Game News Another exciting Oblivion feature revealed

[crufty]

xbox claims another victim.

 

[Drain]

Also the emperor has a damn chubby face...

He is fucking ugly on both pictures.

 

[bryce777]

I was skeptical, but it does look signifigantly worse on the second one....

 

[Lumpy]

The only thing that was taken out was shadows from objects sitting in the world -- things like apples and furniture. There's just too much clutter in the world, and you can interact with most of it. We could have left shadows on such objects in, but then we would have HAD to reduce their count and/or their interactivity. And we thought that maybe people might prefer having lots of stuff to interact with over reducing content just so that that apple can be nicely self-shadowed.

Could that mean that buildings still cast shadows?

 

[Elwro]

Could that mean that buildings still cast shadows?

That's my first thought, too. I guess the answer is "no" (due to Gavin Carter's interview); although I asked around on some Polish fora and most other ppl think that the shadow change concerns only those trivial items mentioned above like apples & oranges.

 

[Lumpy]

They said that shadows would have forced them to limit the movability of those object. It seems, however, that furniture doesn't cast shadows either.
http://www.ga-forum.com/showpost.php?p= ... tcount=136
After all, shadows for clutter aren't important. You can't really sneak in the shadow of an apple.

 

[bryce777]

They said that shadows would have forced them to limit the movability of those object. It seems, however, that furniture doesn't cast shadows either.
http://www.ga-forum.com/showpost.php?p= ... tcount=136
After all, shadows for clutter aren't important. You can't really sneak in the shadow of an apple.

Not since they removed the shrink spell....

 

[franc kaos]

...
The reason of why the only ranged weapon was bows as it looks great, they sacrificed funtionality over graphics.

But now with shadows getting in the way (translation, not looking good) of dynamic objects they sacrificed graphics over funtionality.

But what you rather have ... "picking up a chair and move it around" or darts, throwing daggers, crossbows, etc ...?
...

Chairs are static immovable objects in Oblivion, and, if their shadowing engine worked fast enough on the 360, it would have remained. Has anyone noticed that all these changes have occurred after M$ announced the 360 without a HDD - that games would still run at a minimum 30FPS without using the disk as a cache.

I'm still waiting for when they admit they've got to shorten the view distance and get rid of Bloom, whilst the big battle scenes is going to be a piece of FMV...

As for the tree's and building, well, the tree's are using some kind of static shadow map, so maybe the buildings and other large objects will too.

 

[Section8]

They said that shadows would have forced them to limit the movability of those object. It seems, however, that furniture doesn't cast shadows either.

The only things I've seen cast a shadow in that german video are characters, and even then, try to spot a shadow in any scene with more than 4 characters on screen at once, I dares ya.

First there's the "Billie Jean" light up <s>sidewalk</s> dungeon floor. I hope it plays music like the floor piano in Big.

Then there's the "Omega Man" bustling city street.

Or the less than epic "<s>All</s> None of <s>the King's</s> Patrick Stewart's horses and <s>all</s> very few of <s>the King's</s> Patrick Stewart's men" scene.

And while I'm being a complete and utter little graphics whore, let's not forget the exactly half arsed "Only one side of my sword is bloody" guy.

Now if I'd been through several times and picked those out, then I'd be a pedantic wanker. But I noticed those while simply looking for a shadow cast by a static object.

 

[hiciacit]

In all honesty, all of your examples are from the first trailer. None of them come from the new footage in that video -I think. I'm just saying...

 

[Twinfalls]

<snip>

fucking hilarious stuff

 

[Data4]

In all honesty, all of your examples are from the first trailer. None of them come from the new footage in that video -I think. I'm just saying...

They're from the new video. You're not saying a whole lot.

-D4

 

[Twinfalls]

It is obvious that not only does the removal of shadows make the game look very ordinary, but there is now a loss to gameplay.

Look at these before and after shots.

Observe the dark area to the right of the screen. This is the type of sneaking area that has now gone.

World-shadowing was what they aspired to - and failed, thanks to their technical inability, and the console market they tied themselves to.

Bravo, Bethesda!

 

[hiciacit]

They're from the new video. You're not saying a whole lot.

-D4

Yes I am. Each and everyone of the scenes that section8 referred to came from earlier footage (not everything in that german video was new), namely from the first released trailer: http://www.bethsoft.com/downloads/video/OblivionTrailerSmall.wmv
Not many shadows in that trailer. My point was: there's no reason to think that characters sometimes might not be shadowed, as section8 seemed to suggets.

Not that I give a fuck eather way. I was just saying...

 

[Data4]

They're from the new video. You're not saying a whole lot.

