<!--QuoteBegin-Cereal_KillR+Apr 7 2004, 03:35 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cereal_KillR @ Apr 7 2004, 03:35 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> hum isn't Ubisoft French or Canadian? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Which of course has so much to do with Soldner, with which they had nothing to do. It's published by JoWood and made by Wings Simulations.
MonkfishSonic-boom-inducing buttcheeks of terrifying speed!Join Date: 2003-06-03Member: 16972Members
made an account but theres no servers , gg <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad.gif' /><!--endemo-->
MonkfishSonic-boom-inducing buttcheeks of terrifying speed!Join Date: 2003-06-03Member: 16972Members
Somebody just posted this link in the redorchestra channel , <a href='http://www.olympustactical.com/soldner.php' target='_blank'>Global LAN server</a>
Still doesn't work, and that GlobalLAN doesn't help much as there is no option to host a LAN server, at least not a non-dedicated one. So what do I do now? The game looks awesome but the portal code is pure crap.
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<!--QuoteBegin-TommyVercetti+Apr 7 2004, 10:15 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (TommyVercetti @ Apr 7 2004, 10:15 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Still doesn't work, and that GlobalLAN doesn't help much as there is no option to host a LAN server, at least not a non-dedicated one. So what do I do now? The game looks awesome but the portal code is pure crap. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Its not that. Their lobby server is down for unknown reasons.
I've been able to play it.. Twice so far. Sniped some guy out of a jeep gunner seat and stole it. I then proceeded to test the entire "Anything can be broken" aspect of the game. Those trees and houses never stood a chance.
<!--QuoteBegin-TychoCelchuuu+Apr 7 2004, 03:14 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (TychoCelchuuu @ Apr 7 2004, 03:14 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Cereal_KillR+Apr 7 2004, 03:35 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cereal_KillR @ Apr 7 2004, 03:35 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> hum isn't Ubisoft French or Canadian? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Which of course has so much to do with Soldner, with which they had nothing to do. It's published by JoWood and made by Wings Simulations. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> it was in relation to whoever said only the states made good games.
Okay first of all, why would I assume it's in German? The game is called "SOLDNER: SECRET WARS" not "SOLDNER: GEHEIME KRIEGE", or "SOLDNER: DERHASTENMEISCHTENBAKKENFRAUT". I don't expect to have to be trilingual just to play a stupid game.
That said, this is one of the worst games I've played this year, so my suspicions are true.
First of all, there's the whole 'nothing works' part of it. Everyone knows what I'm talking about here.
Secondly, it has one of the worst main-menus ever. You can't even create a LAN game from in-game, that's how terrible this is. You MUST create a DEDICATED server to play. This is, besides Jedi Knight 2 and JA (which was a special case), the first game I've played in years that didn't allow you to make a server from in-game.
How about in-game? You run around like you're wearing lumpy shoes. I had this constant feeling that my guy was going to fall on his face. The controls are lackluster and the whole game seemed 'laggy'. Bullets impacted about a second after you actually fire them. It takes absolutely ages to draw a gun, and You get to see the most atrocious looking ironsights I've ever seen. Hostile Intent is on an engine five, six years old and they had decent ironsights.
How about vehicles? Steering is a total chore. I first got into a little Oldsmobile or something (the only thing I could afford) and started it up. It immediately started doing donuts and flying out of control. Eventually I hit a building and blew up. Only when I was going about 50 km/h did it actually steer like a car would.
Helicopters arne't much better. I bought a tank, then a chinook.
First chinook flight: It gets enough thrust to get off the ground, and begins spiraling off, getting wedged in a tree.
Second chinook flight: It gets enough thrust to get off the ground, and I manage to somehow make it fly about six thousand feet up. I lower it down and it get stuck on a treetop.
Third chinook flight: I manage to fly up to an altitude, and try to steer it around. It drives like a drunk is at the wheel. Tips to the sides like a boat and randomly gets enough thrust to smash nosefirst into the ground.
Eventually I figured out the winch and hook on it, and picked up the tank. Except the cable was about 300 feet long, so the tank (which I can't even SEE, because the cameras are so terrible) is smashing into trees, buildings, hills, anything and I only figured it out when I heard an explosion below me.
The game looks like ****. The textures are low quality, the scenery is boring and uninspired, destroying trees makes them fall like a fake plastic tree that weighs seven pounds might. Sounds were lousy, weak, and god, don't get me started on Commander Mode.
The best thing (Hell, the only good thing) about this game is the destroyable terrain. I spent about fifteen minutes just blowing a farmhouse into dust.
not that I agree with doing public releases like this but perhaps it would help some of the players remember what they've actually got in their harddrive by emblazening the 'beta' part of the title? with neon lights? ooh! and set it on fire, that always looks good ^^
You talk about it as if it's a full-blown demo eek but I'm afraid if you sorta squint at the place you downloaded from you might notice the large red 'beta' part of it? ...or maybe not =3
I've still not played it so I've got no opinion for or against it yet but keep in mind what it is you're downloading before you start ranting about it, it's almost like complaining about pandora tomorrow's unprepared server was last weeks flavour and now it's onto soldner! waii!
