Game News Another exciting Oblivion feature revealed

[Micmu]

I'm sure that you can still sneak in shadows, it's just that shadows are no longer dynamic.

Lumpy what part of...

Objects don't cast, they just receive shadows from characters
...
You don't need shadows to have dark places, so yes, you can sneak through dark places.

...you didn't understand?

 

[obediah]

I'm sure that you can still sneak in shadows, it's just that shadows are no longer dynamic.

Lumpy what part of...

Objects don't cast, they just receive shadows from characters
...
You don't need shadows to have dark places, so yes, you can sneak through dark places.

...you didn't understand?

ahem, let me find my pr hat....oh here it is.

"dark places happen because building cast shadows in themselves. Night time happens because the other side of the planet casts a shadow on itself. Caves are dark because rock blocks the sun casting a shadow in the entire cave. Suck on that codexer bitches. p.s. it's totally awesome"

 

[Section8]

We have switched to doing single shadow maps directed at characters. The system supports full self-shadowing and we do multiple samples and depth comparisons to provide a soft-shadowing effect. The net effect we’ve achieved is a system general enough to handle Oblivion’s diverse environments while still providing great visuals and good performance.

Whee! Chalk up another one for empty hype!

We will have options to toggle features like self-shadowing and the softening effect, as well as to adjust the number of characters receiving shadows to improve performance for lower end machines.

Lower end machines like say, an xbox 360? The platform you're primarily developing for? AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!

Ah, it's all just clicked. I'm learning to laugh again. Meanwhile, a little gender confused bosmer called Beth is being torn apart by biblical wolves while we ignore his cries. His twin brother Ester is counting eggs.

 

[Proweler]

Not really a suprice, the xbox couldn't pull Morrowind either. They'd better include all the options for the PC.

 

[Micmu]

Not really a suprice, the xbox couldn't pull Morrowind either. They'd better include all the options for the PC.

They won't, it's the part of "PC version can't look better than Xbox" strategy to sell more xboxes (while they still can).

After all, they even kept the redicilously huge fonts in the PC version.

 

[Excalibur]

they did this becasue they realized they cant get their "amazing" game to run smotthly on anything other then a godly system, i.e. x-box was chugging so they decided uniformaly to cut the shadows to make the game work, that the only reason why there gone i can garentee it, thats why their was a delay also im almost posititve it was framerate issues!

 

[Tintin]

Lower end machines like say, an xbox 360? The platform you're primarily developing for? AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHA!

Or he could have just meant lower end machines.

 

[bryce777]

Read the fucking newsbit and thread, Lumpy. It's about the loss of a promised gameplay feature - stealth by 'sneaking in shadows'. There are no shadows now, neither dynamic nor static. There may be dark areas, but no actual shadows, except NPCs.

This fuckup aside, though - and I actually do think this:

Bethesda could do a lot worse than grab hold of the Thief license.

It's the type of thing I think they'd be relatively good at, it's what they really want to make - an rpg-ish medieval action-stealth type game. Much better for them than Fallout, which is plainly just not what they are good at doing or even interested in doing.

Thief would actually benefit from the big-open world Bethesda would probably create.

And it'd be a lot better than seeing the series spend eternity in an EA-type graveyard.

They dont have the talent.

 

[Tintin]

ya beth sux

 

[Micmu]

Or he could have just meant lower end machines.

Riiiight. They dumbed down the 360 version because PC machines couldn't handle it. (As if there can't be an option to turn shadows off.)

 

[whitemithrandir]

REAL thieves don't NEED shadows to sneak in, bitches. Real thieves walk up to people in broad daylight and stab them lolz.

You're all pissed off because you don't have the mad thieving skillz that I do.

 

[Tintin]

Or he could have just meant lower end machines.

Riiiight. They dumbed down the 360 version because PC machines couldn't handle it. (As if there can't be an option to turn shadows off.)

"We will have options to toggle features like self-shadowing and the softening effect, as well as to adjust the number of characters receiving shadows to improve performance for lower end machines.


Unless of course, you hadn't bothered to read which part I was responding to.

 

[Tintin]

REAL thieves don't NEED shadows to sneak in, bitches. Real thieves walk up to people in broad daylight and stab them lolz.

You're all pissed off because you don't have the mad thieving skillz that I do.

Yeah, it sucks that we can't sneak in the shadow of tables anymore. That was really useful. And I was really looking forward to sneaking in the shadows of chairs.

