Game News Wasteland 2 to use Unity

[EG]

I just hope their 3D modellers won't turn out to be their Unity-focused programmers, as well.

 

[Spectacle]

This thread is funny. Who knew that the choice of 3D engine could generate almost as much Kodex Kontroversy as whether to have full party control or not in a game.

Granted, it wouldn't have come to this if not for the fanbois who descended on this thread from afar, but I'm surprised there were enough opinions about Unity here to rile them up in the first place :D

 

[Davaris]

It's funny because I do have to say I'm actually more concerned about their choice of Unity now, than I was when this thread started. Mainly because now, it would appear that Unity is the purview of mentally deficient 3D modellers where any question or doubt about the engine is met with a link to an online web browser game that's been made with it, while they salivate over the endless reams of jobs available for iPhone app developers because they think popularity is the be all and end all.

I'm really, really hoping inXile's 3D modellers aren't that bad.

 

[almondblight]

I'm concerned that they were excited about all of the free models available at the unity store. Makes it sound like the game will be some sort of cut and paste abomination.

 

[Davaris]

I assumed they were excited for the players that will mod the game afterwards.

 

[EG]

Barny, there's only two models there. You are only doing 2x number of frames displayed transformations, not 250. I had trouble with just half a dozen models a few years ago (about 10k triangles). Hopefully they increased performance in real terms since then but a simple hack that gamebryo and some other crap engines use is to basically using a form of cloning to handle this. Works great when you have just a couple models, works for crap when you have a bunch. Since they are all the same I worry that's what's going on here, but if they fixed it then good for them.

Golly, I remember reading something about that!
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Prefabs.html
Apparently, they're instrumental to the performance of Unity.

I'm concerned that they were excited about all of the free models available at the unity store. Makes it sound like the game will be some sort of cut and paste abomination.

I just ignored that, assuming they meant these models would be used as reference pieces -- something to heavily modify and build their style upon.

 

[EG]

C4 doesn't do that, btw. Since multithreaded skinning really only does anything on PCs and PS3 lots of engines don't bother. Not like your iPad has multiple CPUs.

Good to know. I will look into this C4 further and perhaps ask my graphic design instructor how she'd feel filling out that absurdly lax form for an academic license, since certain other methods to acquire through assuredly legal means have thus failed (beyond the capabilities of the demo).

Wouldn't mind seeing more of the differences between the two engines.

 

[almondblight]

I hope you guys are right. He makes it sound like he's talking about their own development, not modding support [note: point 3 is "support and expertise available from vendor and in community", point 4 is "Adaptability for player modding"]:

Where Unity really bowled us over was on point 3. Besides generous support available from Unity staff, the Unity Asset Store is a treasure trove of assets (3D models and code) provided by the large and growing community of Unity users. A recent Unity newsletter announced that the Asset Store customer base has topped 100,000, and the catalog has reached over 3,000 packages! We’ve been able to find all kinds of useful 3D assets and code in the Asset Store ranging in price from cheap to free! Having an organized marketplace like the Asset Store for finding assets and expertise fits right in with our desire to leverage and give back to the community. While we cannot share engine source code changes, we can share script code and components, as well as graphical assets as part of our modding support.

On the Modding front, we always figured we would have to provide custom tools to users, so we didn’t rank modding support high on our list of engine requirements. We’ve also had generous offers from the Wasteland community of coders to help with developing those tools. And yet I think the fact that Unity provides their basic engine/editor for free is a big plus as a starting point for providing the tools necessary for supporting modding of Wasteland 2. And there again, I think the Asset Store will facilitate ongoing collaboration with the community on modding tools that can be offered in the store for free.

I guess the guy could just be bad at communication. Hopefully.

 

[lmbarns]

While we cannot share engine source code changes, we can share script code and components, as well as graphical assets as part of our modding support.

And yet I think the fact that Unity provides their basic engine/editor for free is a big plus as a starting point for providing the tools necessary for supporting modding of Wasteland 2. And there again, I think the Asset Store will facilitate ongoing collaboration with the community on modding tools that can be offered in the store for free.

Sounds like he really wants modding to be a big part. With the free version of the engine and the asset store, he has half his modding support done for him. Anyone can get an indie license, and he can simply publish his "mod packs of scripts, components, graphical assets" to the store for anyone to download. Similarly community can upload their own content for people to download/use, free or paid.

Would be interesting to see how it happens though, like, Unity's game examples they release are free source, you can build them, and sell them on the Apple, Google, Amazon, etc app stores straight off Unity's website. I'll be curious to see how the source of this game is released, not the engine source they hack, but the normal assets they make public.

 

[DarkUnderlord]

For a more fair and balanced review, take a look at this little article if you want a detailed technical analysis of Unity and its competitors.

http://www.altdevblogaday.com/2012/04/16/game-engines-for-indies/

That's... not a technical analysis.

And at the comments talking about C4 and Unity circle-jerk.

Also your e-mail is "unity4evah@gmail.com" which makes me pretty sure you're a troll who's just trying to continue a dead debate. Labelled as such.

 

[Kz3r0]

Hello. I heard on the unity forums about this thread and while my NDA prevents me from giving full disclosure, I work for a certain company you've all heard of as an engine programmer. I can assure you Unity has the best performance and design of any game engine I've ever used, being one of the VERY few people privieleged to use its full source capabilities.

In fact we like it so much we are moving our entire line of products over to Unity. We're currently in the process of integrating all of our tools to the Unity engine's already excellent toolset and have several prototypes for our major titles using these tools.

There seems to be a lot of basement dwelling know it alls in this thread, but I can assure you I do have the best credentials possible, if only I could show them to you.

