Game News Oblivion world creation devairy at BethSoft

[voodoo1man]

Tamriel is starting to come into focus. Using various height adjusting and vertex smoothing brushes (that work very similarly to those you might find in a 2D paint program such as Photoshop) we were able to push and pull the various vertices of the heightfield into a shape that is beginning to resemble a more natural, multi-featured landscape.

Wait a second, I thought the "natural, multi-featured landscape" was supposed to be made automatically with the soil erosion! What is all this junk with pushing and pulling the vertices like primitive cavemen!?

 

[Lemunde]

I'm sorry, I only had enough patience to read the first few posts. What are we bitching about now?

On the subject I found the dev diary most enlightening. I especially enjoyed the large panarama screenshot of various plants lying around. It also gave me a better idea of how exactly the terrain generation will work, although I was able to deduce most of it.

 

[dongle]

Actual question: Why do people buy games just to mod them? And, of all the engines one can get, why embark immediately on replacing huge chunks of RPG code? You'll never be able to make the large-scale mechanics changes that invariably get promised to/by the mod community, and the engines tend to run like shit by comparison to others.

Most modders aren't skilled enough, or creative enough, or have enough free time, to build an entire game from scratch. The TES system makes it very easy to mod just a little corner of your own. Even if they did build a complete game they'd have to go out and convince folks to download and play it. Designing gameplay and then playing it yourself is boring, so naturally modders like to design and then share their work. TES gives them a tremendously large ready-made audience to share with. There are other popular moddable games with much more stable and efficient engines, but few with a fantasy setting, if your tastes lean that way.

So; Easy, Popular, Unique == A lot of fuckers do it.

 

[whitemithrandir]

Honest discussion of the topic was never the intention then was it?

Considering you made no attempt to start meaningful discussion about the topic at hand, I'd say we're both in the same boat. In fact, in the three times you smacked that Reply button, you have yet to actually discuss anything about the article at all.

I thought the article was boring. I'd be willing to bet that talking about using photoshop to make height maps and applying erosion to generated terrain is dull in most people's opinions. However, if you thought that was interesting subject matter, you could have very well said so and said why you found it interesting. However, you didn't.

Now, since you're a twit that doesn't have the first fucking clue as to what trolling is, let me point out that this is my forum. Therefore, it is absolutely fucking impossible for me to be trolling here as it is my property. You are the guest here, not me. Now, if I'd posted about how inanely boring I'd found the article on the Bethesda forums, you might have a point about it being trolling rather than just my opinion on the article. However, since this is my forum where I am the one most qualified to state my opinion on something, there is no way, shape, form, or function that it can remotely be considered trolling. This is my house, dumbass.

I guess I've always took trolling to mean fishing for a fight. I see no reason the owner of a forum can't fish for a fight. That one has the nerve to suggest that is indeed what is going on just earns one a red illiterate above their avatar.

It matters not to me. I was hoping this forum was open to discussion with those that have a different opinion. I guess not. The usefulness of this forum wanes with every vulgar shout down of opposing views.

I really don't need to learn any more about RPGs I guess. Won't do anything more than turn me into someone that can't accept change and be unhappy with the available games, apparently.

blah blah blah BORING SHIT. EVERY SINGLE FUCKING ONE OF YOUR POSTS IN THIS THREAD ADDRESSES A TOTAL SUM OF JACK SHIT IN TERMS OF ACTUAL DISCUSSION. Want to express your opinions? EXPRESS YOUR FUCKING OPINIONS. About the article. Stop tryinmg to comparing penis size with SP. YOU'RE NOT GONNA WIN. And even if you do, SO FUCKING WHAT? I'm not impressed by anyone's e-penis.

On the subject of the article: it sounds like we'll be able to import at least some stuff from Max or maybe even Poser or Maya with a few plugins.

THAT IS GOOD.

 

[dongle]

On the subject of the article: it sounds like we'll be able to import at least some stuff from Max or maybe even Poser or Maya with a few plugins.

