This is what I'd love to see in Pantheon in regard to weather effects. It's like EQ1's draw distance with purpose! https://youtu.be/oAgXmXCYbPQ?t=530
When weather is this intense and real looking, is it possible to achieve in an MMO without crazy lag? Especially when the game is non-instanced?
Let's keep in mind that weather should be to add realism and make the world more interesting but should not make it impossible to play. Standing in one place waiting for a heavy snowstorm or rain to blow over can be very nice the first time - after a while though it becomes exceptionally annoying. Especially if other people are waiting for you and will boot you if you don't arrive in 5 minutes.
Just a general comment unrelated to your youtube link.
Looks great to me, hopefully we can see some intense weather like that in Pantheon.
dorotea said:Let's keep in mind that weather should be to add realism and make the world more interesting but should not make it impossible to play. Standing in one place waiting for a heavy snowstorm or rain to blow over can be very nice the first time - after a while though it becomes exceptionally annoying. Especially if other people are waiting for you and will boot you if you don't arrive in 5 minutes.
Just a general comment unrelated to your youtube link.
I can't imagine it being impossible to play with heavy/strong weather, it would just require more careful play. I imagine supernatural darkness areas will have players nearly blind with only a few feet of visibility so if players can brave that kind of environment then a heavy snowstorm would be like a sunny day in comparison.
Avaen said:This is what I'd love to see in Pantheon in regard to weather effects. It's like EQ1's draw distance with purpose! https://youtu.be/oAgXmXCYbPQ?t=530
When weather is this intense and real looking, is it possible to achieve in an MMO without crazy lag? Especially when the game is non-instanced?
From what I gather, there will be rain effects (which will affect visibility) and fog effects (which will also affect visibility). Both will have "variable density". This is based on comments made during the various streams.
It's possible to achieve it because of the engine that they are using. Most modern game engines are very good at that sort of things. One example is all of the flags on top of Thronefast. In the initial tech video, they were fixed and not moving, and they explaind that they were placeholders, but they would be proceduralized going forward. In one of the latest streams, I think the one with Vress, he went back up to the top of where they were and all of them were waving, like dozens of them, with no visible lag.
Also note how the snow collects on their shoulders and the realistic tracks made in the snow. Even how realistic night looks where everything is silhouetted. So beautiful!
Yes...that is a single player game though. Can still probably be done, but usually in MMOs with a lot of details like that it can crash the game when a lot of people are around with effects like that. But the atmosphere will definetly be important. One of the streamers got to explore after the group was done and he got to gaze out into the enviroment and the dark mood of the enviroment of that place was pretty nice. So I think they will do a good job in it.
Watemper said:Yes...that is a single player game though. Can still probably be done, but usually in MMOs with a lot of details like that it can crash the game when a lot of people are around with effects like that. But the atmosphere will definetly be important. One of the streamers got to explore after the group was done and he got to gaze out into the enviroment and the dark mood of the enviroment of that place was pretty nice. So I think they will do a good job in it.
There is no single-player mode in Pantheon. Pantheon is an MMO.
They have already shown the fog effects in Pantheon in streams.
From what I understand, weathjer is going to be intense in pantheon, in fact, you weill need to acclimate yourself to it with armor or clothing. You will need special armor/clothing to deal with cold, heat, wind sheer. A good example was in the one stream where they tried to cross the bridge, and could not because the wind was pushing them back and the cold was intense, so much so it was frioisting the edges of the screen- although the purist in me thought that was a bit too much "fourth wall" breaking but whatever- and they could not pass unless they had different armor to manage the cold, and the wind sheer.
also in one of the earliest- awesome- streams where the boss followed them back to their spawn points in town and killed them after their wipe right at the end?- haha!- they had to run /fight through an atmosphere that slowed them down and for which they were NOT acclimated nor had armor with which they could be acclimated to that environment.
So there will be different kinds, pressure being another, I recall some cheering for void (no air- no speech! no spell casting because no speech!?! hold your breath or suffocate!)
wrap that game play with the obvious/intuitive graphics as you pointed out and, yeah.
Manouk said:From what I understand, weathjer is going to be intense in pantheon, in fact, you weill need to acclimate yourself to it with armor or clothing. You will need special armor/clothing to deal with cold, heat, wind sheer. A good example was in the one stream where they tried to cross the bridge, and could not because the wind was pushing them back and the cold was intense, so much so it was frioisting the edges of the screen- although the purist in me thought that was a bit too much "fourth wall" breaking but whatever- and they could not pass unless they had different armor to manage the cold, and the wind sheer.
also in one of the earliest- awesome- streams where the boss followed them back to their spawn points in town and killed them after their wipe right at the end?- haha!- they had to run /fight through an atmosphere that slowed them down and for which they were NOT acclimated nor had armor with which they could be acclimated to that environment.
