Hi Everyone,
I was looking at the in game snap shots and I was wondering what level of floral and fauna are we going to see in game? Obviously we will see trees and grass but what of the small animals? Birds, bunnies and deer and the like. I am curious on several fronts. Game performance with more animals and trees. How realistic a world is being created? How much of the graphic creations is going to hit our graphics cards?
Also, how does this impact the creative process when building a world like this?
Lots of questions and hope the Devs can chime in on this one. Of course everyone can throw down some thoughts…keep it clean LOL
Ox
I hope there is a lot of wildlife, and I hope it looks and behaves like it has a life to it (seeing animals hunt, eat, look after their young, fight over territory, be weary of you the player).
I used to love watching the creatures in SWG because they did have this real quality to them, not as good as we can see with todays tech, but it awed me when I was younger. I loved to watch herds with they young walking around looking like they were grazing etc.
How fantastic would it be if spawning/patrolling mobs caused nearby fauna (birds for eg) to all leap into the air and fly away! ... birds that could be shot down with arrows.
(Bushes have triggers waiting for mobs to pass within 3 feet ... if they do, it triggers a spawn of birds to fly away!)
That takes care of the bushes ....
.... so any ideas about beavers?
Rachael said:I hope there is a lot of wildlife, and I hope it looks and behaves like it has a life to it (seeing animals hunt, eat, look after their young, fight over territory, be weary of you the player).
I used to love watching the creatures in SWG because they did have this real quality to them, not as good as we can see with todays tech, but it awed me when I was younger. I loved to watch herds with they young walking around looking like they were grazing etc.
You and I grouped we wouldn't get anything done we would be too busy enjoying the scenery :) I love those things as well ! lol
Mekada said:Oxillion said:Great comments guys! Does anyone think it will impact performance of the game?
Ox
WoW manages to have lots of critters around without impacting performance. Always nice to see a rabbit get attacked by a wolf and similar interactions.
True but WoW has a very light overall graphic environment. I still enjoyed that in WoW. Pantheon will have far better graphics and a different game engine. I am just curious and wonder what others want to see in the game.
Ox
Trees and grass swaying with the wind, used to bog down my pc bad. Also, if they are going to be swaying with the wind, don't make them all sway in the same direction all of the time that's just unnatural Is there a way to make the trees sway in different directions at the same time ? as well as tall grass ? or is that asking a bit much :(
Kelem said:Trees and grass swaying with the wind, used to bog down my pc bad. Also, if they are going to be swaying with the wind, don't make them all sway in the same direction all of the time that's just unnatural Is there a way to make the trees sway in different directions at the same time ? as well as tall grass ? or is that asking a bit much :(
Good point! I noticed on teh last VR stream that the tress were moving but not in the same direction. I will have to go back and check to see if I was seeing things but I think they actually may be moving inthe wind....if so SWEET!
Ox
Oxillion said:Kelem said:Trees and grass swaying with the wind, used to bog down my pc bad. Also, if they are going to be swaying with the wind, don't make them all sway in the same direction all of the time that's just unnatural Is there a way to make the trees sway in different directions at the same time ? as well as tall grass ? or is that asking a bit much :(
Good point! I noticed on teh last VR stream that the tress were moving but not in the same direction. I will have to go back and check to see if I was seeing things but I think they actually may be moving inthe wind....if so SWEET!
Ox
I've been doing a fair amount of reading on the Unity engine they are using for Pantheon. It's pretty consistently praised for high quality, high performance rendering of foliage and detailed environments as a whole. I bet several of us old-timers are do for a PC update anyway, but we shouldnt have to go all out with a badass Alienware system or anything. I'm betting a pretty middle of the road gaming PC will do just fine, even if you might have to dial back the detail a bit.
I'd also imagine that the game will be like most others in that there will be a lot of scalabiilty, so that you can adjust things quite a bit to suit your own PC's capabilities or your personal tastes.
Back to the original topic though, I'm really with others in hoping that there's an awareness of the world's inhabitants and realistic reactions to changing variables. Deer running to hide with a player charges thru an area, birds flying from bushes, etc.
Garper said:I hope they include lots of bushes and beavers...
LOL :D
Just found this video of gameplay in the Unity 5 engine of "The Forest" (survivetheforest.com)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkeL74kc0mA
Ignore the commentary, it doesnt apply for our purposes. I only provide this to show the performance of the engine.
And here are the minimum system specs for that game :
Obviously the game isnt an MMO, and looks like the level of detail might be a little lower. But generally thats pretty good looking vegetation, really smooth rendering, and without a crazy system spec requirement at all.