-D4

Yes I am. Each and everyone of the scenes that section8 referred to came from earlier footage (not everything in that german video was new), namely from the first released trailer: http://www.bethsoft.com/downloads/video/OblivionTrailerSmall.wmv
Not many shadows in that trailer. My point was: there's no reason to think that characters sometimes might not be shadowed, as section8 seemed to suggets.

Not that I give a fuck eather way. I was just saying...

You're still not saying a lot (unless that "I'm just saying" is some kind of dumbfuck sign-off to attempt to make you sound hip and original). You can't see the PC Games Reporter watermark in Section8's pictures?

You reek of ESF dumbfuck fanboy. I'm just saying...

-D4

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

The thing is though, that according to the mighty pete, the video used in that trailer was supplied by Bethesda - as "B-roll" for cut n' paste. Why they give out tape with such varying quality is beyond me, but it probably adeqeuately reflects their problems with the shadow code...

 

[hiciacit]

It's really not that difficult: the German video contained both old (see my previous link) and new footage. All the scenes of the German video that section8 referred to were old material (with a PC Games watermark since the screenshots were taken from their video, I presume), so that's probably the reason why there are no shadows.

As for the other crap you spew: I'm not impressed.

 

[Data4]

It's really not that difficult: the German video contained both old (see my previous link) and new footage. All the scenes of the German video that section8 referred to were old material (with a PC Games watermark since the screenshots were taken from their video, I presume), so that's probably the reason why there are no shadows.

Yep. You're an idiot. Let me spell it out for you.

THE FOOTAGE IN THE GERMAN VIDEO IS FROM A DECEMBER BUILD, WHICH IS DIFFERENT FROM THE E3 BUILD. IT IS THE NEWEST VIDEO FOOTAGE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND DEMONSTRATES THE LACK OF SHADOWS THAT HAS RECENTLY BEEN REVEALED TO US.

Just because the scenes were the same (i.e., the Emperor, soldiers fighting in a dungeon, etc.) doesn't mean it was spliced from the E3 demo. I'll say it again: IT IS ALL FROM THE DECEMBER BUILD.

As for the other crap you spew: I'm not impressed.

Well, I was just saying...

-D4

 

[Section8]

Not many shadows in that trailer. My point was: there's no reason to think that characters sometimes might not be shadowed, as section8 seemed to suggets.

I wasn't trying to imply that, but I can see how it comes across that way. The point I was trying to make was that shadows are obviously creating huge performance issues, to the point where those scenes all seem to have been rendered under atypical conditions for the sake of showing off something the game potentially can't handle.

 

[geminito]

[quote="Twinfalls"
Look at these before and after shots.

Observe the dark area to the right of the screen. This is the type of sneaking area that has now gone. [/quote]

You're just making up bullshit now. Sneaking was never going to be that sophisticated. The shadows were just for show, they were not part of the sneaking system. There were (and still are) dark and bright areas where you sneak through, but the rendered shadows are not the dark areas.

 

[hiciacit]

Yep. You're an idiot. Let me spell it out for you.

THE FOOTAGE IN THE GERMAN VIDEO IS FROM A DECEMBER BUILD, WHICH IS DIFFERENT FROM THE E3 BUILD. IT IS THE NEWEST VIDEO FOOTAGE AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC AND DEMONSTRATES THE LACK OF SHADOWS THAT HAS RECENTLY BEEN REVEALED TO US.

Just because the scenes were the same (i.e., the Emperor, soldiers fighting in a dungeon, etc.) doesn't mean it was spliced from the E3 demo. I'll say it again: IT IS ALL FROM THE DECEMBER BUILD.

So they re-rendered all those exact same scenes, only on a newer build? Riiiight, and I'm the idiot here.

 

[Twinfalls]

Look at these before and after shots.

Observe the dark area to the right of the screen. This is the type of sneaking area that has now gone.

You're just making up bullshit now. Sneaking was never going to be that sophisticated. The shadows were just for show, they were not part of the sneaking system. There were (and still are) dark and bright areas where you sneak through, but the rendered shadows are not the dark areas.

Actually you could be right there. It doesn't sound feasible for dynamic shadows to be the ones producing the light/dark areas seen there. Yet something has to account for the drastic difference between the two shots. It's not just an overall increase in light or brightness levels in the playback - where has the dark area to the right gone, and why?

 

[Drakron]

"Billie Jean" light up <s>sidewalk</s> dungeon floor.

The picture in the next is pretty hot ...

 

[HardCode]

..., and I'm the idiot here.

Agreed.

 

[HardCode]

It's not just an overall increase in light or brightness levels in the playback - where has the dark area to the right gone, and why?

And why in the new screen can we see the guard on the left, where as in the old screen we can't. You're right, something MUCH more than "shadows cast by apples" has happened, UNLESS in the B-Roll the character had all stats maxed and mega-Night-Eye. However, that should be unlikely, because it wouldn't show off the shadows. Catch-22!