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The Engine for DW2

 
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The Engine for DW2 - 11/3/2015 4:45:20 AM   
Cruis.In

 

Posts: 202
Joined: 11/10/2012
Status: offline 		Elliot might want to look into the Nitrous engine, by Oxide.

:)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h875xQcVD88
Post #: 1
RE: The Engine for DW2 - 11/3/2015 2:24:46 PM   
Kayoz


Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline 		I don't see what's so impressive with this engine. The only real selling points seem to be:

1. DirectX12 - which will be supported in all game dev engines anyhow. The performance gains of using DX12 over 11 remain to be seen. Oh, and it only applies to Win10 customers. How significant a market share Win10 has is something for the numbers bods to examine.

2. Portability - Writing a game using an engine that ONLY addresses the desktop market seems unwise to me. You're ignoring all the OSX and Linux customers, and won't have any option to port it to consoles (without a complete re-write).

3. MMO support - you can do this with other engines. Nothing new here. I admit that this is a very deep rabbit hole which I've only poked at the entrance of, but I fail to see how it's a significant selling point; much less how it's relevant to DW development. While the engine can help with some aspects, creative coding and careful design seem to be a FAR more important aspect than the engine. Having MMO support in the game engine itself implies to me that you're going to be forced down some development paths, whether you want to or not. How well they've done it, at this point is very much in question.

4. performance - seems unremarkable. Given that Ashes of Singularity is made by the engine developer to showcase the engine, it's not a terribly impressive demonstration. Maybe I expect too much, but the previews seem rather "meh".

"The Nitrous engine is already in use for two games currently in production: an unannounced title from Oxide Games and Stardock’s Star Control reboot. Nitrous is also available for licensing to interested game developers."
Wow. Two games. One from the engine developer - so that makes HOW MANY games being developed outside of the company developing the engine? One? Impressive. Really.

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but how many actual released games are out there using this engine? I'm not dissing Oxide here, so much as questioning the wisdom of investing the time and resources into development using an entirely unproven engine.

< Message edited by Kayoz -- 11/3/2015 3:32:42 PM >

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Post #: 2
RE: The Engine for DW2 - 11/3/2015 4:01:43 PM   
SirHoraceHarkness


Posts: 400
Joined: 5/17/2015
Status: offline 		I'd rather the devs take a little more time and build a custom engine that exactly meets their needs instead of trying to shoehorn the game into a preexisting engine. Besides it's almost certain to be a 2d sprite based presentation again so no need for fancy dx12. This isn't to say you can't use dx effects but it will be simple stuff like glow for lasers with particles and smoke for explosions etc which even dx7 supported. As to the nitrous engine itself it seems decent enough if you need a solid well rounded engine to make a mainstream game like an mmo or shooter or moba etc.

(in reply to Kayoz)
Post #: 3
RE: The Engine for DW2 - 11/3/2015 5:10:32 PM   
Cruis.In

 

Posts: 202
Joined: 11/10/2012
Status: offline 		Custom engines take years to build from the ground up.

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Post #: 4
RE: The Engine for DW2 - 11/3/2015 5:12:26 PM   
Cruis.In

 

Posts: 202
Joined: 11/10/2012
Status: offline 		https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elzpPFg8O_Q

the amount of units, at the graphical quality and good frames is what I'm looking at, since DW needs an engine which can support tracking thousands of objects in real time.

(in reply to Cruis.In)
Post #: 5
RE: The Engine for DW2 - 11/3/2015 5:26:40 PM   
ASHBERY76


Posts: 2136
Joined: 10/10/2001
From: England
Status: offline 		He is possibly a year into development already.The engine is already decided.

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Post #: 6
RE: The Engine for DW2 - 11/3/2015 8:05:14 PM   
Cauldyth

 

Posts: 752
Joined: 6/27/2010
Status: offline 		I would much rather sacrifice graphical quality for something that will also support OS X and/or Linux. Windows 10 is a non-starter for me. That being said, even if DW2 is Windows-only, I'm still getting it. The DW series alone is good enough for me to justify keeping Windows around, but it'll be Windows 7.

(in reply to ASHBERY76)
Post #: 7
RE: The Engine for DW2 - 11/3/2015 9:21:14 PM   
Kayoz


Posts: 1516
Joined: 12/20/2010
From: Timbuktu
Status: offline
quote:

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness

I'd rather the devs take a little more time and build a custom engine that exactly meets their needs instead of trying to shoehorn the game into a preexisting engine.


Eep. That's an enormously deep rabbit hole. It can be more efficient - or a lot worse if you get things wrong. I think it's a cost-benefit question. How much time do you save by using someone else's engine vs the time required to minimize the inefficiencies inherent in the engine? You have to factor in the fact that the engine developers have quite a few people working on optimizing it. Why not take advantage of their work?

Developing a custom engine will require at least 6 months of work from a medium sized development team. I don't think it's the sort of budget Matrix would be comfortable with.

This is, of course, ignoring cross-platform development. The financial incentives for Matrix to release DW2 on multiple platforms are probably very appealing. To do this from scratch - erkk... I'm not touching that with YOUR barge pole.

quote:

ORIGINAL: SirHoraceHarkness
As to the nitrous engine itself it seems decent enough if you need a solid well rounded engine to make a mainstream game like an mmo or shooter or moba etc.


Key word there: seems

Unknown at the moment. The Nitrous engine is unproven. No released games by which to make any judgments.

*edit*
quote:

ORIGINAL: Cruis.In

Custom engines take years to build from the ground up.


Wot he said. I estimated a 6 month minimum. But it's like asking how long a piece of string is. The inevitable answer is: Yes.

More money and bodies you throw at it, the less time it takes. Though be aware of diminishing returns. Double the manpower doesn't mean half the development time... if only managers understood this. *sigh*


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< Message edited by Kayoz -- 11/3/2015 10:30:20 PM >

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