Update #49: Water, Trees, Day/Night, Lighting... All That Jazz

[Exediron]

I don't usually comment on update, but that was very impressive. The beautiful terrain I was expecting, but the sunset was excellent and the water effects are gorgeous. And I really liked getting a look at some characters. Keep up the good work!

 

(My head didn't explode, but I took precautions )

[Stois]

I like this update so much I finally created an account on obsidian forum  

I backed the project and I am so happy with the insane progress you have done so far

[Stois]

I came.

 

GIVE.

 

US.

 

DAMN.

 

BACKER.

 

STORE.

 

I want up my pledge so badly :<

 

I would also like to give you guys more money, will you take more money from me please? )

[Ineth]

To all those who are anxious to increase their pledges, consider redirecting some of that generosity to Torment: Tides of Numenera - the other kickstarter-funded spiritual sequel to the Infinity Engine games.

 

Their kickstarter has just ended, but pleging via PayPal (for the same tiers and addons as the kickstarter) remains open until the end of the month: https://torment.inxile-entertainment.com/store... And all additional money that is pledged until then, will still go towards reaching the last stretch goal (which wasn't reached through the kickstarter)!

 

They presented two animated environment screenshots of their own:

 

(Note that unlike Obsidian's waterfall screenshot, these were not created through months of pre-production, they were created more or less spontaneously in only a few days near the end of the kickstarter campaign. So keep that in mind when comparing the quality.)

[Monte Carlo]

That was impressive and I am happy.

 

Does anyone else remember the wailing and gnashing of teeth when Obsidian announced they were using Unity?

 

[Sedrefilos]

Great stuff. I'm very very pleased

[StoneScraper]

Staring at the screen   ....

Wipe my eyes , did i just see what i just see ?

Is my mind playing tricks with me ?

Than i realize ,sit back and feel a tear in the corner of my eyes ,the tear of ultimate joy.

 

You people are amazing everyone of you ,your all part of a solid team , shackles in a chain .

Straight from the heart , my thanks for this awesome preview of what is coming our way    

[Pewch]

Absolutely beautiful, especially loving the dynamic lighting from the little wisp thing. I have a feeling that dark damp scary places are actually going to feel like they are supposed to

[TheForumTroll]

So, it looks like this is actually going to be in 2D? I had always been under the impression that the idea was to have 3D rendered from an isometric perspective - after all, I think what most would agree they want is the IE gameplay experience, not 2D in and of itself.

 

I guess I'm curious as to what drove that decision, as it seems like something that adds a fair amount of extra work for no real gain.

You're wrong though. That was exactly what most people wanted. What you describe is what the games that came later was like and the whole point was to go back to this.

[Acridine Orange]

*Jawdrop*

[Hiro Protagonist II]

A suggestion to the dev's:

 

- The camp fire should light up its area a little more when it goes to night time. At the moment, the camp fire stays the same through the day and night cycle. The night cycle kind of makes the camp fire area darker and harder to see the fire.

 

Overall, I really like it.

Edited April 10, 2013 by Hiro Protagonist II

[Robsidious]

I am lost for words...

 

Carry on Obsidian, carry on...

[capitaine_insano]

Fantastic work - this is easily the most fantastic technical display of pre-rendered 3D that I've ever seen.

 

If it's possible to share (and any of the artists ever read this), I would love to know if the dynamic lighting was created by using height maps/z-depth renders of the 3D versions of the assets, and then storing them along with the tiles.  If you can't say, I understand, but lighting for 2D games has always been a pretty terrible experience for me, and I've love to have at least a hint that my guess is headed in the right direction

 

I can't wait see how this looks when you have this in a level full of clearly overlapping tiles, like your dungeon from earlier.

 

Really awesome - keep it up!

[Toran]

Absolutely amazing work here. My mind is still boggling about just how great this will look in varied environments.

 

[LadyCrimson]

"I've got chills, they're multiplying.

and I'm losing control.

'Cause the power...you're supplying,

It's electrifying!"

 

...I have the graphic part of the video playing on loop and can't stop watching it. The music/sound effects made it even better. And I definitely did notice the character models. I thought they looked darn good as well ... the animation of their walking, the details in the zoomed in view.

 

Thanks, Obsidian, for all the hard work, sharing it with all of us, and making me clap my hands together in delight like the little girl I once was. You all rock. This is going to be such a fun year.

[Karranthain]

Nice work! This is exactly what I've been waiting for!

 

2D, it's nice to see you again, a pleasure. *tips top hat and adjusts the monocle*

 

I assume we'll be playing in the zoomed in view from the 2:18 and onwards? I like the detail on the characters.

[Pidesco]

Do the real time dynamic elements of the backgrounds, like the water and the wisp's lighting make the creation of new areas a longer, harder process?