Sorry Eek, but I just don't particularly agree with your rather heated posts. Maybe if you were nicer about it and put more thought into them people might cut you some slack instead of pointing out your blind hate-passion against whatever the topic of the moment is =/
<!--QuoteBegin-Geminosity+Apr 7 2004, 02:55 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Geminosity @ Apr 7 2004, 02:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> not that I agree with doing public releases like this but perhaps it would help some of the players remember what they've actually got in their harddrive by emblazening the 'beta' part of the title? with neon lights? ooh! and set it on fire, that always looks good ^^
You talk about it as if it's a full-blown demo eek but I'm afraid if you sorta squint at the place you downloaded from you might notice the large red 'beta' part of it? ...or maybe not =3
I've still not played it so I've got no opinion for or against it yet but keep in mind what it is you're downloading before you start ranting about it, it's almost like complaining about pandora tomorrow's unprepared server was last weeks flavour and now it's onto soldner! waii!
Sorry Eek, but I just don't particularly agree with your rather heated posts. Maybe if you were nicer about it and put more thought into them people might cut you some slack instead of pointing out your blind hate-passion against whatever the topic of the moment is =/ <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> A beta is no excuse for a crappy game. All these bugs and stupidness of it should've been gone in the ALPHA stage. Plus, I take 'beta' with a grain of salt. Look at games like Desert Combat. They slap 'Alpha' on the title only so they have a scapegoat for the game's complete suckage. "THIS RULES" - "Right on!" "THIS SUCKS" - "OMG ALPHA YOU IDIOT".
I can understand some gameplay bugs and such with beta: Not even NS is that perfect. But a server menu that doesn't actually work? Netcode that can't actually connect? That's pretty bad. Even physics tweaking can be done for 'beta', but things like the bullets traveling at 40 mph? I'm not sure how you can oversee that part of the game, even in an internal alpha. If the dev team requires all players to point out every flaw in this game to actually fix it (for example, the bullet speed), then this game is doomed.
I've beta tested a small handful of games before, and none of them were this bad. This looks more like the quality of a leaked alpha test.
while that's common with mods this is a proper game so I don't think they'll just be keeping the big bad beta label slapped on it for too long or investors will get annoyed =3
No doubt having argued against you I'll go try the beta demo only to rant too... but maybe you should learn to turn the heat down a bit huh? The responses already show that while people might not entirely disagree they don't appreciate you jumping up and down on it screaming either XD
<!--QuoteBegin-Cereal_KillR+Apr 7 2004, 08:33 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cereal_KillR @ Apr 7 2004, 08:33 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-TychoCelchuuu+Apr 7 2004, 03:14 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (TychoCelchuuu @ Apr 7 2004, 03:14 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Cereal_KillR+Apr 7 2004, 03:35 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Cereal_KillR @ Apr 7 2004, 03:35 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> hum isn't Ubisoft French or Canadian? <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Which of course has so much to do with Soldner, with which they had nothing to do. It's published by JoWood and made by Wings Simulations. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> it was in relation to whoever said only the states made good games. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> I'd say ubisoft is from Belgium. Just a guess though.
And Söldner looks great. I hope they can finish off the final product in good order.
<!--QuoteBegin-Geminosity+Apr 7 2004, 03:05 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Geminosity @ Apr 7 2004, 03:05 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> while that's common with mods this is a proper game so I don't think they'll just be keeping the big bad beta label slapped on it for too long or investors will get annoyed =3
No doubt having argued against you I'll go try the beta demo only to rant too... but maybe you should learn to turn the heat down a bit huh? The responses already show that while people might not entirely disagree they don't appreciate you jumping up and down on it screaming either XD <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> I think the best way to sum up Soldner is: "The best game we should've had three years ago."
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
edited April 2004
<!--QuoteBegin-EEK+Apr 7 2004, 01:01 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (EEK @ Apr 7 2004, 01:01 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Geminosity+Apr 7 2004, 02:55 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Geminosity @ Apr 7 2004, 02:55 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> not that I agree with doing public releases like this but perhaps it would help some of the players remember what they've actually got in their harddrive by emblazening the 'beta' part of the title? with neon lights? ooh! and set it on fire, that always looks good ^^
You talk about it as if it's a full-blown demo eek but I'm afraid if you sorta squint at the place you downloaded from you might notice the large red 'beta' part of it? ...or maybe not =3
I've still not played it so I've got no opinion for or against it yet but keep in mind what it is you're downloading before you start ranting about it, it's almost like complaining about pandora tomorrow's unprepared server was last weeks flavour and now it's onto soldner! waii!
Sorry Eek, but I just don't particularly agree with your rather heated posts. Maybe if you were nicer about it and put more thought into them people might cut you some slack instead of pointing out your blind hate-passion against whatever the topic of the moment is =/ <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> A beta is no excuse for a crappy game. All these bugs and stupidness of it should've been gone in the ALPHA stage. Plus, I take 'beta' with a grain of salt. Look at games like Desert Combat. They slap 'Alpha' on the title only so they have a scapegoat for the game's complete suckage. "THIS RULES" - "Right on!" "THIS SUCKS" - "OMG ALPHA YOU IDIOT".
I can understand some gameplay bugs and such with beta: Not even NS is that perfect. But a server menu that doesn't actually work? Netcode that can't actually connect? That's pretty bad. Even physics tweaking can be done for 'beta', but things like the bullets traveling at 40 mph? I'm not sure how you can oversee that part of the game, even in an internal alpha. If the dev team requires all players to point out every flaw in this game to actually fix it (for example, the bullet speed), then this game is doomed.
