Greetings all,
(sorry wall of text warning, it didn't start out that way.)
The cars, trucks, and some of the older elements were simply reused assets for this 'at the time' new map.
- Saving artists and designers any further time to build additional models for map 'clutter' objects.
- The car and truck designs were originally only simplified 'test' models for placement with little time spent on there construction. We first saw these on the map River City, and they were placed randomly about indicating very rapid evacuation of the area. But as with nearly every object, they are not 'rigid body' elements, so no 'destructibility' modeled into them. (yet)
- We did see some new objects, the cranes and dock manipulator arms hanging from the ceilings. (Crimson Strait)
~ sadly the reuse of some terrain objects will continue, until the teams have sufficient time to build any new elements.
The 'library' of materials and objects was stated to be quite large,
this from PGI, and it would allow for faster map design and production.
- If it means 16 of the same colour car on the parking lot, I blame that directly on the final layout and design artists or engineers. (unless these are all similar 'Company' vehicles and ordered in bulk, just missing the door or trunk decals.)
~ "think UPS designed and coloured trucks everywhere."
Everything we see is basically simplified/minimalized for gameplay, spend any additional resources on high detail or definition models and it cuts into graphics and information transmitted from client to server.
(although most of the detail could be left to the client only and it's dependent on the level of detail settings.)
- There have been a few PGI dev's that did state that they were not happy with the current level of displayed detail on the maps. It led to some loss of emersion to look out from the Mech and see very low detail models of objects. And they wanted to see this corrected.
~ (there was a leak that there is a dev build that has all high definition models, and really pushed the engine to run it.)
- I'd like to see this as an add-on, downloadable content, for those that have the systems to run it.
The older maps are known to have somewhat simplified objects and models, but there is no time to 'revisit' these designs yet. And replace, test, tweak, fix, and generally bring them up to the newest maps better quality levels. Building the newer maps with 'future proofing' built in, ability to simply swap out items, objects has been discussed. Whether this has been implemented or not we'll need to see. All these 'small detail' objects being discussed don't really have any impact on gameplay, and are just eye candy. (they are not very high on the list of needed elements to be fixed, things that could break or cause gameplay issues.)
As we move deeper into CW and the addition/return of collision is reintroduced, these objects may need to be redesigned to take damage, physically obstruct or slow down some Mechs if impacted/collided with. This physics engine is fully capable of displaying very good to great effects for damage states and explosions, but how much do we trade for gameplay. With the move to the 64bit client and opening up the GPU and RAM for additional use we may indeed see future effects implemented. The longer the artists and engineers work with the engine the better they get, and the more we gain.
Additional note: adding 'gore' to the game (stepping on squishy things) would seriously change it's 'game rating' and age limit. Probably not something PGI want's to do.
Aim True and Run Cool,
9erRed
Edited by 9erRed, 29 December 2014 - 11:58 PM.