wouldn't look as good as trained artist's models, but it would be nice if there was some kind of middle ground so that the learning curve wasn't so steep for people interested in customizing their game.
Particularly if the end result of customization is bland and artless character content akin to the TES:Oblivion stuff. Choosing from a variety of skins and accessory items is one thing, but dynamic nostril size is a waste of time and in effect often the antithesis of consistant visual style.
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I think dfacto's point is that while a highly modifiable game engine is swell, it takes more time and skill than ever before to create art assets that push those engines. Five years ago, you made a 1000-poly model with a texture map. Today, you make a 10,000 poly model with diffuse, specular and normal maps. Looking at the UT2007/UE3 demo footage, it seems that none but the very best amateurs will be able to produce professional results.
[/ QUOTE ]
Now this is one thing the I disagree with. Yes next gen is coming and if you want to produce a fps that looks next get you have to suffer through the long hours of producing that art but who says you have to. Some of the most influencial games of the later 3 years have been games that use rather low poly counts and go more for playability, storyline, and style. For instance Psyconaughts, World of Warcraft, and Katamari Damacy. Each of these games have sold very well in an age of high poly counts and multiple texture maps.
Its actually a hope that more mods will start to take this same approach and stop trying to compete graphic wise with big name companies. If a mod team can use the limited polycount as World of Warcraft did with the new Unreal Engine3 then they can make huge games that do not hang on whether they are next gen looking.
Games should be purely about story, art style, and playability. Not this over grown obsession with realism because as we have seen when big companies do this, the games tend to be very boring because it seems that all they wasted time on were the graphics.
Just my two cents.
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My two cents would be that we probably shouldn't come at it with a perspective that "Games should be purely about..." anything. I've played great games with lousy art. I've played great games with no story. It's all relative to the goals of a given game design, yeah?
Anyway, my point wasn't anything about how game development in the future can or should go. To push the capabilities of new 3D game engines requires far more time and skill than it did five years ago, hence the "make art button" comment. I don't think anyone would argue that isn't so.
Hey, don't put down on the mighty teapot!
We like our teapots here.
r.
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but where are the tea cups?! are we supposed to be barbarians and drink our tea from the spout?
It will be a very dedicated set of amateurs that pull off a good stuff for this engine.
it is brilliant. The tools are good to use too
Scott
We are selling technology as well as games.
The way the new lighting engine works in UE3 ensures that you can make simplistic sections of environment or character assets and combine them ad hoc in game however you please and they look like a new custom made object.
By making proper use of this, people have the chance to makes things faster than they did before because it eliminates a lot of the need for custom assets being created for everything.
r.
Scott
I don't anticipate doing more community stuff though.
Certainly not in the short term.
r.
Scott