A closer look at Gamebryo

Brother None

Brother None

This ghoul has seen it all
Orderite
It was established when the Fallout 3 licensing deal was announced that Bethesda would use the Gamebryo engine and adaptations of it they made for Oblivion for Fallout 3. So it's of interest to us that Beyond3D did a two parter about GameBryo. From the descriptive article:<blockquote>All of this also means there is no defining look for games based on Gamebryo; any game made with id Software’s latest engine will have hard stencil shadows and a multitude of point lights. It’s unlikely, on the other hand, that you’d be able to recognize a Gamebryo game based on any single feature</blockquote>From the interview:<blockquote>Scene Designer allows users to place arbitrary objects including cameras into a scene and preview that scene. A user could absolutely leverage that capability to help create a cinematic. As you note, it would be very useful for games that use static camera angles. Another possible use would be to define a camera for a rendered texture.</blockquote>Link: Emergent Gamebryo Element Primer on Beyond3D
Link: Emergent Technologies Interview on Beyond3D

Briosafreak spotted this one on Voodoo Extreme.
 
Well as far as the engine is considered its pretty good and it could, if used properly, nicely portray Fallout world. Since u can lock camera into a place they could make a nice isometric view. They could go with the first person movement through towns as an option (there's nothing wrong with 1st person view) but as u start combat (which should be turned based) they could switch it to 3rd person isometric view. It would look nice. Also it would be a whole new experience if you could explore Fallout from 1st person view. You could see much more detail. Although nothing they do will help if the game doesn't have '50s nuclear age look.
 
Xerxes said:
(there's nothing wrong with 1st person view)

[...]

Also it would be a whole new experience if you could explore Fallout from 1st person view. You could see much more detail.
Click to expand...
Do you like... flame?
 
As long as the game is based on isometric view and 1st person is optional, OPTIONAL. I see no problems with 1st person.
But the contrary would suck big time, the game have to be designed to be played on isometric view.
I dont bother with the 1st person option, Im not forced to used it anyway
 
What I remembered most about games built on Gamebryo that I've played (Oblivion, Civ4, Gothic 3, Empire Earth 2) is that they were all absolute system hogs from the moment you clicked on their icon and that they performed poorly on all but the lowest settings and they looked sucky on them.
 
Logan said:
As long as the game is based on isometric view and 1st person is optional, OPTIONAL. I see no problems with 1st person.
But the contrary would suck big time, the game have to be designed to be played on isometric view.
I dont bother with the 1st person option, Im not forced to used it anyway
Click to expand...
Yes, but the designers *are* forced to design around it. Now think about what that means.
 
as a design decision i think the game can only go 2 ways ...

- 1st person optional 3rd ( a la Oblivion )
or

- 3rd person optional high up/iso style (a la NWN)

there's no chance (i think) that they'll want to mix the two since they require different approaches to art direction & design ... so i dont think beth will go for NWN styled cameras and control... its not a matter that it couldnt be done and done well its just that i dont think beth will take any chances so theyll stick to what they know .... (they even said this)

from what i've seen in oblivion Gamebryo looks nice and is pretty flexible but what i think it lacks is that "solid" feel to everything .. the feeling that everything connects ... my 2c
 
Xerxes said:
They could go with the first person movement through towns as an option (there's nothing wrong with 1st person view) but as u start combat (which should be turned based) they could switch it to 3rd person isometric view. It would look nice.
Click to expand...

Shifting camera angles by situation?

Old school.

I wish they would implement that more often. It makes a lot of sense, yet it is skipped very, very often. Classic games that do it? Well, Realms of Arkania had 1st-person "real-time" exploration (towns, dungeons), 3rd-person turn-based combat and an odd kind of phase-based point-by-point top-down map view. Fallout, too, had turn-based isometric for most of the game but would switch for map view, people don't often think about that conciously.

Map-clickers like Baldur's Gate don't count because the maps aren't actually interactive at all.

Anyway, as for the 1st-person/3rd-person thing, you'll do well to remember Oblivion's camera was pretty free-roaming. You could play the game in isometric....you just had to live with never being able to hit anything.

And right you are, DDD. Then again, resource hog seems to be the nome du jour, just look at Vista...

I'm still puzzled at how Oblivion sold 3 million copies. I'm surprised there are 3 million computers that can handle the game. Sales are propably heavily tilted towards console because a lot of people who want to play it can't, because of the cost of upgrading their computers.
 
As long as I can rotate the camera angle I donty mind too much. It would have been nice to see behind the buildings in fallout (trying to find that damn book in the den!)

If they do a job job setting up the default camera angles and camera controls I think I'll like the 3d (1st person will suck though). Set the default camera angle to look like Fallout 1 and Fallout 2 but let the player adjust the angle. maybe for those scripted scenes where Frank horigan blasts that family with his minigun you could zoom in a little bit :)
 
Kharn said:
And right you are, DDD. Then again, resource hog seems to be the nome du jour, just look at Vista...

I'm still puzzled at how Oblivion sold 3 million copies. I'm surprised there are 3 million computers that can handle the game. Sales are propably heavily tilted towards console because a lot of people who want to play it can't, because of the cost of upgrading their computers.
Click to expand...
Not entirely true. I could play it, and I got to keep better details than I did with Gothic 3, all on my 2 year old $600 PC.
 
It's not just that they perform poorly (they do, especially G3), it's more to do with how in every single one of these games there's a lack of fluidity and a sense of lagging in everything; from starting the game, switching menus, going to inventory, changing (non video) settings to the way the games actually run themselves.
 
Even if they were to use a 3rd person bird view like nwn or so, the game would still be horribly altered as you would be controlling your character(s) with arrowkeys rather than mouse. Remember this has to stick on a console.
 
Yes, the next development in gaming, we won't longer stick with just controlling a character or group of characters in a game world but actually manipulate the time stream itself for our enjoyment.
 
The Gamebryo engine really isn't going to be the problem with Fallout 3. If FO3 is awful it will be squarely on the shoulders of Beth$oft. "We're going to take this amazing turn based, isometric game and do something totally different," is not the best way to ensure fans of the series that the game won't completely suck. But then again, they aren't making this game for the loyal fans, they're making it for the current generation of gamers who don't hold game developer's to such a high standard. And when you think about it, who needs gameplay when you have real time rendered, anatomically incorrect, bouncing breasts?
 
wamingo said:
Even if they were to use a 3rd person bird view like nwn or so, the game would still be horribly altered as you would be controlling your character(s) with arrowkeys rather than mouse. Remember this has to stick on a console.
Click to expand...

argh! They cant surely be so stupid as to make it game pad only or maybe a joystick :wall:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top