The engine wars

[Bluesman 0]

2004 looks like a real battleground for FPS engines to me. We have these 3 big shooters on a somewhat level field.

The big question is; Which engine will be used most for licensing and the second question is which engine will be most popular for mod crews. I read an interview with Carmack where he stated that Doom3 would be easier to develop for than Q3 so we can expect some serious competition there.

There might be some underdogs here as well. What about the Stalker engine?

Personally I think the UT engine looks like the likelly loser out of this field but I may be wrong.

BM

[Tex -USMC- 0]

Think maybe we should wait until we can get our hands on at least one of the games made with these engines before rendering judement?

[shadow 6]

I believe the Doom3-engine will be the most licenced out because:

[*]the engines from ID has always been the most prefered

[*]ID's reputation on making solid engines

[*]I think when push comes to show Doom3-engine kicks HL2's a$$

What I really would like to see in the future though would be OFP2-engine licenced out (to make more OFP2-yummi-material)

[GoOB 0]

I agree with TEX to a degree, we must wait until we see any of these games on the market before we judge. But for HL2 has got me in an iron grip right about now. And it seems to have caught the eye of a few other developers aswell.

As to wich engine that will be modded the most, I think it will be the HL2 engine, without a doubt. Since there is already a very dedicated fanbase.

And I also belive that the HL2 engine will be the one of these three engines that will be licensed out the most. AFAIK two games under development are already using the HL2 engine (Vampire the masquerade II, and some other game wich I can't remember the name of at this time)

As far as impressiveness go I have to hand it over to Valve, the videos are simply breathtaking (especially "Trapdown") I thought that whole scene when Gordon causes havoc with the enviroment was scripted. But alas it was not.

EDIT: And oh... Perhaps the UTK04 (Unreal2/UTK03 engine) will be the most licensed one... The developers are thinking of pulling "a EA" on us and releasing one update / year with new team rosters, new guns, new play modes etc. But that wouldn't be licencing

[Tamme 0]

I've heard some horror stories that Valve's new straight-from-hell-software Steam would be required to play HL2, or even to get the game you'd need Steam. (You can't buy it from stores)

[GoOB 0]

According to city-17.net this is the truth:

Quote[/b] ]Those who have purchased one of our existing games at retail will not be charged to play those games online with Steam.

When new games come out, gamers will have a choice:

-- Buy it at retail, play that game for free online over Steam.

-- Buy it on Steam, play it online for free over Steam.

-- Skip the purchase and, instead, sign up for a monthly Steam subscription -- which will give them access to all our games for whatever period of time they choose to subscribe.

Hope that helps clear things up.

But now back on topic.

[Tamme 0]

HL2 engine looks great. I haven't seen much of Doom 3, but it looks good too. UT isn't that great. It will be a fight between Doom and Half-Life.

HL has a very dedicated fanbase. There's zillions of mods for HL now and I think HL2 will be even more popular. IIRC it will have even better support for modding. I'm not sure if it will be licenced in huge quantities, but the community alone will keep it alive for years to come.

Doom 3 is stepping in some big shoes. I'm a bit worried if it will be as good as the good 'ol classic (I still play it sometimes). I bet we'll be seeing lots of games based on the famous Doom 3 engine. Lots of games are based on the Q3 engine and I don't thing if it's such a breathtaking engine at all, but it's good for shooters and so is Doom 3 that's for sure.

[Bluesman 0]

I know final decision awaits the release but there's nothing wrong with a bit of speculation . After all this is a somehwat unique situation with 3 so powerful engines head to head in the same year.

Yes but.. What is easilly forgotten that HL was based on the Quake2 engine made by the very same team who makes Doom3. HL2 is a Valve engine from scratch as far as I know and that means less track record than the venerable Quake engine. That is an important factor not to rule out. Plus; Carmack is Carmack and that name alone should spark interest.

As for OFP2; I think it could but for a more limited audience since it will first and forthmost cater for the type of game that OFP2 is while the others tries to aim for any type of FPS (and even RTS and RPG:s which was the case for the Q2 engine).

IE; I'm with Shadow on this one but of course this is pure speculation, fun too .

Btw Tamme, check the new gamespot preview on Doom3. That should re-spark your interest. Looks like they are putting alot of energy into the solo game.

BM

[waffendennis 0]

HL2 is great but when can we buy it in the store's or see an demo of it?