I've beta tested a small handful of games before, and none of them were this bad. This looks more like the quality of a leaked alpha test. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Eek, settle the hell down. Beta means it can suck. Even ask Flayra. Ask ANYONE who is in game/mod design. Second off, seems to me that you were against the thing from the begginning, so you really have no authority there.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I think the best way to sum up Soldner is: "The best game we should've had three years ago." <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What are you talking about? This is totally new technology. Its Battlefield with advanced physics, a geo-mod like engine, and a new graphics engine. Sorry but, 3 years ago didn't have anything but 1 game with geomod, and 1 game with vehicles. Know games before you bash 'em.
And for the last damned time: THE MAIN LOBBY SERVER IS GOING DOWN AND UP REPEATABLY FOR FIXES.
I haven't tried MP yet (well, haven't tried more than once when it didn't work) but when I made myself a LAN server to run around on, I wasn't very impressed. The graphics are icky, and the guns take about a year to draw. The ironsights aren't so hot either. I'm really pumped about the commanding aspect, though, plus destructable terrain is a win in my book. The single player sounds like it'll be a blast too, so I think I'll hold off REAL judgement until the real game comes out, or at least a completed demo, beta free.
<!--QuoteBegin-Geminosity+Apr 7 2004, 02:05 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Geminosity @ Apr 7 2004, 02:05 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> this is a proper game <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> that said, maybe they shouldn't have released this beta. that way they might have made money before people realized it was so terrible :/
<!--QuoteBegin-Quaunaut+Apr 7 2004, 03:15 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Quaunaut @ Apr 7 2004, 03:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> What are you talking about? This is totally new technology. Its Battlefield with advanced physics, a geo-mod like engine, and a new graphics engine. Sorry but, 3 years ago didn't have anything but 1 game with geomod, and 1 game with vehicles. Know games before you bash 'em. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> New technology? HA!
Right let's see.
First of all, textures. The textures are low res, repetative, and undetailed. There's no bumpmapping, mipmapping, lightmapping, whatever sort of mapping you want. There's no detail up close, and far away it turns into a big hideous blur. There's no pixel shading. There's no setting for even ansiotropic levels. The texturing looks like half-life would if there was never a texture size limit. And all this technology for advanced texture shading and rendering has been around for at least a year and a half, I know that damned much for SURE.
Secondly, GeoMod? Again, recycling stale ideas instead of creating new ones, we get destroyable buildings and such. Well, I was right: Red Faction was 3 years ago. Nowadays I expect a destroyable wall to crumble, collapse, and make a mess, not completely vaporize. About the only improvement over Red Faction's destroyable environment is that at least in SOLDNER the 'destructiveness' of explosives isn't as huge as it was in RF. Instead of a rocket launcher blowing a hole big enough for a truck to drive through, it might just blow a corner off, or leave small gaps.
Third, the physics engine. Again, old, old games (Halo) were vastly better. The physics engine I saw here was sloppy at best, and poorly implemented.
Models were at least halfway decent. I don't remember seeing any glaring flatfaced polys or spikey, lumpy projections, but they didn't make me go 'wow' like FarCry did.
And you have the gall to call this 'new technology'? FarCry isn't even new technology, it's just the first game to bring the 'old' technology we haven't seen yet into action.
Three years ago this game would've been a super-innovative hit. Nowadays, it's a stale looking game that had the misfortune of being produced by a company too far behind in the times. Did they want to appeal to crappy computers or something?
All I can say is I hope to god they ripped out the advanced graphics for the purpose of the demo, which is less then likely...
Having played this beta demo (Read: BETA), I have to say that I was impressed by how smooth the game ran (I'm not talking about lag, this was on a LAN server). The graphics might not be Far Cry, but atleast you can run the game at an acceptable resolution without the game turning into a slideshow.
The demolitions aspect of the game was also a suprise, I didn't think it would preform that well. (In comparison, I think the Red Faction 1 geomod engine was crappy. There was wery few things you could actually destroy)
Once they fix the connection errors, I think this could turn into a wery good game.
(And about the Söldner part: The devs have specifically stated that the world's countries have abandoned regular armies and are exclusivly hiring mercinaries to fight their wars.)
QuaunautThe longest seven days in history...Join Date: 2003-03-21Member: 14759Members, Constellation, Reinforced - Shadow
<!--QuoteBegin-EEK+Apr 8 2004, 02:00 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (EEK @ Apr 8 2004, 02:00 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Quaunaut+Apr 7 2004, 03:15 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Quaunaut @ Apr 7 2004, 03:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> What are you talking about? This is totally new technology. Its Battlefield with advanced physics, a geo-mod like engine, and a new graphics engine. Sorry but, 3 years ago didn't have anything but 1 game with geomod, and 1 game with vehicles. Know games before you bash 'em. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> New technology? HA!
Right let's see.
First of all, textures. The textures are low res, repetative, and undetailed. There's no bumpmapping, mipmapping, lightmapping, whatever sort of mapping you want. There's no detail up close, and far away it turns into a big hideous blur. There's no pixel shading. There's no setting for even ansiotropic levels. The texturing looks like half-life would if there was never a texture size limit. And all this technology for advanced texture shading and rendering has been around for at least a year and a half, I know that damned much for SURE.
