In the alpha, are you able to view the world from different angles when zoomed in to a certain degree (like how you could do in SCFA)? If so, do the graphics effects (explosions, weapons fire, etc.) look 3-dimensional?
Yes you can. Although the camera still needs some work. Well since the game is 3D rendered I am going to go with "yes".
The reason I ask is in SCFA (whose developers now work for Uber on PA), a good percentage of the graphics effects (e.g. explosions, bloom fields, lasers, etc.) were not 3-dimensional, even though the game and its units were 3D rendered. You would think that every element of a 3D rendered game would be 3D, but I learned from the GPG forum that apparently that isn't always the case. So I figured I'd ask about PA, since it's being worked on by some of those developers who developed SCFA.
Yeah that's nothing new and is still used a lot in many games. Sometimes modeling something is 3D is more work for little to no visual benefit. Mike
Billboard effects... that often weren't billboard. Many of the effects were aligned vertically upwards, so they'd look dodgy when you tilted the camera up to see the horizon.
I think omega is trying to say that in previous games, optimizations of the artwork worked because certain aspects of the camera could be taken for granted such as the camera perspective relative to those artworks. In PA, the battlefield is no longer flat and as such the assumption that the camera's perspective in relation to the artwork will uniformly always be the same or at least similar across the battlefield is also no longer true. This could have issues in making some perspective optimized artwork become less visible at specific perspectives such as beam type weapons firing from over the horizon toward the camera. I would recommend to omega that you check out some of the streams that have been uploaded to youtube and the like to see if this is really a deal breaker issue for you.
I suppose at the end of the day, how PA handles graphics FX at a viewing perspective is what it is. If Uber chooses to take this into consideration when making PA, then great. If not, there's not much that I can do about it but "deal with it". My only recommendation to Uber is to NOT allow gamers to view the action from a perspective along the horizon if Uber chooses not to go all the way with 3D graphics FX. Here is an example of some basic modding work that I've done for SCFA. Keeping in mind that I'm a banker/lawyer by trade and NOT a programmer/developer. As a result, my mod work was some pretty small stuff and nothing too sophisticated. http://youtu.be/2saF6_ipf9s Basically, I noticed that SC's 3D effects for units like the Czar were fully rendered in 3D and looked great no matter what your viewing angle was. However, in SCFA, the same units like the Czar didn't have all their effects rendered in 3D. So, I basically modded my SCFA to replace the "offending" effects with their fully rendered 3D counterparts. That way, the units' effects in SCFA looked great no matter what your viewing angle was. I sometimes enjoy watching the action unfold from viewing angles up close and near the horizon. SCFA allowed me to do that. However, that's when I discovered that not all the graphics FX where rendered in 3D. Thanks to those on the GPG forums, I learned why and set out to work on my first mod ever....
The game is still alpha and everything is subject to change but if you don't see changes you want you can make a mod for them. And it shouldn't be too difficult for someone with previous experience with modding like yourself, also PA already has mods working in the alpha!
Once was enough for me. While I can't predict what I'll be doing when PA is released to retail, chances are I probably won't have the time to mod PA. Besides, I haven't seen an PA videos yet where the viewing perspective was brought down to the ground level and tilted towards the horizon, like I've you can do in SCFA. So there's a chance that PA won't even allow this type of view perspective at all. That would render the rendering of all graphics FX in 3D a moot point. FYI - In my mod video, I liked how that Czar did a double tap to the back of the end of that Colossus! That was purely the work of Sorian's AI. Pure genius!
Oh boy. That viewing perspective is just like what you can do in SCFA. Now I really hope Uber renders all its graphics FX in 3D and doesn't take shortcuts.... FYI - that commander looks great! His legs are a little skinny though and out of proportion with its upper body. It's kinda like some bodybuilders I know at the gym!
Actually it's a lot better as you have a lot more control where as in SupCom/FA you where also stuck with a reference point on the ground. Here is a pic with the camera is actually aiming upwards! EDIT: Because lolz; Mike
Wow! Great viewing angles! I'm really impressed with Uber's giving players a free roam camera in PA. That commander has got to focus on building up his his quads and calves the next time he hits the gym!
At this stage it's not really that feasible to use in 'mid-game', and honestly, even if it gets more user-friendly I think it's still too much of a 'flow-breaker' to use it regularly in game, more so during replay viewing I think. Mike
