Duck and Cover

What's so special? A report from a german gaming magazine about a shitty game.

Reminds me of the time when everyone went 'OMFG Orgazm!' when they saw the NWN and KOTOR trailers.

Oh well, enjoy while it still looks good.

Oblivion is looking increasingly mediocre every time I see it. Apparently objects don't cast shadows anymore. I know it's not a big deal, but isn't this one of the main features of "next gen" games these days? Trying to go for realism and all that jazz.

Anyway, combat is leaning more towards Hexen than any kind of RPG I've seen.

I'll download it.

I might consider downloading it.

I won't even click the link.

Pointing and laughing. Pointing and laughing. And smirking.

Congrats on 3000 posts friend Blargh.

Unhuzzah.

All of them absolute rubbish.

Thor Kaufman wrote:What's so special? A report from a german gaming magazine about a shitty game.

Just providing some new footage for the closeted fans residing in these forums.

Mad Max RW wrote:Oblivion is looking increasingly mediocre every time I see it. Apparently objects don't cast shadows anymore. I know it's not a big deal, but isn't this one of the main features of "next gen" games these days? Trying to go for realism and all that jazz.

About the shadows:

They are a form of shadow maps, though the technique we’re using currently differs from the one we showed at E3. Our initial shadow tests were done using cube maps on every surface, but after extensive testing we found them to be too slow overall to use as a general solution. We have switched to doing single shadow maps directed at characters. The system supports full self-shadowing and we do multiple samples and depth comparisons to provide a soft-shadowing effect. The net effect we’ve achieved is a system general enough to handle Oblivion’s diverse environments while still providing great visuals and good performance.

Naked_Lunch wrote:All of them absolute rubbish.

Oho. Your saccharine barbs wound me.

Need the point be drawn to glare ? Doubtful.

Bah, just looks like a Morrowind with better graphics.

Looks like Fallout 3 without guns.

+ dragons.

Fallout 3 will probably have those too. They'll be called "Desert Dragons" or something though.

rad-dragons

Aonaran wrote:

They are a form of shadow maps, though the technique we’re using currently differs from the one we showed at E3. Our initial shadow tests were done using cube maps on every surface, but after extensive testing we found them to be too slow overall to use as a general solution. We have switched to doing single shadow maps directed at characters. The system supports full self-shadowing and we do multiple samples and depth comparisons to provide a soft-shadowing effect. The net effect we’ve achieved is a system general enough to handle Oblivion’s diverse environments while still providing great visuals and good performance.

Does anyone know what the fuck all that shit means? Anybody? I read a post by one of the Bethesda folks clearly saying they had to remove shadows from things like apples, cups, and all sorts of shit or else they'd have to dramatically cut down on the numbers of "stuff" in the game.

OK here's the real deal. They have to cut that stuff out because no system can handle that much shit going on at once and remain playable. Not the Xbox360, and not the fastest PC money can buy. Oh, you can get it to work, but it will be terribly unstable. No matter how much game developers, Microsoft, Sony, public relations nitwits, fanboys and whoever say it can be done, it simply CAN'T and still be affordable. Maybe in 5 years when the technology catches up with itself.

Wolfman Walt wrote:Fallout 3 will probably have those too. They'll be called "Desert Dragons" or something though.

Deathclaws