It was announced last week that Bethesda is "working on it" and "hopes to release a 3Ds Max exporter eventually" and blames the delay on a Havok licensing snafu. They have one that the devs used, for sure. Whether it will be released to fans is an open question. It'll likely be months from now if they do. Good chance they never will. They have never discussed a model exporter until last week, despite a year and a half of fans asking about one.

Poser or Maya exporters, no -way- will Bethesda release one. You'll have to wait for a fan to program one.

--
dongle
eleven-inch e-penis

 

[Rendelius]

I thought the dev diary was pretty interesting, since it offered some insight into how they built the world (which is interesting for those who will mod the game). The quoted paragraph wasn't the most interesting one, but seeing how they use zones of vegitation to make the world builders' life ieasier is ceraintly good information. The dev diary gave us some background numbers as well, like the number of trees, herbs and rocks in the game wold. While take alone, this seems to be not so important, it nevertheless gives you an impression of the size of the world nevertheless.

And oh, the panoramic shots showing off different alchemy ingredients looked great (the night shot didn't - the moons look outa place).

 

[Psilon]

Even if they did build a complete game they'd have to go out and convince folks to download and play it. Designing gameplay and then playing it yourself is boring, so naturally modders like to design and then share their work. TES gives them a tremendously large ready-made audience to share with. There are other popular moddable games with much more stable and efficient engines, but few with a fantasy setting, if your tastes lean that way.

So; Easy, Popular, Unique == A lot of fuckers do it.

Well, mods have the same problem in that you have to convince folks to download and play them. There are never any good mods for quite a while after the release of a new game, and by the time the good ones have come out (if any), most of the audience has moved on to other games. And given the inevitable cries of "Total conversion!" with every new game, I'm never quite certain why these fuckers don't just write their own goddamn engine. Or take Quake3 and put swords into it, for that matter.

Escape Velocity Nova was an exception because so many mods were available at release of the Windows version, but they still fucked it up. Requiring an obsolete version of StuffIt to decompress into a MacBinary resource fork, only to run yet another converter package, is alienating the customer to a ridiculous degree.

I just think that unless a game is actively marketed as a scenario toolset, buying it solely for the purpose of adding furries and conflictingly-located residences is, well, stupid. I'd rather build my own house than wallpaper a cubicle.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

You're going to get heated up over someone calling you a troll?

More like getting heated over yet another stupid bethesda fanboy showing up to express his outrage over the way this site doesn't put Bethesda on a pedestal. It's even more irritating when they bitch about the lack of meaningful discussion over a topic when they post over and over again in a news comment thread without making an actual reference to the news item at hand but rather a generic, "I don't agree with your evil, non-Bethesda free riding ways!" statement.

I thought the dev diary was pretty interesting, since it offered some insight into how they built the world (which is interesting for those who will mod the game). The quoted paragraph wasn't the most interesting one, but seeing how they use zones of vegitation to make the world builders' life ieasier is ceraintly good information.

I think one reason it seems boring, at least to me, is that it reads like a really shitty tutorial than anything else. It's like reading a GIMP tutorial where they have a bunch of steps in there like, "Use the gradiant tool until you have something that looks like this." without actually explaining what the tool does or how they got to the described picture. At least, that's what it seemed more like to me than either a decent article about the joys of landscape molding or a tutorial on how to do it.

 

[Volourn]

"That one has the nerve to suggest that is indeed what is going on just earns one a red illiterate above their avatar."

Eh? It's a compliment more than anything. And, I congratulate you in getting it way quicker than me. It took me YEARS to get the Illerate tag.

As for SP jumping up, and down about this is 'his forum'. It reminds me of the following song: "It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to". Instead of that, it's 'It's my forum, and I'll troll if I want to".

Can someone tell me when SP turned into a little teenie bopper girl? LOL


Anyways, as far as the topic goes, it is boring to me. That said, if it's so boring than don't post it as news. Dumbass.

 

[Proweler]

Okay, looks cool. Landscaping took ages in Morrowind.

Instead of a single crappy landscape cell, I'll now expect thousands of boring, uninspired, shitty, dumb and stupid pregenerated landscapes because the fuckwit noob modder didn't bother to add special details.

