DM Lobo wrote:I understand where you are coming from AOS, but the Electron engine (NWN2) is basically the Aurora Engine (NWN1) with a paint job -- a solid engine but it is riddled with bugs and flaws. It is starting to show its age, with engines now that can load the entire map in one go instead of sections like in NWN2 where we have to jump into a loading screen for each new area.
You're accounting for the Sword Coast in it's scale? With 60+ miles of road between Beregost and Nashkel, each rock, tree, stream, river, camp, will be accounted for, let alone the other locations where area transitions move players from spot to spot? With that much terrain data, you're expecting players to continuously pull down large chunks of data for these adjustments? To store multiple GBs spanning exponentially on disk as more ground is covered? What of the interiors and subterranean delving where you'll need cavernous designs in scope to mimic aesthetically? You'll have models of these, in high polycount to take advantage of an upgraded engine made available in this two year timeframe?
The Electron engine also holds us back, in terms of mechanics that can be achived; aka, flying, swimming, physics, detail (graphics), horse riding, building mechanics (in game) etc...
The server dictates the mechanics and positioning. The renderer dictates the graphics. That said, hooking via a system like reShader can mimic most DX10+ features, and each of these new trinkets also will need someone at the helm making adjustments to fine tune it to their project. You're expecting that a large sum of adventurers are going to be flying, is that canon to FR lore? Is rolling down a hill a large army of cheese wheels something deserved of server resources to update position information to each player who's walking by on a demanding physics system? Are each of these going to also need to be tweaked and fixed too? There's a fine line between sandbox tomfoolery and a value added prospect.
Unreal 4 allows us to do everything much better; lets not forget (this is by no fault of you guys) but the amount of glitches, bugs present seems to be endless -- every new update seems to bring up more; and although the major ones are stamped out we will never be able to get this game to run smoothly. New scrips for stealth, AL, weather etc... can be upgraded, yes this can be done in NWN2 but we are limited to the limitations of what Electron can do.
Bugs, glitches, errors, are not going to go away at the introduction of new software, even less so with software that is introducing more vectors of where bugs glitches and issues become applicable.
I am not saying a Unreal 4 reboot would come with no glitches or flaws, but the engine is much more solid than Electron. Ofcause those with lower spec PCs will not be able to play this reboot, a concern I share as well -- as well as potential damage done here should such a game be made.
There's no doubt that UE4 is a better engine than Electron. There's doubt that UE4 is the right solution, the square peg in the round hole, to solve the problem. That's why we started on Xoreos, replacing what NWN2 is with what NWN2 should have been, with full compatibility from top to bottom such that others using the base game client aren't going to end up with a scenario that they're completely left out of. On top of which by the time the UE4 project is polished, two years have elapsed, and would require writing tools or refactoring from the ground up the means of how the module is... and having helped co-found this, I can guarantee that is no small feat to pull off, and we've had a lot of developers come and go over the years to make this what it is and not a SecondLife knock-off.
As I said, I am looking for feedback -- doesn't mean I am going to go through with this; but it is something I am willing to do if the community wants to see it, as it is BG that inspired me to come up with the idea. Like AOS said, the future for BG is looking very bright, and having a game like come along will cause damage (divide the community) assuming I can secure the rights to make it. This will be no easy thing, I admit that -- but I will be having a very solid go at it.
I'd like to have a proper NWN3, honestly that would make my day, but until then it makes sense to keep the nose to the grindstone on the tools we have and are about to have at hand, preparing for what can be done under legal and purpose driven margins that makes sense to this project.
