Posts by Vilham

  • Hypothetical-Contest Rules Voting

    Quote from FMPONE

    On 11/11/2018 at 9:07 AM, FMPONE said: This is about creating high quality products, a greybox is the most theoretical, first step out of about a billion in creating a great level.

    Sorry but categorically not. A greybox that has had time to form is the foundation of an entire map. Art adds to certain playable elements but you could wrap the same design in multiple themes and not drastically alter the quality of the map. Its literally happened for multi game IPs (Halo, Gears, CoD) where they reskin an old map.

    Its honestly depressing that these contests are repeatedly about style over substance with a focus on art being the most important element.

    Edit - Sorry that last statement might be a little unfair and it isn't to discredit the effort or work people put into their art, its more that rules that allow people to skip the design stage devalue the tests focus on designing and finalling a map.

  • Hypothetical-Contest Rules Voting

    Quote from Radu

    2 hours ago, Radu said: I think the whitebox idea could be indeed a successful smaller contest of its own. The recent Door Challenge proved that smaller scale events and even on different engines can raise enough interest. Though, I'm more interested in a bigger contest. But I do agree that the deadline should be a lot shorter than last time and with no extensions. People seem to prefer something like 5-6 months.

    Part of the reason why I would prefer a contest with art included is because, as horse also mentioned, it forces people to plan better, take other aspects into consideration and learn how to adjust in order to meet deadlines. I think that's a healthy thing to learn, especially if you plan to work in the industry.

    If you guys want to encourage people to explore new layout ideas, maybe you could put more emphasis on that through the judging criteria. For instance, the layout could comprise half of the score. So let's say, if you go for a purely classic dust2 4leaf layout with absolutely no new twists/gimmicks, but it works, you do score decently - maybe 30/50, but not all the points.

    This is why I would potentially separate the contest out into an art one and a design one. Have a shorter design one that is about the blockout. Do a test later that allows people to collaborate and art the level up, controversial idea but you could actually take the top 3 designed maps and over them out for people to art up which ever one they want. Similar to the artstation contests where people do concepts and then have a second round where people make the things in the concept.

  • New/Old Diablo Game.

    Perfectly legit response honestly, it shouldn't have been announced to that audience, it is the wrong market for it. If this had been announced anywhere else it wouldn't have caused this kind of backlash.

    At this point Blizzard is being damaged by their damage control. Do not attempt to delete comments or dislikes. It will only backfire.

  • Red Dead Redemption 2

    Quote from PogoP

    7 hours ago, PogoP said: I'm enjoying it so far. Controls can be a bit clunky.

    I don't understand how they've built the world though... I'm looking for seams but can't find any on cliffs etc. Anyone got any idea how they did it? Looks like they're using decals or something to mask seams? Like, just go to a river and you'll see these cool mudslide type things on the side... Must be a model. But the transition to terrain is seamless.

    https://twvideo01.ubm-us.net/o1/vault/gdc20…tBUovNCSFJIhwxY

    similar technique i would think

  • George Platten | Level Design

    1. The top left panel is named differently from the page it takes you to.
    2. There is little to no description of why things are the way they are or what is actually meant to happen in each shot.
    3. There is very little explanation of what you actually did yourself, workflow etc.
    4. If you are interested in level design the dev shots are much more important than the final ones.
    5. Top downs explaining layout decision are by far the most telling shots/information you can provide.

  • [UT4] DM-Chamber

    Nice, looks awesome, whats performance like?

    The depth of the lines in the floor look pretty large and make it more difficult than it needs to be to read the surfaces, out of interest how do they interact with grenades? Do they use player collision?

  • The Last of Us Part 2

    So that guy pretty much agrees, everything is technically possible to do. Its just not realistic that everything is that systemic and that perfect. Hes also not bringing up the actual events that happen that are too well framed for it not to be massive scripted. This is an uninterrupted sequence of 7 minutes. I've seen/done the work that goes into getting a perfect take for gameplay footage/trailers numerous times. Getting 7 minutes without any hick ups (not even the slightest little thing) is completely unheard of. I'll break down the number of perfect things (systemic or otherwise) that happen then you tell me if you think that is possible to capture without anything going wrong.

    4:32 - jump down is perfectly timed with the camera coming around to look at them. (so they have a quick pause in their patrol at the top, perfectly normal, they happen to drop down just as the camera brings them back into frame. That requires perfect user timing/input to capture (thats the running theme, the person "playing" this has to remember and nail the timing on all the camera movements))

    5:08 - onwards definitely scripted but I imagine its meant to look that way.

    5:49 - climb up and lo and behold two guys in a patrolling behaviour are perfectly there (again given the systemic nature of the systems claimed and the openness of the levels in TLOU1 where scripting that stuff becomes impossible, seems very convenient)

    7:00 - perfect timing, guy jumps down (remember open nature of encounters, where the AI are any time is essentially random) just as the fight has concluded.

    7:05 - pretty sure the AI wouldn't be able to take that 2nd shot from his position given the cover in the way. He would of had to fire and move at lightning speed to get to a position where he could fire.

