Comments - Zooch

The hardest thing was that no one has done it before. Porting to iOS at this time forced us to step out of our "shell" that is the Unreal community and solve all of the issues ourselves.

For the most part, the game ported over fine, but in order to make the game sellable we had to tweak a lot of things (mainly to increase performance). Our changes went all the way down to the engine code.

These screenshots were to show the natural beauty of the map's design and architecture before we put on its "make-up". Lighting for this map is set to Warm Gun defaults and there is no post processing.

We will be doing before and after shots for every level so you can get a sense of the map's structure (before) then really take in the map's beauty (after).

Check the new Dear Lord image (compared to the older images) for an example of what I'm saying.

Without looking further into the game itself (I'm at work), do you have localization set up?

Advertising your game in neighboring countries is nice, but what about the millions and millions (and millions) of people on the far east coast/pacific?

Also, are you just setting up PR for France or is your game completely localized to handle the French language? I'm a snobby American who mumbles a couple languages poorly, but if I saw a game that was only in French (and not localized for English-speaking countries) I'd pass it up 100% of the time. That is, of course, just my opinion but I think it's a popular one.

I think the weapons are a nice start, but maybe try to give some of your weapons 'weathered' looks to them. Add some sweat stains to the grip and maybe a small chip or something in the hilt. Also could add some scratch marks to the blade itself (or even notches in the blade depending on who owns it).

I can understand how some officers, kings, knights and noblemen might have pristine looking blades; but for the common fighter (who actually uses his sword) the weapon would look much more dirty/weathered/beat up.

If you have an able programmer you should look into the dynamic material layers. It's not too hard to swap out dynamic frozen (or one of the others) for your own custom layer.

It's much easier to click that 'apply dynamic material' button than to apply custom decal textures to each asset.

Nice models + maps. Keep it up.

My computer cost me $1700 and it was bought 2 years ago when all the parts were brand new (and way overpriced). I run at 60 FPS while playing a cutscene of two old pirate ships blowing the hell out of each other - cannonballs making holes in the fully destructible vessels and about 30 pirates firing weapons at each other. All sorts of particles, objects, animations, AI and audio is thrown in on top of each other in the pure chaos.

The BS that floats around about how the game engine is way too powerful for an average computer is just that - BS. If you can't achieve a playable game for a decent computer bought in the last few years with this engine then you're simply doing it wrong (or aren't doing it at all, but really just reading what others flame about and regurgitating it).

I'm going to a lecture at GDC that talks about what DX11 is going to have in it. The bar can and always will be raised.

The engine (Cry2) is being used right now for computer games not sold in the US. I assume Cry3 will be basically the same package, give or take some features. I know a lot of you are worried that Cry3 is actually Cry2 with a bulk of the feature removed, but I personally don't think that's the case. I've been working with CE2 since before its public release and I can say the engine had tons of room for optimization. I was able to replicate the same beauty you see in Crysis and sport double the FPS with only a few minor tweaks.

Given the creative use of Occluders and VisAreas combined with some unique modeling/texturing methods I'm recently discovering, there's no reason why Cry2 couldn't be used in consoles.

I think it was just simpler to do the optimization on Crytek's side instead of trying to train all the teams on how to squeeze every last frame out of their games. Hence, CE3. Although I'm sure it was worth more to Crytek to cut some of the more power-hogging features; there's always ways around it.

Just my opinion of course.

It's not all about the graphics....

What about the 2 dozen other features that comes packaged with these editors that you guys lump together and call it "graphics".

CryEngine has built in tools to allow you to do things like set physics, assign classes, a unique boid system, facial animator, audio editor, particle editor, etc etc.

It's not just the "pretty graphics" that drive the purpose of an engine. Utility is also part of the whole "next-gen" package.

Really cool models :)

You don't necessarily have to go overboard on the dirt and grime. I understand where you're coming from when you say you're trying to find a balance.

I think adding some color to your objects' textures will go a long way. The clay pots are obviously going to have a gray texture, but clay wasn't typically purely gray. Maybe if you add some yellow/orange/brown tint to show that they had to mix mud and dirt in with the mold to make it stick will get that balance you're looking for.

Also, any type of cloth in this era can have color. Currently, the cloth on your market covers is pure white linen. I had that kind of linen at my wedding and it cost about 8 bucks a square foot. Maybe add some color or simple pattern to the cloth, or even make it actual woven cloth? They might've been clean, but also keep in mind they didn't have sewing machines. :)

You could probably add a tad more color to your buildings but I'm not sure what style those are made in. Visually the buildings look boring when they're all the same gray color, but I know some towns made their buildings all the same way and the same color.

The tables could be a shade darker in the wood color. It's cool to see the wind-blown texture but I don't think the wind would remove all color from the wood itself.

You said you've improved the ground textures and the tiling has been a pain. I totally believe it was hard because there's so many little pieces! Keep in mind you can lay down square rocks to make a path, but mother nature will fight you at every step. Maybe add some weeds or grass creeping through some of the gaps in your ground texture. This would really give the paths more of a 3D/realistic feel to them and also help to break up the tiling effect (if you have any tiling issues).

Just my 2 cents - dunno if any of this helped you or not but keep at it!

Yes, because consoles are bigger than PCs in terms of sales. If we could mod for consoles, there'd be more opportunity to take a mod to the next level (retail).