For a more fair and balanced review, take a look at this little article if you want a detailed technical analysis of Unity and its competitors.

http://www.altdevblogaday.com/2012/04/16/game-engines-for-indies/

Just one of countless satisfied Unity users. Unity is the wave of the future, anyone who says otherwise is just lying to themselves. You will soon be seeing literally dozens of AAA games released on Unity in the coming year if all goes well!

The style reminds me of the moose.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Ha-ha-ha, very funny, very.
Not.

Should have waited for a QT tread so you could impersonate a Trolltech developer, that would at least be original.

 

[Davaris]

For a more fair and balanced review, take a look at this little article if you want a detailed technical analysis of Unity and its competitors.

http://www.altdevblogaday.com/2012/04/16/game-engines-for-indies/

At least he apologized in the end.

 

[Davaris]

A very left-handed apology that only came out like pulling of teeth. I'm sure it's some kind of marketing thing. How can people possibly protest the contents of my personal blog (highlighted on some totally neutral site that claims to be about AI)?

The article where he got his incorrect info, was written by a guy who makes flash websites in the Middle East, from what I clicked on. So I don't want to get paranoid about it, I think its just a general dumbing down, since these kinds of game engines have been coming out.

BTW C4 with Linux has just been released. You can get it while America is still sleeping.

 

[St. Toxic]

Getting C4 is akin to getting wet gangrene or a venereal disease. Why would anyone torture themselves like this? You guys should try Unity, that shit is off the walls.

 

[Davaris]

You guys should try Unity, that shit is off the walls.

Yeah, look at all those mobile phone games! Wow!

 

[Burning Bridges]

This thread is funny. Who knew that the choice of 3D engine could generate almost as much Kodex Kontroversy as whether to have full party control or not in a game.

Granted, it wouldn't have come to this if not for the fanbois who descended on this thread from afar, but I'm surprised there were enough opinions about Unity here to rile them up in the first place :D

This may strange but the problem goes a bit deeper than you may think.

I am sure not the only one who noticed that recently a lot of games (I mean real indie games) look really shit because they are no longer written in native C++ code but rather with piss easy to use game engines, and with tons of middleware. As if people either got too lazy to programm more than the bare minimum, or people entered the indie scene who don't know how to.

Look for examples at new releases from such companies as Paradox and Matrix. There are lots of strategy games running with 3D graphics, resulting in generic low res blurry graphics. There is even Java & .NET, browser APIs, such stuff everywhere. At least on Matrix there are also still some games with slick engines written in native code, but they are getting a rarity.

 

[FeelTheRads]

This may strange but the problem goes a bit deeper than you may think.

I am sure not the only one who noticed that recently a lot of games (I mean real indie games) look really shit because they are no longer written in native C++ code but rather with piss easy to use game engines, and with tons of middleware. As if people either got too lazy to programm more than the bare minimum, or people entered the indie scene who don't know how to.

Look for examples at new releases from such companies as Paradox and Matrix. There are lots of strategy games running with 3D engines made for fps, generic low res blurry graphics, even Java & .NET, such stuff everywhere. At least on Matrix there are also still some games with slick engines written in native code, but they are getting a rarity.

I don't know if it's necessarily a bad thing. If more and more people who can't program or aren't good programmers get to make games we should get more diversity. A lot of crap too, obviously, but there are gems sometimes.
And I'd rather have good, but poorly programmed games than crappy but well programmed ones, which is what you usually get from AAA games.
Well, except if they're made by Obsidian.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I wouldn't disagree completely, I am more of a .NET developer myself, though I sometimes code in C++ as well, but find it harder. So maybe I understand the mindset better than people who have coded for 20 years in C++ and nothing but C++.

But the logic is that now more games can be made by people who have only average skills, but NOT that now all games should be thrown together with the easiest to use tools, if they could have used fast responsive engines instead. And that means C++ and no middleware, or very little of it. In the past people even made games in pure assembler, or at least some inline assembler, it seems almost forgotten now.

 

[curry]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/waysidecreations/fallout-nuka-break-season-2-0/posts/228528

Chris Avellone (Senior Designer for Fallout: New Vegas) and Tim Cain (Lead Programmer of the original Fallout) have agreed to creatively come on board if we DOUBLE OUR BUDGET!

How exactly will Chris and Tim be involved? First, they'll be involved in the writing process. This includes input into the storyline, character development, creature interactions and scenery. Second, and probably our favorite part, they're both going to APPEAR in the series.

Great, so not only are they "working" on Wasteland 2 but they are also involved in other projects.

 

[Brother None]

Tim Cain won't be working on Wasteland 2. And that's more hobby stuff.

Though where MCA gets all this time to spend on extraneous stuff, including how communicative he is to anyone who contacts him...it's beyond me. Dude seems to be able to magic up extra hours in the day.

 

[FeelTheRads]

So that shit's based on Fallout 3? Good, not gonna waste my time on it.

 

[Davaris]

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/waysidecreations/fallout-nuka-break-season-2-0/posts/228528

Chris Avellone (Senior Designer for Fallout: New Vegas) and Tim Cain (Lead Programmer of the original Fallout) have agreed to creatively come on board if we DOUBLE OUR BUDGET!

How exactly will Chris and Tim be involved? First, they'll be involved in the writing process. This includes input into the storyline, character development, creature interactions and scenery. Second, and probably our favorite part, they're both going to APPEAR in the series.

Great, so not only are they "working" on Wasteland 2 but they are also involved in other projects.

I'm sure Tim Cain was being wasted as a code monkey at Obsidian anyway.

 

[Oriental European]

You do understand that there is more than one software package out there, right?

In the 3d app world there is Max, Maya, SoftImage, Houdini.
There is also Daz, Poser, Bryce etc

No Blender

Hey.

Hey pal.









Fuck you.

 

[Oriental European]

Hey.

Hey Superman.








Fuck you.