Company News Bioware - Those Damn Tree Huggers

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Tags: BioWare; Dragon Age

<a href=http://www.bioware.com>Bioware</a> has decided to join hippies and totally not creepy naure lovers and <a href=http://www.gamershell.com/companies/idv/332996.html>licensed</a> SpeedTreeRT for numerous projects of theirs, including upcoming high-school draconian drama RPG, <a href=http://dragonage.bioware.com/>Dragon Age</a>. Here's what Trent Oster had to say about the deal:
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Within days of downloading the software, we had beautiful, shadowed, deciduous trees running in our upcoming title, Dragon Age, said Trent Oster, Eclipse Engine project director for BioWare. Based on the visual quality and the ease of integration, we signed a multi-game, company-wide licensing deal for SpeedTree.
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At least we know those corridor like levels will be pretty to look at.
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Here's a clip about SpeedTree itself:
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SpeedTreeRT, winner of the 2005 Front Line Award for middleware, delivers highly realistic trees and plants, with adjustable wind effects, user-configurable and seamless LOD transitions, and an included library of hundreds of tree, plant and marine models representing more than 170 core species. SpeedTreeRT includes SpeedTreeCAD, a Windows application used to create and edit animated trees in real-time.
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That makes sense. Why have turn-based trees in realtime games?
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.rpgwatch.com">RPG Watch</A>

 

[LCJr.]

Should I tell them usually the first thing I do in game is switch tree tops off?

On the brightside this should free up resources. On the downside the resources probably won't be used for anything other than more eyecandy.

 

[Elhoim]

On the brightside this should free up resources. On the downside the resources probably won't be used for anything other than more eyecandy.

Agreed.

 

[suibhne]

That makes sense. Why have turn-based trees in realtime games?

Seriously, I think SpeedTree added a lot to Gothic 3, so I won't complain too much. SpeedTree can be a genuinely good thing if it improves the player experience (even if only cosmetically) without much cost in development time. Unlike Havok, tho, SpeedTree probably won't ever add much to gameplay, so it's tough to get too enthused.

 

[geminito]

Eclipse Engine? What professional software developer doesn't know that there's already well-known software called Eclipse? Join your industry, Bioware.

 

[vortexv1]

Are you sure there will be corridor levels?

No big fat 360° world like Oblivion?

 

[JrK]

Who cares about some frigging trees. Geez... How about spending time developing *gosh* gameplay next time? How about writing a decent story?!

 

[Volourn]

"Who cares about some frigging trees. Geez... How about spending time developing *gosh* gameplay next time? How about writing a decent story?!"

Yeah, because hardcore players don't need trees to know they're in a forest. Who cares about atmosphere at all.


I mean all the great games didn't need trees or other atmosphirc stuff. They could just be words on a screen, and they'd be awesome GAMES.

R00fles!

 

[Koby]

I'm going to take the optimist approach on this one:

Good, the more they outsource in teh graphic department, the less time they themselves will spend on graphic whoring/worshiping, graphic tweaking and other graphic related activity, which will give them more time to devote to other areas of the game (hopefully not just uber loot).

/edit

Yes, yes, LCJr. Said it first, bite me (or does he have a time machine and used it to steal my idea, hmm i'll be watching you LCJr.).

 

[doctor_kaz]

Who cares about some frigging trees. Geez... How about spending time developing *gosh* gameplay next time? How about writing a decent story?!

I think that's the whole idea behind the Speedtree thing. Pay a relatively minor fee and have some of that stuff taken care of for you.

 

[elander_]

I mean all the great games didn't need trees or other atmosphirc stuff. They could just be words on a screen, and they'd be awesome GAMES.

R00fles!

Some great games were just words on a screen.

 

[Koby]

I mean all the great games didn't need trees or other atmosphirc stuff. They could just be words on a screen, and they'd be awesome GAMES.

R00fles!

Some great games were just words on a screen.

And had ASCII art for graphics.

 

[Volourn]

"Some great games were just words on a screen."

I've played some. None of them would be in my top 100.

btw, We're talking video games so don't count stupid games like scrabble.

R00fles!

FO wouldn't be as good as it was if it wasn't for it's graphics/atmosphere.

 

[elander_]

I don't know which one if you two are the biggest idiots. Once i figure that out i may post again to remind you that some old games were only made of text, dialog and puzzles and were still 1000% better that most of the crap with shiny graphics they do these days.

 

[Volourn]

"don't know which one if you two are the biggest idiots"

me, moron.

And, stop bullshitting.

 

[Elwro]

ADOM is still the best game ever.