How skilled are you?

[mkreku]

I was just wondering.. I know you guys are great writers, you can create superb settings (Fallout mainly, although that was really a continuation of what Wasteland started) and you have some fine artists/modellers/designers. But what about technical skills? What are your coders like?

 

Could you guys code a Crytek Engine (Far Cry has the most impressive graphics engine I've ever seen in a game)? Are you skilled enough to compete with the Source engine? Do you guys have the technical knowledge to create a believable 3D world, with huge maps, realistic physics, day-and-night cycles, graphics using shaders/volumetric fog/bump mapping/realtime raytracing (http://graphics.cs.uni-sb.de/~sidapohl/egoshooter/) and so on? Or are we stuck with games using the Odyssey/Aurora engine?

 

Please enlighten me.

[Iolo]

You have no basis here other than a wait and see approach. If you are not familiar with the technical ability of their programmers then you can't expect anything more until you see some results. Seems like a strange question to ask.

[Eclecticist]

The needs for CRPG developers are very different to those of a state-of-the-art FPS, and rightly so. They may not be as "technically knowhow" or whatever, but the creativity is what makes up for it.

[mkreku]

I am sure the Obsidian coders know where they stand in the competition, or at least they should be able to approximate. What I am wondering is if we can expect to see any technologically impressive games coming from Obsidian or if they're satisfied with using licensed engines (like in the case of KotOR2) or settle for the technological level of the Infinity Engine (Planescape: Torment = basic graphics, very little voice over, a few movies, yet the game comes on 4 cd's. Compared to Sacred = great, zoomable graphics, lots of voice over, gigantic world that never needs to load, a few movies, comes on 2 cd's).

 

I'm just interested in what they're able to create.

[@\NightandtheShape/@]

I'm always saying this, but I really feel that the main strength for an RPG programmer should be AI, and you know what it seems makes sense.

[Akari]

I am sure the Obsidian coders know where they stand in the competition, or at least they should be able to approximate. What I am wondering is if we can expect to see any technologically impressive games coming from Obsidian or if they're satisfied with using licensed engines (like in the case of KotOR2) or settle for the technological level of the Infinity Engine (Planescape: Torment = basic graphics, very little voice over, a few movies, yet the game comes on 4 cd's. Compared to Sacred = great, zoomable graphics, lots of voice over, gigantic world that never needs to load, a few movies, comes on 2 cd's).

 

I'm just interested in what they're able to create.

There is also a 2 CD release of Torment. The 2D pre-rendered areas took up a lot of space. And the movies were over 200 megs too, if what I see in my install directory is any indication. But movie compression has come a long way since Torment came out, and large, pre-rendered 2d areas seem to be a thing of the past too. Disk space isn't exactly an indicator of technical proficiency.

 

That being said, we do intend to develop our own engine to use on games we do down the line. It's way too early for me to say anything about it though.

 

-Akari

[Maria Caliban]

Suggestions for engine names:

 

The Persephone

Achromatic

Lapidate

Bordeaux

NoWeAreNotMakingFallout3

[EnderAndrew]

Nebuchadnezzar

[Eclecticist]

HkorePwettyGfx2000

[EnderAndrew]

I'm sure it's copywrited, but I think the "Wonka Engine" has a nice ring to it as well.