So there will be different kinds, pressure being another, I recall some cheering for void (no air- no speech! no spell casting because no speech!?! hold your breath or suffocate!)
wrap that game play with the obvious/intuitive graphics as you pointed out and, yeah.
It's not just going to be armor. There will be potions as well for acclimatizations. In the video you're talking about, they used potions.
Keno Monster said:Lots of threads on weather.
I searched and there was only one other thread about weather but it was getting into character class ideas and how weather affects abilities and this is not what this thread is about. Please post the threads you are referring to, I'd love to read them.
I'm sure its possible with some creative shaders. Ashes of Creation is showing it in some of the videos.
Here is a video showing some interesting season work in Unity.
Beefcake said:Hoping to see how high level druids will be able to affect weather.
I hope they can pull off the thing they talked about where the druid will call the thunderstorm, and in doing so, the wizards lighting spells have more oomph. Like, the power of the lightining that the druid called is feeding and making more powerfull the lightining spells of the wizard, causing the wizards lighting sells to do more damage. Plus I have a cool video in mind with pantheon characters, dubbed with teen titan voices- the dark one as the wizzy and the druid as the ...druid talking and then being quiet as the druid does her thing and the wizzy does her thing and then AC DC thunderstruck- the official video version- plays in the backgroud as the scene is the pantheon characters fighting. so as thunderstruck starts, thats the druid getting vacant eyed and calling the storm and the wizzy feeling it and doing the ahh-ahh-ahh as it builds up. then timing the casting with the guitar, and the lighting from the sky with the drums.
As long as rain isn't just random thin white lines on the screen, I'm good with it. One thing about MMOs in the past was that there seemed to be only 1 kind of rain. No slight misty showers, or heavy terrential downlpours, just your average steady spring shower.
Snow tended to be small white dots, and typically where only in zones where the ground was already snow, so tht accumulation or snow cover was not a factor.
Certain classes depend on weather si it will be in the game.
Here is the very cool CTS system someone made in Unity so I'm positive VR can and have done this.
Weather system - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b76AEjrS3Ng
Sampler - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwTzBd5riw&list=PLckEMv5tz0E6Atjqq1tsqRTdN0LQNxrm_&index=14
Snow Demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw1hlnRiomE&list=PLckEMv5tz0E6Atjqq1tsqRTdN0LQNxrm_&index=2
Fulton said:As long as rain isn't just random thin white lines on the screen, I'm good with it. One thing about MMOs in the past was that there seemed to be only 1 kind of rain. No slight misty showers, or heavy terrential downlpours, just your average steady spring shower.Snow tended to be small white dots, and typically where only in zones where the ground was already snow, so tht accumulation or snow cover was not a factor.
This is because MMOs have to be considerate of the server load from other players. You're not likely to get weather effects like the OP in an MMO - especially not if the weather is a critical component of some mechanic a player is expected to deal with. It needs to be something that players on a wide range of machines can handle, as well as something that doesn't cause crashing in crowded situations.
On a side note, I would love to see some dark places like how WildStar handled the dark. :3 Play the Shade's Eve instance for a great example. (If I can record a video of it, I'll upload and link here. GREAT atmospheric effect!)
Bronsun said:Certain classes depend on weather si it will be in the game.
Here is the very cool CTS system someone made in Unity so I'm positive VR can and have done this.
Weather system - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b76AEjrS3Ng
Sampler - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxwTzBd5riw&list=PLckEMv5tz0E6Atjqq1tsqRTdN0LQNxrm_&index=14
Snow Demo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uw1hlnRiomE&list=PLckEMv5tz0E6Atjqq1tsqRTdN0LQNxrm_&index=2
Thank you for sharing!
Naunet said:Fulton said:As long as rain isn't just random thin white lines on the screen, I'm good with it. One thing about MMOs in the past was that there seemed to be only 1 kind of rain. No slight misty showers, or heavy terrential downlpours, just your average steady spring shower.Snow tended to be small white dots, and typically where only in zones where the ground was already snow, so tht accumulation or snow cover was not a factor.
This is because MMOs have to be considerate of the server load from other players. You're not likely to get weather effects like the OP in an MMO - especially not if the weather is a critical component of some mechanic a player is expected to deal with. It needs to be something that players on a wide range of machines can handle, as well as something that doesn't cause crashing in crowded situations.
On a side note, I would love to see some dark places like how WildStar handled the dark. :3 Play the Shade's Eve instance for a great example. (If I can record a video of it, I'll upload and link here. GREAT atmospheric effect!)
This has been my feeling as well with weather in MMOs. It'd be nice if it were more immersive but I understand the technology factor when designing an online multiplayer game. Hasn't technology caught up yet? In any case, the Unity engine looks like it does weather pretty well so I'm interested how far it can be pushed without causing playability issues. Maybe a lower clip plane like in the original post video would help more dramatic weather effects? I'm confident Pantheon will be beautiful regardless but interested to know how far weather realism can be pushed in an MMO today.