Nielk1 wrote:Really step 1 should be the concept and step 2 a bunch of prototypes of different ideas and elements and game modes and systems without any work done on art or style. Bionite literally did *everything* backwards.
Sort of. Although... I wont build on that. I wrote a 10 step, but realized the list was valuable in the Unreal Development Kit sense and added it to the team notes instead. Maybe next time.
As for the video(s) that have been published - not "real" gameplay, not in the sense that you would think. Sure, it's rendered in the games engine, but the vehicles aren't player controlled, and it wasn't emulated at that frames per second. UDK comes with a few things built in, including various forms of AI. Since all "pawns" or "actors" in the engine are spawned with a 1st and 3rd person camera attached to them (in Bionite's case, not by default, easy to add though), you can use what's called KISMET and MATINEE to create a video.
So the workflow breakdown;
- Place Pathnodes on Map (For AI Movement/Spawn)
- OPEN KISMET - Use Actor Factory/Actor Factory EX to Spawn it's weapons, AI Type, Location, how many, etc.
- WHILE IN KISMET - Create new MATINEE. Create new Director. Switch between cameras if you choose.
- IN KISMET - Use the proper Events, Actions, and Conditions to insure the sequence goes off without a hitch. You can dictate who kills what and where units move, should you choose.
Watch that video BB posted. The cockpit DOES NOT look like that. Why? Because Platoon could never get a steady FPS out of it. That's an actual Unreal Glass Texture -- Distorting every other material on the map (a call for each) - those distance materials are also running numerous Texture and Draw calls - there's a flare, that's heavy. Platoon very clearly never got that running at a solid rate - more false advertising.
But using KISMET and MATINEE -- not a problem. Export a 24FPS-30FPS-60FPS video of a camera following AI, and you have yourself a convincing game play scenario. It will look like actual gameplay because the engine is writing each frame out to tga/png/etc. and you just make a video image sequence. Same goes for units that look like they are moving in groups (original teaser), or the new video that makes it look like there are tons of players (just AI doing what it's told, or "puppets on strings"). Not to mention I saw the original version of the new video and there are new bugs they covered up with a green "overlay" of some kind in post. Go back and try to spot them.
One fallacy after another when it comes to any form of promotion. But nobody is watching the less appealing "actual gameplay" videos - they are boring, bland, empty, colorless, buggy, lifeless representations of what the game actually is.
~LtF
