Playing other games

[Garrison72]

Finished TR. Lost opportunities galore, both from a story and gameplay standpoint. The more I played the more I thought the game was channeling The Descent, a B movie about an all female cast trapped in a cave with...all sorts of trouble. Unfortunately, TR misses the mark by a wide margin while The Descent largely succeeds. The gameplay seems to scratch the surface of some great ideas, and the levels are annoyingly linear. But still, damn, I really enjoyed myself. I hope CD can listen to feedback and make a better sequel.

 

[Kodaemon5924]

Goddamnit GOG, I'll be broke soon at this rate

 

[Marcin Momot]

Finished TR. Lost opportunities galore, both from a story and gameplay standpoint. The more I played the more I thought the game was channeling The Descent, a B movie about an all female cast trapped in a cave with...all sorts of trouble. Unfortunately, TR misses the mark by a wide margin while The Descent largely succeeds. The gameplay seems to scratch the surface of some great ideas, and the levels are annoyingly linear. But still, damn, I really enjoyed myself. I hope CD can listen to feedback and make a better sequel.

I'm 9 hours in (around) and I love this game. It's just constant action and fun - I wasn't bored even for a second. Plus the visuals are very nice and I like the new Lara. I'm really enjoying the exploration too.

 

[M4xw0lf.978]

I'm 9 hours in (around) and I love this game. It's just constant action and fun - I wasn't bored even for a second. Plus the visuals are very nice and I like the new Lara. I'm really enjoying the exploration too.

So will Geralt's hair in TW3 (and the new engine) be as fluffy as Lara's?

I also strongly recommend Kodaemon's work as a source of inspiration ^^ :

 

[Dona.794]

You know what sucks about TressFX in Tomb Raider? It affects Lara's hair only, everyone else has the regular hair helmets, not to mention the performance hit. So unless a game has the effect on every character, I'd rather not see it at all. (And then everyone buys a new machine for The Witcher, again )

 

[M4xw0lf.978]

Yeah well, you've said it yourself - the performance hit for multiple tressfx-animated heads is way too heavy for current graphics hardware. And possibly still for the next two generations of hardware ^^

 

[freakie1one]

In it's current form TressFX looks kind of awkward. The hair clips through the items she has equipped on her back and the individual strands of hair don't look right... They look too thick and blocky. It's a great concept but so far the implementation isn't that impressive. Hopefully it improves and also becomes less demanding on hardware so that every character can use it.

The indie developers creating Sui Generis have developed their own physics for hair and it will apply to all characters in the game, though it's not as detailed as TressFX since you have a top-down view of the world and are farther away from the characters themselves. However, it is still quite impressive considering that the hair physics apply to all characters in the game. Not to mention that the water they've created (the foam and what not) is also driven by physics and changes based upon the objects it impacts and the weather. And of course all of the characters in the game have procedurally generated movements instead of static animations; how they move is based on physics and what they impact. Every swing of their weapon and every step they take is procedurally generated based upon physics. The combat is simply amazing to watch. You get this sense of real little people on your screen that I've never experienced in a game before. It's incredibly immersive.

I would post the latest insider video which demonstrates all these features but then I'd probably be tar and feathered Needless to say I'm very excited to see a developer actually implementing mechanics which enhance gameplay instead of just being visually impressive.

 

[Aver]

In it's current form TressFX looks kind of awkward. The hair clips through the items she has equipped on her back

Like every other hair in video games?

 

[Kodaemon5924]

As I said before, uncanny valley. It doesn't just look fake anymore, it looks disconcertingly wrong.

 

[freakie1one]

Like every other hair in video games?

I was curious if the hair clipped through anything in Sui Generis so I just watched the video again. A character with long hair was fighting someone else using two swords and the hair did not clip through the clothes/armor he was wearing, through his body or through the opponent and the swinging weapons. And his hair moved based upon momentum. Every time he lunged or was struck by his opponent the hair reacted appropriately.

 

[cmdr_silverbolt]

Am I the only one who doesn't care about how hair looks in a video game. I have used mods to improve hair in Skyrim, but only because I could. I thought the hair in TW2 was great.