Secondly, GeoMod? Again, recycling stale ideas instead of creating new ones, we get destroyable buildings and such. Well, I was right: Red Faction was 3 years ago. Nowadays I expect a destroyable wall to crumble, collapse, and make a mess, not completely vaporize. About the only improvement over Red Faction's destroyable environment is that at least in SOLDNER the 'destructiveness' of explosives isn't as huge as it was in RF. Instead of a rocket launcher blowing a hole big enough for a truck to drive through, it might just blow a corner off, or leave small gaps.
Third, the physics engine. Again, old, old games (Halo) were vastly better. The physics engine I saw here was sloppy at best, and poorly implemented.
Models were at least halfway decent. I don't remember seeing any glaring flatfaced polys or spikey, lumpy projections, but they didn't make me go 'wow' like FarCry did.
And you have the gall to call this 'new technology'? FarCry isn't even new technology, it's just the first game to bring the 'old' technology we haven't seen yet into action.
Three years ago this game would've been a super-innovative hit. Nowadays, it's a stale looking game that had the misfortune of being produced by a company too far behind in the times. Did they want to appeal to crappy computers or something?
All I can say is I hope to god they ripped out the advanced graphics for the purpose of the demo, which is less then likely... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> First off, low res textures? Sorry bud, nope. Their just as damned High res as anything the Unreal Engine can put out(and if you say thats bad graphics, I'm sorry, your a friggin idiot. Its not the newest "Best" stuff ever, but its damned good by anyones standards). No detail up close? Looked like there was for EVERY tree I went near, same as buildings. Pixel shading? Do you even REALIZE how new of a technology that really is? And don't say its old: They've been TALKING about it for a year, sure, but when has it been implemented? Oh yeah, 1 game: Splinter Cell(well, 1 series). How many other games can you name off that do that same thing? The stuff your talking about IS new technology. Just in case you know nothing about how it goes, Pixel Shading has just BARELY gotten to where it is now, and even now it still sucks because of how processor intensive. Bump mapping? Did you realize that bump mapping is something that whether its on or off, if the engine has it at all, its like Safedisc, in the fact it'll BOG DOWN YOUR COMPUTER NO MATTER WHAT? Thats why so many game developers are so wary about putting it in.
Red Faction was 3 years ago, sure. Now, tell me, WHAT OTHER GAMES HAVE HAD A FULLY DEFORMABLE ENVIRONMENT? Seriously. Comon, name 'em. Shadowbane had a little bit of one, but not much. And as you said, they have a much better one. Mipmapping? Do you even realize what that is? Just about every single game since friggin Half-Life has that! Lightmapping? Do you know what THAT is? All it is is simple lighting with some "Advanced"(cough cough) shadowing. Hideous blur at far distances? Guess what, that IS mipmapping my friend, its things getting lower resolution the farther away you get so you don't notice. Now, I myself, on some LOWERED settings, don't get anything your talking about the "Hideous Blur", so maybe you need to check your settings. Halo had a physics engine? For what, its vehicles? Oh yeah, a 3 ton buggy with a chaingun that weighs at least 600 lb. is gonna flip over from a FRAGMENTATION GRENADE. Sorry bud, ain't gonna happen. It may wiggle a bit from a High Explosive grenade, but ain't gonna flip over from even 5 friggin grenades. Great physics engine my ****. Soldner's engine is MUCH more realistic.
Models were better than halfway decent: Better than most the models you can find in most games these days. And if Farcry made you go 'wow', then guess what? Far Cry also is a very selective engine. Doesn't like my video card(GeForceFX 5600 256mb version. Everyone I know who had this card could only run the game at ALL lowest settings, with turned off stuff).
If you wanna compare this thing to Far Cry, see my many other posts about how Far Cry was lacking in the demos like nobodies business.
And I wonder if any of you bashers ever failed to notice the planned "Done" date on this thing: THIS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER. Aka, we've got a damned long time to do this stuff.
MonkfishSonic-boom-inducing buttcheeks of terrifying speed!Join Date: 2003-06-03Member: 16972Members
Amen Qua its great fun , stick a rocket into a bunch of trees and watch them fall <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
Lightmapping started with Doom 1... it's an optimization that lights the level according to preprocessed data.
shaders are not CPU intensive, they're GPU intensive (and only if very large). Shaders are small bits of code run on the GPU itself. This is very new. It requires a reprogrammable GPU and only more recent cards support it. Upcoming cards expand greatly upon this. One example, one of the two programmable chips (I forget which) is being given more memory space and branching instructions.
Bump mapping does not bog down the system much at all.
mipmaps are just several versions of a texture at different resolutions (as said) and simply exist to reduce memory accesses when the detail doesn't matter.
That said, I'm making a game as part of a group project and it has everything listed here except light mapping, which it doesn't need.
The main issues I have with Soldner are the lack of animation for anything except players and vehicles and the popping ground textures, which is likely nothing more than a small bug in the terrain LOD code. Terrain LOD is not as simple as say player model LOD. Why? It's one long stretch of polygons, making the decision is a little bit more fuzzy, and the changes necessary are different.
