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Neverwinter Nights 2 Forum News (Jan. 21, 05)

Discussion in 'Game/SP News & Comments' started by chevalier, Jan 21, 2005.

  1. chevalier

    chevalier Knight of Everfull Chalice ★ SPS Account Holder Veteran

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    Remove all ads!
    Here are today's Neverwinter Nights 2 forum highlights, collected by NWVault from Obsidian Forums. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context. Bear in mind also that the posts presented here are copied as-is, and that any bad spelling and grammar does not get corrected on our end.

    Adam Brennecke, Programmer

    Better Animation abuse, and 3d walkmeshes.
    One thing that has made me cringe on making cutscenes is you have NO way to programatically control or pose a character. Everything is a pre programed animation sequence and only that. Some simple bone level animation control functions in the scripting language would be helpful.
    I could think of 23819 reasons why letting the scripter have control over a character's bones is not a good idea. The script system and the game isn't designed for such things, and I can't see anyone making good use out of bone control from script functions. Any kind of programmatic or procedural changes to animations needs to be done by us on the engine side of things. Having good looking cutscenes and making ways to have better control over animations is one of the many things we are currently looking at.

    Erik Novales, Programmer

    A-men
    Ah, that makes sense. Thanks. I'm sure I could still find a way to do it in the current toolset but it wouldn't be nearly as simple.
    Yeah, we're actively trying to identify things that fall into the category of "well, you can do it right now, but it's a pain or a workaround" and change them into things that can be easily done.

    Plugin support in Toolset
    We are looking at ways of making stuff like this (accessing game structures) easier for you guys, at least in the toolset. I have no idea about the game/server itself, though.

    Non-English languages & scripting
    It's a bit of a coincidence, because I didn't know this was a problem, but this has already been fixed.

    Jason Keeney, Programmer

    Physics
    First allow me to cut-n-paste my standard "z-axis" response... its nothing personal, but I've got to make an example of somebody...

    NWN1 had a z-axis.. so if all you want is a z-axis... you've already got it.

    A "z-axis" is not some kind of discreet, tangable thing that is the means to any kind of gameplay end. There is no "z-axis" plugin that we can add to the engine that suddenly makes possible flying, jumping, deformable terrain, spkie pits, swimming, climbing, multi-level walk-meshes, falling, hovering, etc, etc, etc...

    All of these kinds of gameplay elements are separate and independant from one another. They will or wont be included in the game for a variety of reasons, possibly technical, but even more likely for their impact on the gamepley.

    Its entirely possible that we'll inlclude flying and climbing, but not jumping and swimming... or there will be multi-level walkmesheshes, but no hovering, etc, etc, etc....

    For each gameplay mechanic the term "z-axis" has a very different meaning and consequence. Simply calling out for it in general is, at best, hopelessly vague.

    If you want to see flying.. ask for flying. If you want climbing, ask for climbing. Its going to be a waaaaay more productive discussion.
    So, in other words, the short answer to your question "1" is maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe and maybe etc. But the final answer will have little to do with the acutal existance of a "z-axis"... because, as I mentioned in my quote, it already exists.

    More: as for your question "2".... We're still dealing with mostly pre-production type art assets, but the direction so far seems to be very much in "proper" scale.

    More: Yes... there are plans for cool physics-type effect like what you've described. Just keep in mind that NWN2 is a D&D rules based RPG, and not an action game (like say, Half-Life 2) and therefore any "physics" is not likely to have an actual impact on the gameplay... but then again, you never know...

    If it ain't broken why fix it?
    ...I mean what do you expect with such a short development time anyway...
    I dont really think of us as being on a short development cycle... from July of last year to "early 2006" is 18 months, give or take... which makes this one of the longer scheduled projects I've been on... I'd characterize this game as having a very "medium" development length.

    Brian D. Lawson, Programmer

    Re: Half-Life 2 and engine comparisons
    Given the engine limitations of NWN (its a DirectX 8, yes?)
    NWN2 is 100% DirectX 9.0c.

    About the Graphic Engine
    'Medium' as in not as high as high end computers (i.e. CPU 1Ghz - 2Ghz, 64MB VideoRAM, etc.). Lip synching? That's kewl. Now how about winking, smiling, scowling, etc? Of course it doesn't have to be as realistic as The Sims 2 game, think of how slow it would be in medium level pc.
    I don't think that a 1GHz CPU or possibly even 2GHz CPUs would qualify as "high-end" anymore. A 64MB video card definitely doesn't quality as "high-end" anymore.

    Ferret Baudoin, Lead Designer

    Will NWN 2 be backwards compatable with NWN mods?
    What Rhomal said...Whenever possible we want to make it easy for mod-makers to convert NWN1 mods to NWN2. But if the choice is between adding some spiffy new feature that breaks some aspect of conversion or stay conversion-friendly, we'll usually opt for the new feature. We aren't doing things willy nilly, but there's a lot of cool things that are getting added.

    some ideas i would like to see
    There will be consequences for the player's actions. The degree will vary from area to area, the more reactivity there is in a story - the longer it takes to create. But expect there to be real ramifications to many of your decisions. Some decisions won't impact the story at all (or very little), but in real life that happens, too.

    Frank Kowalkowski, Lead Programmer

    Moving Stealthily & PickPocket Animations
    We have internally demo'd a character 'sneaking' in game, using a distinct animation. It's really an issue of animating the sneak across multiple skeletons. There's a good chance we can work this in, but no garauntees (which you'll hear me say a lot).

    Better Animation abuse, and 3d walkmeshes.
    Adam I was just wondering if this goes for general interaction animations (such as the PC interacting with their environment - like actually perfoming the action of pulling a lever for example and pysical interaction with NPCs) as well as cutscenes? Frank K hinted that this was being considered on the old boards and I wondered if you could give us anything more concrete?
    We will likely have engine-only procedural animation or blending to align torsos to objects, etc. Cutscene control of animations was discussed in a meeting yesterday...it's on the board and cutscene creators should feel a lot better with what they will have. Erik has already completed a first pass on the camera code with great results and will be revisiting it later once we get some designer input.

    Craft-a-Face
    Open faced helms are a go.

    Michael Chu, Designer

    The music or soundtrack
    Jack Wall would be great.
    I'd definitely agree with that. Jack Wall does some exceptional soundtracks (my favorite would have to be his work on Myst III: Exile).
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jan 3, 2018
    chevalier, Jan 21, 2005
    #1
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