Engine Update Update

[If6Was9]

I would appreciate it if FC would let us know what the ETA is on the game engine update.

[Norbal]

http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/an...&table=CONTENT

Originally Posted by Sil's Letter All of that and I haven’t even mentioned the great Christmas content for this year, but you’ll get to see more on that very shortly, or the progress that the team are making with the render engine changes. We hope to be able to start showing you some footage from the new engine very shortly. It’s all still on course for mid to late next year (since there is a lot to test with something like this), but its already starting to come together and our current alpha builds are shaping up nicely, I think we will be able to surprise some with the update it will provide to the game.

That's the last I remember hearing about the new engine

[If6Was9]

Originally Posted by Norbal http://www.anarchy-online.com/wsp/an...&table=CONTENT That's the last I remember hearing about the new engine

Yah, that's the last I remember reading about it. I'm hoping someone from FC can provide an update now.

[Silirrion]

The status is still the same, keep your eyes peeled for the first teaser footage in the near future and we are still working towards releasing the new engine later in the year. We arent quite in a position to put an exact date on it just yet.

[Russm]

they didnt hire that DX9 coder for nothing you know

[Undead_Army]

He's the one that gets the coffee. For his next job, he's gonna put "I can ask how many sugars you want in your coffee." on his resume.

[Negs]

lol AO gonna steal people back from AoC ~_^ ..... now that would be a sight to see

[BigT]

Dates aside, I just wanna see some footage and info...

[Xyphos]

Originally Posted by BigT Dates aside, I just wanna see some footage and info...

won't need to, Sil already said that the textures will stay the same so there's no noticeable change.
the only thing that is getting changed is adding the use of the GPU to render the graphics instead of using the CPU.

[macattack]

That will be a huge game performance boost imo.

Sil,
will it be an outright update? or will it be tested on the Test server?

[Imnotamonkey]

Definitely a welcome change to actually use the GPU.... It always seemed a bit ..well 'funny' that on my quad sli machine with a physics processor, I was spending 90% of my game time in a game that didn't even use a single gpu... heh...

I wonder what the effect on lag will be... Seems most of that is server related though... Doubt it will make much difference really...

Though I expect that it will only be a moderate change for most players, as visuals remain the same, it does open the door to a lot of *possibilities* which I certainly hope they intend to take advantage of...

[Vhax]

Originally Posted by Xyphos won't need to, Sil already said that the textures will stay the same so there's no noticeable change. the only thing that is getting changed is adding the use of the GPU to render the graphics instead of using the CPU.

Actually, a new engine can give the most noticeable change in a game: better lighting.
Textures do quite a bit for quality, but the highest quality game graphics are reached with realistic lighting.
It's a shame lighting is over underrated by developers. It makes a huge difference if done properly.

[Nobody]

Originally Posted by Russm they didnt hire that DX9 coder for nothing you know

Yeah one guy brining it from DX7 to DX9 all by himself, no wonder it took so long o0

[Vhax]

Originally Posted by Armadyl Yeah one guy brining it from DX7 to DX9 all by himself, no wonder it took so long o0

Don't underestimate what 1 coder can do when working fulltime on a single thing. :P

[Hafthorr]

Originally Posted by Vhab Don't underestimate what 1 coder can do when working fulltime on a single thing. :P

Dont underestimate what a single coder can do when they throw him into a 6 year old codebase of "something" he never saw in his life, and most of original coders are nowhere to be found.




hey someone had to be the bringer of bad news :P

[Krause]

Originally Posted by Xyphos won't need to, Sil already said that the textures will stay the same so there's no noticeable change. the only thing that is getting changed is adding the use of the GPU to render the graphics instead of using the CPU.

With AA, and improved View distance quality (and potentially improved view distance on NPC's now that it wont be a CPU hog) The visual difference will be Very noticeable, though maybe not in a small video.

[BigT]

Originally Posted by Xyphos won't need to, Sil already said that the textures will stay the same so there's no noticeable change. the only thing that is getting changed is adding the use of the GPU to render the graphics instead of using the CPU.

I was hoping more for a comparative demo with a moderately powered system showing basic gameplay on the old engine and the new engine to see if the gameplay becomes more fluid on systems that can now utilize more DX9 GPU offloading. I realize the textures are the same so there won't be a massive difference in the actual 'look'. I am, however, hoping for a massive difference in 'feel'

[Undead_Army]

Originally Posted by Iamamonkey Definitely a welcome change to actually use the GPU.... It always seemed a bit ..well 'funny' that on my quad sli machine with a physics processor

Sorry, but I just have to laugh at both of those. Quad SLI wasn't very good. Best so far in terms of performance is triple SLI with 8800s, but it's not supported in pretty much anything, so that's not saying much.

And a physics processor as in AGEIA? Totally useless imo. Pretty much no games use it, let alone require it. Most of the games that use it will do fine with just a single GPU or SLI/Crossfire'd GPUs (2 of them).

[If6Was9]

Originally Posted by Silirrion The status is still the same, keep your eyes peeled for the first teaser footage in the near future and we are still working towards releasing the new engine later in the year. We arent quite in a position to put an exact date on it just yet.

Thanks.

[Erredent]

Two really simple graphics fixes I'd like to see are in-game AA options and in-game gamma correction.