Empires on UE4: UE4 is FREE edition

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Kylegar, Mar 3, 2015.

  1. flasche

    flasche Member Staff Member Moderator

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    i didnt abandon hope, nor did i give up doing stuff for it. im just slow and i only have to learn how to create maps for modern engines - the workflow is completely different - more complicated on the one hand, a lot easier on the other. the good thing is, no matter what future engine, chances are good it will be very similar to unreal which is just a million times more convenient to get content into the game then it was with source.
     
  2. 101010

    101010 Member

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    I know what you mean. With UE4 it's as simple as drag and drop to get things in game. Like materials you just drag them into your seen and it will convert them or drag and drop in to file and it will convert them as it loads.

    Hardest thing for me was the unlimited possibility. 36 Hrs I spent playing with different ways to make water look, move, and interact with landscape.
     
  3. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    Vertex animated, tesselated water... *drools*
     
  4. Kylegar

    Kylegar Specstax Rule

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    You guys are more than welcome to keep working on this project. I'm leaving the source code up for everyone. If another programmer wants to take the helm and drive it forward, fucking do it. I'm just unable to dedicate any time to it as I'm working on Squad.
     
  5. flasche

    flasche Member Staff Member Moderator

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    i'm finally happy with my scenery cliffs (i really have no clue why the contrast looks so bad in chrome)
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2015
  6. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    Nice work!
     
  7. flasche

    flasche Member Staff Member Moderator

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    they are using a tesselated shader with vertex coloring. left one is painted, right one only textured. nature is so damn hard to do right, but i think i got a nice workflow now (and neat brushes for sculpting)

    but on a different topic, how do you share assets? maybe those who still didnt give up on this may want to share (some) content they created so far? i dont really mean to share stuff publically or it will used in other projects before its used in this one (while i have no problem with people using it, it first should appear in empires2, independent on what engine)

    i think before anyone will be going on with this its gonna need a shitload of art created - told you before, and now i tell you again - unless theres suddently an army of modelers and artists incomming this alone is gonna take a year or two ;)
    so far, from what i can tell, theres only 2 vehicles sufficiently detailed enough for an unreal version of empires and those are the two by redskull so far. idk do we even have a single playermodel? (atm i cant do humans, dunno if thats gonna change in the next year of two)
    also i wouldnt consider myself an artist. i only do all this because its appears to me as the only way thats shit gets done some time. id rather fuck around with coding ...
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2015
  8. JustGoFly

    JustGoFly Member

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    Gents, opinions please.

    My take on this release is that it needs more model development than programming. It seems as if the UE4 shell is setup to provide the FPS experience you desire and some mods to scripts to change how the various teams can be formed. I see the work as mostly graphics development.

    True?

    Since I can hardly draw a good circle, but have coded for more years than most of you have been alive, I could contribute code only. But I'm not seeing where that is needed. I can offer help for peer reviews and to bounce ideas off of.

    I know and love the Empires Mod as it currently is, and have over 3K hours playing. I do think it will be hard to update without losing that fluid feel. Currently it is a game that enables vets to act instinctively turning and shooting without thinking. The only other game I've ever played with that feel was Unreal Tournament 2004.

    Actually UT2004 is an even better FPS than Empires, since it is faster. Initially fast is bad for nubs, but as you learn you want more freedom of movement and ability to do multiple things at the same time. Throw a disc across the map through a tiny window, kill the guy your chasing, respawn at the disc location and kill his buddy who had a sniper bead on you. "How did you kill me?".

    Advice please?
     
  9. JustGoFly

    JustGoFly Member

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    Kylegar - I recommend you send a note to DocRabbit. He has developed quite a few maps for Empires Mod, and is very active in the game. He works on scripts for the game and models for maps and other things within Empires Mod. He would really be an asset to your team.

    Of course Candles for programming, as well. And I'm sure there are many vets that I don't know as well.

    Trying to reproduce the feel of empires with better graphics will be quite an undertaking.
     
  10. flasche

    flasche Member Staff Member Moderator

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    its definitely graphics holding everything up, but theres also still a good portion of code required. ue4 provides a solid foundation but its just that, a foundation.

    also you should read on in other threads. this thread is quite outdated, kylegar works on another project now (squad)
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2015
  11. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    I get where you are coming from, Fly. I prefer twitch shooter style FPS before the usual fare you see nowadays as well.
    I'm just not sure how well that handling mixes with a FPS/RTS hybrid.
     
  12. JustGoFly

    JustGoFly Member

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    Flasche - I did read back after posting and saw Kylegar has moved on. Hopefully others will be able to fill in.

    Firewarrior, et al:
    UT 2004 encouraged small clans to form, unlike Empires. I avoid clans in Empires since it's just a mechanism to encourage rush's and develop that skill. UT 2004 clans were a family of guys and gals who joked and had fun during game play. We evolved to having meet ups where I drove five hours to group with other guys and setup computers in a some store or other area and play all night, then go get breakfast after a night of junk food.

