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| Serious Sam 2 Tools Interview with Davor Hunski |
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| by Earthling |
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| Posted on May 11, 2004 |
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Seriously! - From what we've heard, you've moved away from sector-based spacial partitioning. How does the new visibility system work?
Davor Hunski - Yes, I suppose (since we haven't finished it yet) that the new visibility system will be based on a mix of hierarchical occlusion culling, distant rejection and level of detail techniques (assisted with some procedural rendering).
Seriously! - Could you tell us about the new scripting language and how it affects level editing? What's an example of something cool that can be done with the new scripting language that was impossible in the previous version of the Serious Editor?
Davor Hunski - There are actually two levels of scripting in SE2. There is "script" scripting that is very C++ -like (intended to be used by programmers for adding new things and modifying existing ones) and there is so-called macro scripting. Macro is simple but very powerful high-level batch-like language intended to be used by level designers. It allows you to control gameplay events and do some fancy scripting easily. It can be used to control scripted scenes or cut sequences. You can issue commands to entities and listen what they have to say about it. It is still edited in text form, but you have suggestions all over it so you can almost use just the mouse to program a macro. Macro editing text control is integrated with the 3D view, so you can drag and entity from world and drop it onto variable name in text and variable will get assigned. You can also invoke text variable value pointing and see the entity that is contained in the focused/selected/highlighted variable.
Seriously! - With the added dynamics that advanced physics bring to the game, how has level design been affected? Will mappers be able to specify the mass of each object and create destructible architecture? How will water work, and can we have strong wind or shockwave effects?
Davor Hunski - "Realistic" physics is awesome ground for some superb game design. Of course, it has some limits you must keep in mind, but brings a LOT! I hope that we will be able to use the new physics in some good stuff for the upcoming game. Regarding the second part of your question, yes, you can alter mass, and yes, you can create destructible architecture (you actually have a complete editor just for that, but be careful with what you mean by destructible architecture! You can simulate it, but I think that you will like never see real-world-like architecture destruction with all of its consequences in computer games), water will look very real, objects will sink/raise extremely realistically, though don't expect water to behave realistically when spilled. Again, you can add wind that will "drag" dynamic objects in some direction, but is that all you thought of? Because for now, wind won't bend trees and houses...Shockwave effect, again, what exactly do you mean by that? You can make player feel like it is there is shockwave going on, you can also support it with some new fancy gfx features, but don't expect tremors that will "actually" physically shake ground by moving it around and then expect buildings to collapse due to the shaking effect.
Seriously! - What about world models? Will statues, trees and other high-polygon scenery still be constructed in a third-party modeling program and imported from there, or can you do build them from start to finish in the Serious Editor?
Davor Hunski - You can select between the two as you noted. Most of our models are build in third-party modeling programs, but that's due to the fact that Serious Editor 2 didn't have modeling abilities finished on time and our artists and designers are used to third-party modeling programs. Also, it is hard to match modeling quality of established modeling applications because they have been all about modeling for years. Still, I have high hopes for our modeling abilities and they would be my tool of choice if I were to do some levels.
Seriously! - Will per-polygon collision exist for the world geometry, or will a hitbox system still be utilized in some areas?
Davor Hunski - You can do both and more. You can use rendered geometry for collision, you can make a shell model that will be used for collision (less polygons than the actual rendered mesh) or you can "glue" collision primitives (spheres, boxes, cylinders, capsules) and form collision shell from them (fastest).
Seriously! - Tell us about the plug-in system. How does it work, exactly?
Davor Hunski - I am not the best person to talk about that one, but if I am right, anybody could add anything to editor. Any kind of new renderable, editor, control, dialog, modeling/mapping tool, anything. That means that you guys can shape Serious Editor 2 by yourself, however you wish. Someone could add procedural starts rendering (or curved surfaces), someone could add a texture processing editor, someone an "easy" texture bake setup control, someone an "edge smooth" tool and all of them could be shared with all the rest of us. Limitless possibilities. We will help you and encourage you to do technology additions.
Seriously! - What about the real-time editing, have you found it helpful in fine-tuning the level balance? Will it be possible to host a multiplayer game and edit the map while the players are playing on the server?
Davor Hunski - We still haven't experienced the full range of features that real-time editing brings, although I am sure that we will do so. Imagine playing a level and noticing that a stone is in the air (as in not exactly aligned with the ground) or that a mapping seam is visible. You can go to god mode, move the stone or fix its mapping and continue playing. Great stuff. Still, things like that are not allowed on the server because content is not transferred to clients upon game startup (too time consuming) and would slow down gameplay heavily. This idea implicates several superb gameplay elements, but also brings tons of problems. We didn't explore the possibilities too much, but we could do so in the future.
Seriously! - Speaking about multiplayer, are you planning on including other multiplayer game modes apart from co-op and deathmatch? What about dedicated Linux servers?
Davor Hunski - I am still not sure what will be in the game in terms of multiplayer abilities. I think that Linux servers will happen though (they surely are planned, but we don't have time to do them just now).
Update - Alen Ladavac - With SE1, we had problems with this on the technical side. The network architecture with syncs couldn't possibly run a Linux server with a PC client without bad syncs happenning. Now that we have that completely reengineered, there is no real reason for not having a Linux server, except time spent in closing the port. So I'd say that there will _definitely_ be a Linux server. Not together with the game, but sortly after. The code is easily portable and we have basic engine facilities working on Linux for quite some time already - without gfx/sound of course - so this shouldn't be a problem. Whether we will be allowed to distribute maps and models with it for free or you will need to have a copy of Windows version CDROM when installing it - we'll see. I'd like it to be completely free, but I believe even the second choice is not that bad.
Seriously! - It's been mentioned that Serious Sam 2 will most likely support auto-download of maps. What about other user-made content, such as entire mods and player models/skins? Also, are there plans for an auto-update system for patching the game?
Davor Hunski - Again, auto download of maps and user-made content like player models and skins is planned, but we haven't implemented it yet, though we will do so in the future. We would also like to have auto download of scripted code, but that's hard thing to do, as we'd have to prevent viruses and such to make sure that the users are 100% secure.
Update - Alen Ladavac - Regarding autodownload - again, since there are no syncbad problems, and since the world scripts have been made completely safe, it is also a planned feature. But I wouldn't bet on it making the release date. If so, it will be added in a patch. Autodownload of mods, on the other hand, is a bit of a security problem, and probably won't happen so soon. Even though it is planned, it will need much more to be safe enough for an average user.
Seriously! - Furthermore, will it be possible to have multiple users editing the same map over a network, like you can do in some commercial CAD programs, for example?
Davor Hunski - No. At the beginning we have had high hopes for it and started designing the technology, but due to the realism of this world and the unstretchiness of time (don't believe them when they say that time can be altered, because it can't), we had to abandon that idea. After contemplating on that idea for some time, I don't see it as a very useful feature for game design (as I did before) any more, and if I would ever go into designing technology again, I wouldn't heavily build upon that idea. When you hear about it, though, it sounds very impressive.
Seriously! - Is there anything else you would like to add?
Davor Hunski - If you are still reading this, than you are a very patient man. Thank you for that. I hope that we won't disappoint you with the new technology and game of ours.
That concludes our interview with Davor Hunski of Croteam. Unfortunately, we were not able to get any screenshots of the editor yet, but look forward to screenies and possibly even video feed of the editor in the next few days - you'll see it first on Seriously!
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