CDPR at WGK2013: "Crafting an open world"
This weekend I attended WGK 2013 (Polish Conference On Computer Games Development) in Gdańsk. CD Projekt RED was present at the event with a presentation called "Crafting an open world".
The presentation by Balázs Török (Lead Engine Programmer) and Krzysztof Krzyścin (Lead Technical Artist) was heavily focused on technical aspects of REDengine, so no stuff about quests, story etc. There were some videos showcasing the landscapes, sea and weather, getting some audible sighs of amazement from the udience (no filming was allowed, sadly). I loved the example of how various teams interact and build off each other's work - artists request a way to create a good looking, realistic sea simulation from the programmers. The programmers go "how the hell are we supposed to do that!?", but then proceed to create it. Then, gameplay guys come in and say "hey, that's cool, we have to use that in gameplay!", and so on
Since I'm not really an expert, I'll just post what I managed to understand from it as bullet points
- The terrain is generated using a tool called World Machine, then artists add stuff like roads and characteristic landmarks.
- Shadows from terrain are a new feature - they're not as accurate as shadows from models/meshes, but they do look visually good and while not producing a heavy load
- Both the terrain and the sea rely on tesselation, which is one of the reasons the game is dx11 only
- Interesting bit about tesselation: the sea uses it more in the distance than close, to create the visual of distant waves.
- There will most probably be no season changes, but the climate in the various parts will be diverse - Skellige is cold, while the parts in Temeria are more temperate. Weather is dynamic, controlled both by systems and artists.
- The dynamic weather directly affects other systems, for example strong wind will produce ripples and large waves in water.
- A demo showed the aforementioned effect on the sea as a storm was forming - dynamic, particle-based clouds will probably make it into the game, but for now they still require optimization
- Streaming is now automated and continous, while in TW2 it relied on manually placed triggers.
- Cyberpunk 2077 will use same engine. The TW2 and Cyberpunk 2077 teams both work on the engine and regularily share and implement their results into a unified version
- Characters and monsters are modular, created with various body parts. Also, for example can have different patterns and colours set, providing even more variety
The devs mentioned that slides from the presentation should be available soon. If I manage to find them, I'll post them here
On a side note, if anyone's interested, I also have some impressions from a live gameplay presentation of Tom Gop's Lords of the Fallen
This weekend I attended WGK 2013 (Polish Conference On Computer Games Development) in Gdańsk. CD Projekt RED was present at the event with a presentation called "Crafting an open world".
The presentation by Balázs Török (Lead Engine Programmer) and Krzysztof Krzyścin (Lead Technical Artist) was heavily focused on technical aspects of REDengine, so no stuff about quests, story etc. There were some videos showcasing the landscapes, sea and weather, getting some audible sighs of amazement from the udience (no filming was allowed, sadly). I loved the example of how various teams interact and build off each other's work - artists request a way to create a good looking, realistic sea simulation from the programmers. The programmers go "how the hell are we supposed to do that!?", but then proceed to create it. Then, gameplay guys come in and say "hey, that's cool, we have to use that in gameplay!", and so on
Since I'm not really an expert, I'll just post what I managed to understand from it as bullet points
- The terrain is generated using a tool called World Machine, then artists add stuff like roads and characteristic landmarks.
- Shadows from terrain are a new feature - they're not as accurate as shadows from models/meshes, but they do look visually good and while not producing a heavy load
- Both the terrain and the sea rely on tesselation, which is one of the reasons the game is dx11 only
- Interesting bit about tesselation: the sea uses it more in the distance than close, to create the visual of distant waves.
- There will most probably be no season changes, but the climate in the various parts will be diverse - Skellige is cold, while the parts in Temeria are more temperate. Weather is dynamic, controlled both by systems and artists.
- The dynamic weather directly affects other systems, for example strong wind will produce ripples and large waves in water.
- A demo showed the aforementioned effect on the sea as a storm was forming - dynamic, particle-based clouds will probably make it into the game, but for now they still require optimization
- Streaming is now automated and continous, while in TW2 it relied on manually placed triggers.
- Cyberpunk 2077 will use same engine. The TW2 and Cyberpunk 2077 teams both work on the engine and regularily share and implement their results into a unified version
- Characters and monsters are modular, created with various body parts. Also, for example can have different patterns and colours set, providing even more variety
The devs mentioned that slides from the presentation should be available soon. If I manage to find them, I'll post them here
On a side note, if anyone's interested, I also have some impressions from a live gameplay presentation of Tom Gop's Lords of the Fallen