    The game play did require knowledge of each weapon and it's use, a good up close scatter weapon, a sniper rifle which was used as well while mobile as stationary, blob type weapon at a doorway to damage enemy from coming through, but the disc was the coolest of tools. It could be used as a weapon if you were skilled enough to shoot the disk through an enemy and if respawned inside that enemy they would explode. Wait too long and you're standing directly in front of the enemy :) It usually worked when moving fast across a map. The concepts are the same for most FPS's, but weapons are different. Quake used to have a chain claw. Empires tries to remain traditional military, and it works well. There is no secondary fire, except punch, other FPS have a grenade launcher or something as secondary fire. We need tanks to get secondary fire capability - and that works as well.

    Once they went to the newer version of UT, the 2004 remained popular, which I predict will happen here as well. The newer version had better graphics, but required more video horsepower and it was slower. Not just FPS, but the mechanics were more clumsy. Very pretty but I hated it.

    Although the intention here is to make a better version of Empires Mod - I do think it will be a completely different game. That could be a good thing. It won't remove the need to continue upgrading the original Empires Mod though.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2015
  13. f1r3w4rr10r

    f1r3w4rr10r Modeler

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    You don't have to tell me, I played all of them apart from '99. And I agree that 3 was kinda slow, but I got high hopes for 4.
     
  14. JustGoFly

    JustGoFly Member

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    You were not considered good until someone called you a cheater. Running and tumbling while looking in all directions for an enemy. Jump across a span and while jumping sniper a headshot of a stationary enemy, land backwards and fire at the guys chasing you.

    Typing: "I see you! And I'm coming, no weapons, you will not be able to kill me, prepare to die!" LOL - I terrorized a lot of nubs, but also trained a lot.

    So an Empires that had other types of maps just like it does now. I don't think the new Empires should be just a copy of the old empires. Now we have Infantry and Inf+Tank, or just Tank, but there are a lot of other options. It won't take away from Empires, but how Rainbow road is different from District and Money and Canyon are all different tactics, add a completely different type of fighting. Low grav or Jet Pack might be worth playing around with and more vertical style maps.
     
  15. Grantrithor

    Grantrithor Member

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    Also aircraft are more than possible in UE4, which is a long wanted feature in Empires. Whether they would ever had improved the gameplay is another question, but it can be done. Empires on UE4 is the next logical step in the Empires name, because it's an Empires that can be so much more than Source Empires. JustGoFly if you are confident in your programming abilities, and you want to see this project flourish, you should definitely take the helm. It just lacks organization is all, but you have your people who are willing to contribute.
     
  16. JustGoFly

    JustGoFly Member

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    Grantithor - yes you do need a project manager, but doubt I could do it justice. Right now I'm just tinkering with the code. It's a huge effort and definitely needs groups that work well together. Focused on steps towards a goal. You can propose your own requirements but it needs to be agreed upon by the team.

    You guys should be meeting on TeamSpeak at least once per week and break into development teams of a minimum size of TWO. Prior to every meeting ask for agenda items, post the agenda and stay on topic. Keep it to an hour - or you lose people who get bored. Only those who are interested in the agenda items need attend. Document the results for those who are unable to attend.

    That is why you develop requirements, do peer reviews, and focus resources on specific functionality. Without that you will just dinker forever. We should recruit someone who is trained in project management for this project. First you need to assess the skills within the group. If you're missing key skills, you need to recruit them. It seems like you need a large group of graphics designers and a small group of developers. You probably need voices, editors, team leaders, source control manager and build manager.

    If you want to be a REAL professional developer you must write high level design documents and review them with the team, or subteam. Someone needs to develop and document a project objective and deployment strategy. Right now you are in prototype stage and are free to play, and see what the capabilities of the tools are. But you will never succeed without agreement on a direction and some real organization.

    When you're done - everything should be documented and each of you should be easily replaced with anyone maintaining the code, which they can do via your documentation. I could explain why you WANT to do this, since a nub programmer thinks it's job security to make things cryptic and not document anything.
     
  17. complete_

    complete_ lamer

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    i must be the only person who didnt join empires for the aircraft
     
  18. flasche

    flasche Member Staff Member Moderator

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    i joined empires for the RTS part and i can call myself lucky that i was allowed to experience some of it before the game turned into escort-district-urbanchaos-glycenshitty-rinserepeat
     
  19. BigTeef

    BigTeef Bootleg Headshot master

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    I didn't even know aircraft was planned.

    Boy I bet balancing land versus air would have been more of a nightmare than it is now for research.
     
  20. Z100000M

    Z100000M Vithered Weteran

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    Imagine unkillable heavies, only now you cant even hit them
     

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