Delaware's engine

[Tiliqua]

Has there been any official confirmation about what engine is going to be used for Delaware?

 

I'm just praying it isn't Aurora.

[Synaesthesia]

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[Tigranes]

If KOTOR2, probably the KOTOR engine (which was heavily modified aurora, wasn't it?)

 

If not.. who knows. I find it unlikely they'd want to make an original engine.

[Hell Kitty]

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You should be banned.

[Arkan]

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You should be banned.

He should be awarded.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Heh

[mkreku]

If not.. who knows. I find it unlikely they'd want to make an original engine.

There are so many super-powerful engines out there right now, it feels like it would be a total waste of time to start creating one from scratch.

 

Imagine an RPG using the Crytek engine (Far Cry).

Imagine an RPG using the Valve engine (Of course, Bloodlines will use it).

Imagine an RPG using the KRASS engine (Spellforce, Aquanox).

 

Any of those engines (my favourites right now) together with the game designing talent of Obsidian would have great potential for becoming classic games.

[Drakron]

The Aurora (NwN) and Odessy (SWKotoR) engine are not very good engines, you CANNOT jump using then since there there is only 2 axis on that engine.

 

Best engine is the HAVOK engine since its adaptable and designed to be flexible.

[tripleRRR]

I don't know, I would like to see the Source engine used. Bloodlines and HL2 look very good right now, and with that engine Obsidian could turn out a great looking game, hopefully with a great story to match.

 

 

TripleRRR

[Karzak]

It will be KotOR2, and use the same aurora based engine. No jumping, no climbing, no ducking, no large areas, a simple curb or low branch will stop you in your tracks.

[triCritical]

a simple curb or low branch will stop you in your tracks.

This drove me insane. How to make you're game feel fake, 101. It wouldn't have been so bad if you couldn't jump 10 feet in the air when watching the combat.

[mkreku]

a simple curb or low branch will stop you in your tracks.

This drove me insane. How to make you're game feel fake, 101. It wouldn't have been so bad if you couldn't jump 10 feet in the air when watching the combat.

Unfortunately, this is a common "feature" in many games. Imagine how it feels in Colin McRae 2 when you hit a small bush with your car and it comes to a dead halt and your wheels fall off..

 

One thing they REALLY need to implement in KotOR 2 is true mouselook! I can live with the constrained world (without jumping/climbing) if only I get mouselook. Of course, the best would be if they made it like Gothic/Gothic 2: third person, huge world without in-game loading times, lots of climbing/exploring/jumping and mouselook.

[Drakron]

Well the branch thing happens either because they are static models or because there is no vertcal axis.

 

Its possible to make a branch break (or simply not block) on how the model is set.

 

SWKotoR biggest failure was that it used the same engine design of NwN, there is no vertical axis on that game (dont be fooled by some models behavior in the game, that is easy to fake) and a lot of things could not be done, using that engine would be a step back on game design because of engine limitations and since there are better engines avaible ...

[Hell Kitty]

HAVOK engine? What's that then? The only Havok engine I know of is a physics engine, not a game engine itself.

[Synaesthesia]

It will be KotOR2, and use the same aurora based engine. No jumping, no climbing, no ducking, no large areas, a simple curb or low branch will stop you in your tracks.

GAH! That drove me silly having to take a major detour just get around some silly little slope.

[Phosphor]

I have mixed feelings about the KOTOR engine. On the one hand, the game looked fantastic (though more face models would have been really nice), and the interface was quite functional. I liked the scroll windows for inventory, attack styles, force powers and whatnot.

Movement was terrible. Getting stuck on the smallest of structures and having to make wide detour arcs around them was just bad. The combat set-up was far too automated, as well - there was no strategy involved and I could click a target and go off and do something else and when I returned the battle was over.

I think with some finessing the engine could be nicely improved, but whether it's easier to make a new engine or fix a pre-existing one, I don't know.

