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Notice List of Development Roles

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I do not know what this new engine can support, but can't see it handling more than 20 ships in a single battle without fps dropping to single digits unless the draw distance and LOD are drastically reduced for online play.
 
We may want to break off this tail end discussion as a separate thread so it is easy for others to see and contribute to.

On to the discussion.

Okay, I don't want to create a MMORPG. But I do want a game server robust enough to have large numbers of players online.

I also don't want multiplayer to be limited to deathmatch and set-piece wargames.

I'd like the full singleplayer campaign to be playable by a multiplayer team. I'd also like the full map to be able to be played on as a sandbox type of game. something where there is no real winners or losers, but players can all sail around and do their thing however they want with a chance to run into another PC character likely.

If we limit multiplayer to only a few players at a time, then the chance of encountering another human player on the same server goes down by several orders of magnitude.

A really good example of the system I would like to have available would be the Space Opera game Freelancer.

Its server module could support up to 64 players right out of the box and with a bit of code tweaking could be increased to support up to 256 players online all at once.

The tech is there and achievable WITHOUT hurting the overall game.

I don't want this to be a game that will be a one play-through and you are done either.

That's part of the charm of Build Mod and GoF. They are sandbox games that you can follow the story and complete the 'quest', but you never get to a 'Game Over' screen unless you die.

These are some of the things that really stand out as important parts of what is missing from the original games that are part of what we were promised.

I'd like to see us deliver on the promise and then blow the promise out of the water, literally!
 
Hylie Pistof said:
I do not know what this new engine can support, but can't see it handling more than 20 ships in a single battle without fps dropping to single digits unless the draw distance and LOD are drastically reduced for online play.
Click to expand...

I'm sure we should be able to get more than 20, but that's just me speaking my thoughts out loud without fully knowing the technical limitations of the engine yet.

I do know that UDK can support networking for up to 128 if I remember correctly. Just look at how many players can be on Unreal Tournament servers. Some of those places wind up INSANE with the bots and real human players.
 
Captain Armstrong said:
Now that is exciting! :woot she looks beautiful so far! by the transom it looks like a 1765 version of the victory? That is truly awesome! Whose work is it? Bava's or Sisko's or yours? Whoevers it is she looks great! Quite a bit of detail on the windows already. Gosh i am excited to use the new version of maya :)
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That ship was the initial modell and created by me. When I start the creating, we meet Sisko and Bava and so I work these ships out. In the priority this ship I set after the Sphynx now.
Yes the transom is a little bit pimped version of the original 1765 version but we think if I put a second balkony on it and we give them the figures of Balchins Victory.

Hylie Pistof said:
I do not know what this new engine can support, but can't see it handling more than 20 ships in a single battle without fps dropping to single digits unless the draw distance and LOD are drastically reduced for online play.
Click to expand...

Not realy. Today in the evening I will show you a 12 Million Polygon Scene with 20 Saint Albans with the whole full loaded Island of Crysis in the background. DX10 at maximum. There we get around 20 FPS. The LODs are not fully optimized but the polycount isnt so important when you have good LODs. My tables of it, I show a few days ago. So the goals are LODs over LODs.
 
OK maybe it wont fit here but in the development process we talk about the LOD System.
Here is a scene with 21 Saint Albans (each 176.000 Polygons), 770 Cannons (9, 12 and 24 pounder, each around 16.000 Polygons) and some infrastructure and a complete island.

The screensshot show how important LODs are and show in the upper right corner the FPS and Polycount at the Screen. You can see at the worst case 14 Million Polygones at around 25 FPS.
Note: My Crysis is load with many tweaks too.

Without LODs the PC cant render this scene. It will be 30 - 40 Millions incl. Island.

AMD 6core@4,1GHz, stock AMD 6970, 8GB DDR3@2100, ASUS Sabertooth

All screenshots are taken at full HD 1920x1080
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Wow, you really have quite the beautiful game world there. the fact that 20 ships of the line and a harbor with row upon row of cannons can be loaded is amazing, and I am sure we will make good use of UDK's LOD options.
 
Hi i really am amazed by the new project you guys are on to and i wanted to help you set it up if help needed!
I can recommend me as a 2d Artist. I am working with gimp and Photoshop. I also have some experience with movie editing programs. Furthermore i also made designs for Forums and Websites but i have no experience with java or other i net languages.

