Easy Radiant Question

[Maximius]

I was just musing about the value of such "indirect" recurring characters for immersive effect. I'm saving technical feasibility questions for that time when I actually have some technical skills with D3. Right now my editing skills rank roughly with my skills at playing the accordian.

 

 

And I don't play the accordian.

[Ratty]

D3 seems like such an obvious choice to me too. I simply was never able to get into Unreal editing, as much as everyone raved about how wonderful it is (simply trying to move around the map by skooting the mouse turned me off). D3's additive approach does take some getting used to--subtractive editing is just so darn elegant--and I'm still struggling with the lighting. But man those levels load so darn fast, even the big ones. I think that's what's impressed me most about D3 so far. Plus, as people have pointed it, it'll be open source one day. Source seems interesting at first glance, facial animations and all that, blah blah, but who wants to deal with Steam? And those micro maps annoy the hell out of me, even though the transitions are short. At least they did in HL1, haven't played HL2 yet cause my home computer doesn't have an internet connection (did somebody say "crack?" I looked around at some but couldn't find one I thought might be reliable--PM me with advice somebody!)

 

As for recommending games, give Painkiller a try. It really is rather fun and pretty cheap nowdays. It takes awhile to get into it--I put it aside for a long time then came back to it and really really loved it--but it seriously grows on you. It's similar to Serious Sam except each map is radically different in style, the weapons are better, it gives you many different ways to tackle a situation, and the tarot cards give it a great added dimension once you get the hang of them.

 

I know, totally off topic now. Sorry, I'm bored and lonely.

Edited June 26, 2005 by Ratty

[sparhawk]

I never liked Serioous Sam, but Painkiller is one of my favourite shooters. Great great atmosphere, cool levels and really good graphics. I like just to walk through the levels and look at them while listening to the music.

[obscurus]

Did you guys ever consider the AMP][ engine at all? It does what most of what Doom 3 does (lighting engine is similar, has normal maps and dynamic shadows, unified lighting engine etc), albeit not as elegantly or with the same level of performance... But it has very cheap licencing fees that even a small team could deal with (you can release a full game under shareware licencing for $200, or a full comercial game for $2000, and for $25,000 you get the full source code (compare to $500,000 for Doom 3)....

 

Also there is The Chronicles of Riddick, which uses the Starbreeze engine, and it is not all that dissimilar to D3 (again, normal maps, dynamic shadows, unified lighting engine), has a decent editor and SDK available, and it is a stealth game out of the box...

 

Not that I think you made the wrong choice with Doom 3 at all, I think it is perfect for what you are doing

[Renzatic]

If there were any engine I'd consider liscensing it'd be the Reality Engine.

 

It's supposedly pretty cheap...cheap enough for enthauists and small teams to dabble with, and it's capable of EVERYTHING I'd want to play with.

[obscurus]

Geez.. if the Reality engine is as good on paper as it seems, it is one hell of a good option, seems like it wipes the floor with Doom 3 on specs, but specs are often deceptive... they don't say how much it costs though, so I wonder just how cheap it is... i might see if I can get a hold of the evaluation version and some pricing... could be interesting.

[obscurus]

Here is the main problem with licensing the Reality Engine: Epic Games has bought it out, and is no longer licensing it! I guess we will see the good bit incorporated into Unreal Engine X... Oh well...

 

http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/to...topic_id=319114

[sparhawk]

If I spend money for an engine it would have to include the sourcecode. But since there are no engines we could afford with that, IMO D3 is a pretty good choice.

[OrbWeaver]

Plus with D3 we'll probably get the sourcecode anyway in a few years.