That said, I liked the demo for the most part, whenever I got into a game. And I found a server that hasn't failed to let me in yet.
<!--QuoteBegin-Quaunaut+Apr 8 2004, 08:16 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Quaunaut @ Apr 8 2004, 08:16 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Halo had a physics engine? For what, its vehicles? Oh yeah, a 3 ton buggy with a chaingun that weighs at least 600 lb. is gonna flip over from a FRAGMENTATION GRENADE. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Yeah, a <b>futuristic</b> frag grenade. I thought the Halo physics were spot on, stuff actually felt heavy. I kinda feel like everything the Havok engine reproduces kinda feels light as paper, especially their ragdolls (have you palyed the Painkiller demo? The enemies looked light as air when the died, save for the boss guy). Plus, as someone said before, gameplay > realism.
That said I haven't played this game yet. Will be downloading it in a second.
<!--QuoteBegin-Infinitum+Apr 6 2004, 07:28 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Infinitum @ Apr 6 2004, 07:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> 1.) Get back to English class 4.) <b>Your</b> not allowed to complain about the connection speed while your still bumming <b>your</b> internet off your parents. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> I don't even know who you're talking to I just like exposing small hypocritical things like this.
OK I dont really want to get into a flame war with anyone but I would like to point a few things out.
Firstly Bumpmapping: I have a game called X2 The Threat (Ownzor btw) and it has a built in benchmarking program. I ran the test with and without bumpapping, and the FPS difference was less than 1.
Secondly Pixel Shading: A <b>LOT</b> of games have had pixel shading, thou I dont know wich it's more intensive on or what it actually does aside from sexy water
-Max Paybe (1&2) -Morrowind - UT (2004,2003) -Everquest -Mafia -Battlefield
And breed. I had been following this game for a while, and they only implemented pixle shading a little while before the release. So thumbs up whoever liked this game.
<!--QuoteBegin-Bosnian Cowboy+Apr 8 2004, 09:35 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Bosnian Cowboy @ Apr 8 2004, 09:35 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Infinitum+Apr 6 2004, 07:28 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Infinitum @ Apr 6 2004, 07:28 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> 1.) Get back to English class 4.) <b>Your</b> not allowed to complain about the connection speed while your still bumming <b>your</b> internet off your parents. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> I don't even know who you're talking to I just like exposing small hypocritical things like this. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> The second [EDIT] bolded [/EDIT] your is actually supposed to be there... Edit:
The scentence should be, "You're not allowed to complain about the connection speed while you're still bumming your internet off your parents."
I've played a couple of games of this yesterday, and am gonna try out that battleLAN thingumy in a second. I really enjoy it and can enjoy it because I'm remembering its a BETA. And if you think this game is ugly/pixelated/low res then check your settings or upgrade your damn computer before you **** because it looks great, admittedly some of the textures repeat themselves but again, its a beta, and a demo so stop being so damned picky. The player animations are good, and I mean really really good when crouch jumping through a small window my player grabbed the window ledge and kinda rolled over it, hit the floor and whipped his gun back out in one very smooth move. Little touches like that make me think "nice". The gameplay is standard bf1942 stuff but I've only played conquest maps so far but the modern setting, variety of guns and geomod stuff gives it a nice little edge. Yes the portal system sucks major major **** but hell, if they don't improve it for next demo/final release after seeing how bad it is now THEN we can **** about it, and yes it has bugs (best one I've experienced is floating off into space when reaching the top of a ladder, hitting the top of the map then floating back to earth without taking damage) but again, its a beta so give it a chance ¬_¬
Comments
Which of course has so much to do with Soldner, with which they had nothing to do. It's published by JoWood and made by Wings Simulations.
Brilliant way to sell a product to the audience.
Its not that. Their lobby server is down for unknown reasons.
Which of course has so much to do with Soldner, with which they had nothing to do. It's published by JoWood and made by Wings Simulations. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
it was in relation to whoever said only the states made good games.
That said, this is one of the worst games I've played this year, so my suspicions are true.
First of all, there's the whole 'nothing works' part of it. Everyone knows what I'm talking about here.
Secondly, it has one of the worst main-menus ever. You can't even create a LAN game from in-game, that's how terrible this is. You MUST create a DEDICATED server to play. This is, besides Jedi Knight 2 and JA (which was a special case), the first game I've played in years that didn't allow you to make a server from in-game.
How about in-game? You run around like you're wearing lumpy shoes. I had this constant feeling that my guy was going to fall on his face. The controls are lackluster and the whole game seemed 'laggy'. Bullets impacted about a second after you actually fire them. It takes absolutely ages to draw a gun, and You get to see the most atrocious looking ironsights I've ever seen. Hostile Intent is on an engine five, six years old and they had decent ironsights.
How about vehicles? Steering is a total chore. I first got into a little Oldsmobile or something (the only thing I could afford) and started it up. It immediately started doing donuts and flying out of control. Eventually I hit a building and blew up. Only when I was going about 50 km/h did it actually steer like a car would.
Helicopters arne't much better. I bought a tank, then a chinook.
First chinook flight: It gets enough thrust to get off the ground, and begins spiraling off, getting wedged in a tree.
Second chinook flight: It gets enough thrust to get off the ground, and I manage to somehow make it fly about six thousand feet up. I lower it down and it get stuck on a treetop.
