shinobi602
Member
Can't wait for this.
There's more here: http://gamingbolt.com/the-witcher-3...-versions-weather-system-monsters-and-dragons
Talking about the engine
Discussing PC version and console development
PS4's RAM
The monsters
The game is a mature title
There's more here: http://gamingbolt.com/the-witcher-3...-versions-weather-system-monsters-and-dragons
Talking about the engine
Leonid Melikhov: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt does look pretty good. Obviously what we have seen is the alpha footage and so I have a few concerns, like there were times where the frame rate was not stable.
Jonas Mattson: Yes, that was alpha footage. As we are going to release it in 2014 so we have all this time to truly polish all the loose ends. Right now we are focused more on the quality of the game and as usual in any development scenario you focus on optimization and we have pretty cool stuff to help with this i.e. Umbra. I wont get too technical but it allows us to hide things that the player doesn't see automatically. We have this feature in our engine and it will be further optimized to improve performance.
Discussing PC version and console development
Leonid Melikhov: Is PC the lead platform for Witcher 3?
Jonas Mattson: We are targeting all high end platforms, so the Xbox One, PS4 and obviously the PC. We wont absolutely forget our roots, absolutely not (referring to the PC).
Leonid Melikhov: So will the PC version be ported to the consoles?
Jonas Mattson: Right now what you see is running on the PC but we have development kits (for next gen consoles) so we are aiming to have an equally high quality experience with all the platforms. As you know the specs of next generation platforms, it really allows us not to hold anything back. When we were working on The Witcher 2 on the Xbox 360, it was
Leonid Melikhov: Problematic?
Jonas Mattson: Not problematic, but we had to do a lot of work to get it running on a current gen console. But really, this time we can push the limits and hold nothing back.
PS4's RAM
Leonid Melikhov: Do you feel you guys will be able to push the game a bit more on the PS4 given that it has 8GB GDDR 5 compared to 8GB DDR3 on the Xbox One?
Jonas Mattson: As you are aware am an environmental artist but we have talked about this in the office. I dont think we are taking too much advantage of it. But as I said I am entirely not sure about this as I deal with making the world pretty.
The monsters
Leonid Melikhov: It probably depends on where the player is currently located in the world
Jonas Mattson: Oh yes. There are monsters in the game where you wont simply find running around in the wild. The fiend that you saw earlier, it feels comfortable in its own territory, so the player needs to lure it out. Our monsters in the game act differently and take in to consideration where it is and they behave accordingly.
Leonid Melikhov: Are we going to see any Dragons?
Jonas Mattson: (Laughs) I dont want to spoil anything so am I not going to say anything about that.
Leonid Melikhov: Tell us a bit more about the different creatures in the game.
Jonas Mattson: There are 80 creatures in the game and of course you have the wild life like rabbits, deer and bears.
Leonid Melikhov: Can you kill them?
Jonas Mattson: Yes you can kill them.
Leonid Melikhov: Are they useful for anything or they just make the world look pretty?
Jonas Mattson: Of course, each of them has a different use. The player can invest hours in to hunting and sell them to the villagers. The fiend, I mentioned before, it basically does not stay in one territory, it goes out to hunt. So the player might come across it, so even when youre hunting you might become the hunted. You have all this monsters like werewolves, so we are really populating this open world as much as we can.
The game is a mature title
Leonid Melikhov: What about the gore in the game? I remember playing Witcher 2 where I was able to cut off limbs. Can the player do the same in The Witcher 3?
Jonas Mattson: There are certain times where the game is a bit gory. Currently we cannot cut off limbs; we might do it later on. But we dont hold anything back to due to the ratings. This is a game for adults and for people who can handle violence, gore and intimate relationships. We are not changing our attitude.
Leonid Melikhov: That wont be Witcher if you do
Jonas Mattson: Exactly! The Witcher world is dark fantasy world and it is about delivering this experience and we are not going to change that. I cant see us change that and we are not going to change it. This is what we are as a studio, this is what we do, we do mature role playing games and we are going to continue to do that.