CDPR at WGK2013: "Crafting an open world"

[Agent_Blue]

I imagine they would be really hard to implemenr, if not triggered by some event on the story. People wanted an open world, that's one of its limitations. />/>

Very much appreciated post, Kodaemon. />

Not sure why and how the open world-ness of it would make it more difficult to implement seasons. Time passes regardless. Seasons would simply come by.

After Skyrim's launch, Bethesda actually took some steps towards implementing seasonal weather.

 

[Kodaemon5924]

Not sure why and how the open world-ness of it would make it more difficult to implement seasons. Time passes regardless. Seasons would simply come by.

Ha, that's easy to say, but you'd have to create changing, seasonal looks for the entire open world. That's a pretty big task. With a linear progression of areas, you can have one location set during, say, spring, then simply say "three months later" upon progressing to a new location with a summer look.

After Skyrim's launch, Bethesda actually took some steps towards implementing seasonal weather.

Haven't played Skyrim in a long time, could you elaborate on this?

 

[vivaxardas2015]

Probably, not that hard. If there is an in-game calendar, like in Skyrim, it is possible to trigger changes on a certain day of the year (or after this date when a character sleeps). In AC3 we have seasons change triggered by the events, but a calendar may simply work like an event. If to make texture replacement gradual, changes triggered every 3-7 days, we will be able to have even fall coming gradually. Winter can come overnight, as in RL, and it would be cool.

 

[Kodaemon5924]

The problem is not as much setting up the system for the changes, but creating the actual assets and making sure everything looks good and convincing. That takes time and resources. With set seasons for different locations, you can create a wintery area without worrying how it would look like in summer, and vice-versa.

 

[Clearly_Balkan]

Thank You very much for sharing these news & tidbits.

 

[adridu59]

The problem is not as much setting up the system for the changes, but creating the actual assets and making sure everything looks good and convincing. That takes time and resources. With set seasons for different locations, you can create a wintery area without worrying how it would look like in summer, and vice-versa.

The problem isn't as big as you make it sound. Even with The Witcher 2, a snow shader will make all objects snowy (Tekoppar made one using REDkit).

EDIT: http://redkit.cdprojektred.com/index.php?c=mod&m=show&p=58

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

Regarding the whole season change discussion, remember CDPRED mentioned in an interview once that the lack of that feature was related to the story, wich likely has to do with Ithlinne's prophecy in my opinion.

 

[darcler]

Regarding the whole season change discussion, remember CDPRED mentioned in an interview once that the lack of that feature was related to the story, wich likely has to do with Ithlinne's prophecy in my opinion.

Or the fact that Geralt wants to find his family in a time somewhat shorter than a couple of years

 

[Lyvean]

40 minutes from one end of the map to the other. />

IK what you mean tho. It was kind of a joke but also trying to provide a reason why they chose not to do it.

You won't play this only for 40 minutes, though. Changing seasons, at least once, should be in the game.

 

[Geralt_of_bsas]

Or the fact that Geralt wants to find his family in a time somewhat shorter than a couple of years />

They could still add changing seasons that are scripted, for instance, you finish a certain important quest, game goes to a sort of cutscene that tells you time has passed or whatever, come back and its another season.

Sort of like in Mafia 2 if you've played it.

 

[Estel]

- Both the terrain and the sea rely on tesselation, which is one of the reasons the game is dx11 only

That's single worst info about "The "Witcher 3" you could bring alongside this interesting story. Not even such wonderful game will force me to use any system from MicroCrapware above Windows XP (which I had included as "free as in beer" license with notebook, anyway) which was last thing *barely* bearable from that company. And DX11 is artificially available only for >= Vista...

I just hope that TW3 will get hacked into being fully playable under Linux, some years after release at most. BTW, I couldn't imagine more ridiculous explanation for going DX11 - pfff... Most players doesn't have a clue about those technical details, so masses will just buy it - but, if it wouldn't be CDPR which I respect dearly, I would start to wonder, how much developer got paid for lobbying DX11 crap.

/Estel

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

Estel: Yeah, it's a problem that DX11 is not enabled in Wine yet. So no Witcher 3 for Linux users after the release, for who knows how long. There is a main thread about this matter.

Technically though I don't mind CDPR using the latest graphics features. It's perfectly fine as far as they use those features through OpenGL as well! OpenGL 4.x has features parity with DirectX 11.

 

[chromie92]

That's single worst info about "The "Witcher 3"
/Estel

This is the best thing so far.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

This is the best thing so far.

Depends to whom. For those who can't use it with DX11 - it's the worst, since that's what prevents using it.

 

[ViZ7]

Sorry but I don't feel like an *sshole for expecting people to have sufficient rig to run dx11 for a next gen game. I personnaly could not run TW3 on my current PC (not 64bits), but that's to be expected and I am truly happy that CDPR aims at a next gen experience. I will just buy a new PC around mid-2014.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

ViZ7: You didn't get the point. I can have a computer that's most high end and has all the hardware needed to run the game. But still not being able to, since it uses DX11.

 

[ViZ7]

ViZ7: You didn't get the point. I can have a computer that's most high end and has all the hardware needed to run the game. But still not being able to, since it uses DX11.

What ? A PC is not high end if it does not support DX11, it is one of the basis of the power of your pc, even if it does not directly come from the components.^^

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

What ? A PC is not high end if it does not support DX11, it is one of the basis of the power of your pc, even if it does not directly come from the components.^^

First of all, it's simply wrong. DX11 is tied to Windows (higher than XP with that). I can have a very high end PC with Linux or Mac OSX, and still have no DX11. They use OpenGL. One can use Wine to translate D3D into OpenGL, which enables playing Windows games on these systems, but it supports only DX9 scenarios so far.

You should read _Anastasia_'s post more carefully, that's exactly what was meant there. It wasn't about the hardware, it was about software and operating systems.

 

[ViZ7]

First of all, it's simply wrong. DX11 is tied to Windows (higher than XP with that). I can have a very high end PC with Linux or Mac OSX, and still have no DX11. They use OpenGL. One can use Wine t translate D3D into OpenGL, which enables playing Windows games on these systems, but it supports only DX9 scenarios so far.

You should read _Anastasia_'s post more carefully, that's exactly what was meant there. It wasn't about the hardware, it was about software and operating systems.

And that's exactly what I mean! I'm saying that the power of your rig is not only determined by its components, if you don't have access to Dx11, there are quite some limitations! And it's too bad that Linux does not work with it, but then what ? Would you want CDPR to technically limit their game just so that they can port it to Linux ? Would I want them to limit it so that I can play on my 32bits ? Hell no.

 

[Gilrond-i-Virdan]

And that's exactly what I mean! I'm saying that the power of your rig is not only determined by its components, if you don't have access to Dx11, there are quite some limitations!

What kind of limitations? I have access to OpenGL 4.x which exposes all the latest features of the graphics card. If the game is properly released for each system, it can be playable. Witcher 3 is not going to be released in cross platform fashion. It will be Windows/DX11 only. That makes it unplayable for non Windows users, since Wine has no DX11 support yet. As well as unplayable for users of Windows XP.

Would you want CDPR to technically limit their game just so that they can port it to Linux ? Would I want them to limit it so that I can play on my 32bits ? Hell no.

Not limit, expand. Support OpenGL 4.x and make cross platform builds.