Feyshtey said:...Back to the original topic though, I'm really with others in hoping that there's an awareness of the world's inhabitants and realistic reactions to changing variables. Deer running to hide with a player charges thru an area, birds flying from bushes, etc.
I've always liked the wildlife fleeing thing - that's what you'd most likely see when tramping around (though perhaps a sneaking ranger may not?). It serves a practical purpose, too, ie. warns of the approach of enemies or gives away your movements to enemies if you're not careful.
It's cool when seeming 'flavour' components have an actual game mechanic purpose, even if it's minor. I think it's good for immersion.
Mekada said:WOW has lots of critters around without impacting performance. Always nice to see a rabbit get attacked by a wolf and similar interactions.
I was about to post the same thing. I agree that WOW did Fauna right!! Watching a bunny get chased and caught by a wolf adds character to the game.
Besides animals chasing and feeding off of one another I would like to see birds dive-bombing us if we get to close to their nesting site, or to see a herd of deer (15 - 30 deer) taking off running when they hear any noise sort of like "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes" when the apes are hunting the herd of deer. I would like to see more animals herd if they are herding types or hunt in packs if they are predators.
I also want to see wildlife in the rivers, ponds, oceans. One of the scariest moments of my EQ life was when I was swimming in the ocean while waiting for a boat, and I decided to dive down underwater to explore and your visabillity was poor underwater (about a few feet) when suddenly a shark appeared. I actually had real fear and jumped in my seat as I frantically tried to get my character back to the docks. Or the Deepwater Barracuda's and Bloodgill Goblins in Lake of Ill Omen, it made for some tense hunting...
Rint
Feyshtey said:Just found this video of gameplay in the Unity 5 engine of "The Forest" (survivetheforest.com)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkeL74kc0mA
Ignore the commentary, it doesnt apply for our purposes. I only provide this to show the performance of the engine.
And here are the minimum system specs for that game :
Minimum system requirements - The Forest PC
- OS: Windows 7 SP1, 32-bit.
- CPU: Core 2 Duo E2200 2.4GHz / Athlon 7550 Dual Core.
- RAM: 4 GB.
- GPU: Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT / Radeon HD 4830.
- HDD space: 5 GB.
- GPU memory: 512 MB.
Obviously the game isnt an MMO, and looks like the level of detail might be a little lower. But generally thats pretty good looking vegetation, really smooth rendering, and without a crazy system spec requirement at all.
Those graphics look really good and close to what VR has deployed already. I hope there going with that level of detail and more critters running around.
I could only see issues with the fire that V poster was lighting. Couple of glitches but nothing major. Impressive space in the game though. I know my machine will hand Patheon with no issues at all. I think WI will still bump my SLI 770s to a 1080.
Ox
Feyshtey said:I've been doing a fair amount of reading on the Unity engine they are using for Pantheon. It's pretty consistently praised for high quality, high performance rendering of foliage and detailed environments as a whole. I bet several of us old-timers are do for a PC update anyway, but we shouldnt have to go all out with a badass Alienware system or anything. I'm betting a pretty middle of the road gaming PC will do just fine, even if you might have to dial back the detail a bit.
I'd also imagine that the game will be like most others in that there will be a lot of scalabiilty, so that you can adjust things quite a bit to suit your own PC's capabilities or your personal tastes.
Back to the original topic though, I'm really with others in hoping that there's an awareness of the world's inhabitants and realistic reactions to changing variables. Deer running to hide with a player charges thru an area, birds flying from bushes, etc.
A good homebuillt PC will blow away an Alienware for far less money, but I have feeling Pantheon at least will require a pretty good graphics card. Since MMOs need to contineu look acceptable for at least 5 years after release they are often pretty heavy in the beginning, particularly before all optimization is done.
Wows angine was pretty low compared to many others at launch, partly because it used good art and partly because the initial engine was coded by Jeff Strain (who also made WC3 and GW2s engine) but you just don't find coders that good for indie projects, even good indie projects. Pantheons engine seems to be pretty good but from what I seen so far it will still demand a good graphics card at launch. Also, there is limits to how low you can scale things down to.
Personally I think it is worth investing a new GFX card for a good game anyways, usually unless you have a really crappy old computer that is enough. With MMOs the GFX card is many times more important then the rest of the hardware.
I think it also comes down to what type of game it is in regards to a CPU or GPU centric game. With machines in the past 2 to 3 years most machines can handle 80% of the game out there with no issues. Granted the heave graphics based game need more power but those games are sold as a high resolution and graphically intensive game.
I am going to bump up but will wait for the G card market to settle down a bit. The 1080 craze has tings inflated so time will tell.
I do hope the game critters will be plentiful just for the immersion aspects.
Ox
