Features?
RobB
TUBES OF THE INTERWEB Join Date: 2003-08-11 Member: 19423Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<div class="IPBDescription">Just wanna know what the engine can do.</div>Bloom?
HDR?
Stop people from Wallhacking (tell the client only players he can see)?
Preventing Gamma Cheating (especialy important for skulks in pitchblack corners as Powerstripping destroyed the flair of ns1 IMO)
Serverbrowser with
- Favorites
- Blacklist (dont wanna see at all)
- extensive filters (like n Players - x, meaning a server has n slots where x are free)
and so on.
I couldnt find a complete list anywhere.
HDR?
Stop people from Wallhacking (tell the client only players he can see)?
Preventing Gamma Cheating (especialy important for skulks in pitchblack corners as Powerstripping destroyed the flair of ns1 IMO)
Serverbrowser with
- Favorites
- Blacklist (dont wanna see at all)
- extensive filters (like n Players - x, meaning a server has n slots where x are free)
and so on.
I couldnt find a complete list anywhere.
Comments
Adjusting the gamma to suit ones preference isn't cheating.
As for the engine, it can do whatever max decides it can do. For the moment bloom and HDR aren't there as there are bigger things polish.
This reminds of all the useless cvar rules in RTCW, where people wanted to limit gamma and on the other hand you could easily do it in the graphics card control panel.
Anyway back to topic. Feature List?
As for the engine, it can do whatever max decides it can do. For the moment bloom and HDR aren't there as there are bigger things polish.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
If shadows are part of the gameplay tactics for one team it instantly becomes cheating. But like the man said there is nothing preventing people from adjusting these settings on their hardware directly. So a limit to or no gamma adjusting in game would probably not make much of a difference to those who necessarily think they have to nerf their opponents to win.
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Adjusting the gamma to suit ones preference isn't cheating.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'll address both quotes with a story from personal experience.
In NS1 there where people using powerstrip to gain the upper hand when traversing dark terrain.
I deem that as Cheat and that people openly admited it shows me that it was common practice to kill the atmosphere.
I've used GAPA in NS before. It didn't help me a great deal. Tho NS1 is nowhere near as atmospheric as NS2.
TBH, if its too hard or frustrating for a player to deal with the given game mechanics, they shouldn't be playing the game :P
Woa, its awesome how that statement applies to some game mechanics, but not others. Look around the forums just now, and see how many things you can apply that statement to. Not to mention any.
Lighting coming from light sources only could possibly be the only way to stop people setting a higher gamma setting for advantage, I say possibly because I'm not entirely sure.
I am an advocate of customisation though (no not custom assets) and would like to be able to set my FOV to a proper 16:10 hor FOV rather than being limited to the headache enducing (On a 16:10 monitor) 90 hor FOV. I sincerely doubt that would happen though, since the ideal hor FOV for a 16:10 is 100+ and I'll place money that the majority of people, perhaps ignorantly, or perhaps looking for a reason as to why they were killed, would end up calling it a cheat. As has happened so many times in the past.
Good luck with that when he powerstripped his gamma to "i wear my sunglasses at night".
BTW: I guess, with all the dynamic lighting, that other players are able to see the cone and target of your flashlight.
I'm all for hiding in the dark, I like the idea, but as previous posters have said, you can't control people messing with their gamma outside of game. And you are nothing but a sitting duck if you think you can depend on darkness for cover. :)
The way they did the flashlight in Action Half-Life was pretty cool. Sprite based, but looks awesome...
HDR?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
wow god, please no fuzzy white sheep in this game. that is all.
SHAZAM!
<img src="http://www.vgcats.com/comics/images/070119.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
Who could not want this? Shame on you...
-Real Dynamic Lighting
-Brush-less map geometry. Level geometry is instead made up of surfaces "sketched" onto a grid (like Google Sketch Up, only better)
-No level compilation and "you get what you see"-style building.
-Various "features" that most engines have including: Sound, Particle Engine, Physics Engine, etc.
-Speaking of Physics, I don't have NS2 on this computer, but I believe they're using PhysX for their Physics Engine
-Integrated modification architecture
-Flash integration for UI
Other features like shaders, etc. haven't been implemented yet (AFAWK) as well as other un-announced features.