So if you need someone like me tell me and i would like to help you with 2d art also i would be interested to know if there is a team speak server or something like this where people can discuss and help each other on this project!

Greatings :Masterchen(Swiss)

http://ceds.xobor.de/
http://15th-alabama.forumieren.com/
http://209613.homepagemodules.de/
 
Captain Armstrong said:
Wow, you really have quite the beautiful game world there. the fact that 20 ships of the line and a harbor with row upon row of cannons can be loaded is amazing, and I am sure we will make good use of UDK's LOD options.
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Thats the reason why Im addict to the CryEngine. Its so much beautiful to create a geameworld there and it looks so amazing, only the Unreal 4 Engine can change my mind to change the engine complete.
The feeling to are inside this world is amazing. Drive ships, fire weapons, explore an Island and enjoy the look and feeling is what I want to have in a game.

Bava make jokes about the shipcount :p , so I have playd a little bit more and setup in the same situation to 65 Saint Albans + 770 Cannons and the rest of harbor and island. Its close to the boarder of what the GPU can handle.
This tests show thats not unreal to have high detailed modells with a big count of them at a place. I think the fear that the UDK wont handle those situation is unfoundet. I think the UDK will handle this very good.

At the last screen you see the task manager after shut down the game. Summary: 18 Million Polygons is in my setup the acceptable end. When I hit this boarder I get loading jerks of the phyisiccalculation of the ships in the water. The FPS are close to be playable but the physicengine runs feeled like 10FPS, so I focus a 15 Million Polygons boarder at one scene as the real maximum the CE2 can handle with my actual setup.

At the screenshots you see a peak of 27 Million Polygones and thats far, far, faaaaar enougth you ever create in the UDK.
I hope my pictures help you in the understanding of what is possible and what does LODs and physicbodys.
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Wedori said:
OK maybe it wont fit here but in the development process we talk about the LOD System.
Click to expand...

I have edited your posts above to hide the pictures. You are correct, this is not the proper place for that discussion mate. Your game does look great, but we have made our choice for which engine we are using. If you wish to continue this discussion in another thread that is fine, but please stay on topic in here.
 
Ire not talking about the choice of your engine, I try to help your project to show possible loads in an engine. At the actual state its not easy to find the right place for those discussions. My test in the CE shows you that you dont need to fear those detailed loads in the UDK. So our developement role is to share our modells and knowledge with your team.

It exist no topic to talk about those themes. Our modellcooperation need an own thread too but I will create one at the time Ive finish my overview.

In the last update you write about the "AT A GLANCE: FIRST GAME CONCEPT" thread but there it wont fit too.

Please understand my postings as sharing my knowledge. I only need to find the right place for it. Sorry for the offtopic-entrys.
 
Just thought I'd mention that in one week time, I will have to go back to work again. So that means that my PiratesAhoy! time will again be severely trimmed down.
If there is still anything important I need to do to contribute here, please let me know in advance so I can still do what I can before I leave.
Because after I do, chances are that I will hardly be present here at all for a few months and really cannot keep up with what is going on.
 
HI!
You can put me in the Programming staff. I'd better like to work on the commercial engine of the game, or on the quest engine, or on IA (which can be related). Or also I could give some help in modeling Islands, if needed.

I'll have time starting from the end of February 2013, after my PhD, as told before. :walkplank

See ya :ahoy
 
Commercial engine of the game? What do you mean? The game isn't commercial.
 
AH! Do you think so? One need to buy stuff, sell it and the price may differ if some NPC bought all the goods before the player no? And these goods may be on the vessel that is just leaving the harbour... and the player could just attack that vessel full of good...:aar

I think that a commercial engine similar to X3 could be VERY interesting (without all the player's production part, only the NPC commercial engine).
 
Some sort of meta-game like that would be quite useful further down the line. I had my eye on elements of it, but maybe I can share. What's your PhD in - something related? :D
 
I'd like the world to be realistic. Having an intelligent concurrency could add a little bit of interest in finding the right goods to sell. We should consider also the "peaceful commerciants" that want to play to this game. (Personally I like it sometimes). And so pirates will be a real threat ;) hihi

my PhD is in Hydrogeology: more precisely in numerical flow and transport simulation; also geomodeling (geological 3D modeling) and meshing .
 
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