Love the way the Freelancer is following the player on foot from outside the station and performing acrobatics next to the lift while it descends.
“This is definitely a multiplayer game where you can go and have adventures with your friends.”
I wonder what recent release he is directing this to… :)
They’re probably running a “local server” setup, which probably helps.
The Dragonfly gliding along the surface of the moon while the Freelancer fires from above is pretty cool.
It was a good demo. We don’t yet know how well it will turn into reality though, or when, but it was a good demo.
I can hear a certain PhD-ish dude kind of fuming now, though. ;)
Squadron 42 news will wait until Citizencon in October. I have a tiny suspicion that it won’t come out in 2016. Even Bethesda had a 5 month period between debuting gameplay and launch day.
The stream is archived here: Gamescom Presentation on Twitch
Chris Roberts’ presentation starts a bit over 90’ in. The demo starts around the 2 hours mark.
Wendelius
thanks for this, gonna check it out now
I’m pretty sure Squadron 42 won’t come out this year. I don’t think CIG can risk getting it out without a good amount of polish, and polishing things takes time (sometimes 90% of the work is in the last 10% of the job).
I think announcing the next PU update for the end of the year (and calling it 3.0) is a way of preparing people for the non-showing of Squadron 42 this year. That said, CIG absolutely must show something of it on Citizencon, because people are getting a bit restless by now.
wilykat
3292
I think you’re right. I’ve also noticed that there’s at least a liter of water in the ocean.
You spend 80% of the time on the first 80% of the code, and you spend the remaining 80% of the time on the last 20%. :D
Finally saw the demo. Was longer than I expected. The word that comes to mind is kinda…mindblowing? It seemed like the real thing, nothing faked. And it definitely pushes several envelopes. I am glad Chris Roberts is crazy at such impressive level (in a good way).
Doesn’t it run like … shit… still? How can it then be impressive technically, or are you thinking that it is visually stunning?
Nah, It ran fine on my 670 on mid-low settings. For a game that won’t come out until 5 years for now (at best), those are pretty decent sysreqs. :P
It is impressive because they have an amazing amount of systems working in tandem, on top of a high level of polish and quality (keeping in mind we only have an alpha). They have seamless integration of ground FPS combat, space dogfighting and soon planetary landings. And it’s not simple systems. The flight model you can like more or less (I happen to really enjoy it) but it is complex as hell and very simulationy, same with everything they throw in. Oh, and all this in a persistent MP system with a pretty decent amount of simultaneous players.
I wouldn’t bet against Brian Rubin’s 2023 release date, and the project might be a failure even if it is completed (it might not come together in a compelling way), but technically it is one of the most impressive pieces of software (in development) I have seen.
The fact that they are doing all this with the Crysis engine is also impressive, but in a different way (as of getting something done without the most appropiate tools for the job)…
That demo was great. Love the little moving thruster jets on the ship. Nice touch.
FPS in the Persistent Universe is bottlenecked due to issues with the netcode which won’t be addressed until the network overhaul in Alpha 3.0.
Most people I’ve spoken with claim to get 60 fps in Arena Commander, I assume they’re using recent graphics cards. I’m personally overdue for an upgrade.
meeper
3300
Can you cite something for that? I’ve certainly encountered situations in 3D applications where updates might not be consistent or frequent due to poor networking code, but I’ve never heard of networking code causing issues with frame rates.
https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/6728042/#Comment_6728042
He prefaces the statement by saying that he is not a network engineer, and is reporting the situation as he understands it (he’s a render programmer). However, this explanation has been broadly accepted by the playerbase as the primary cause of the PU’s framerate issues.
This thread is supposed to sum up why the current network code uses too much bandwidth and CPU time: https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/335037/summary-of-server-and-network-issues
Wendelius
meeper
3303
Thanks guys. Both are very informative. That said…
:stunface:
I can’t believe they’re 4 years in and their networking implementation is so damn rudimentary. They must have a very high degree of confidence in being able to fix it in one fell swoop.