Third chinook flight: I manage to fly up to an altitude, and try to steer it around. It drives like a drunk is at the wheel. Tips to the sides like a boat and randomly gets enough thrust to smash nosefirst into the ground.
Eventually I figured out the winch and hook on it, and picked up the tank. Except the cable was about 300 feet long, so the tank (which I can't even SEE, because the cameras are so terrible) is smashing into trees, buildings, hills, anything and I only figured it out when I heard an explosion below me.
The game looks like ****. The textures are low quality, the scenery is boring and uninspired, destroying trees makes them fall like a fake plastic tree that weighs seven pounds might. Sounds were lousy, weak, and god, don't get me started on Commander Mode.
The best thing (Hell, the only good thing) about this game is the destroyable terrain. I spent about fifteen minutes just blowing a farmhouse into dust.
You talk about it as if it's a full-blown demo eek but I'm afraid if you sorta squint at the place you downloaded from you might notice the large red 'beta' part of it? ...or maybe not =3
I've still not played it so I've got no opinion for or against it yet but keep in mind what it is you're downloading before you start ranting about it, it's almost like complaining about pandora tomorrow's unprepared server was last weeks flavour and now it's onto soldner! waii!
Sorry Eek, but I just don't particularly agree with your rather heated posts. Maybe if you were nicer about it and put more thought into them people might cut you some slack instead of pointing out your blind hate-passion against whatever the topic of the moment is =/
You talk about it as if it's a full-blown demo eek but I'm afraid if you sorta squint at the place you downloaded from you might notice the large red 'beta' part of it? ...or maybe not =3
I've still not played it so I've got no opinion for or against it yet but keep in mind what it is you're downloading before you start ranting about it, it's almost like complaining about pandora tomorrow's unprepared server was last weeks flavour and now it's onto soldner! waii!
Sorry Eek, but I just don't particularly agree with your rather heated posts. Maybe if you were nicer about it and put more thought into them people might cut you some slack instead of pointing out your blind hate-passion against whatever the topic of the moment is =/ <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A beta is no excuse for a crappy game. All these bugs and stupidness of it should've been gone in the ALPHA stage. Plus, I take 'beta' with a grain of salt. Look at games like Desert Combat. They slap 'Alpha' on the title only so they have a scapegoat for the game's complete suckage. "THIS RULES" - "Right on!" "THIS SUCKS" - "OMG ALPHA YOU IDIOT".
I can understand some gameplay bugs and such with beta: Not even NS is that perfect. But a server menu that doesn't actually work? Netcode that can't actually connect? That's pretty bad. Even physics tweaking can be done for 'beta', but things like the bullets traveling at 40 mph? I'm not sure how you can oversee that part of the game, even in an internal alpha. If the dev team requires all players to point out every flaw in this game to actually fix it (for example, the bullet speed), then this game is doomed.
I've beta tested a small handful of games before, and none of them were this bad. This looks more like the quality of a leaked alpha test.
No doubt having argued against you I'll go try the beta demo only to rant too... but maybe you should learn to turn the heat down a bit huh? The responses already show that while people might not entirely disagree they don't appreciate you jumping up and down on it screaming either XD
Which of course has so much to do with Soldner, with which they had nothing to do. It's published by JoWood and made by Wings Simulations. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
it was in relation to whoever said only the states made good games. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'd say ubisoft is from Belgium. Just a guess though.
And Söldner looks great. I hope they can finish off the final product in good order.
No doubt having argued against you I'll go try the beta demo only to rant too... but maybe you should learn to turn the heat down a bit huh? The responses already show that while people might not entirely disagree they don't appreciate you jumping up and down on it screaming either XD <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think the best way to sum up Soldner is: "The best game we should've had three years ago."
You talk about it as if it's a full-blown demo eek but I'm afraid if you sorta squint at the place you downloaded from you might notice the large red 'beta' part of it? ...or maybe not =3
I've still not played it so I've got no opinion for or against it yet but keep in mind what it is you're downloading before you start ranting about it, it's almost like complaining about pandora tomorrow's unprepared server was last weeks flavour and now it's onto soldner! waii!
Sorry Eek, but I just don't particularly agree with your rather heated posts. Maybe if you were nicer about it and put more thought into them people might cut you some slack instead of pointing out your blind hate-passion against whatever the topic of the moment is =/ <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
A beta is no excuse for a crappy game. All these bugs and stupidness of it should've been gone in the ALPHA stage. Plus, I take 'beta' with a grain of salt. Look at games like Desert Combat. They slap 'Alpha' on the title only so they have a scapegoat for the game's complete suckage. "THIS RULES" - "Right on!" "THIS SUCKS" - "OMG ALPHA YOU IDIOT".
I can understand some gameplay bugs and such with beta: Not even NS is that perfect. But a server menu that doesn't actually work? Netcode that can't actually connect? That's pretty bad. Even physics tweaking can be done for 'beta', but things like the bullets traveling at 40 mph? I'm not sure how you can oversee that part of the game, even in an internal alpha. If the dev team requires all players to point out every flaw in this game to actually fix it (for example, the bullet speed), then this game is doomed.