And as this thread was hijacked and turned into a heated debate about Gamma Settings, why don't we just take out shadows entirely. That way, Gamma won't affect anything at all and we can still build up atmosphere in other ways. Or... we can place a hard cap on Gamma, consequences be damned.
Fiddling with Spark, I'm pretty sure it uses light sources. Only issue is even a small light source, it will faintly light up a dark area. Our eyes cant tell, but once you increase the gamma it does become a lot more obvious.
Also I know what I said you disagree with. But when you mention changing your FOV, I don't see that as being in the same category. Even tho I do agree it's an issue! (I've got a 16:10 and a few games do annoy me with small FOV). Many games let you choose between a 75 to 120* degree range or automatically adjust depending on screen ratio. So I don't see that being a huge deal with modern games. I'd imagine that NS2 would have that option, seeing 16:10 ratio is probably the most used ratio.
The whole gamma debate is a huge grey area. Anyone can do it, it isn't cheating in the traditional sense, and there is no way to stop it. If you can modify it via settings or console, that's cool. But when someone has to download an application for it, that's when I do consider it butchering the games atmosphere and giving themselves an unfair.but available to everyone, advantage.
That and how do you.. go about "blaming" a death on gamma? Unless you are going around saying you are doing it, anyone you kill doesn't really know. Even in dark spots, aliens or marines both have their flashlights. :S (Also I'm not trying to sound "funny", I've played NS1 from 1.02 to late 3.0x and I've not really seen it being used as a blame, unless its been said in-game that someone is doing it).
Nono you mistake what I mean, it was a comment made in jest really, and was about having a wider FOV (which I hope is a feature) not about gamma, and was in reference to the many, many forum threads i've seen for many games that I've played - or even in game, where I, or whoever asked the question "how can I increase my FOV to *insert value*" gets shot down as a cheat.
Its like changing your cfg in notepad. Believe it or not, but there are people out there that think changing settings in ANY other way but in the options menu is cheating.
Use high gamma or don't, use the FOV you like, but don't call cheat because someone doesn't play the game the way you want them to play it. And in a round about way MaLaKa it is blaming deaths on gamma, why else would someone call it a cheat? ;)
That was my point, explained in a less cryptic manner.
I forgot to add, I meant that possibly an engine with no ambient light to enhance with gamma would not be affected the same way with higher gamma, again I don't know. And there is little point in asking for some way to block people increasing their gamma, especially when monitors that with a couple of button presses in their menu become brighten everything anyway.
Oh, haha. My bad :P
I think its a bit extreme to say that editing a config is cheating. I mean, that's the whole point of the developer console. But I do get where you are coming from.
Also I've never really called anyone out in-game for it (purely because you don't know and I know, it's not really cheating; just a bit lame) and I'm definitely not expecting UWE to feel they have to combat it. Admittedly, I really don't mind. It more-so irks me that UWE can spend years making this brilliant game with an amazing atmosphere where players are meant to be unsure, alert, twitchy and definitely unsure of the darkness ahead. But then you get NSplayer with his gamma cranked and that is all pretty much flushed down the toilet.
I'll change subject cause I'm/we are all derailing it a bit!
<b>Is there any chance that Max, Flayra or anyone "up there", can give a list of the basic techs that are (or going to) be implemented? </b> I'm kinda curious myself :D
Also are they going to make it multithreaded in the future?
<a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/spark/" target="_blank">http://www.unknownworlds.com/ns2/spark/</a>
Never. I prefer having a disadvantage than having a bland looking game. Besides, it's not like gamma settings make you godlike, I am more than able to contribute to the fight even without retina burning settings.
It's true that gamma abuse is a problem, only it's so so hard to draw the line, as it depends on the game settings, graphic card, gamma tool, <b>personal preference</b>, screen, etc. There really is no alternative to allowing people to play as they wish, and hope for good judgment from server admins (again, line drawing problem)
There is multi-threading in the alpha. We pulled the rendering into a separate thread and are using threading building blocks to parallelize animation and some other inner loops. We may do a little more before the 26th, depending on time.
You guys are amazing. Great work.