Update #35: Meet the Developers - Dimitri Berman

[Adam Brennecke]

The high-poly modelling is for baking out normal maps. The low-poly modelling is what you see in game. The same low-poly model will be used for in-game and paperdoll.

[rjshae]

^^^^

Good to know. Thank you!

 

 

Zdzislaw Beksinski -- man, that guy's artwork is bleak!

[Lephys]

I don't understand... if the inventory model is a paperdoll, then won't we need to be careful about checking our inventory while it's raining in the game world, or while our characters are swimming, so the inventory model doesn't disintegrate?

 

Seriously though, thanks for the update, AND for the model-use clarification, ^_^

[Archmage Silver]

Interesting update again - it's good to get to know something about each developer working on Project Eternity.

 

@Dimitri - If you get around reading these comments, what are your tools of trade in hardware & software?

 

I'm also making a note of those vodka brands for further... study.

[D'rez]

The high-poly modelling is for baking out normal maps. The low-poly modelling is what you see in game. The same low-poly model will be used for in-game and paperdoll.

 

As i said :D (feels good to be right )

[Osvir]

Hi Dimitri

[aVENGER]

Nice update, but you guys might consider breaking up the "Meet developer X" interview series with some other material in between.

 

For example,

that Josh recently posted was very interesting. It would have made a good official update, IMO.

[WorstUsernameEver]

Nice update, but you guys might consider breaking up the "Meet developer X" interview series with some other material in between.

 

For example,

that Josh recently posted was very interesting. It would have made a good official update, IMO.

 

This is exactly what is happening actually. The previous update was on art. The next one is going to be a design update.

[Frisk]

This is exactly what is happening actually. The previous update was on art. The next one is going to be a design update.

 

Or maybe the next update will be the announcement of the fulfilment site, the forum badges for the various levels and so on....

[xSigma]

Wow, just google searched them. Damn, wish I was that good.

[Hormalakh]

Here are some other questioins.

 

How did you get into animation for gaming?

 

What's your favorite tool to use?

 

Any tips for those interested in getting into game development?

 

What do you find the most challenging when it comes to developing good art for games?

Edited December 14, 2012 by Hormalakh

[WorstUsernameEver]

This is exactly what is happening actually. The previous update was on art. The next one is going to be a design update.

 

Or maybe the next update will be the announcement of the fulfilment site, the forum badges for the various levels and so on....

 

"We are planning for a design update next week, and then we will be going on hiatus for two weeks due to the holiday break!"

[Stun]

For example,

that Josh recently posted was very interesting. It would have made a good official update, IMO.

Wait.... Where did that come from?

 

Is there any more of these unadvertized Dev game-design info things floating around that I might have missed over the past couple of weeks?

Edited December 14, 2012 by Stun

[Chunkyman]

For example,

that Josh recently posted was very interesting. It would have made a good official update, IMO.

Wait.... Where did that come from?

 

Is there any more of these unadvertized Dev game-design info things floating around that I might have missed over the past couple of weeks?

 

Yes, he's made a few of them. There all on his personal youtube channel (which is the one in the above link).

[rjshae]

If you have any questions for Dimitri post them in this thread!

'E's a chatty fellow.

[Dimitri Berman]

Hello everyone! I'll try and answer your questions as best I can.

 

Falkon - we will have dynamic physics and cloth objects, we are prototyping this right now. Expect capes, tails, and similar objects to behave realistically. Making a creature left-handed is not an issue on the art end, but it's up to design team whether they want that to be a significant factor for gameplay. Concept creation is fairly collaborative process and usually we try to make our asset as close to the concept as we can, although exceptions and revisions are made all the time. Even after something is in-game it will tend to be revised before the game ships, multiple times.

 

Frisk - High poly models would be Zbrush high-detail assets (10+ million polygons) that are used to generate normal maps for our low-poly (read: in-game) assets.

 

rjshae - It will be quite similar to NWN2. On character creation you will be able to pick from a number of races, male or female, various head types, hair styles, your skin will be tintable, and there will be a few other options. As far as how emotive the characters are, I don't think we have a final decision on it yet. The characters in this game are actually a lot smaller than they are in NWN2, so in a sense it would be wasted work to add any kind of facial animation and/or further customization options. Sadly, you'd simply never see them. We are going to focus our efforts on what players can appreciate as they adventure.

 

Gumbercules - we haven't decided yet, but unlikely. I agree with you, however, in Eternity characters will be fairly small and it's unlikely you would see body shape differences beyond what we are going to do with the races themselves. As to the 2nd question... yes, it is a huge tech issue to have different races start with different body bases and shapes, especially for RPG's. That said, we think it's cool, and we're going to try to do it.

 

Solviulnir - damn, I agree! We'll see what we can sneak in. I think the overall look for Eternity has been dictated by past Inifnity-engine games (fairly realistic), but we are certainly not limited by them.

 

StraneCat - Luis Royo is my 3rd and Yosh*tako Amano is definitely an inspiration. Great artists all around.

 

Archmage - Zbrush, Softimage XSI, Maya, Photoshop. Hardware, we all run PC's here, as fast and with as much RAM as we can get.

 

Hormalakh - the hardest part about game dev is changing technology. Usually the characters you see in games are assembled out of many pieces, many layers, and many pipelines. Whole teams can work on a single next-gen character to get him into the game. If all we did was make art, it'd be a much easier job

 

Thanks for the questions everyone! Now back to

[Hormalakh]

Thanks for the response Dimitri. I appreciate that you took time out of your busy schedule to asnwer our questions. Good luck.

[Kai]

I'd be so happy to see Beksinski inspired art within the game, he's an incredible artist.

[rjshae]

Very informative. Thank you for the responses, Dimitri!

[Archmage Silver]

Thanks for dropping by.

[Dimitri Berman]

No problem guys, glad to answer any questions!

[Tamerlane]

For example,

that Josh recently posted was very interesting. It would have made a good official update, IMO.

Wait.... Where did that come from?

 

Is there any more of these unadvertized Dev game-design info things floating around that I might have missed over the past couple of weeks?

 

Yes, he's made a few of them. There all on his personal youtube channel (which is the one in the above link).

Not to mention non-video stuff on Formspring.

[rjshae]

No problem guys, glad to answer any questions!

 

Hi again Dimitri,

 

One of the things I noticed from the NWN2 toolset is that that there was a dismal shortage of shield variants. There were only about five of each type, although the tinting capability helped that a little. Shields show up pretty well even when the combat figures are relatively small, so I'm hoping the good folks at Obsidian will have a larger assortment of shield forms and emblems. Is anything like that in your plans?

 

Thank you.

[Solviulnir the Soulbinder]

Thanks very much for your response Dimitri!

I just love this kind of gamer-developer interaction.

[Falkon Swiftblade]

Dimitri, what's the teams current goal or plan for loot drops for characters? As in how many armor types and what other kinds of character loot will we find? Are you guys planning any legendary or epic drops? I know the current goal is to make PE and an expansion, what types of ways are you guys considering showing character growth over the course of the game? May I suggest damage over time visually to characters gear similar to Batman where his cape and suit gets torn up as you get beat down or maybe some animations the characters are hunkered over exhausted after a big fight...