Obsidian making Fallout: New Vegas

[Rosbjerg]

NEVER!

[CoM_Solaufein]

Resurrecting dead threads is bad.

 

 

Maybe Obsidian can make drivable vehicles. That would be nice.

[Nightshape]

Wouldn't it make the most sense financially to use the same engine that already has all the assets created for it?

 

This can be debated, but what you have to bare in mind is that Beth's technology is built off Gamebyro, and Havok. A couple of middleware solutions which require licencing. It's not clear what the conditions are so if Obsidian have to buy licence's for this tech, what exactly is the saving?

 

It's not forced to be a financial saving, they could make a saving in regards to engine development time and asset like you imply.

 

IS it hard to move pre-existing assets between engines? Does it make any sense to do so?

 

This depends on the maturity of the Onxy asset pipeline I guess, it really depends upon that. If the asset pipeline is mature enough then it's a matter of reprocessing the data to fit with onxy, if they've got access to the source assets that is. It's also questionable why they'd want to reuse source assets, matters of art direction, and the simple fact of where it's set, Las Vegas.

 

I am assuming of course that Obsidian's Fallout will reuse much of the assets from Bethie's fallout.

 

Whatever Obsidian choose to do, they need to do something about the P.O.S. Animations/Characters in FO3. Asset generation is only part of the problem, and it really depends upon Obsidians capacity to create new artwork.

 

I don't personally think very highly of the tech which beth's has produced. I've often refered to FO3 as that turd of a game which somehow sparkles when you stir it togeather.

[Syraxis]

How long has this been in development? One year isn't a long time at all...

[Nightshape]

How long has this been in development? One year isn't a long time at all...

 

Uh huh... But ya know Red Bull gives you wings! Didn't MCA once say something about having a heart complaint due to excessive caffine intake at one point in his life?

 

I'm not certain about Mr Josh being involved in this project, that poor geeza is jinxed, it'll be canned before we see a screenie.

[I want teh kotor 3]

WIN!!!! To bad if it still uses Gamebryo. That engine blows.

 

More portable nukes please?

[mkreku]

Beth's tech is terrible.

Really? Feel free to mention all the other sandbox, gigantic-world-rendering-without-a-hitch RPG engines that you know of, that also ships with an easy to use editor?

 

The only major flaw that I can see with Bethesda's engine is that it has to have loading times when you enter buildings/caves/cities/whatever. That means you can never look through windows and all doors/windows/holes are "painted on".

[FabMan_UK]

I wouldn't be surprised if Bethesda games are recorded as the most modded games by any developer. Their editors are fantastic and their games work fantastic with multiple mods, as long as the right steps are followed. The level loading times for Morrowind, Oblivion and Fallout 3 are amazing considering it loads into a massive open world. Compare the loading times to NWN 2 and The Witcher.

 

Their tech isn't bad at all, they've had problems I know but their games have often set the bar on what other games have to achieve. Can people remember how much fuss was made over the game engine/graphics when Morrowind and Oblivion were released?

[Deadly_Nightshade]

I wouldn't be surprised if Bethesda games are recorded as the most modded games by any developer.

 

I don't know, Neverwinter Nights is also a contender for that title.

[Nightshape]

Beth's tech is terrible.

Really? Feel free to mention all the other sandbox, gigantic-world-rendering-without-a-hitch RPG engines that you know of, that also ships with an easy to use editor?

 

The only major flaw that I can see with Bethesda's engine is that it has to have loading times when you enter buildings/caves/cities/whatever. That means you can never look through windows and all doors/windows/holes are "painted on".

 

Any engine can be made to support streaming worlds, it's a matter of creating the technology and the pipeline to support it. Beth's stuff is built ontop of Gamebyro (a turd of an engine) so you could say that basically it's got some crappy foundations.

 

GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas all used Renderware.

 

World streaming is hard to do, and nobody said Obsidian would even be streaming in their world... That aside, it's the one thing beth's tech is okay at, it's not great, but it can do it.