[whemever]

Absolutely stunning, the water is amazing, however I did think the spray at the bottom of the waterfall looked and felt wrong somehow. I also felt that the character walking through the water should produce more of an effect, for what happened they may have been walking on land.  The day/night cycle looked really great (i'd use stunning but i'm in danger of over-using it!)

 

As far as I was concerned the very best bit was the fire wisp floating through the huge doorway, the way the light lit up everything was astounding, especially considering it was, as you said, 2D.

 

The scores on the doors:

 

Water - 9

waterfall bottoms - 4

water/character interaction - 4

Day/Night - 9 (Could also be used to incorporate a 'seasonal' element)

Fire - 10 (however light throw - I'm talking camp fire here -  especially at night needs adjusting)

 

All in all, Amazing 8/10, Keep up the excellent work, I'm really looking forward to getting a go!

[lavosslayer]

That was absolutely fantastic! I can just imagine so many uses for that water level raising and lowering function...and the lighting!! OMG!!! OMG!! So happy I shelled out the dough to you all for this...I can see we shall not be disappointed!! I think I read someone had stated adding the seasonal changes to the game...I concur if its possible to do so...I can see it adding lifetimes to the time I could spend in this game! I hope I'll be able to pull myself away from this to play star citizen...I spent a nice chunk of change on that bad boy too! The crowd funding of games by proven developers is looking like the way to go to get the games we want without the publisher screwing things up with deadlines! Thanks so much for all the hard work you all have and continue to put into this game! It truly shows!

[Elidar]

Wow! Just... wow! Amazing work, guys. The environment really feels alive. It's great to see such commitment to making the world look amazing. If that is how every area will look like, I am sure this game will be included in the golden pantheon of every RPG fan.

Now... Besides the excellent implementation of environmental effects there's something that I’d like to suggest to better improve the immersion. Particularly the characters. More particularly their idle animation. What I saw in this short video was amazing (I am ready to repeat it over and over again), including character animation and the way they look. However, it seems to me something was lacking. All three characters were just standing doing nothing. Why not make them more alive, self and world-aware? Perhaps adding some idle animations to them will make it even better looking? For instance, a dwarf could lean on his ax; the girl could look around, start stretching herself and so on.

Plus something that always seemed odd to me was the fact that in most IE games the characters always held their weapons in hands even when not being attacked, for example being in a city. This seems a bit odd. Perhaps if they were to holster them, put shields behind their backs, etc., it'd look more natural.

But again, these are just suggestions for future improvements. Perhaps I am ahead of myself and all that had been already thought about by you.

In any case, great work! Keep it up!

 

[Bootsy81]

Guys, it looks absolutely fantastic. I imagine it wasn't easy to achieve all those techniques in a 2D background, especially the dynamic water and lighting, but you've done it!

 

If I had to be very nit-picky my only two minor criticisms would be that the mist at the foot of the waterfall looks a little too opaque for a mist effect, to my eye it should be a little bit more translucent and well, misty.

 

And at the scene where the (fantastic) characters enter the scene there are two small greenish-yellow bushes near the bottom centre of the screen. They shake as though there is someone or something hiding in them instead of swaying as though they are in a breeze. You can see them do it around the 2:16 mark. It's not a big deal and it took a few views of the video for me to notice it, but now that I have my eye is drawn to it every time! lol.

 

But as I say, these are very minor nitpicks. What you guys have achieved is pretty awesome and you should be proud. Can't wait to see a battle in these scenes!

[Charezon]

Love what I saw, very excited! You guys are doing an awesome job!

 

I know there's still a lot of work to be done, but I'd like to make a small suggestion. The 'smoke' or mist from the waterfall is a little too 'grey'. I'm thinking it should be a bit lighter with rainbow colors/color spectrum, especially when sunlight (at dawn?) is bright. It might liven it up more?

 

Thoughts anyone?

[O.DOGG]

Just watched the update. Amazing stuff. Congrats to everyone on the team. Excellent work. Can't wait to see more!

[Notso]

So, it looks like this is actually going to be in 2D? I had always been under the impression that the idea was to have 3D rendered from an isometric perspective - after all, I think what most would agree they want is the IE gameplay experience, not 2D in and of itself.

 

I guess I'm curious as to what drove that decision, as it seems like something that adds a fair amount of extra work for no real gain.

 

I'm not sure what all the jargon you used in that post means, but I'm pretty darn sure the vast majority of the backers wanted it the way it is in this video.

[Predatorian]

Looks amazing! Every detail is superb!

 

The thing I would like to see improvement is Character animation, since their models is already great. What gives you the feeling of a living creature is a reallistic animation. Make them breath, accelerate before moving and slow down when arriving, look around, spit on floor, scratch their bodies, sit down when tired, etc...

 

Congratulations for doing it right so far!