[NurEinMensch 0]

[...]

Yes but.. What is easilly forgotten that HL was based on the Quake2 engine made by the very same team who makes Doom3. [...]

Are you sure about HL being based on Quake2? I was always under the assumption it was based on the Quake1 engine, although heavily modified.

I don't know.

[Bluesman 0]

[...]

Yes but.. What is easilly forgotten that HL was based on the Quake2 engine made by the very same team who makes Doom3. [...]

Are you sure about HL being based on Quake2? I was always under the assumption it was based on the Quake1 engine, although heavily modified.

I don't know.

Could be Quake 1 yes.

Well that's a good testament on how strong the Quake engine was then . The amount of games it spawned is staggering.

BM

[Foxtrot87 0]

Half-Life was based on heavily modified Quake 2 engine for sure You were right, Bluesman.

[Bernadotte 0]

What about the Stalker engine?

AKA the X-Ray Engine

I won't mind if OFP2 looks like that.

[blackdog~ 0]

Speaking of HL2 and Steam, what exactly is "Steam"?

[Tex -USMC- 0]

Speaking of HL2 and Steam, what exactly is "Steam"?

Steam FAQ

[Col. Kurtz 0]

I'm putting my money on HL2 over Doom 3 at the moment.

The Doom 3 engine looks too limited to small areas and it all looks a bit cartoony. Still think it will be a good engine, but HL2 will appeal to me more and it *should* be coming out soon.

Supposedly the release date is September the 30th which is rather soon, but there has been no annoucements of it going gold and there is speculations of delay. We'll see...

Don't know much about UT2004 graphics, I would presume their just an update of the UT2003 graphics.

STALKERs graphics look good, and really set the atmosphere.

[The Frenchman 0]

Doom 3: Arg! Those screenshots almost made me hurl. So discusting, Id problably get banned 5 times if I posted them here.

Half Life: Amazing of how much a difference there is between HL1 and HL2.

STALKER: Wow, very nice. I would buy this game but I am not into Sci fi stuff with mutants.

OFP2:Kick@ss!

[Supah 0]

Well from a players perspective Steam is crap. Tried getting CS 1.6 over it? Well you need to either wade through knee deep commercials at gayspy or pay to download the file. Maybe now there are some more mirrors now but i doubt they will be any better. The basic idea behind it is one i disagree whole heartedly with ( pay to play) sure now its optional ... but that is the direction Valve wants to go as mandatory. WONID will go offline sometime soon. Thank god there are more then enough ways to circumvent Steam and continue running a 1.5 server with out WONID or steam. I think its really not done how they are forcing everyone to use that bug ridden piece of crap called steam.

[The Frenchman 0]

Yeah, steam is really crappy .

                   

Edit: Thanks supah

[Supah 0]

Yeah, steam is really crappy engine.

[ig]http://sponsera.com/site6/img/pix/ok/steam%20engine%20tractor.gif[/img]

                   

Its not the engine, its the way of delivering the game to users (via the internet), How it authenticates clients to a MP server and how to get updates.

[Tex -USMC- 0]

What they ought to do is hook Steam up with a Bittorent type program- that might solve their badwidth problems.

[blackdog~ 0]

@ Sep. 23 2003,18:44)]What they ought to do is hook Steam up with a Bittorent type program- that might solve their badwidth problems.

Or we could stick to regular file downloads.

I really really really REALLY hate those new file downloading systems like that creative is starting to use. You download a program and it downloads the files with a program. I don't want to do that, let me download the damn file and get on with my [computer] life. Kind of the way I build my site.. no popups, no crap, no banners.

It's like the Carls Jr. fast food chain motto:

<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>get in. get out. get on with your life</span>

[The Frenchman 0]

[...]

Yes but.. What is easilly forgotten that HL was based on the Quake2 engine made by the very same team who makes Doom3. [...]

Are you sure about HL being based on Quake2? I was always under the assumption it was based on the Quake1 engine, although heavily modified.

I don't know.

The amount of games it spawned is staggering.

BM

Like MoHAA?

PS: Happy Birthday NurEinMensch!

[Nathanz 0]

Well its hl2 all the way for me

oh and i herd that doomIII will have mutiplayer deathmatch limiting to 4 players

[Tex -USMC- 0]

Anyone remember this one?

"Doom III will be optimized to run at high detail with a GeForce 3."