New Crysis level editor vid
polycounter lvl 18
http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/9866
i looked around a bit but couldnt find any posts about this.
Anyways, some of this stuff has been shown before but there are som new stuff aswell. Absoluteley amazing i think. Granted you will need a pretty badass computer to run this but just the general workflow and useability still blows my mind everytime i see it!
Also check out the special effects trailer:
http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/9865
i looked around a bit but couldnt find any posts about this.
Anyways, some of this stuff has been shown before but there are som new stuff aswell. Absoluteley amazing i think. Granted you will need a pretty badass computer to run this but just the general workflow and useability still blows my mind everytime i see it!
Also check out the special effects trailer:
http://www.gamevideos.com/video/id/9865
Replies
They added a bunch of new features. Most of them so common sense I don't know why they aren't in the main modeling software packages. Maybe Autodesk will take notes and features like this, doubt it, they seam to like half baked, slow ideas that almost become useful.
Things I like:
- I really like the terrain carving/building tools. This is something I have wanted UnrealEd to do ever since they introduced height maps. The fact that it does texture blending and UV unwrapping for you is a great time saver. Not to mention carving tunnels and making overhangs is now a no brainer. Well placing those overhangs anyway is a no brainer, it looks like you still have to make them by hand in a modeling package. I spent a good chunk of my time last game making overhangs and blending them into the terrain=/
- I really like no compile times, the editor runs at game time and you can drop in at any point and test.
- Being able to edit shaders in real time, Waves, clouds, procedural maps, amazing.
- The road system is great, It looks like it just lays out something like a spline/spline IK Solver, a method I use to make tunnels and roads but I have to set up a length of road, make sure it tiles, make the bones by hand, weight it to the spline and snap it to the terrain. I love how it flattens the terrain for you. I wonder if the terrain follows the road when you move he road...
- The daylight system is a straight rip out of max, but amazingly works in realtime. Take notes Autodesk these guys know what viewport render speed is and its not Max9.
- The create/deforming wall assets was pretty slick also.
Things I don't like:
- "everything is destructible" however trees and foliage seem to break at one point only, and after they take a set amount of damage. The point(s) of damage done to the tree do nothing to dictate where it breaks. You can't blow the top of a tree off and leave the trunk standing. You can't use your weapon to saw off a large branch bringing it down on your enemies, at least not that I saw, or unless it is scripted in specificly. Leaves look like they are bullet proof, so you can bring a tree to the ground but you can't do much to the branches.
- Foliage and terrain takes very little real damage. Would it be that hard to do an opacity map decal that creates the illusion that your bullets just ripped thru foliage? Surely if they can implement real time lighting in the editor viewport they can make something like that work...
- If you can carve out a cave with one click, why can't grenades blow out a section of ground? How cool would it be to have to cross a large open area by making your own foxholes with grenades and dashing to them?
I'll give them time to work that stuff out, I bet they come up with some great solutions.
Wow a leading company I respect and they have a CEO that doesn't shoot his mouth off, refreshing.
They said that the trees calculate everything by where they're shot, so while it may look like they all break in the same place, they made it sound like that isn't the case.
Dunno about ground deformation though.
My thoughts in no particular order:
No more vis blocking needed for an FPS, or portal creation. The engine handles all of that. This is pretty huge IMO.
The terrain editor in general was impressive. The carver, plus the vegetation creator was nifty. I wonder if you can control the grass with a shader similar to the water? That'd be rad to be able to control its height and colour.
The road tool was cool. Hopefully you can drop in your own textures. I'd want to do something with a better blend on the edges than just a simple hard line.
Although not necessary, the stars being mapped to real life was impressive.
The plants look neat.
I wonder if this game has a weather system too? I know half the game takes place in icey conditions...
No compile times + 'What you see is what you PLAY' is insanely awesome. No more having to wait for the map to compile to test out timing, puzzles, AI interactions, etc. will save HUGE amounts of time.
I wonder if you can edit the properties of the weapons as well. Hmm...
Or the properties of the characters (their attitude, etc.)
What sort of post-production effects can be created? I know theres DoF and motion blur. I would have liked to have seen some colour correction tools.
What about an FX/particle creator?
why can't grenades blow out a section of ground? How cool would it be to have to cross a large open area by making your own foxholes with grenades and dashing to them?
[/ QUOTE ]
Man, I've thought that SO many times. That would be so badass.....
Although, I agree about the terrain...
Good stuff.
Regardless...powerful fucking editor that I can't wait to get my hands on. Plus the fact that it's setup like 3DSM makes it very comfortable
[ QUOTE ]
why can't grenades blow out a section of ground? How cool would it be to have to cross a large open area by making your own foxholes with grenades and dashing to them?
[/ QUOTE ]
Man, I've thought that SO many times. That would be so badass.....
[/ QUOTE ]
FarCry had this in a limited fashion - throw a grenade on sand and it would deform the ground leaving a hole. I don't think they were deep enough to get cover in but it was still a nice touch.
Maybe Crysis will have bigger holes.
Looks like great stuff can be done with this pretty quickly and easily (relatively speaking). I look forward to see what mods appear for it. Walking through the jungle instantly made me think of the movie Predator heh.
Would be so great to have something like this linked with a 3D app, so you can get some fantastic realtime previewing.
Looks like the editor has some really nice features, but I think in some cases it looks like it's sacrificing quality for ease of use.
For example, I wonder how easy it is to fix up texturing on the deformed terrain, or if it always has to use some sort of samey tiling rock texture?
Similarly, the tree/grass painting brush tool thingy looks really nice for quickly laying down a Far Cry-esque jungle, but what if you want to set up a dark european forest? Will it be difficult to set up a new model/texture brush for that?
Some of the graphical feedback looks really nice, like altering the sky/sun just by tweaking some sliders, and the clouds look gorgeous.
However the same slider system setup for the ocean just looks weird, why would they bother setting up a value so that you can make the sea look like a really dodgy huge procedural heightmap? Customisability is all well and good but it seems fairly pointless there
The direct play thing looks very nice though.
So yeah, I just wonder exactly how beefy a PC you need to run it at that level of detail, and what sacrifices have been made in order to make it more user-friendly (because there always are).
Should be fun to play around with though.
why would they bother setting up a value so that you can make the sea look like a really dodgy huge procedural heightmap?
[/ QUOTE ]
cos it looks 'impressive' in demos