Another Oblivion Thread

[Tetragrammaton]

Because there aren't enough.

Apparently, there's a DVD out there (given to EB Gamestop managers) with 20 minutes of narrated gameplay of Oblivion. Aside from graphics and physics and forests being cool, I've heard:

- More natural, context-sensitive dialogue
- Compass is not intrusive
- Framerate seems to be the same as MW (I have no idea how to interpret this)
- Animations are the graphical weak point

Also, the video is apparently somewhere out on the internet on a German site, but the person who downloaded it is unwilling to say more.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

- Animations are the graphical weak point

Now what was it MSFD said about animations?

Ahh, that's right:

Give me a break, DarkUnderlord. How you can possibly assume that our team doesn't have the technical knowlege to handle even fundamental animation just boggles my mind. There are HUNDREDS of animations in Oblivion. There's a complex blending system, that allows animations to transition in and out. A priority system that enables multiple animations encompassing various body parts to play at once. Yes, we could add in a dodging animation that can interrupt whatever's happening and dodge out of the way of a blow just as the attack is launched. But if the actor is already in the middle of another animation, the dodge would have to be blended in within the extremely short span of time between attack start and strike, and if the dodge animation is too different from the current animation it simply won't blend out in time. And if you just interrupted the current animation and jumped to the dodge state, it'd look very jarring and wrong (like the aforementioned Han Solo dodging Greedo's shot.)

 

[Chefe]

I saw that posted on the official boards too. Something you should keep in mind though, it's second-hand information from a random [TES] forum member who may or may not be making shit up.

Maybe they'll post it online. I'd like to see this dialogue, and a full-fledged combat encounter to find out how twitchy it is.

If the animations do turn out to be a weak point... woo hoo hoo... zing on ol' MSFD. I personally don't think they will be. Animations in Morrowind were horrible, and they'd have to be some kind of crazy to pull that off again.

 

[Twinfalls]

The problem with poor animation, if that's how it turns out for Oblivion, is made worse because of their decision to reduce the number of NPCs.

Daggerfall's animations were perfectly adequate - it was easy to overlook that they were poorly animated sprites, because there were so damn many of them. The feeling of crowded cities was superb.

If Morrowind had put in place lots and lots of generic 'atmosphere' npcs (like some mods attempted afterward), the poor animations could similarly have been overlooked. It would have been worth having weak animations if one could walk amongst real crowds again. Instead, we had depressing ghost towns with few NPCs around, whose animations were all the more stark because there were so few of them.

Yet Oblivion is having even fewer npcs. Less than half, I believe, and I suspect this "we're having less but making them really individual" will turn out to be, once again, a mistaken choice - that is, to not have lots of generic npcs.

Yet another Daggerfall feature they should return to, methinks.

 

[sparrowtm]

Less NPCs? Yay, that's almost as retarded as Gothic 3 reducing city sizes until a village consists of 5 inhabitants.

 

[Section8]

It's no doubt an issue directly related to graphical limitations. Games like Doom and Daggerfall could draw a shitload of sprites without dramatic performance hit, but when you're pushing around thousands of multi-textured polygons the demands are a great deal more hefty. Add in physics simulations, more AI complexity and something's gotta give.

Doom 3 would have been so much more fun if it stuck to its roots of swarming, dumb monsters, whether they looked technically impressive or not. In the context of an RPG, high end graphics are a pretty low priority on my list, but if "less NPCs" means "higher quality NPCs" in more ways than pure aesthetics, its a step up from Morrowind.

 

[Psilon]

Doom 3 would have been so much more fun if it stuck to its roots of swarming, dumb monsters, whether they looked technically impressive or not. In the context of an RPG, high end graphics are a pretty low priority on my list, but if "less NPCs" means "higher quality NPCs" in more ways than pure aesthetics, its a step up from Morrowind.

Serious Sam 2: Serious Sam Goes To Sirius is what Doom 3 would have been if it stuck to hordes of monsters.

 

[Tetragrammaton]

Doom 3 would have been so much more fun if it stuck to its roots of swarming, dumb monsters, whether they looked technically impressive or not. In the context of an RPG, high end graphics are a pretty low priority on my list, but if "less NPCs" means "higher quality NPCs" in more ways than pure aesthetics, its a step up from Morrowind.

Serious Sam 2: Serious Sam Goes To Sirius is what Doom 3 would have been if it stuck to hordes of monsters.

Is that bad?

I didn't mind the animations in MW. That being said, I hope that everything, including animations, rules in Oblivion. Not everything will be good though. If it's animations this time, I'm as cool with that as I'd be about most other graphics features.

We saw some of these animations in the trailer. Aside from "skating", I didn't see anything that wrong with them.

 

[Santera]

Because there aren't enough.

