Interview GameSpy interview with Pete Hines on Oblivion modding

[Spazmo]

Tags: Bethesda Softworks; Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

<a href=http://pc.gamespy.com>GameSpy</a> talked to Pete Hines of Bethesda about the modding capabilities of TES4: Oblivion. This <a href=http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/the-elder-scrolls-iv-oblivion/633041p1.html>interview</a> is the result.<blockquote>"That'll be a huge help for modders," I said. "Oh, yes," agreed Hines. "If anything, Oblivion is going to be even more mod-friendly than Morrowind." According to Hines, the construction set for Oblivion, while the same general design as the previous one, underwent extensive modification while Oblivion was being built. The idea was to bring the same "baked-in" characteristics that the texture maps shared with things like the lighting engine to every aspect of the game world. World blocks will be available to be stacked up just like LEGO blocks. Every object in the game has their own defined physics so players can just drop an item into the world and whether it's made of metal or wood or cloth, it will react properly. Then proper textures can be painted on, making a world that looks just as good as Bethesda's own (barring differences in artistic talent, of course).</blockquote>Artistic talent? It can't be that hard to set the "light bloom" slider to "FULL".
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Spotted at: <A HREF="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blue's News</A>

 

[Vykromond]

"That'll be a huge help for modders," I said. "Oh, yes," agreed Hines. "And golly, Oblivion is sure going to be great," I said. "You bet," agreed Hines. We kissed softly in the summer rain.

 

[Ap_Jolly]

Guys don't be such jerks, gawd

 

[LlamaGod]

omgwtf itz a kewl feture ok donnt psot here if u donnt liek it

 

[Claw]

I'm excited.

 

[Ap_Jolly]

Oblivion doesn't have cool particle minigun effects (no miniguns, either). What's there to be excited about?

 

[jiujitsu]

What's so bad about light bloom?

 

[deus]

The problem is that it adds nothing of value.

 

[Ap_Jolly]

It's pretty, though. I'm a big fan.

 

[Tintin]

The problem is that it adds nothing of value.

It looks nice.

 

[jiujitsu]

Ok, so it looks good. What is wrong with it?

 

[deus]

What's wrong is that it's a performance hit. Like colored lighting, lens flare, or ragdoll physics, light bloom is the fancy new effect that's also completely garish. Will having light bloom meaningfully effect gameplay? Probably not, which is why I don't like it. The other part is that it's usually poorly implemented so everything looks really blurry.

 

[jiujitsu]

Oooooh, so it's a fancy visual effect that people who need an upgrade like to whine about? I see...

 

[Tintin]

Will having light bloom meaningfully effect gameplay?.

No. But it looks nice. Everything doesn't have to affect gameplay.

 

[Psilon]

Assuming it's not overdone. Deus Ex 2, for instance, was awful in that respect. (And awful in many other respects, too, but that's beside the point.)

 

[Spazmo]

It's a vastly overused effect that is often used to cover up blocky models or ugly textures (certainly not in Oblivion's effect, though). It's also kind of a wierd choice is photorealism is the idea. Look out your window on a sunny day and tell me if you see any light bloom.

 

[deus]

Oooooh, so it's a fancy visual effect that people who need an upgrade like to whine about? I see...

Have you actually played anything that has ever used bloom in the first place? Most of the time is looks like utter shit because the devs were too busy trying to impress the lowest common denominator and never checked too make sure they implemented it properly. That's why I compared it to colored lighting, lens flare and ragdoll physics.
Remember when colored lighting was popular and it was used in what seemed like every FPS that came out despite the fact that no one would ever use red light to light a room?
Remember when seemingly every FPS had lens flare despite the fact that lens flare only happens with a lens?
Have you ever noticed that games that devs that use ragdoll physics seem to think that when you die, your joints seem to disappear and your skeleton is held together only by your skin?
Based on what they have actually shown, Oblivion is going have bloom that makes everything around light blurry. I don't want to have to waste any system resources on something that makes the game look worse.

 

[Ap_Jolly]

Well, if I squint my eyes I see plenty of light bloom... Maybe Oblivion graphics programmers have vision problem?

 

[Roqua]

Graphics are fucking awesome. I love it. I love particles. I love particles that are shiny and brignt and makes me feel awesome. Because graphics are awesome. I like to waste money on games even when I can get awesome graphics for free at ati and nvidia sites by way of tech demos that show awesome graphics. But graphics are most important thing of game because they are soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Surfs up dude!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My penis is awesome like graphcis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love reality tv. It is awesome like graphics. I hope americna idiol good and awesome this year like oblivain graphics. I like white people dance, it is awesome!!!!!

I wish only games with awesome graphics like oblivian are made because it would be awesome. Oblivains graphics are awesome like my penis and that makes it best rpg. Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Its so awesome and I'm so excited because of awesome graphics. You devs ghutrry and give me awesome graphics, but don't hurry to bad because graphics must be awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAhHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA


AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111

 

[jiujitsu]

Oooooh, so it's a fancy visual effect that people who need an upgrade like to whine about? I see...

Have you actually played anything that has ever used bloom in the first place? Most of the time is looks like utter shit because the devs were too busy trying to impress the lowest common denominator and never checked too make sure they implemented it properly. That's why I compared it to colored lighting, lens flare and ragdoll physics.
Remember when colored lighting was popular and it was used in what seemed like every FPS that came out despite the fact that no one would ever use red light to light a room?
Remember when seemingly every FPS had lens flare despite the fact that lens flare only happens with a lens?
Have you ever noticed that games that devs that use ragdoll physics seem to think that when you die, your joints seem to disappear and your skeleton is held together only by your skin?
Based on what they have actually shown, Oblivion is going have bloom that makes everything around light blurry. I don't want to have to waste any system resources on something that makes the game look worse.

Let me fix that paragraph for you. As it's long-winded and mostly unecessary.

I hate cool lighting effects because they don't run well on my 386.

Tada!

 

[Stark]

"That'll be a huge help for modders," I said. "Oh, yes," agreed Hines. "And golly, Oblivion is sure going to be great," I said. "You bet," agreed Hines. We kissed softly in the summer rain.

a few posts later,

I'm excited.

me too. me too...

Have you actually played anything that has ever used bloom in the first place? Most of the time is looks like utter shit because the devs were too busy trying to impress the lowest common denominator bla bla bla...

dude, harp on actual shortcomings of the game/gameplay rather than some features you yourself do not feel important. there's nothing wrong with having bloom effect in this game, by itself.

 

[Sol Invictus]

The bloom is fine. It's optional anyhow. Disable it if it displeases you. Sheesh.

 

[Claw]

Actually, when I said 'excited' I meant 'aroused' by the romantic scene Vykromond described.

 

[MrSmileyFaceDude]

Oblivion actually uses HDR (High Dynamic Range) lighting. What's called "light bloom", as seen in Fable and other earlier games, is a static effect that's always on, whereas HDR lighting continually adjusts the "glow" based on changes in light. It simulates the way your irises dilate and contract. Valve recently released a video that shows the Half-Life 2 engine in split screen, with HDR on one side and non-HDR (or fixed aperture) on the other. Pay particular attention to the brightness of the land as the view sweeps from right to left, past the sun, towards the end of the video. It doesn't change at all on the non HDR side, but it does on the HDR side. It's a subtle effect but it actually does happen in real life.

Of course, like lens flare and page curl, it can be overdone, but we'll continue tweaking it until the game ships.

And of course if your graphics card can't handle the effects, you'll be able to turn them off.

 

[Killzig]

Its not the engine that bothers me so much as the textures and models that look feh.