Natural Selection 2 -> first movie

Joshua Stubbles

First in game footage from the new version of the mod (now in the Source engine of course). Pretty damn nifty effect, I must say.

http://www.unknownworlds.com/blog/2006/12/dynamic_infestation_1.html

McIlroy

Ohh that's neat and from a mod ..wow !

Mark Dygert

That's pretty cool, I hope it makes in there!

Technically they aren't a "mod team" in the traditional sense. They call themselves an independent self funded developer. They have licensed the Source engine and are planning to sell NS2.

blankslatejoe

saw this at the office today

---

toooooo cool!

KeyserSoze

It sounded like the guy called it "Natural Section 2," not just once, but twice. I thought it was pretty funny that the guy would mispronounce the name of his own game .

Anyway, the "dynamic infestation" looks pretty sweet, but what role does it play in the game? I hope it's more than just atmospheric eye candy and that it actually ties into the gameplay somehow (I've never played the first NS, so I don't much about the game).

Joshua Stubbles

They have info on their blog about it. Nothing concrete yet though - they want to perfect the effect, first.


From their blog:

"For example, you could have a computer console that shuts down when overrun by infestation and causes the lights in the room to go out. If the marines clear out the room and fight back the infestation, the system comes back online and the lights flicker on to fill the room. What about abilities and technology which only function when players are on their home turf?"

Jarrod1937

it sounds like they're putting a lot of thought into a unique game experience and that is a nice effect. any ideas on how they're achieving such a thing?

Steve Schulze

This procedural artwork fad we're just on the cusp of is going to lead to some pretty funky looking games. I'd love to see an entire world generated with this sort of abstract organic algorhythm

Jarrod1937

so is it like a procedural decal texture? if so then very interesting...

Joshua Stubbles

From the looks of it, it's procedurally generated mesh, which uses normal hand painted textures. The mesh algorithm is pretty tight, though. To get it flowing over all shapes like that is pretty damn nice.

Slum

Yeah, that's some pretty wicked stuff. If it were just a simple texture it'd be awesome enough, but that flowing globby nastiness is just too cool.

Michael Knubben

Couple that with the amazingly well-balanced gameplay of ns, and you have a winner on your hands. Well, if anyone bothers to pay attention to it, amidst all of the CS's and Battlefields of this world. I really do hope they pull it off, they deserve it.

Mark Dygert

[ QUOTE ]
This procedural artwork fad we're just on the cusp of is going to lead to some pretty funky looking games. I'd love to see an entire world generated with this sort of abstract organic algorhythm

[/ QUOTE ]

And have it keep growing, changing SLOWLY over time changing the landscape, spawning structures if it has been left untouched for awhile. This could lead to things like seasons in MMO's, plant life that actually grows, lives and dies. Semi randomly placed resources in an RTS.

Kovac

You really have to hand it to these guys. In my opinion this is the best FPS I've ever played, and the only one that actually got me into clan matches. I've been drooling over their stuff forever now and it's great to see them ramping up on development!

Asmuel

Man that was too cool

Emil Mujanovic

That's pretty cool. I used to play the first one really early on in its development stages. Reminded me of StarCraft but as a first person shooter. It's changed quite a lot since then and the new one will definately be a great game.

-caseyjones

frostymoose

Natural selection is pretty much the only game I play regularly and I've been playing it for over 3 years. I love it. Cannot wait to see more NS 2 previews!

Max

Thanks for the kind words guys! We're still looking to fill out our art team, so if this is something you'd like to work ok, let us know at [email="jobs@unknownworlds.com."]jobs@unknownworlds.com.[/email]

Max

Kovac

The wait is gonna kill me, but damn, this is gonna be hot! NS was the only game I've ever gotten into clans and leagues with...definitely my favorite FPS to date.

Mongrelman

Unfortunately I wasn't able to play NS (my net connection was craaaaaap) and I tried, but could play like that.

Really looking forward to this one, and that procedural infestation has be excited about what new gameplay elements there will be.

Hope these preview movies will not be too far apart

Penzer

I played NS on day one actually. I remember it was either halloween or very close to it, and a bunch of buddy's and I Lan partied it up. Loved it

killingpeople

really looking forward to what develops with this game dude!
-c.robinson

Michael Knubben

I never got into NS much because of it crashing so much (as did any HL mod, mind you. Nothing to do with the mod), but i always loved the few minutes i could squeeze out of it. Ofcourse i was absolutely shit because i never played much, but it was still fun if you had a good commander.

Cthogua

There are programs such as Darktree 2.5 that will produce procedurally generated normal and specular maps as well, getting that into realtime is the hotness though. I'm really excitied to see the technology surrounding realtime procedural stuff really start to take off. Now that computers are getting fast enough to actually start doing things like simulate accretion and self organizing systems in real time, we are probably going to start seeing some really neat stuff.