 

[CostinRaz]

It's animation of hair that is really annoying. And it was annoying in TW2 when Geralt's hair would just freeze.

 

[cmdr_silverbolt]

I don't know, momentary glitches happen, and sometimes they're not necessarily the fault of the game.

 

[dragonbird]

Like every other hair in video games?

Yes, but this is supposed to be better. The fact that the characters have hair that's too thick, and not enough segments, are both (to me) acceptable because there are still limits on processing capability. The damping issues are something that should be tweakable. But the clipping indicates some significant flaw in the physics.

And is it important? I can't see me ever making a decision to buy/not buy a game because of hair physics, but yes, it's important purely because of the technology leap involved.

 

[Garrison72]

I'm 9 hours in (around) and I love this game. It's just constant action and fun - I wasn't bored even for a second. Plus the visuals are very nice and I like the new Lara. I'm really enjoying the exploration too.

The pacing is indeed good. May I recommend the explosive tip arrows...BOOOOM!!!

 

[volsung]

So what do you guys think about those Alan Wake games? Since they're on sale on GOG...

 

[cmdr_silverbolt]

I recently bought the game myself, but I've played a bit of Alan Wake before. It's has a good suspense theme and atmosphere, and you're better off being smart about enemy encounters as opposed to applying brute force (I remember finding very little ammo around), so you might like that. The story was intriguing, and it ups the ante as you progress. Best way to play Alan Wake is in the middle of the night with the lights dimmed, because that what it feels like: a good thriller movie.

I've played very little of American Nightmare to comment, but I can tell you that it has little to do with the story of the previous game, and is more focused on the action.

 

[freakie1one]

Yes, but this is supposed to be better. The fact that the characters have hair that's too thick, and not enough segments, are both (to me) acceptable because there are still limits on processing capability. The damping issues are something that should be tweakable. But the clipping indicates some significant flaw in the physics.

And is it important? I can't see me ever making a decision to buy/not buy a game because of hair physics, but yes, it's important purely because of the technology leap involved.

There is a limit on processing power. But why can an indie developer (one man) program a game that has complex character movements based on physics that are procedurally generated (and this is multiple characters, 10+ simultaneously, which are all procedurally generated based upon physics), hair that is based on physics and doesn't have the blocky problems of TressFX, water that is based upon physics... All run on an outdated PC (one built five years ago) and still get 100+ FPS? I think the reason is that most developers just aren't using a processors power very efficiently. They aren't making the game engines very well optimized.

 

[Kodaemon5924]

So what do you guys think about those Alan Wake games? Since they're on sale on GOG...

Don't expect a horror game. It's more of an action game set in a Stephen King setting. That said, it's a very solid action game (though it can get a bit samey, much like Max Payne) with gorgeous visuals, good atmosphere and some clever writing. Great soundtrack too, pity it's not in the GOG bonuses.

American Nightmare drops all pretense of being a horror and goes for pulp instead. It feels more like one of those goofy alternate universe DLC thingies than a whole game, especially since it's very short. I had a lot of fun with it though - it's a bit more open than the main game and allows for some exploration, the combat has received some overhauls that make it even more satisfying and there's actually more enemy variety than the main game.

Generally, I'd say: for that price, don't think twice, get them.

 

[Aes Sídhe]

There is a limit on processing power. But why can an indie developer (one man) program a game that has complex character movements based on physics that are procedurally generated (and this is multiple characters, 10+ simultaneously, which are all procedurally generated based upon physics), hair that is based on physics and doesn't have the blocky problems of TressFX, water that is based upon physics... All run on an outdated PC (one built five years ago) and still get 100+ FPS? I think the reason is that most developers just aren't using a processors power very efficiently. They aren't making the game engines very well optimized.

My understanding is that procedurally generated is less memory intensive. Even though the PC is "5 years old", he could be making extremely proficient use of parallel programming techniques to optimise cpu computations, plus processing on the gfx card. Both of which are still under implemented in many AAA games.

Our universities churn out many more graphics people than coders, and the uptake of these new programming techniques is slow. An element of why our current generation of games are designed the way they are.