chevalier
Sat, 5th Feb '05, 8:49am
Here are today's Neverwinter Nights 2 forum highlights, collected by NWVault (http://nwvault.ign.com) from Obsidian Forums (http://forums.obsidianent.com/index.php?showforum=21). Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Adam Brennecke, Programmer</font>
GTK or Qt for window GUI systems (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=408746&post=3395739&forum=100&highlight=)
<hr />Can't say that I blame you, MFC is easier to work with if you aren't going for cross-platform.<hr />No MFC either.
Is the gui rigid? or customizeable? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410187&post=3395751&forum=100&highlight=)
#2
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Erik Novales, Programmer</font>
"Test-run" scripts and conversations in toolset? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410268&post=3395864&forum=100&highlight=)
The problem is that usually the things you want to test are the ones that are most heavily dependent on game state. (i.e. conversation conditions, or scripts that depend on the character class, etc.) Without actually being able to run the game inside the toolset (and at a speed greater than that of actually going through the normal save-run game-debug cycle), it's not possible to accurately simulate what would happen.
Script Editor GUI Improvements (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=408526&post=3395876&forum=100&highlight=)
Without going into specifics, I think you are going to like what's been done with the script editor.
Companions as journals (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410131&post=3395894&forum=95&highlight=)
The problem with this idea is that you could be playing without henchmen, in which case you would not have a way of retrieving that journal-type information...
Companions as journals (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410131&post=3396281&forum=95&highlight=)
Yeah, I kind of mixed a bunch of the above posts together in my brain. Totally removing the journal? Not going to happen. Having companions or henchmen have more dialogue based on quest state? Umm, that's a design question that I have no idea about.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Jason Keeney, Programmer</font>
RPG to it's fullest: JUMP and CLIMB (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=409645&post=3395820&forum=97&highlight=)
The problem with comparisions to other games like City of Heros, Morrowind, Quake 3, Mario 64, etc... (and yup, I've played em all)... is that they're really not at all like NWN. Do they have "click to move" and pathfinding to a point clear across the map? Do they have multi-character parties?
In many gameplay respects, NWN has more in common with a RTS game like Warcraft than with a free-roaming 3D title like Mario 64 (or Tony Hawks Pro Skater ). This is one of the reasons, IMO, that NWN has such a unique and cool gameplay feel... But its also a reason why NWN has lots of unique development challenges.
I'm going to make sure to take this opportunity to say that even though I may seem to be trying to rationalize arguments for not including flying and the like, I'm definitly not saying that they're not going to be in... er.. I'm not not saying they're not not in.. er.. I'm not... um ... i'm just not saying anything
will the nwn2 engine support as many units as the dragon age engine? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410115&post=3396107&forum=99&highlight=)
<hr />i can bet all my savings that DA will handle that much better then NWN2,...<hr />That would be a pretty bold bet considering 1) neither of us is even close to being done, and 2) how little is publicly known about the exact state and design goals of either project's engine... either that or you dont really have a lot of saving.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Brian D. Lawson, Programmer</font>
will the nwn2 engine support as many units as the dragon age engine? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410115&post=3395674&forum=99&highlight=)
<hr />(There's a nifty technique called "instancing" that can keep down the graphics overhead... I expect Dragon Age will use that extensively.)...<hr />As will we...
will the nwn2 engine support as many units as the dragon age engine? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410115&post=3395815&forum=99&highlight=)
<hr />Brian, for us graphicly challenged could you define what that is/means/does? Thanks for your time <hr />Instancing allows you to render the same object in various locations in the world at the same time without the overhead of having to unique copies of the model loaded into memory for each instance. All objects refer back to only one set of physical geometry, etc in memory. It's fairly involved on the technical side regarding making it happen, but you see the point in terms of memory savings, etc that can be achieved.