I've beta tested a small handful of games before, and none of them were this bad. This looks more like the quality of a leaked alpha test. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Eek, settle the hell down. Beta means it can suck. Even ask Flayra. Ask ANYONE who is in game/mod design. Second off, seems to me that you were against the thing from the begginning, so you really have no authority there.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I think the best way to sum up Soldner is: "The best game we should've had three years ago." <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
What are you talking about? This is totally new technology. Its Battlefield with advanced physics, a geo-mod like engine, and a new graphics engine. Sorry but, 3 years ago didn't have anything but 1 game with geomod, and 1 game with vehicles. Know games before you bash 'em.
And for the last damned time: THE MAIN LOBBY SERVER IS GOING DOWN AND UP REPEATABLY FOR FIXES.
that said, maybe they shouldn't have released this beta. that way they might have made money before people realized it was so terrible :/
New technology? HA!
Right let's see.
First of all, textures. The textures are low res, repetative, and undetailed. There's no bumpmapping, mipmapping, lightmapping, whatever sort of mapping you want. There's no detail up close, and far away it turns into a big hideous blur. There's no pixel shading. There's no setting for even ansiotropic levels. The texturing looks like half-life would if there was never a texture size limit. And all this technology for advanced texture shading and rendering has been around for at least a year and a half, I know that damned much for SURE.
Secondly, GeoMod? Again, recycling stale ideas instead of creating new ones, we get destroyable buildings and such. Well, I was right: Red Faction was 3 years ago. Nowadays I expect a destroyable wall to crumble, collapse, and make a mess, not completely vaporize. About the only improvement over Red Faction's destroyable environment is that at least in SOLDNER the 'destructiveness' of explosives isn't as huge as it was in RF. Instead of a rocket launcher blowing a hole big enough for a truck to drive through, it might just blow a corner off, or leave small gaps.
Third, the physics engine. Again, old, old games (Halo) were vastly better. The physics engine I saw here was sloppy at best, and poorly implemented.
Models were at least halfway decent. I don't remember seeing any glaring flatfaced polys or spikey, lumpy projections, but they didn't make me go 'wow' like FarCry did.
And you have the gall to call this 'new technology'? FarCry isn't even new technology, it's just the first game to bring the 'old' technology we haven't seen yet into action.
Three years ago this game would've been a super-innovative hit. Nowadays, it's a stale looking game that had the misfortune of being produced by a company too far behind in the times. Did they want to appeal to crappy computers or something?
All I can say is I hope to god they ripped out the advanced graphics for the purpose of the demo, which is less then likely...
The graphics might not be Far Cry, but atleast you can run the game at an acceptable resolution without the game turning into a slideshow.
The demolitions aspect of the game was also a suprise, I didn't think it would preform that well. (In comparison, I think the Red Faction 1 geomod engine was crappy. There was wery few things you could actually destroy)
Once they fix the connection errors, I think this could turn into a wery good game.
(And about the Söldner part: The devs have specifically stated that the world's countries have abandoned regular armies and are exclusivly hiring mercinaries to fight their wars.)
New technology? HA!
Right let's see.
First of all, textures. The textures are low res, repetative, and undetailed. There's no bumpmapping, mipmapping, lightmapping, whatever sort of mapping you want. There's no detail up close, and far away it turns into a big hideous blur. There's no pixel shading. There's no setting for even ansiotropic levels. The texturing looks like half-life would if there was never a texture size limit. And all this technology for advanced texture shading and rendering has been around for at least a year and a half, I know that damned much for SURE.
Secondly, GeoMod? Again, recycling stale ideas instead of creating new ones, we get destroyable buildings and such. Well, I was right: Red Faction was 3 years ago. Nowadays I expect a destroyable wall to crumble, collapse, and make a mess, not completely vaporize. About the only improvement over Red Faction's destroyable environment is that at least in SOLDNER the 'destructiveness' of explosives isn't as huge as it was in RF. Instead of a rocket launcher blowing a hole big enough for a truck to drive through, it might just blow a corner off, or leave small gaps.
Third, the physics engine. Again, old, old games (Halo) were vastly better. The physics engine I saw here was sloppy at best, and poorly implemented.
Models were at least halfway decent. I don't remember seeing any glaring flatfaced polys or spikey, lumpy projections, but they didn't make me go 'wow' like FarCry did.
And you have the gall to call this 'new technology'? FarCry isn't even new technology, it's just the first game to bring the 'old' technology we haven't seen yet into action.
Three years ago this game would've been a super-innovative hit. Nowadays, it's a stale looking game that had the misfortune of being produced by a company too far behind in the times. Did they want to appeal to crappy computers or something?
All I can say is I hope to god they ripped out the advanced graphics for the purpose of the demo, which is less then likely... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
First off, low res textures? Sorry bud, nope. Their just as damned High res as anything the Unreal Engine can put out(and if you say thats bad graphics, I'm sorry, your a friggin idiot. Its not the newest "Best" stuff ever, but its damned good by anyones standards). No detail up close? Looked like there was for EVERY tree I went near, same as buildings. Pixel shading? Do you even REALIZE how new of a technology that really is? And don't say its old: They've been TALKING about it for a year, sure, but when has it been implemented? Oh yeah, 1 game: Splinter Cell(well, 1 series). How many other games can you name off that do that same thing? The stuff your talking about IS new technology. Just in case you know nothing about how it goes, Pixel Shading has just BARELY gotten to where it is now, and even now it still sucks because of how processor intensive. Bump mapping? Did you realize that bump mapping is something that whether its on or off, if the engine has it at all, its like Safedisc, in the fact it'll BOG DOWN YOUR COMPUTER NO MATTER WHAT? Thats why so many game developers are so wary about putting it in.
