Comments on: Riddle Me This

By: Lu-Tze

Lu-Tze — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:09:19 +0000

So basically, it chooses from a model of a big sword, a scimitar, or an axe and then uses the same (bad) animation regardless to hit the monster. I’m so totally sold.

I’m guessing that the “variety” such as it might be will come from choosing from it’s library of background scenes something vaguely similar to what you are currently doing, and a monster somewhat relevant to what you slay. It’s an interesting idea, but the problem is that it misses the main point of trying to capture stuff from a game… ie. that an interesting user story occurs. What we find cool in games is usually a unique game experience, something we haven’t seen or done before, and isn’t easily replicated. It’s emergent from a series of coinciding events that appeals to the portion of our brain that spots a good narrative. I seriously doubt the ability of this software to pick up on the way that story unfolded in the players head, and then be able to recreate it automagically and vividly.

By: tom

tom — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:49:24 +0000

my head hurts

By: Valentin Galea

Valentin Galea — Fri, 09 May 2008 08:29:43 +0000

Looks as awful as 3D Porn…

By: H

Fri, 09 May 2008 07:43:58 +0000

Oh noes, a creature of fire killed by fire. And a pebble.

Oh wait it’s not dead. Bugger.

By: Ben Abraham

Ben Abraham — Fri, 09 May 2008 06:24:33 +0000

Someone went to a lot of effort to make that video. Why would anyone do such a thing?!

By: Dagda

Dagda — Fri, 09 May 2008 04:18:31 +0000

Waittaminute! Not to go Berserk or anything, but I know that greatsword. . .

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 08 May 2008 22:36:54 +0000

Well, my guess might be that they capture the directx draw routines and store them and allow the resulting scenes to be edited, but that sounds like a pretty clever achievement if they do.

Microsoft has a tool, ‘PIX’ that will capture frames as they’re drawn, but it can take a second or more to capture a single frame. Apart from that issue, it’s hard to see how they could allow the resulting data to be edited as anything except a complex mesh – distinctions between entities is not obvious at a directx level.

The other option is that they’re producing a custom hook for every game they support, but that’s massively time consuming.

Of course, there’s copyright issues involved too. The textures at the very least are copyright, if not the model meshes…

By: John P (Katsumoto)

John P (Katsumoto) — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:38:30 +0000

Ooof. I think they’re both INCREDIBLE games, sorely underrated. Jedi Knight is up there with the best FPSs ever made, I reckon.

By: Bobsy

Bobsy — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:34:21 +0000

Bob, Will… so was I.

But Jedi Knight was so much better. Some of the best fps level design outside of Thief.

By: The Wizard of Yendor

The Wizard of Yendor — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:25:21 +0000

So since when does Nethack have precipices towering over pits of lava, Parthenon-esque ruined buildings, or amulets of ESP without anything to hang around your neck?

(I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt on the giant-ass glowing weapons and assuming that Rogan read so many scrolls of enchant weapon that they started glowing blue and never stopped.)

By: Will Tomas

Will Tomas — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:54:12 +0000

Bob, I was going to make the exact same joke.

By: DaggleC

DaggleC — Thu, 08 May 2008 18:41:23 +0000

Hmm, they’re called Epsodic, not Episodic? What does Epsodic mean?