    7:06 - conveniently placed AI (remember open nature of encounters, where the AI are any time is essentially random)

    7:25 - o look two more incredibly well framed and conveniently placed AI (remember open nature of encounters, where the AI are any time is essentially random) just as you turn the camera

    7:40 - really that's part of their AI behaviours, impressed if it is.

    8:15 - perfectly timed guy starts shooting (remember open nature of encounters, where the AI are any time is essentially random) just as the fight has concluded. What happened to the 2nd guy who was behind you, why in all the time hasn't he moved up to engage given that he was happy to after the first encounter.

    8:29 - another perfectly timed AI (seeing a theme yet?)

    8:34 - another perfectly timed AI

    8:44 - another perfectly timed AI, infact the guy that probably should of been shooting at you before given he had a good minute to get to the fight (he was surprisingly fast earlier but now hes not, almost like they despawned and respawned him there)

    8:46 - another perfectly timed AI

    8:47 - misses and blows out the glass, totally achievable, just requires you to litter the level with markup and destructible objects (technically possible, doubt you can have it on a default PS4 and all this other complex AI perception, destructibles, etc)

    8:53 - perfect timing again

    9:50 - lots of AI failing to see you even though they do in other situtations (light/dark stealth mechanics potentially)

    10:00 - we are now at about a minute of a perfect stealth encounter in a small space with 4 AI, not a single hick up

    10:07 - at this point we are assuming physics objects everywhere right, why did not a single physics shelve get destroyed in that explosion yet they do 2 seconds later in a small melee fight, also note that the destruction there was very specifically only the bottom part he hits.

    10:13 - where the hell did bow woman go, she was literally 10ft away from you, yet she doesn't appear in this fight for another 10 seconds

    10:18 - ok so ai markup with destructible, again totally possible, but extrapolate this to be systemic and there are about 50 destructible in this shop alone, yeah good luck getting that running on a default PS4.

    10:24 - lets say they are using the IK system from god of war for the hammer impact, in god of war that is only on Kratos, here presumable for it to be systemic its on every single AI in the scene. yeah good luck getting that running on a default PS4.

    10:26 - o there's bow woman, what perfect timing and then she gets perfectly framed by some pretty lighting showing of real time reflections.

    10:35 - hammer man just took 10 seconds to move 5ft and then perfectly timed to attack as the last person is dead

    So yeah, all of that stuff has to happen for this perfect recording. 23 separate events that given the AI systems they have should be completely unpredictable. Like if hammer guy at the end didn't somehow take 10 seconds to move the who thing would be blown. Honestly its so obviously scripted this shouldn't be a talking point. Its no different than The Division 1 E3 reveal.

    My quote from back then in 2013: "It's not the graphics tech that is impressive, its actually quite mundane stuff that unreal and cryengine have done for a few years now. Its the absurd amount of detail in the scene + all the effects + all the "non scripted" things like the car door being pushed.and the car getting shot and having a hundred holes made in it. Those together make me extreme skeptical, especially considering Ubisofts significant downgrades on WatchDogs since its first reveal."

    Its the same thing here. Its not that things can't be done individually its all of it together and too many "non scripted" things happening.

    If they have managed to pull all of this off, hats off to them. I'm looking forward to the game either way.

  • The Last of Us Part 2

    Quote from [HP]

    13 hours ago, [HP] said: Could you elaborate why you didn't like the combat in the first game?

    And, do you like stealth games?

    I personally love stealth games, MGS, splinter cell and the likes are my jam, and playing a zombie apocalypse stealth game really spoke to me. I love the little swooooosh sound the game does to telegraph that you're about to be seen, such a simple and genius idea, not even Kojima thought of that.

    Do I like stealth games ? HP o HP, I completed MGS4 with a Big Boss Rating.

    Yes I like stealth games, atleast good ones.

    The combat was just floaty and pretty plain. Essentially core gameplay was a little too shallow, story made up for it.

  • The Last of Us Part 2

    Quote from [HP]

    20 hours ago, [HP] said: This gameplay preview didn't surprise me as nearly as the tlou1 hotel gameplay preview did back then, that, for me is still the hallmark of fantastic AI. This one feels very scripted and planned.

    I am happy that they kept the gameplay pretty much intact from tlou1, it is one of the best games I've ever played, feels very smooth with some smaller things added to the mix, also glad they're keeping the UI / Backpack inventory system, its a genius way to manage your shit and fits the gameplay style like a glove.

    I hope the survival horror aspect is still there and they don't make it more actiony, if anything i want it to be even more strategic, i want to have to count every bullet, every time I squeeze the trigger needs to feel meaningful, save every medpack for when i reeeealy need it.

    Pretty sure half of the combat sections are precanned anims. Which is probably why it felt so scripted. If its not I will be amazed.

    Honestly I hope the combat and stuff is better in 2. In the first one it was the worst part of the game, luckily it was probably the best story in a game to date, if that wasn't the case it would of been an ok game instead of a fantastic one.