For me, the issue is not necessarily the length of time in developing it, as much as it is the communications that, to a person who has no concept of game development, makes it feel like it's all practically a done deal, when it's obviously got a ways to go before it's completed. I think it comes down to a terminology issue. When I hear things like, "We finally got the old engine stripped out and now we're moving on to optimization.", that sounds to me like the new engine is in place and they are just testing. It's what I get for being a techno-noob. I realize that developers are loathe to quote dates of completion, but if back in 2008 when I was getting really excited about the new engine that would be coming SOON(tm) someone had of said, "We can expect to implement the new engine some time in late 2010, early 2011.", it wouldn't have been discouraging to me at all. To continually expect it to be in place just around the corner, and still be waiting 2 years later is.
Don't get your knickers in a twist! I'm not slamming FC or complaining about their work. I love this game, the people that work on it, the players, and my mom. I'm just saying that every once in awhile, rather than saying SOON(tm), it would be nice to hear a good guess at a real date so I can have a better handle of what Means means (pardon the pun) when he's talking about their progress.
Well the "testing" that they're doing in optimization is another piece of development. Optimization takes a long time and can be tricky and troublesome work. Figuring out why framerate drops to 2 when looking at a certain angle but sitting at 200 when turning 1 degree left or right, for example. Figuring out how much drawdistance should be allowed to not bog down clients and see how much servers can handle if players get longer view distance to other players and mobs. All this is of course stuff that can take a long time to get balanced out so a decent framerate can be had by all. Though one would think that a lot of the optimization work is already done through AoC, then there's probably all sorts of weird things to think about when handling the objects that AO has in it from the days of yore.
Also the engine they worked on in 2008 is not the one they're working on now, that put things backward a bit, but overall it should have sped up development. We don't know how much they're going to do to each playfield, or how many new textures and such are going ingame. But if we figure that 2 artists are continually working on updating playfields and making new textures and objects, and some of the content designers are updating playfields at the same time, such as placing floating objects on the ground again, adding in the new resources, and whatever else needs to be done and 1 guy is in China helping out with the new heads and such. Then we know sort of how big a workforce is on this stuff.
How long could it take to go over a single Rubi-Ka playfield making sure there's new trees from SpeedTree and that they're situated on the ground, seeding out the new grass stuff, making sure new ground textures (that we have been promised) are at least as well placed as the current ones. Making sure doors still work, aren't somehow gone... a 2-4 days for each? Then there's the SL playfields that are more complicated in terms of geometry and all the indoor playfields that exist. Little houses, missions, random caves, shadowlands vaults. All this stuff has to be gone through and tested to see if there's any horrible failures there, and maybe fixed and re-exported.
It's a rather monumental piece of work to embark on now. And at the same time they have to work on other things like new patch with new raid, daily missions, new items, balance patch... If we project forward, august seems like a good point in time when things might be looking closer to public, or closed, testing, then with a release in autumn sometime.
Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
The Red Brotherhood
I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.
Means: about f'ing time :P
Satenia: heresy <3
Znore: Mastablasta <3
Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics
Some engine-related comments from Means during the April 2, 2010 Q&A on Rimor:
Thread:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=572668
Engine-related Questions and Answers:
Dagget: when will the new flora be rolled out for the new engine?
Means: Dagget: First tree was made this week...we are working on how far we can push the limits of the new engine to make the trees/flora look good
Dagget: how automated it that? or is it gonna be labor intensive?
Means: labor intensive...we are not using speed-tree or anything
Vayde: Will we be seeing new body models to coincide with the new heads? So far they look fantastic, but a little off when slapped on the low-poly bodies Wink
Means: Vayde: New bodies will come at the same time as new heads
Means: we will be working on replacing old textures from now until eternity after the engine release...but we will try and get through the most used ones first
Dagget: what the current estimate of the time, starting next week, that it will take Bejing to do the heads?
Means: Dagget: HOPEFULLY before new engine is done
Cromage: Also, will the textures of char body be enhanced?
Means: Cromage: yes..just like the heads
Dagget: the impression I got from the December letter was that it would take 2 months, starting in January but then TSW and/or RoTG bumped the head project down the list
Means: Dagget: 2 months sounds about right
Berinda: Will the new engine fix the issues with waterfall textures that have been messed up since the Mikkelson instance came out? It makes a couple places look horrid right now.
Means: Berinda: Waterfalls are being replaced with new ones in the new engine
Falkvinge: Means will opifex get better looking arms and no elven ears?
Means: Falkvinge: the arms will be better but the ears will stay
Cromage: Teh ultimate question: Can we expect the new engine this year?
Means: Cromage: Yes
Rubyzero: Means: AI ships and adonis underwater areas are still pretty laggy even on good machines, with the new engine will that address the performance issues in those playfields?
Means: Rubyzero: the effect will run a different way in the new engine...We'll have to wait and see. It is likely those effects will be changed at some point when we get a chance
Ekarona: also will new engine support "sick" resolutions if I win In lotto and get 10kx8k projector setup ;D
Means: Ekarona: I don't know what resolutions will be supported by the new engine. I imagine they will be the same as AoC.
Mirkka: question: will it still be possible to dual log after the engine upgrade
Means: Mirkka: yes it will still be possible to dual log
Dagget: what's an example of a gimpy pc/video that the engien runs in -now- (before tweaking is all done)
Means: Dagget: we have only started working on optimization...too early to tell.
Vayde: Another heads question: Will there be any new heads not based on existing ones? If not, will we at least see some of the "existing but missing" heads introduced?
