Great post Josh. Thanks!

Some questions for Jaersh or whoever bout Onyxxxxx,

 

1. How far along is the engine, feature-wise? Would you be able to design a game around it as it exists at the present time?

 

2. If you're adding features as you go along, how does this affect Aliens development? To illustrate my meaning, Sawyer was waiting for the release of SoZ to continue work on his Black Hound mod, because he wanted to use the Overland Map feature. Are all the tools in place to make the sort of game that you want to make?

 

3. If there are new features, care to share some of them and their gameplay implications?

 

4. How does it compare to engines you've worked with before, or in the case of UE3, you're working with now?

 

5. How malleable is the engine? Is it designed purely for use in RPGs or could it conceivably be used to create an FPS, say, or an RTS?

The engine is being developed around the needs of our games and the Aliens RPG specifically. The needs of Aliens and "our" RPGs drives the development of the engine. I can't really share any Aliens-specific features, but I can say that Onyx is being developed for use with Windows, Xbox 360, and PS3. We use Havok Physics and Behavior, NavPower, FaceFX, and Scaleform. The rest of the engine has been developed in-house.

 

Working with a new home-grown engine is a rewarding exercise in patience. You're building from the ground up, and it can take a long time to see results. But when the results come, it can be very satisfying. Working with licensed engines, however good, can result in some frustration and "not developed here" attitudes when the nature of the engine conflicts with the needs of the project.

some obsidian/black isle developers has been quick to blame the shortcomings of obsidian/black isle games 'pon the engine they were using. it ain't obsidian's fault if aurora or infinity suck, no? ain't black isles fault that lithtech weren't as advertised.

 

...

 

am hopeful that aliens game turns out well, but all games has shortcomings, and it will be interesting to see how obsidnaties respond when they cannot foist blame on somebody else for engine flaws. is an opportunity for a genuine growth experience, eh?

 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited December 31, 200817 yr by Gromnir

There are things about Aurora that genuinely and inherently are... not great and there are a bunch of things that we did during the development of NWN2 that made it suck much, much more than it should have.

 

There are a lot of people at Obsidian now who were never part of Black Isle (or who never worked on the IE or Aurora, even at Obsidian), and many of whom have developed engines from scratch before. Our engine will be imperfect, like all engines, but at least all of the mistakes we make will be ours to make instead of ours to "discover".

If the crates behave physically correct, I'll be happy.

6. Will it be optimized for multicores?

6. Will it be optimized for multicores?

That ought to be a standard these days.

 

Right, Obsidian?

Depth Sprite? HDR Lighting? Grain filter? Particle physics? How's the anti-alisaing? Environemental Destruction? Draw-distance? How much particle work can it handle? Real-time? Ragdoll physics? Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2)? Bloom? How much shadow/ligh source work is there? Depth of View (something like that, can't remember)? Map editor?

 

I just have this fascination with game engines. So much cool stuff is being done these days.

Depth Sprite? HDR Lighting? Grain filter? Particle physics? How's the anti-alisaing? Environemental Destruction? Draw-distance? How much particle work can it handle? Real-time? Ragdoll physics? Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2)? Bloom? How much shadow/ligh source work is there? Depth of View (something like that, can't remember)? Map editor?

 

I just have this fascination with game engines. So much cool stuff is being done these days.

 

Agreed. I'm actually building a remake of the Fallout engine in my spare time (the same capabilities, not the same file formats) and it's actually remarkably easy.

 

And then I think about all those new fandangled things that have come along since, which you list above. That depresses me. I don't think any one person could really hope to code that all by themselves these days.

 

But I guess that's why you join a team or company.

John Carmack does it all on his own!

Depth Sprite? HDR Lighting? Grain filter? Particle physics? How's the anti-alisaing? Environemental Destruction? Draw-distance? How much particle work can it handle? Real-time? Ragdoll physics? Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2)? Bloom? How much shadow/ligh source work is there? Depth of View (something like that, can't remember)? Map editor?

 

I just have this fascination with game engines. So much cool stuff is being done these days.

 

Agreed. I'm actually building a remake of the Fallout engine in my spare time (the same capabilities, not the same file formats) and it's actually remarkably easy.

