Survey: Which engine enhancement would you like to see?

[PuFu 4600]

Dragon Rising uses a very weak and half-assed implementation of Havok. And I imagine the only reason they 'did' use it was because Codemasters already owns the license to use it in EGO engine games, and was already embedded in the code they were forced to use to get the game out as quick as they did.

It's also used in Dead Rising 2, Just Cause 2, Bioshock(s), Assassin Creed(s), Uncharted 2, FEAR(s), Fallout(s), Oblivion, and most notably, Portal 2. These games are well noted for having some of the best physics and animations in the industry.

If i was a game developer, i would much rather go for Bullet rather than Havok. Not only because of the costs, but rather because of the freedom the first allowes

[st_dux 26]

The archaic animation system is by far the engine's biggest pitfall. I don't see how you could pick anything else.

[neokika 62]

Hello,

The engine enhancements I would like to see in RV are:

• Lightning improvements such as multiple light sources causing shadows and objects/terrain blocking light
  
• Better physics simulation such as rag-doll, better object physics for small ones like weapons to vehicle/object collisions
  

_neo_

[Alwarren 2767]

Well, people seem to forget that even Dragon Rising apparently used Havok physics and... That didn't turn out too good. :p

Physics only improve a good game. They don't save a bad game :)

[Paralyzed 10]

Walking/moving in vehicles, shooting from vehicles.

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

If i was a game developer, i would much rather go for Bullet rather than Havok. Not only because of the costs, but rather because of the freedom the first allowes

But you're ignoring the overhead 'costs' of the bullet physics library; ie integration. Havok's SDK is ready made to be implemented into already productive SDKs while bullet requires the devs to spend time integrating it themselves. Havok behaves not entirely unlike an SDK plugin, while bullet requires full integration.

But physics is honestly only one portion of the full Havok SDK. There's also animations, behavioral AI, cloth simulation, visual effects, and ready made netcode friendly destruction.

[PuFu 4600]

But you're ignoring the overhead 'costs' of the bullet physics library; ie integration. Havok's SDK is ready made to be implemented into already productive SDKs while bullet requires the devs to spend time integrating it themselves. Havok behaves not entirely unlike an SDK plugin, while bullet requires full integration.

But physics is honestly only one portion of the full Havok SDK. There's also animations, behavioral AI, cloth simulation, visual effects, and ready made netcode friendly destruction.

i was talking about havok physics, which can license completly separate from the rest of the stuff, not the whole SDK

[nuxil 2]

i would like to see all of these things improved. but since i can only cast one vote. i would like to have the sqs/sqf/fsm replaced by a oo language. but i dont think that will happen anytime soon.

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

i was talking about havok physics, which can license completly separate from the rest of the stuff, not the whole SDK

I want the whole package!! :D

[PuFu 4600]

honestly, i would prefer no havok (and its dumb ragdoll implementation), but rather a OpenCL system such as bullet, where the developer has a lot more free movement in the way it implements it...but hey, i am one of those weird lads who loves gates and his DX all that much

[Leg 10]

AI can always be tweaked/improved. For example, making AI just fire faster when around buildings/cities would be an enhancement; and we need to improve their driving times between far cities. But I think the AI is not buggy/bad, it's just that people assume AI is crappy when they see the typical pub servers that Arma2 is running, which literally set the AI to react (very) slowly and inaccurately. If you actually left them how they were and ran it on Veteran perhaps, you would be forced to play better, and AI would react faster etc.

I disagree about the netcode, it's good considering all that it has to handle in a big game, but it can probably still be improved. But again, lots of pub players complain about warping/lag, when to veteran players such as myself it seems like it's not even there even when not having played for long periods of time (even with more ping than said 'complainer'). Lag is definately a factor, but it's typically used to blame for someone who misses a shot or something.

Overall, the current engine is good but even older players might be turned off if they join a pub server, get told by some 'noob clan' that because they have no tags they cannot fly choppers or use vehicles, and then go and see laggy AI which seem to move their arms at 1 mile per hour: and still manage to kill the 'noob clan' xD; The foreign CTI and CTF servers are really the best, I wish there was more of that in the US,Canada,SouthAmerica region instead of just this co-op which I criticize for these reasons I listed.

There is always room for: 1) AI Enhancement and 2) Graphics/Engine overhaul and improvements, and there's always mods/missions released practically every day.

Edited May 18, 2011 by Leg

[RSF TheCapulet 59]

Zues AI ftw. And what servers have you been playing? lol. I don't think I've ever come across a clan server with that level of self entitled idiots running the place. As far as American CTI servers, hopefully teamdeadly's server will be back up at some point.

Lag is actually really bad for MP snipers. While sniping in nearly any MP server, every sniper is deathly afraid of taking the first shot, simply because he knows shit will hit the fan. When I snipe on CTI MP, what I'd love to do is ambush enemies who are coming to the next town in their path, and snipe them all quickly. But as soon as that first shot rings out, they start running. And as soon as they start running, you've lost your chance to make any more shots, and you either die or hide until they're gone. There's absolutely no chance of hitting anyone once they're on the move.