Apparently, there's a DVD out there (given to EB Gamestop managers) with 20 minutes of narrated gameplay of Oblivion. Aside from graphics and physics and forests being cool, I've heard:

- More natural, context-sensitive dialogue
- Compass is not intrusive
- Framerate seems to be the same as MW (I have no idea how to interpret this)
- Animations are the graphical weak point

Also, the video is apparently somewhere out on the internet on a German site, but the person who downloaded it is unwilling to say more.

I've seen a similar post at RPGDot forums.
Look here - http://www.rpgdot.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=694613

Unfortunately no links to the german site you've mentioned.

 

[truekaiser]

e
- Compass is not intrusive

sorry i call anything that points something out to you before you can see it yourself or even if it knows where something is that your character should not know, intrusive.

and before you say daggerfall had the same thing it did not. the compass in daggerfall was your normal n,s,e,w, navigation compass. it did not point out locations of quest related npc's. you had to *gasp* ask other npc's if they knew where the person was. it also did not show locations of quest items or point out stuff like caves, dungeons, etc to the player before they even see it. Morrowind's map also did not point these out until you were already right next to them either.

 

[Psilon]

Doom 3 would have been so much more fun if it stuck to its roots of swarming, dumb monsters, whether they looked technically impressive or not. In the context of an RPG, high end graphics are a pretty low priority on my list, but if "less NPCs" means "higher quality NPCs" in more ways than pure aesthetics, its a step up from Morrowind.

Serious Sam 2: Serious Sam Goes To Sirius is what Doom 3 would have been if it stuck to hordes of monsters.

Is that bad?

Hell no. The demo is quite entertaining, and I look forward to the full game's release. It's got about as much plot as Duke Nukem 3D, though.

 

[Pr()ZaC]

Serious Sam 1 was a much better surprise.
I think they screwed up with SSII.
Anyway, Duke3D was (and still is) much MUCH more fun that any Serious Shame.

 

[Naked_Lunch]

Duke 3D blows.

Outlaws was the best.

 

[GhanBuriGhan]

e
- Compass is not intrusive

and before you say daggerfall had the same thing it did not. the compass in daggerfall was your normal n,s,e,w, navigation compass. it did not point out locations of quest related npc's.

Well it didn't have to, because the world map would instantaneously let you fast-travel to any point you knew the name of, and quest NPC's never moved. I am not convinced the compass was necessary as Bethesda claims, but I also doubt it will be all that terrible.

 

[Pr()ZaC]

Duke 3D blows.

INFIDEL! :D
BTW... I wonder if DNF will be a 2006 release...

 

[truekaiser]

NPC's never moved.

ummm the npc's moved alot in daggerfall. the only ones that did not move were the shop keepers which is understandable. if you are runing a shop do you need to be running around town for no reason?

 

[Elwro]

He said QUEST NPCs (=the static BMPs, not the animated sprites) didn't move, and that's true if you don't consider teleportation as movement (iirc Queen Mynisera changed her place a few times during the plot).

 

[Fresh]

http://www.gamersreports.com/hosted/med ... 6f08/1.jpg

Check out the rest of TEH unseen footage here & download the torrent while youare at it biatches http://www.onthexbox.com/forum/showthre ... 0#post4240

 

[Section8]

 

[Micmu]

WHat? This LIST is supposed to be an inventory screen now?
Or it's just Xbox interface.
At least they didn't ditch TES' trademark - red/blue/green stat indicator, I'm amazed.

 

[Nicolai]

Outlaws was the best.

No way, mang. Blood is where it's at. B)

 

[Twinfalls]

WHat? This LIST is supposed to be an inventory screen now?
Or it's just Xbox interface.

Ha. You think they'll change the UI for the PC? fargeddit.

The UI is the work of the Toddling.
Looks like a freaking spreadsheet.
Kneel before Todd.

 

[LlamaGod]

awesome, they still have their shittily designed items.

 

[Tintin]

http://www.gamersreports.com/hosted/media/9dca61578f66f08/1.jpg

Check out the rest of TEH unseen footage here & download the torrent while youare at it biatches http://www.onthexbox.com/forum/showthre ... 0#post4240

Is the torrent actually available somewhere

 

[Chefe]

Sorry to break it to you micmu, and myself, but this is, in fact, a PC screenshot.

We're doomed. Fuck you Bethesda, now I KNOW you're dumbing down for the consoles. What's wrong, don't like PC gamers anymore? Want to alienate you're long and trusting userbase for a bunch of console shitheads? Now not only do we lose features because of these consoles, but we also have to gain their shitty AI? Seriously, THAT LIST SUCKS. I've got to scroll that fucking thing every time I want to get items? Bullshit. Bull fucking shit. Fuck this, I'm not buying Oblivion. I HATE shitty UIs. Next RPG I buy: Witcher.

Way to fucking go!