 

And then I think about all those new fandangled things that have come along since, which you list above. That depresses me. I don't think any one person could really hope to code that all by themselves these days.

 

But I guess that's why you join a team or company.

Well I don't really find that surprising. Fallout 3's engine is insanely basic.

 

EDIT: Speaking of which, and interesting article: http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2129

 

What really interests me in this engine though, is the lighting. You can see in games like Left 4 Dead or FEAR everything casts a shadow, even your own flashlight (this one isn't in FEAR though), creating some pretty creepy images. Even Dead Space uses shadows and advanced lighting a lot, too, and that's what makes the set pieces so awesome. Hell, half the reasons Killzone 2 looks so good is because they made a very very fancy lighting method that gives everything a very realistic feel, almost the same thing for Mirror's Edge.

 

Lighting is incredibly important in horror games, though.

Edited January 5, 200917 yr by WILL THE ALMIGHTY

Depth Sprite? HDR Lighting? Grain filter? Particle physics? How's the anti-alisaing? Environemental Destruction? Draw-distance? How much particle work can it handle? Real-time? Ragdoll physics? Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2)? Bloom? How much shadow/ligh source work is there? Depth of View (something like that, can't remember)? Map editor?

 

I just have this fascination with game engines. So much cool stuff is being done these days.

 

Agreed. I'm actually building a remake of the Fallout engine in my spare time (the same capabilities, not the same file formats) and it's actually remarkably easy.

 

And then I think about all those new fandangled things that have come along since, which you list above. That depresses me. I don't think any one person could really hope to code that all by themselves these days.

 

But I guess that's why you join a team or company.

Well I don't really find that surprising. Fallout 3's engine is insanely basic.

 

EDIT: Speaking of which, and interesting article: http://www.l4d.com/blog/post.php?id=2129

 

What really interests me in this engine though, is the lighting. You can see in games like Left 4 Dead or FEAR everything casts a shadow, even your own flashlight (this one isn't in FEAR though), creating some pretty creepy images. Even Dead Space uses shadows and advanced lighting a lot, too, and that's what makes the set pieces so awesome. Hell, half the reasons Killzone 2 looks so good is because they made a very very fancy lighting method that gives everything a very realistic feel, almost the same thing for Mirror's Edge.

 

Lighting is incredibly important in horror games, though.

 

Definetly. And considering all the comparisons the reviewers made to Dead Space, this RPG will have to have a somewhat different lighting engine to distingish the two.

Depth Sprite? HDR Lighting? Grain filter? Particle physics? How's the anti-alisaing? Environemental Destruction? Draw-distance? How much particle work can it handle? Real-time? Ragdoll physics? Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2)? Bloom? How much shadow/ligh source work is there? Depth of View (something like that, can't remember)? Map editor?

 

I just have this fascination with game engines. So much cool stuff is being done these days.

 

Agreed. I'm actually building a remake of the Fallout engine in my spare time (the same capabilities, not the same file formats) and it's actually remarkably easy.

 

And then I think about all those new fandangled things that have come along since, which you list above. That depresses me. I don't think any one person could really hope to code that all by themselves these days.

 

But I guess that's why you join a team or company.

Well I don't really find that surprising. Fallout 3's engine is insanely basic.

 

Heh. Oops. I was talking about Fallout 1 and 2. As in: coding a 2D turn-based, hex-based, isometric engine has been pretty easy, but coding a third person 3D engine by myself is beyond my current n00b abilities, and certainly advanced graphics features (shadows and lighting) probably always will be.

There are things about Aurora that genuinely and inherently are... not great and there are a bunch of things that we did during the development of NWN2 that made it suck much, much more than it should have.

 

There are a lot of people at Obsidian now who were never part of Black Isle (or who never worked on the IE or Aurora, even at Obsidian), and many of whom have developed engines from scratch before. Our engine will be imperfect, like all engines, but at least all of the mistakes we make will be ours to make instead of ours to "discover".

