Nightly Open Thread
So why is it that I am just now learning about Light Peak, exactly? Because I have to say…whether by the name Light Peak or Thunderbolt (as it will evidently be called when implemented on Macs), it’s a damn cool technology and an idea whose time as come.
Don’t get me wrong, I love having half a dozen different internal and external ports to connect various devices to…I mean, geeze, why would I ever want to simplify all that down to a single, ultra-high speed bus? Oh, wait…I do want to do that. Nevermind.
*looks at the image*
You spoilsport pussy…
Now that the Arx Fatalis engine was open sourced, and there are people improving and porting it, is it time for someone to finally remake the Underworld games?
@Ender
I often wondered why I hadn’t seen a mod for Morrowind or Oblivion for the Underworld games.
Seems like that would be a relatively easy way to do things, but I would imagine using the Arx Fatalis engine would give you more scope to make the game more authentic with regards to mechanics?
I just looked at arx pictures again. man is it dated. I don’t think its a good candidate, besides, no editor.
Check out the new skyrim video, supposed to have a great new editor.
I say wait and redo ultima underworld with THAT.
Then there can be lots of atmospheric shadows and lighting and stuff
Arx started as Underworld 3 so it is fitting. The art assets weren’t open sourced, so you’d be using all new models and textures. And people are updating the engine for DirectX 9 and 11 support.
Ender is correct. Arx Fatalis itself looks dated, but remember: only the source code was released, not the assets. Anyone who wanted to use it to make a new Underworld title would have to build, borrow, or “acquire” all of the assets needed to do so for himself. As such, it doesn’t necessarily follow that such a remake would look dated; it probably wouldn’t, in fact.
There have been a few projects over the years attempting to make Underworld in the Elder Scrolls engines (I even spent a day or two doing it myself at one point). I don’t think any ever went far.
yeah, thats true, still, it must be SOOO much easier to build using the elder scrolls rather than modeling, texturing, animating, and Gui-ing a whole new game with a 10 year old engine.
Also,
I imagine that the previous elder scrolls underworld remakes didn’t get off the ground for two reasons:
they try to remake underworld too strictly. I don’t think the level geometry holds up to today’s standards. It is neat to see, but it is almost as bad to play as minecraft ultima 6.
Second, oblivion caves were soooo boring. Repetitive, small, unimaginative. HOWEVER, i feel like skyrim would be lax if it didn’t address this with better dungeons. Also, what the NEhrim team was able to accomplish is amazing. There is one dungeon in there so far that was MASSIVE. It took me like 4 hours to finish.
I think any new underworld needs to be a creative reimagining. I would like to see one that takes place all on one seamless level. That would be great. THough i don’t think that contemporary automap features can hold up to a nice, complex dungeon.
I’ve always felt the TES engines would be appropriate for a Underworld style game.
If I survive the making of Ultima Return, I’d love to try out a smaller scale Underworld type project with a TES engine of some sort.
Of course by then TESVI will probably be out already 😛
Oblivion’s dungeons were boring because that is how they were made. The pieces to make decent Underworld-like dungeons are all there in the TESCS. It’s just a matter of putting them together well. It’s interesting making the Serpent Isle dungeons with their pieces. I’ve had to tweak a few things, but everything should seem unique, not “Isn’t this the same cave as that other one?”.
Hopefully Skyrim’s dungeons are better… I have a feeling they might be, but they will also be less modable. The more unique they make the dungeons, the less complete the sets of dungeon pieces the modder gets. It was much easier to put a dungeon/castle together in Morrowind, due to the fact they had simple pieces to put together. Oblivion’s tend to be a little more tailored towards individual dungeons and it is sometimes difficult to find a piece you need to finish off a room.
Light peak rocks!
Hey man, I love your gaming/porn website. Gonna tell my friends. Now they can get porn and gaming on one site!
Eli
Okay man…who the fuck are you and why the fuck are you posting comments from MY HOME IP ADDRESS? Get the fuck out of my home!
Could be a botnet/malware on your computer. Or it could just be IP spoofing.
I wish it were that simple.
But it’s not.