 

If I may be so blunt, if Obsidian go with beth's tech, and assets then we're really just buying a modification of FO3? FO3 but with some well written dialog, same crappy environment textures, and characters made of wood. *YAWN*

[Slowtrain]

[Whatever Obsidian choose to do, they need to do something about the P.O.S. Animations/Characters in FO3.

 

 

I don't disagree with this at all. Some of the animations in FO3 are cringeworthy. But I'm not hopeful. Given a development time of about a year (which appears to be what is being bandied about at the moment), does Obsidian have the time to get involved in redoing animations?

 

I think the presssure is going to be on Obsidian, especially given their previous development history, to knock the game out smartly, on time and on schedule the whole way. In order to do that I can only assume that as much of FO3 that can be reused will be.

 

Probably we will see some new location art, some new weapons and armor, some new enemies, all mixed around pre-existing FO3 assets.

 

The game feels more like an xpack in some ways than a "new" game.

 

Obviously, I am guessing here, since we have no official info, and I would love it if a whole bunch of new art and modeling was done for this game, but I can't see it happening at this point.

[Nightshape]

Their tech isn't bad at all.

 

Please, they have either chosen not to or are unable to support the kind of fidelity required to even contend. The environments are fairly good but everything else sucks. I am concerned that Obsidian will be forced into producing the same kind of low quality character artwork that Bethseda produce for their games due to engine "limitations".

[Tigranes]

20 pages after a night's sleep, I'm glad I don't mod C&C.

 

I wasn't jumping for joy at the announcement and I'm still not, because I'm worried about 2 things; (a) the actual terms of the 'joint development' which could be anything from Beth making it with Obs providing manpower to Obs making it and Beth providing consultation / help, (b) whether the game, which may have a very short dev period, will actually be anything new, anything more than a FO3 mod.

 

Back of my mind the gremlin keeps saying that Feargie arranged the deal to have a Slam Dunk going in the recession, offset the Aliens blow and such. But hey, I love Fallout, so...

[Slowtrain]

20 pages after a night's sleep, I'm glad I don't mod C&C.

 

I wasn't jumping for joy at the announcement and I'm still not, because I'm worried about 2 things; (a) the actual terms of the 'joint development' which could be anything from Beth making it with Obs providing manpower to Obs making it and Beth providing consultation / help, (b) whether the game, which may have a very short dev period, will actually be anything new, anything more than a FO3 mod.

 

Back of my mind the gremlin keeps saying that Feargie arranged the deal to have a Slam Dunk going in the recession, offset the Aliens blow and such. But hey, I love Fallout, so...

 

 

In some ways, it almost feels like IWD2 deja vu.

 

I hope the result ends up a lot better.

[mkreku]

Beth's tech is terrible.

Any engine can be made to support streaming worlds, it's a matter of creating the technology and the pipeline to support it.

So you claim that Bethesda's technology is "terrible" and your argument is that all you have to do is make something better..?

 

Sure! Anyone can write a game engine that supports a completely seamless, basically unlimited size world with no loading times/stutter and all the graphical pizazz that's in demand right now, complete with quickload/quicksave that takes less than a second. Oh yeah, if you have five minutes spare, you might as well write an editor too. I mean, it's so easy. Bethesda are terrible!

 

The BS is nauseating

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Like it or not, Fallout 3's animations suck.

[Bokishi]

mkreku finally has different avatar pic after 5 years haha

[Nightshape]

I don't disagree with this at all. Some of the animations in FO3 are cringeworthy.

 

It's beyond cringeworthy, it's amaturish crap. My feeling is that it is likely related to tech, afterall, who'd hire an animator from Bethseda based on the work produced? I don't know, it forgivable due to gameplay, but the simple fact that everyone looks like they're walking on ice. Adam Brenneke

 

But I'm not hopeful. Given a development time of about a year (which appears to be what is being bandied about at the moment), does Obsidian have the time to get involved in redoing animations?

 

I just got done playing Black, I know it's an FPS, but the quality and quantity of the animations are well in excess of beth's stuff. That had a development cycle of 9 months, it's a totally different case in alot of respects but hey, what the hell are Obsidian's animators going to be upto? It's probably in their interest to either redo/fixup any animation.