Means: Vayde: There are some heads that are in-game now that have been used so few times since their inclusion that they will not be redone...so they will be replaced by something completely new
April 16, 2010
---------
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=573362
New heads work-in-progress by the Bejing office:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...1&d=1271416947
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...2&d=1271416952
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...3&d=1271416956
May 7th, 2010
----------
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...=574676&page=2
More new heads, along with some up-coming new ICC armor:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...5&d=1273242969
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...6&d=1273242975
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...7&d=1273242981
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...8&d=1273242987
May 21st, 2010
----------
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=575439
More heads, this time shown rendered under the new engine:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...3&d=1274449948
Last edited by Dagget; May 21st, 2010 at 18:47:47.
The designer team got the haircut and the eye shape slightly wrong...
I'm so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I say.
I have no clue who that guy is tbh. Hi Del!
For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong. - H.L. Mencken
"We learned that the Design team had decided to ditch the Ogre engine in favor of the Age of Conan Dreamworld/Cheetah engine. "
What does this mean for the system requirements? The machine I'm using was the bomb when AO was released, now, not so much....
Kataklyzm
Level 162/7 Clan NT
THE AGP
What it means? Nothing for you, other than that you'll most likely be unable to even start the client as your video hardware won't run shadermodel 2.0, which is likely going to be a minimum requirement. As Means stated in FWM of 2-3 weeks ago, the newly compiled new client actually ran better on older hardware than the new one. However, if you can't even start the game because your videocard is 9 years old and doesn't support even basic modern technology that won't really matter to you. Shadermodel 2.0 was supported from 2002 in the Geforce FX 5000 series cards and the Radeon 9000 series. If you have a Geforce 4000 or Radeon 8000, or older, you won't be able to run the new client.
However, if that's what you're sitting with, you can probably buy a 1000 times upgrade used for 50$.
This is of course just speculation. I would however be rather surprised if they didn't require at least SM2.0 for the new client.
Last edited by Mastablasta; May 31st, 2010 at 14:05:20.
Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
The Red Brotherhood
I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.
Means: about f'ing time :P
Satenia: heresy <3
Znore: Mastablasta <3
Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics
Niles73 220/30/70/s/p/(-and (preLE/Alba/DB)Guide) - Trox way => can't make life? Take life!
Phoeniles 200/30/60 - reborn ranged opi adv!
Nilose 220/30/68 /s - plays for team alt gear farm
Nilbit 220/30/70 /s - parked gimptast
Nilo 220/27/68 /solo pvm/pvp - parked DD
Duke Nukem Forever is out.. now what?
Thor Mastablasta Hammersmith - Level 220, AI 30, LE 70 Clan Atrox Nano Technician - Setup
The Red Brotherhood
I'm a Nano-Technician, don't ever expect me to fight unbuffed, alone or fair.
Means: about f'ing time :P
Satenia: heresy <3
Znore: Mastablasta <3
Kinkstaah: I have agro from many mobs ;(
Madarab: we are aoe class, we are supose to use pistols
Marxgorm: the NT toolset does not fit into my raiding tactics
July 9th, 2010
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=578216
Word of working beta for the new engine and more:
The Engine
Work continued this week (and last) on what we can all agree is our most important area of focus. Ninja Russian code genius Sergey was hard at work optimizing both New AND old AO render code. This was fascinating stuff as I don't think anyone had really touched any of this stuff for a VERY long time. Among the many slowdowns Sergey eliminated last week it was surprising to find out that one of the main sources of graphical "stalls" was actually the chat window of all things. It turns out the text used in the chat is all rendered real-time as it appears in the window...and the more text sent in a message surprisingly enough the larger "stall" it would produce. Luckily this issue was discovered years ago in the work put into producing Conan and the solution could be ported rather quickly into AO. The engine is getting smoother and smoother and the performance with all the bells and whistles turned on is quickly stabilizing into a version we can use for a closed beta client within the next few months. The work on the heads is also progressing at a good pace...so the closed beta might even contain the full set. I've added some to the bottom of this post...even including one that can not possibly be "too asian".
Pics:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...5&d=1278685348
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...6&d=1278685353
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...7&d=1278685357
.
Dagget
President,
Venice Academy
quite true.
they should actually look better once imported into a 3D gaming engine that has lighting and shadows, reflections (to some degree) and other jazz that will remove the flaws apparent in 3d modelling environment. plus, ingame the heads will be pretty small on your screen, unless of course you're using a digital projector to play ao, or your playing on a 50'' TV. (i do it sometimes, current engine is oO)
wtf happened to my avatars eyebrows?
I used to listen to Dubstep in the 90's... every time I connected to the internet.
July 16th, 2010
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=578528
More heads:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...2&d=1279288621
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...3&d=1279288849
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...4&d=1279288913
July 23rd, 2010
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/sho...d.php?t=578839
More heads:
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...7&d=1279890913
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...8&d=1279890917
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/att...9&d=1279890921
.
Dagget
President,
Venice Academy
September 11th, 2010
A group of carefully selected fans got to see a live demonstration of the upcoming engine. Rumors have it, it'll be done in Q1 2010.
Previously stated deadline Before the exit of 2010 is hereby scrapped.
Kintaii: Genele is more hardcore than you, your guildmates, and anyone else you've ever played with...
My pvp stats: Duel wins: 945 / losses: 368 - Solo kills: 5632 / team: 7511
My org mate: Solo kills: 24 933 / Team: 683