Posts by KungFuSquirrel

  • The random model thread!

    Quote from PS_Mouse

    dabbling in max + working on my texturing skillz (yo)Image

    First thing I thought of looking at that was the grimier bits of the x-men legends games, and not in a bad way. Looks like something that might fit well into a similar type of game, especially as a level prop for an isometric sort of thing... Maybe not what you're aiming for, though :X

  • Hard times ahead?

    Quote from ginsengavenger

    Let's just say I won't be having kids until I have a stable job, and at this point that means not working in games.

    I think you're overstating instability through the industry. The uncertainty is most prevalent in the small companies on their first few titles. Get through that, and if one deal falls through, there's good chances to pick up more. Sometimes it's not enough, but it's not a 100% guarantee of death.

    Publisher owned studios in particular are very solid in this regard, as it's unlikely any internal houses will be closed unless the publisher runs on some severe hard times financially (which don't look to be issues for any of the major players anytime soon). Raven is a good example: average length of stay is something like 6 years (or was before we ballooned and added a ton more people ), and the company just celebrated 15 years in business earlier this year, with more and more people celebrating their 8, 9, and 10+ year anniversaries.

    Big-money independent studios like Epic, Valve, and id aren't going anywhere anytime soon. Smaller independents like Gearbox land deal after deal and keep floating along more than comfortably, and now are kicking ass with their own IP. If a company like Splash Damage had a project cancelled, half the other major publishers would probably jump to get them to make a game for them given the success of the ET franchise and their work with id titles. And the growing factor of online distribution gives greater and greater opportunity for studios to examine options of self-funding, keeping themselves alive even in a worst case scenario.

    There's certainly instability to be had, but there's a hell of a lot of strong forces in the industry right now that it would take a full entertainment market collapse to topple. If you're that worried about stability, I'd think it's less a problem of the industry than it is your current location - BUT... since rumor is your company got double digit millions from sony to develop for the PS3, and there's the established legacy and success from prior titles over the years (such as the success of the rogue squadron games)... I think stability is by far the least of your worries

  • Hard times ahead?

    Certainly 3 is ridiculously few, but at the same time I think 100+ man teams are also counter-productive. I don't see any reason a smallish team (35 people seems a good sweet spot) can't still make solid, enjoyable, and visually appealing titles in a reasonable span of time - 2-3 years, maybe 1-2 years for followups with smart use of existing tech/content, maybe less if you're on BIA (don't worry, I mean that in a good way ). I think the problem is tools aren't quite evolving with the technology. With improved tools, people can be more productive at a higher level of quality in a shorter amount of time. Case in point: ZBrush. Entirely unified editors are also a step in the right direction - the educational title I worked on before Quake was on a free engine in which everything - modeling, animation, scripting, level design, AI placement, triggers, etc. etc. - was built and implemented in Maya and maya scripts/plugins provided by the engine developers, or the project's programmer.

    Smaller teams are for the benefit of everyone - fewer dependencies, less chance of communication breakdown, lower development cost (and thus lower minimum number of sales to turn a profit), etc. There's still a place for the little guy.

  • The Official Quake IV release thread

    f12 is default, you can also bind a key to "screenshot x y z" where x = width, y=height, and z = sampling. Publicity screenshots are typically taken at 4000x3000 w/ 4-12x sampling for better use in print mags and the like. You'll want to stick to natural resolutions for this, but the results can be yummy. Don't even have to be running high-res to get high-res shots.

  • The Official Quake IV release thread

    Quote from Tequila

    Just wait for GTKRadiant support. It's really not that different to the way Hammer works.

    NO!

    (at least try our version first)

    I was only successful in 1/3rd of my games for the day. Q4 and Fear, but no AOE3, Shadow of the Colossus, Stubbs, or Jak X

    Quote

    That's a 2006 title, though

    or 2007, or 2008, or whenever stuff works. Doesn't sound like those guys are good at finishing things.

  • *HAMMER* Grid not even. Hammer bug?

    What you're seeing here is a side effect of scrolling grids with the mouse wheel. Use the numerical shortcuts to grid zooms and it'll line up perfectly each time. Some of the weird in between zooms just don't like to align themselves.

    This bugged the hell out of me when I was doing HL stuff, thus ensuring I'd never use the mouse wheel heh.

  • What's your purchase this week?

    hehe, nope. We get a free SE copy if we worked on it and a everyone gets a free regular copy, but I'm buying a copy (2x actually :X ) of the SE anyway just because I can. it'll be fun to buy something I had a hand in making (anyone else here with shipped titles under their belt do that, or am I just weird?).

    Will do the same with the X360 version, then grab a couple copies of the normal versions cheap from the company store for my various collections - gotta have the playable copy, the signed copy for the lineup of stuff I've worked on at home, and another copy for the lineup of stuff I've worked on on my desk at work. god I'm a nerd. Like I don't have enough games anyway without multiple copies of the same game on the same platform.