I'm sorry, I only had enough patience to read the first few posts. What are we bitching about now?

Yea somebody explain.

Btw. Rose don't be a suck up.

 

[Major_Blackhart]

Not a very interesting article.

 

[Excrément]

Honest discussion of the topic was never the intention then was it?

Considering you made no attempt to start meaningful discussion about the topic at hand, I'd say we're both in the same boat. In fact, in the three times you smacked that Reply button, you have yet to actually discuss anything about the article at all.

I thought the article was boring. I'd be willing to bet that talking about using photoshop to make height maps and applying erosion to generated terrain is dull in most people's opinions. However, if you thought that was interesting subject matter, you could have very well said so and said why you found it interesting. However, you didn't.

Now, since you're a twit that doesn't have the first fucking clue as to what trolling is, let me point out that this is my forum. Therefore, it is absolutely fucking impossible for me to be trolling here as it is my property. You are the guest here, not me. Now, if I'd posted about how inanely boring I'd found the article on the Bethesda forums, you might have a point about it being trolling rather than just my opinion on the article. However, since this is my forum where I am the one most qualified to state my opinion on something, there is no way, shape, form, or function that it can remotely be considered trolling. This is my house, dumbass.

I guess I've always took trolling to mean fishing for a fight. I see no reason the owner of a forum can't fish for a fight. That one has the nerve to suggest that is indeed what is going on just earns one a red illiterate above their avatar.

It matters not to me. I was hoping this forum was open to discussion with those that have a different opinion. I guess not. The usefulness of this forum wanes with every vulgar shout down of opposing views.

I really don't need to learn any more about RPGs I guess. Won't do anything more than turn me into someone that can't accept change and be unhappy with the available games, apparently.

60% of my posts here are trolling (like this one).
This forum is about trolling, people insult, people bash. sarcasm is considered as the main argument over here.

so I don't try anymore to be clever (Didi I try??), I just troll and sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's boring.

 

[LlamaGod]

There's a difference between trolling and having a conversation that isn't being monitored by moderator-nuns.

If a few swears and insults admist a conversation is trolling to you, you're a pretty big wuss.

 

[Excrément]

There's a difference between trolling and having a conversation that isn't being monitored by moderator-nuns.

If a few swears and insults admist a conversation is trolling to you, you're a pretty big wuss.

don't forget the 40%!

 

[kris]

60% of my posts here are trolling (like this one).
This forum is about trolling, people insult, people bash. sarcasm is considered as the main argument over here.

so I don't try anymore to be clever (Didi I try??), I just troll and sometimes it's fun, sometimes it's boring.

I think you confused this with the ES forums where they don't have discussions and debates. your 100% trolling doesn't make the forum 100% trolling, nope it just stands for you personally.

 

[Twinfalls]

Speaking of the ESF, Christ I hate that place. I know I shouldn't expect any better, but observe how a spirited debate on choice and consequence makes Summer the Undersexed mod-creature shut a thread down for being a 'disaster'.... (read on past the initial hoo-ha about the OP's lack of punctuation).

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/inde ... 262024&hl=

 

[Lumpy]

Speaking of the ESF, Christ I hate that place. I know I shouldn't expect any better, but observe how a spirited debate on choice and consequence makes Summer the Undersexed mod-creature shut a thread down for being a 'disaster'.... (read on past the initial hoo-ha about the OP's lack of punctuation).

http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/inde ... 262024&hl=

Just repost the damn thread.
http://www.elderscrolls.com/forums/inde ... 4&t=262550

 

[DarkUnderlord]

let me point out that this is my forum. Therefore, it is absolutely fucking impossible for me to be trolling here as it is my property. This is my house, dumbass.

Actually, I thought it was Deathy's place and we were all merely priviledged guests who get to stick things on the bulletin board and bum around in the kitchen drinking coffee.

Speaking of which, has anyone seen my mug? It's the one with the cow on it. Someone oughta do the dishes too. That green stuff is beginning to smell and evolve into a new species I think.