 

I think the presssure is going to be on Obsidian, especially given their previous development history, to knock the game out smartly, on time and on schedule the whole way. In order to do that I can only assume that as much of FO3 that can be reused will be.

 

Oh the pressure is certainly on, I'm stuck on a short dev cycle myself and the pressure has been on since the get go, and it's quite a load to bare. Based upon the experience of the team, it's certainly doable, CRPG's are what obsidian do best, they've likely already scoped and planned the project already, hence I doubt they're currently in preproduction.

 

Probably we will see some new location art, some new weapons and armor, some new enemies, all mixed around pre-existing FO3 assets.

 

The game feels more like an xpack in some ways than a "new" game.

 

Obviously, I am guessing here, since we have no official info, and I would love it if a whole bunch of new art and modeling was done for this game, but I can't see it happening at this point.

 

We shall see, I am making guessing aswell but I do believe that it'll be surprising how much they can get done in a short time period. I really hope it turns out to be more than a FO3 mod, and runs using the Onxy engine, but hey I'm sure all will become clear over time.

[Bokishi]

Like it or not, Fallout 3's animations suck.

 

only if you press strafe and forward at the same time for ice skating

[WILL THE ALMIGHTY]

Wait, who said anything about this game being rushed? Because that would suck. I'm sure we all remember Kotor 2.

[Niten_Ryu]

Wow... amazingly strong deja-vu feeling. I better stay away from the hype.

 

Well, few words.

 

I don't like gamebryo engine but if that's Obsidians only realistic option, please put extra work on animations. Especially non-verbal communication (eye and lid movement, hands while explaining something, subtle changes in face expressing mood ect ect).

[Slowtrain]

I think for me, the most important things would be writing and story, with atmosphere a close second.

 

I would love to see a strong, fleshed-out story with interesting characters and plot twists. I would like to see well-written and interesting dialogue that is enjoyable to read. I would like to see a gameworld people with story-signifcant npcs that change as the story progresses. I would like to feel the impact of my player character on the gameworld.

 

I would like to see exploration and sidequests kept to a minimum. Sure a little bit for variety sake is fine, but it would be great if the focus was on story, characters, and writing.

 

In the end, I don't even care about animations, or yellow faces, or VATS. Just give me story and characters.

 

Please.

[Nightshape]

Beth's tech is terrible.

Any engine can be made to support streaming worlds, it's a matter of creating the technology and the pipeline to support it.

So you claim that Bethesda's technology is "terrible" and your argument is that all you have to do is make something better..?

 

That's not what I am trying to say at all... Bethesda has some fairly good streaming tech, that's about it... I wouldn't say that it's amazing.

 

Sure! Anyone can write a game engine that supports a completely seamless, basically unlimited size world with no loading times/stutter and all the graphical pizazz that's in demand right now, complete with quickload/quicksave that takes less than a second. Oh yeah, if you have five minutes spare, you might as well write an editor too. I mean, it's so easy. Bethesda are terrible!

 

Not true at all. It genuinely depends on the specifications for the project, if I have missed something let me know, I was under the impression that we pretty much know next to nothing. Creating a streaming engine is only one part of an overall game engine. Bethesda fall down in loads of other places and I'm specifically speaking about those things. The environments are certainly one of the things they've got correct within their technology. I could make several guesses at how exactly they've achieved it, but I don't see how it matters really, you're free to think what you like, I am free to know what I know and make judgements based on that.

[Nightshape]

Just give me story and characters.

 

Please.

 

It's about the only thing we can certainly say it's probably going to have.

[Slowtrain]

Just give me story and characters.

 

Please.

 

It's about the only thing we can certainly say it's probably going to have.

 

 

If Obsidian was left to their own devices, yes, totally. Most definitely.

 

But how much is Bethesda going to say: "No, sorry, that's too much dialogue; our fans don't want that. And the story is too complicated. Cut out half the story and put in some more explosions and slow motion headshots. Thanks."

 

That's my fear.