On the upside of movement, however, I did appreciate that the NPCs did not get in the way as much as they did in NWN. For the most part, you never see them and they rarely block your vision or get jumbled up with your character animation and/or the surrounding environment.

[Judge Hades]

I still say the best engine I have ever played in a computer game is the Infinity Engine. If they could make a fully 3D version of that engine style and NPC control I would be all over that game. The KotOR Engine, overall, blew kibble.

[Phosphor]

The IE was a great engine, I agree, particularly after the revamp for IWD2. What I'd like to see is a combination of the IE with the TOEE engine. Take the look of the latter and put in a static interface bar (like in the IE) rather than that awful radial wheel. The capablities of the TOEE engine in terms of the D&D combat rules is very nice, and the animations are great. But change the rather "futuristic" look of the interface graphics for the more fantasy-like IE ones.

 

As for the KOTOR engine, I wouldn't say it blew kibble. For the perspective the game took, it worked quite well save for the movement problems and a mediocre combat model.

[Judge Hades]

I'm sorry, but I had a way too aggravating time dealing with the NPCs. I take a NPC over, tell him or her to move to a certain spot, then go back to my PC to then follow at which that time the NPC moves from that spot and attacks somethingclear on another screen. It was freaking impossible to do any sort of ambushes or strategic combat wat so ever in that game. The engine sucked.

[mkreku]

I still say the best engine I have ever played in a computer game is the Infinity Engine. If they could make a fully 3D version of that engine style and NPC control I would be all over that game. The KotOR Engine, overall, blew kibble.

The KRASS engine would be an excellent choice for this type of game, since it combines third person views with the IE isometric style (although still using polygons/textures). It worked great in SPellforce and the graphics were awesome. The best thing is that people get to choose the view that suits them the best with this engine. I'd play the game using Gothic-style third person view while the hellspawn I am quoting would probably use the isometric IE-style. The only negative thing I can think about regarding the KRASS engine is that it takes a lot of computer power to run. When my armies in Spellforce reached 80 or so soldiers and they fought another army, my framerates dropped down to around 12-15 fps (on my Radeon 9800 Pro, 1024x768).

 

Otherwise it would be perfect!

[Phosphor]

I'm sorry, but I had a way too aggravating time dealing with the NPCs. I take a NPC over, tell him or her to move to a certain spot, then go back to my PC to then follow at which that time the NPC moves from that spot and attacks somethingclear on another screen. It was freaking impossible to do any sort of ambushes or strategic combat wat so ever in that game. The engine sucked.

There was no strategic combat at all in KOTOR. It was purely a rush-and-hit approach every time. Was the game more combat-focused it would have been unbearable, but fortunately combat wasn't the main focus..

If someone built a game with the KOTOR engine and required the player to use tactics to win encounters, that game would be unplayable.

[Diogo Ribeiro]

Wait. Someone actually thinks that the IE engine (a bug-ridden mess) would be great if combined with the ToEE engine (another bug-ridden mess)?

[Phosphor]

I meant the design styles, not an actual merging of those two engines.

[AlanC9]

I'm sorry, but I had a way too aggravating time dealing with the NPCs.  I take a NPC over, tell him or her to move to a certain spot, then go back to my PC to then follow at which that time the NPC moves from that spot and attacks somethingclear on another screen.  It was freaking impossible to do any sort of ambushes or strategic combat wat so ever in that game.  The engine sucked.

Did you really expect that to work, though? I mean, you did notice that there is no way to turn off NPC AI or tell the NPC to stay in place, right?

 

I'm not sure why KotOR NPC AI is so much worse than, say, the default HotU AI - which would actually let you attempt to set up an ambush, though there's a bug that often gets in the way.

 

Edit: let's assume that they are using the KotOR engine again; that strikes me as the most probable course. What changes would you folks like to see? And keep it realistic (i.e., no z-axis).

[roshan]

Delaware will probably use the same engine as KOTOR. However Obsidian should tweak and improve it.