Red Faction was 3 years ago, sure. Now, tell me, WHAT OTHER GAMES HAVE HAD A FULLY DEFORMABLE ENVIRONMENT? Seriously. Comon, name 'em. Shadowbane had a little bit of one, but not much. And as you said, they have a much better one.
Mipmapping? Do you even realize what that is? Just about every single game since friggin Half-Life has that! Lightmapping? Do you know what THAT is? All it is is simple lighting with some "Advanced"(cough cough) shadowing. Hideous blur at far distances? Guess what, that IS mipmapping my friend, its things getting lower resolution the farther away you get so you don't notice. Now, I myself, on some LOWERED settings, don't get anything your talking about the "Hideous Blur", so maybe you need to check your settings.
Halo had a physics engine? For what, its vehicles? Oh yeah, a 3 ton buggy with a chaingun that weighs at least 600 lb. is gonna flip over from a FRAGMENTATION GRENADE. Sorry bud, ain't gonna happen. It may wiggle a bit from a High Explosive grenade, but ain't gonna flip over from even 5 friggin grenades. Great physics engine my ****. Soldner's engine is MUCH more realistic.
Models were better than halfway decent: Better than most the models you can find in most games these days. And if Farcry made you go 'wow', then guess what? Far Cry also is a very selective engine. Doesn't like my video card(GeForceFX 5600 256mb version. Everyone I know who had this card could only run the game at ALL lowest settings, with turned off stuff).
If you wanna compare this thing to Far Cry, see my many other posts about how Far Cry was lacking in the demos like nobodies business.
And I wonder if any of you bashers ever failed to notice the planned "Done" date on this thing: THIS SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER. Aka, we've got a damned long time to do this stuff.
Lightmapping started with Doom 1... it's an optimization that lights the level according to preprocessed data.
shaders are not CPU intensive, they're GPU intensive (and only if very large). Shaders are small bits of code run on the GPU itself. This is very new. It requires a reprogrammable GPU and only more recent cards support it. Upcoming cards expand greatly upon this. One example, one of the two programmable chips (I forget which) is being given more memory space and branching instructions.
Bump mapping does not bog down the system much at all.
mipmaps are just several versions of a texture at different resolutions (as said) and simply exist to reduce memory accesses when the detail doesn't matter.
That said, I'm making a game as part of a group project and it has everything listed here except light mapping, which it doesn't need.
The main issues I have with Soldner are the lack of animation for anything except players and vehicles and the popping ground textures, which is likely nothing more than a small bug in the terrain LOD code. Terrain LOD is not as simple as say player model LOD. Why? It's one long stretch of polygons, making the decision is a little bit more fuzzy, and the changes necessary are different.
That said, I liked the demo for the most part, whenever I got into a game. And I found a server that hasn't failed to let me in yet.
Yeah, a <b>futuristic</b> frag grenade. I thought the Halo physics were spot on, stuff actually felt heavy. I kinda feel like everything the Havok engine reproduces kinda feels light as paper, especially their ragdolls (have you palyed the Painkiller demo? The enemies looked light as air when the died, save for the boss guy). Plus, as someone said before, gameplay > realism.
That said I haven't played this game yet. Will be downloading it in a second.
4.) <b>Your</b> not allowed to complain about the connection speed while your still bumming <b>your</b> internet off your parents. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't even know who you're talking to I just like exposing small hypocritical things like this.
Firstly Bumpmapping:
I have a game called X2 The Threat (Ownzor btw) and it has a built in benchmarking program. I ran the test with and without bumpapping, and the FPS difference was less than 1.
Secondly Pixel Shading:
A <b>LOT</b> of games have had pixel shading, thou I dont know wich it's more intensive on or what it actually does aside from sexy water
-Max Paybe (1&2)
-Morrowind
- UT (2004,2003)
-Everquest
-Mafia
-Battlefield
And breed. I had been following this game for a while, and they only implemented pixle shading a little while before the release. So thumbs up whoever liked this game.
4.) <b>Your</b> not allowed to complain about the connection speed while your still bumming <b>your</b> internet off your parents. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't even know who you're talking to I just like exposing small hypocritical things like this. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The second [EDIT] bolded [/EDIT] your is actually supposed to be there...
Edit:
The scentence should be, "You're not allowed to complain about the connection speed while you're still bumming your internet off your parents."
Too many yours, in my opinion.
The player animations are good, and I mean really really good when crouch jumping through a small window my player grabbed the window ledge and kinda rolled over it, hit the floor and whipped his gun back out in one very smooth move. Little touches like that make me think "nice".
The gameplay is standard bf1942 stuff but I've only played conquest maps so far but the modern setting, variety of guns and geomod stuff gives it a nice little edge.
Yes the portal system sucks major major **** but hell, if they don't improve it for next demo/final release after seeing how bad it is now THEN we can **** about it, and yes it has bugs (best one I've experienced is floating off into space when reaching the top of a ladder, hitting the top of the map then floating back to earth without taking damage) but again, its a beta so give it a chance ¬_¬