cube

[DeeP]

I want to build a maze cube level.... filled with stairs going up,down and connected in every concieveable direction - something really confusing . and make the whole thing roll. or not.

[LDAsh]

This idea sounds like something that would be either simulated or hallucinated in SH. Not something that would really exist or fit into the game, but something that could be a sequence, in which case you could go all-out with the idea and make it luminous, iridescent and alive, anything is possible if you can put it into either of those contexts, but if you do it should be visually interesting and unique.

[DeeP]

ya... It's funny you mentioned "hallucinate" , I imagine this as a puzzle... viewing it from one fixed location in the middle, and walls and staircases somehow detached slowly swivelling or moving into different configurations all around him... maybe a cut scene to represent confusion.. and stress, or hopelessness in some way. -LOL, just a wierd thought.
DeeP

[LDAsh]

Sounds like you've been playing Prey, or Portal. That's cool if you think of it in terms of Spirit-Walk mode Prey. I usually think of these SH-hallucination sequences as being like mini-games (in certain areas), a bit like when you die in Prey on normal difficulty, except in SH it would be different every time, and somehow has a parallel effect on reality behind it. In my experiences, I've realised things had been happening in reality that seemed to always be parallel to whatever I was doing, like playing guitar or something, I was still playing guitar okay apparently but my senses were saturated with other things, what I saw and heard and felt, it was a thousand different things in my mind, in my perception, so that's what I would want to do in SH, when the bio-electrical energy runs too low, or your cybernetic upgrades run too high, the player experiences an overload, a neuroelectrical imbalance and can basically experience anything in any way, but always parallel to the reality behind it, with the same kind of logic behind it. In a practical game sense, it would be using that Doom3 effect of triggering different textures and models, and different effects directly into the player experience. It was never really used in Quake IV, but the potential for this is really huge and in my opinion has been tame as used in these other titles. In SH we have the luxury of both having direct gameplay elements (failure to manage bio-electrical energy and cybernetic abilities) and triggering these onto the player at any time through EMP attack and high electrical hazards, and possibly some other events that are just supposed to happen, that could send the player into a sequence like this. We also have the luxury of pushing the standards like everything else in the project, we can do more than something like Doom3 because we can push more numbers than Doom3 did.

[DeeP]

sounds like our hero's gonna be pretty messed up... hillucinations, dread,hate, hopelessness. Sounds like our current global situation.- but seriously, this guy is on the brink of mental collapse.Always in the midst of losing touch with reality, and the only time he can think fast and clearly is when he's in a rage.It's too bad we can't introduce "motion blurr" into the code somehow. some engines have this ability but I'm not sure if Q4 does. (for quick escapes and moments of focussed rage in battle - although FOV is this bizarre effect that we really should investigate ) anyway... very cool.

[LDAsh]

I wouldn't say "rage", I'd like the game to punish the player for careless kills. I'd call it determination and focus.

The engine already can do motion blur, in a very hacky way, it simply blends a screen capture over the viewpoint. You can see this when you use Berserk powerup in Doom3, again it's not really used in Quake 4, but AFAIK still there to be used however we want. The first thing I'd like to do is up the pixel-scale, or blur the pixelation of the effect somehow, even if it causes drop in performance, I can't stand the double-pixel look of it.

[DeeP]

Oh, that's right... I remember you saying that(careless kills) That's a great way to keep the player on mission. In farcry 2 for instance, you must meet up with a couple of people (who can "help" you) aquire malaria pills, but once you get them... you can blow them away. LOL soon after that ,you're not dependant any longer , and can play the game as you wish.
- HalfLife2 had people who helped you as well (weapons, opening gates etc.) , but you couldn't kill them. (I would throw crates at them) Funny.. they just stand there after being blasted in the head with a tire.LOL

simulated motion blur - I remember that. and you're right now that you mention it... it did look very cool at first, but then you see the fact that it was just a layer on screen that really didn't change, or alter as you looked around. But it was a new idea, and at the time it worked fairly well I suppose.
DeeP