Like Pip said though, aside from the memory footprint savings, you can send batches of like instances to the rendering hardware in a single shot and only incur the overhead associated with a single draw call rather than one draw call for each instance. Although, that's getting pretty technical.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Adam Brennecke, Programmer</font>
GTK or Qt for window GUI systems (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=408746&post=3395739&forum=100&highlight=)
<hr />Can't say that I blame you, MFC is easier to work with if you aren't going for cross-platform.<hr />No MFC either.
Is the gui rigid? or customizeable? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410187&post=3395751&forum=100&highlight=)
#2
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Erik Novales, Programmer</font>
"Test-run" scripts and conversations in toolset? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410268&post=3395864&forum=100&highlight=)
The problem is that usually the things you want to test are the ones that are most heavily dependent on game state. (i.e. conversation conditions, or scripts that depend on the character class, etc.) Without actually being able to run the game inside the toolset (and at a speed greater than that of actually going through the normal save-run game-debug cycle), it's not possible to accurately simulate what would happen.
Script Editor GUI Improvements (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=408526&post=3395876&forum=100&highlight=)
Without going into specifics, I think you are going to like what's been done with the script editor.
Companions as journals (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410131&post=3395894&forum=95&highlight=)
The problem with this idea is that you could be playing without henchmen, in which case you would not have a way of retrieving that journal-type information...
Companions as journals (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410131&post=3396281&forum=95&highlight=)
Yeah, I kind of mixed a bunch of the above posts together in my brain. Totally removing the journal? Not going to happen. Having companions or henchmen have more dialogue based on quest state? Umm, that's a design question that I have no idea about.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Jason Keeney, Programmer</font>
RPG to it's fullest: JUMP and CLIMB (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=409645&post=3395820&forum=97&highlight=)
The problem with comparisions to other games like City of Heros, Morrowind, Quake 3, Mario 64, etc... (and yup, I've played em all)... is that they're really not at all like NWN. Do they have "click to move" and pathfinding to a point clear across the map? Do they have multi-character parties?
In many gameplay respects, NWN has more in common with a RTS game like Warcraft than with a free-roaming 3D title like Mario 64 (or Tony Hawks Pro Skater ). This is one of the reasons, IMO, that NWN has such a unique and cool gameplay feel... But its also a reason why NWN has lots of unique development challenges.
I'm going to make sure to take this opportunity to say that even though I may seem to be trying to rationalize arguments for not including flying and the like, I'm definitly not saying that they're not going to be in... er.. I'm not not saying they're not not in.. er.. I'm not... um ... i'm just not saying anything
will the nwn2 engine support as many units as the dragon age engine? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410115&post=3396107&forum=99&highlight=)
<hr />i can bet all my savings that DA will handle that much better then NWN2,...<hr />That would be a pretty bold bet considering 1) neither of us is even close to being done, and 2) how little is publicly known about the exact state and design goals of either project's engine... either that or you dont really have a lot of saving.
<font size="3" face="Verdana, Arial" color="#cc6600">Brian D. Lawson, Programmer</font>
will the nwn2 engine support as many units as the dragon age engine? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410115&post=3395674&forum=99&highlight=)
<hr />(There's a nifty technique called "instancing" that can keep down the graphics overhead... I expect Dragon Age will use that extensively.)...<hr />As will we...
will the nwn2 engine support as many units as the dragon age engine? (http://nwn2forums.bioware.com//forums/viewpost.html?topic=410115&post=3395815&forum=99&highlight=)
<hr />Brian, for us graphicly challenged could you define what that is/means/does? Thanks for your time <hr />Instancing allows you to render the same object in various locations in the world at the same time without the overhead of having to unique copies of the model loaded into memory for each instance. All objects refer back to only one set of physical geometry, etc in memory. It's fairly involved on the technical side regarding making it happen, but you see the point in terms of memory savings, etc that can be achieved.
Like Pip said though, aside from the memory footprint savings, you can send batches of like instances to the rendering hardware in a single shot and only incur the overhead associated with a single draw call rather than one draw call for each instance. Although, that's getting pretty technical.