 

[whitemithrandir]

"We will have options to toggle features like self-shadowing and the softening effect, as well as to adjust the number of characters receiving shadows to improve performance for lower end machines.


Unless of course, you hadn't bothered to read which part I was responding to.

Um... we were promised dynamic WORLD shadows, not self shadows.

 

[Tintin]

And I was responding to the comment Section8 made to that specific quote, which was about those specific affects and toggling for lower end machines (to which Section8 made the comment that I responded to).

Not sure why anyone would think I was referring to anything else.

 

[whitemithrandir]

REAL thieves don't NEED shadows to sneak in, bitches. Real thieves walk up to people in broad daylight and stab them lolz.

You're all pissed off because you don't have the mad thieving skillz that I do.

Yeah, it sucks that we can't sneak in the shadow of tables anymore. That was really useful. And I was really looking forward to sneaking in the shadows of chairs.

Don't be silly, paco. Look at the way dynamic world shadows were done in Splinter Cell, how you could sneak from the shadows of one pillar to the next, under shadows of overcasting ledges, and around shadows cast by murals and such, and how you could play with the position of the shadows by taking out light sources on either side with your pistol.

Shadows of tables and chairs? Hah!

 

[Micmu]

"We will have options to toggle features like self-shadowing and the softening effect, as well as to adjust the number of characters receiving shadows to improve performance for lower end machines.

You totally missed the point. You mean they will have options to toggle features off (like full object shadows, which are now gone) on 360 version? You know that 360 can't have any performance/quality settings. It must run the game by default at maximum detail. And because of that, even PC version was castrated.

Unless of course, you hadn't bothered to read which part I was responding to.

No, I definitively understood it - you just try to relentlessly defend every "feature" even if it doesn't make any sense at all. Carry on.

 

[Tintin]

You totally missed the point. You mean they will have options to toggle features off (like full object shadows, which are now gone) on 360 version? You know that 360 can't have any performance/quality settings. It must run the game by default at maximum detail.

Which part of lower end machines don't you understand?

And which part of he never said anything about xbox360 versions don't you understand?

Did you actually read the damn quote I was responding to?

Seriously, this is ridiculous.

 

[Tintin]

No, I definitively understood it - you just try to relentlessly defend every "feature" even if it doesn't make any sense at all. Carry on.

You mean like the way you relentlessly attack every feature?

And of course taking into consideration that I have openly disagreed with some of Bethesda's choices, that is certainly an interesting analysis.

 

[mrgah]

Dude, what the hell is this no-shadow shit? Are there going to be any substantive improvements over Morrowind? (I had been holding out judgment until I played the thing)

I was just comparing the bootleg E3 video with the new one, and choppy though the first is, there's just no comparison. The verisimilitude the shadows gave (to say nothing of beauty or whatever) really put the game world in the next category. The world of the new video has about the same feel that Morrowind did. That was fine for 2002, but...

Maybe y'all have gotten over that first sneaking feeling of betrayal by now, but it's just hitting me.

-m

 

[whitemithrandir]

Dude, what the hell is this no-shadow shit? Are there going to be any substantive improvements over Morrowind? (I had been holding out judgment until I played the thing)

I was just comparing the bootleg E3 video with the new one, and choppy though the first is, there's just no comparison. The verisimilitude the shadows gave (to say nothing of beauty or whatever) really put the game world in the next category. The world of the new video has about the same feel that Morrowind did. That was fine for 2002, but...

Maybe y'all have gotten over that first sneaking feeling of betrayal by now, but it's just hitting me.

-m

If they cut any more features, the game might as well just be a screensaver with pretty scenery and the occasional patrick stewart line.

 

[Tintin]

Dude, what the hell is this no-shadow shit? Are there going to be any substantive improvements over Morrowind?

No Oblivion is an exact copy of Morrowind. YOu discovered their massive conspiracy. You win.

 

[tanjo]

BAIT AND SWITCH!!

 

[whitemithrandir]

Dude, what the hell is this no-shadow shit? Are there going to be any substantive improvements over Morrowind?

No Oblivion is an exact copy of Morrowind. YOu discovered their massive conspiracy. You win.

Fucking liar. Morrowind didn't have soil erosion LOL!

 

[Dreagon]

Remember folks, this game has been content complete since Thanksgiving,(their original release date) since then they have been doing nothing but trying to squash bugs. In other words this was another "feature", just like the cutting of levitation that they intended to sneak out to the consumer and let him find out the hard way that it was gone.