Al_B on 16/10/2006 at 22:59
Quote Posted by Bjossi
I was talking about the remake mod that EA killed off, called System Shock 2: Rebooted, if I remember correctly. They are now making a new mod called Sapphire Scar, not sure if that one is dead or not though.
Apologies. Yes, that was a SS2 remake - I don't know if it actually got as far as a working prototype but I suspect it was killed before that point. Not too surprised that EA clamped down but I'd feel far happier if they were making better use of the System Shock name.
(Although thinking about it: "Shock 06: Now with new team colours for Shodan" is probably how it would end up)
Bjossi on 17/10/2006 at 00:07
Yep, at least if EA would develop it.
I was excited about that mod before EA killed it. I thought SS2 would have been even better with updated graphics like realtime lighting and all the gorgeous in-doors graphical effects the Doom 3 engine has to offer. Not to mention the scripting features would open up a lot of new possibilities to make a game like SS2 even more enjoyable and immersive.
Firefreak on 28/12/2006 at 09:59
Back on plastic, people :) Sorry for the resurrection of this thread, I'm not around that often...
Quote Posted by Hollowtip
...and will initially use the original game content almost exclusively
I guess you will reuse the format specifications described at TSSHP to access the resources; When reaching implementation level of TSSHP, will you fork off to a proprieterian/other format (own editors and recreate rather than reuse) or try to decode anything still undescribed?
If the latter, where and how are you going to document your findings?
Quote Posted by Hollowtip
So please select what you would contribute to, if you had the chance.
For now: Some thoughts - depending on your answer to the questions above. ;)
Quote Posted by Hollowtip
Its using DirectX for rendering (sorry Linux users)
I'm hoping not to drive this thread to another direction: Why? Why not OpenGL?
Yes, 'experience' in one or another might be a reason, but mostly the basics (a triangle is a triangle) stay the same, just a bit differently 'told' by the interfaces, which easily can be adopted to.
JediKorenchkin on 30/12/2006 at 00:08
Whoa, I'm late to this thread.
As far as I know, the reason EA would have shut down System Shock Rebooted and not any of the System Shock 1 projects, is that those really haven't been getting anywhere. As mentioned in another thread, when have you seen a SS1 remake (Save Citadel Conversion Project) that has had even a single finished model? We had a good amount going for us.
Anyway, EA's shutdown of Rebooted was both the best and worst thing to happen to the project. It allowed us to go in a new direction and get a LOT of attention for the next few weeks, but it also ended up driving to the project's downfall, as people wanted different things out of it.
Here's a transcript on what happened with EA. GBM asked me to keep this online, but I'd lost it until recently. It may clear up some copyright discussions.
(
http://mike.thefrayededge.net/temp/dead_letter/)
The_Raven on 30/12/2006 at 03:18
Quote:
As far as I know, the reason EA would have shut down System Shock Rebooted and not any of the System Shock 1 projects, is that those really haven't been getting anywhere.
There have been a few SS1 projects that made some decent progress, TSSHP and Lanael's Citadel, but I get your point. I've seen that website before but after going through it again I find it funny, though not surprising, how reasonable you were with your initial request, which was never acknowledged in any form whatsoever. Chances are that form probably went straight to the garbage and nobody, besides the person who reads the e-mails, ever saw it.
Tipunch on 31/12/2006 at 12:02
Since the thread was bumped and there is another thread similar I'd like to ask a few questions.
The first is why do you want to write a new graphic engine from scratch ? There is a few engine available in source form (derived from comercial products) and even some others ; someone gave a link to openDE derived from ogre. I'm asking that because it will take you mounths before you have something working and by working I mean some visible room on screen and nothing else.
There was allready a few projects that did that, what was not done or only partially done is the interaction with the environment, mobs ai, plot line, etc.
This is the part that need more work.
The TSSHP team (and others) did great ; rendering of levels, maps, even music !
Why not 'simply' start from the existing code and enhance it rather than reinvente the wheel. Or even plug the existing code in something more modern like ogre or other (non commercial) engine. I insist on non commercial engine so that there is no potential problem with ea.
Oh and I believe that your code should be able to run with the in game data (at least the first release) so that you don't need to draw new textures or 3d models.
Oh and tune down your required specs, don't tell me that you need shaders to draw polygons :D
Hollowtip on 10/1/2007 at 01:47
I'm writing a graphics engine from scratch because that is the main goal I set out for myself. To develop my own game engine. The reason I'm making it a requirement to have shaders is because I want shaders in the engine, and to make it so that it supports shaders and not having shaders requires a fair bit more work. Plus I want to add things like bump mapping, and animation is a lot easier and quicker if you do it in a vertex shader.
It doesn't take months to get it rendering stuff. Within a month of starting the project (and this was working in spare time, no more than 2 or 3 hours a night, and then not every night) I had it rendering level geometry (which also required me to write code to interpret all the data formats, including textures). It currently isn't rendering anything though, as I've just started to add shader support and it isn't quite ready for shadered rendering. Unfortunately I haven't been able to do any work on it for almost 2 months now, but now that my extremely busy holidays are over (I actually haven't had a computer for the previous month), I'll start working on it again.
Just to clarify a bit, initially, the engine will use ALL of the data from the original game, but I will make it so that any of the assets can be easily replaced with newer ones and at this point in time, I will not document any of my "findings" simply because it takes up too much time to write it all down (I have my own shorthand I use for anything I need to remember and I doubt anyone else could read it).
Bjossi on 10/1/2007 at 01:55
That sounds very good, I hope you can pull it off. :cool:
Firefreak on 10/1/2007 at 05:22
Quote Posted by Hollowtip
I'm writing a graphics engine from scratch because that is the main goal I set out for myself.
Ah, I understand - to hava a go at the full cycle of game development; That's what once a commercial game developer suggested me to do first when I was applying for a job at their company years ago.
But you haven't answered why you're not using OpenGL (I hope I don't sound picky here).
Quote Posted by Hollowtip
...and at this point in time, I will not document any of my "findings" simply because it takes up too much time to write it all down
That's a pity - at least in my opinion; Your project does sound promising, but if per chance someone else also wants to start of another recreation project it would be good for them to find all known resource infos at one place. By helping out I intendet to act as a housekeeper to the "ss-specs" document of TSSHP, to which us, the remainder of the team, still has access to write to.
From the standpoint of the experience of a full development cycle, documentation also should be part of it, no? I don't mean you to write a full blown document - for me it would be enough to just mail some lines like "I've found out about the information about patches - 16 bytes per entry as follows: ..." and/or just a snippet of the code or a reference where to find it in your (then perhaps released) source base.
phibes on 10/1/2007 at 16:51
tbh im not interested in a remake ... when i decided i want to play SS1 again i bought a complete 300Mhz PII rick on ebay for 1Euro ... thats it. For me only the original is acceptable. I wanted to play Duke Nukem 3D again, .. when i played it in the mid 90s i had a Gravis soundcard. Since every soundcard has its own characteristical midi-sound i had to buy that soundcard again so the music is the same. Maybe im just too fussy, i dont know. Oh, and yesterday i bought an old Amstrad CPC cause i want to play 'Thrust' again ... and emus are not acceptable as well :) (in 3" i trust ;))
and btw, i have seen too many projects like this that never finished ... mainly remakes of the multiplayer game Team Fortress ... so i dont think this one will ever finish as well ... but i hope you prove me wrong anyway :)