 

May I also add, that an engine developed in house is also likely to have someone "in the know", who can fix it in house, and if required as quickly as possible. Failing that, if someone has left the company for example, there is likely available documentation somewhere to aid the user in fixing the problem. The investment is always worthwhile as it's a fix to an engine which is owned by said company, opposed to a single fix for an engine which may be used for a single product.

Depth Sprite? HDR Lighting? Grain filter? Particle physics? How's the anti-alisaing? Environemental Destruction? Draw-distance? How much particle work can it handle? Real-time? Ragdoll physics? Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2)? Bloom? How much shadow/ligh source work is there? Depth of View (something like that, can't remember)? Map editor?

 

I just have this fascination with game engines. So much cool stuff is being done these days.

 

You realise that most of what you've mentioned is related to rendering, and is but one part of the whole product, or is actually likely to be handled by middleware such as "Havok".

I have another question, do you have live update functionality? Can you edit a level on the fly in the runtime, change assets(scripts, meshes etc...) in real time?

Depth Sprite? HDR Lighting? Grain filter? Particle physics? How's the anti-alisaing? Environemental Destruction? Draw-distance? How much particle work can it handle? Real-time? Ragdoll physics? Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2)? Bloom? How much shadow/ligh source work is there? Depth of View (something like that, can't remember)? Map editor?

 

I just have this fascination with game engines. So much cool stuff is being done these days.

 

You realise that most of what you've mentioned is related to rendering, and is but one part of the whole product, or is actually likely to be handled by middleware such as "Havok".

Wow. I DID learn something today.

 

(not sarcasm)

Depth Sprite? HDR Lighting? Grain filter? Particle physics? How's the anti-alisaing? Environemental Destruction? Draw-distance? How much particle work can it handle? Real-time? Ragdoll physics? Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2)? Bloom? How much shadow/ligh source work is there? Depth of View (something like that, can't remember)? Map editor?

 

I just have this fascination with game engines. So much cool stuff is being done these days.

 

You realise that most of what you've mentioned is related to rendering, and is but one part of the whole product, or is actually likely to be handled by middleware such as "Havok".

Wow. I DID learn something today.

 

(not sarcasm)

 

Rendering:

Depth Sprite.

HDR Lighting.

Grain filter.

How's the anti-alisaing.

Draw-distance.

Any advanced lighting solutions (ala Killzone 2).

Bloom.

How much shadow/ligh source work is there.

Depth of View.

 

Havok:

Ragdoll physics.

 

The particle system could potentially be custom, but that's a cross over between physics, rendering, and tools.

 

Tools:

Map editor.

 

 

 

I'm more inclined to ask about things such as, Live Update editing, Open world, or Set Levels... Etc...

It is an ancient custom that newcomers to the obsidian forums get one question answered right?

#RIIIIIGGHHHHT!# the crowd cheers.

 

Well then, will this new fine engine support isometric like (zoomable, rotatable etc) camera and point and click interface?

It is an ancient custom that newcomers to the obsidian forums get one question answered right?

#RIIIIIGGHHHHT!# the crowd cheers.

 

Well then, will this new fine engine support isometric like (zoomable, rotatable etc) camera and point and click interface?

No.

The only thing that interests me in engines is the rendering, I guess. Engines are made to be pretty or serve specific purposes like Bad Company's Frostbite Engine.

It is an ancient custom that newcomers to the obsidian forums get one question answered right?

#RIIIIIGGHHHHT!# the crowd cheers.

 

Well then, will this new fine engine support isometric like (zoomable, rotatable etc) camera and point and click interface?

 

Ignore Morgoth. The real answer is we don't know yet. We haven't seen screenshots and I don't think we've even been told if it's 1st person or 3rd person (but judging by dev comments it seems 3rd person squad based).

Its actually a revolutionary 2nd person plural.

Ignore Morgoth. The real answer is we don't know yet. We haven't seen screenshots and I don't think we've even been told if it's 1st person or 3rd person (but judging by dev comments it seems 3rd person squad based).

I know, on both accounts.

I was kinda hoping i could trick one of the devs into spilling some beans.

 

I hope they dont go for FP even thought that PoV has some cheap horror advantages. Since this game is not supposed to be cheap horror in the first place...

 

Squad based third person sounds much better.