Hero Engine Discussion [merged similar topics] : Othor Games

» Mon May 14, 2012 9:08 pm

The Hero Engine isn't the issue ladies and gentlemen. The problem with SWTOR is that it used an early stage of the Hero Engine that was incomplete, and BioWare decided it would try and finish the engine on its own, with the modifications it would make to the game anyways. SWTOR is having server issues because the engine itself was poorly optimized by BioWare, not because the engine itself is bad.

We will have to see how ZeniMax Online has approached the Hero Engine, but if it can support 100 vs 100 sieges as suggested, then I find the game will be vastly an improvement performance-wise over SWTOR.

But this game was started on 5 years ago, so in 2007 - wasn't the HeroEngine a pretty early stage then? As it's complete release was last year.

» Tue May 15, 2012 6:09 am

Sigil did a number on Unreal 2. If it's true that SOE bought Vanguard just to acquire the engine (and lock down a potential competitor to EQNext), then they paid millions for it.

Vanguard is known for its 'spaghetti code', and it HAD some awful bugs, but it does have a lot of TES type features. It's a moot point though, in regards to the engine.

Fixed it for you.

Vanguard did have some bad bugs 5+ years ago,now 95% of them are gone,it runs pretty smooth now,i have been playing since beta and have five level 55 characters.

» Tue May 15, 2012 4:59 am

Do you remember how Paul Barnett talked up RvR in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning? Or how the developers at Bioware talked up Star Wars: The Old Republic prior to it launching? Pretty much every developer in the history of game development has talked up, sugar coated and bluffed their way through media interviews and press releases. I'll reserve judgement until I see footage of it running, but to say I'm skeptical is an understatement. This particular engines track record for turning good ideas in to multi-million dollar jokes is off to a spectacular start.

Saddening memories for WAR,

» Tue May 15, 2012 4:05 am

Thought it would be interesting to know:

HeroEngine’s second tech demo is live and online!
Our first person shooter tech demo is now online. Check out some screenshots from the game below. This marks the second reference/demo world our engineers have developed. These demos were all created with some part-time work from a few of our engineers and are designed to provide developers using HeroEngine with example implementations of systems necessary to operate various types of games, and hopefully to make the onboarding process to learning HeroEngine easier.

http://www.heroengine.com/2012/04/our-fps-demo-is-online/

I mean, they made a FPS "part time" with a few guys, sooo what was that about FPS not being possible?

:banana:

» Mon May 14, 2012 5:56 pm

I mean, they made a FPS "part time" with a few guys, sooo what was that about FPS not being possible?

It doesn't matter if it's possible because firstly, Zenimax aren't making an FPS MMO and secondly, if they did, it would be hell for those of us who want to play with friends from across the world.

A tradional hot-key MMO can can take latency/ping into account and adjust for it accordingly. FPS can't.

» Mon May 14, 2012 6:29 pm

Nobody has said that you wont be able to play the game in first person, just zoom the camera all the way in like you can in many other popular MMO's such as WOW and TOR and there you have it, instant first person viewpoint, problem solved.

» Tue May 15, 2012 12:20 am

It doesn't matter if it's possible because firstly, Zenimax aren't making an FPS MMO and secondly, if they did, it would be hell for those of us who want to play with friends from across the world.

A tradional hot-key MMO can can take latency/ping into account and adjust for it accordingly. FPS can't.

Actually you only need a $99 cloud dev license to load up the tech demo and give it a whirl, I posted about this some time back. The desync issues if you force a lag spike are very similar to desyncing in tab-target, ie; you come back into sync half dead. So...not really too different. I've been spending all my time lately on the Day Z Arma 2 mod, being a zombie apocalypse mod in a hyper-realistic fps simulation of actual combat, complete with realistic windspeed, ballistics, etc. It works fine with 50+ people in game, hundreds of zombies on a seamless 225sq KM map including vehicals, etc.

So, yeah, the age of tab-target MMO's is pretty much done. TES:O may very well be the last major release that fits that mold.

I'm sure future tab-target games will always find a niche market of gear2win fans, because there are fans of anything and everything, but it will be a niche. People leaving WoW aren't going to another tab-target game, and the majority of them are still there due to years of investment in their characters.

» Mon May 14, 2012 7:44 pm

It doesn't matter if it's possible because firstly, Zenimax aren't making an FPS MMO and secondly, if they did, it would be hell for those of us who want to play with friends from across the world.

A tradional hot-key MMO can can take latency/ping into account and adjust for it accordingly. FPS can't.

It matters that it's possible because Firor in the GI article stated it was not possible, it clearly is possible as done in other games and now even the HeroEngine can do it right out of the box. I don't think you get the idea behind people uttering their discontent with a planned product.

It would work well with people from all ever the place, people have been playing games like Unreal Tournament and Counter Strike for decades quite fine over large geographical distances. FPS games can use many techniques to mitigate the lag just like hotbar games can, hotbar games are just better at hiding the delay for those on dial-up in Antartica, also the fraction of people with "friends from all over the world" is not significant enough to scratch a central TES staple and that is the reason we have separate servers in NA, EU, Asia etc.

» Tue May 15, 2012 1:31 am

I mean, they made a FPS "part time" with a few guys, sooo what was that about FPS not being possible?

Quite a few MMOs allow first person view, even WoW.

Most players simply choose not to use it because it's easier to navigate an area map with lots of enemy players or A.I. when you zoom the camera out in third person.

» Mon May 14, 2012 11:19 pm

Quite a few MMOs allow first person view, even WoW.

Most players simply choose not to use it because it's easier to navigate an area map with lots of enemy players or A.I. when you zoom the camera out in third person.

Ya, WoW in first person perspective is really great when you can't see a single part of your character, your weapons/shield, or any of the animations. The only way to actually see anything is to zoom out a notch from first person so you are in a very zoomed in third person perspective which is still garbage because it isn't actual first or third person.. There is a huge difference in being able to zoom the camera all the way in and not being able to see anything and being able to actually play from a first person perspective. Imagine Elder Scrolls' first person perspective where you can't see your weapons/shields, etc. or any of the animations to go along with character movements and attacks. Garbage.

The guys over at HeroEngine flat out proved it took no effort to get an actual, fully functional first person perspective as seen in the single player Elder Scrolls games and that there is no excuse if Zenimax Online doesn't include it.