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[Alexios]

And that's why devs shouldn't give early access to influencer wannabes. That same criticism could be held against mega popular now or once upon a time games like Minecraft and Eve Online and it's been clear if you just want pew pew all out action space dogfights this isn't the game for you.

Reviewing closed alphas, yay. And in a way you can't tell if the game's good for what it is, just reiterating what it clearly isn't. Who saw all they're putting into the various systems like it's next gen Minecraft redstone shit at the core of everything and thought hey, a game for instant space combat?

 

[Guilty_AI]

This is pretty a technically impressive game. Not my cup of tea but i appreciate devs creating stuff like this

 

[Threeshotgamer]

Pretty long video as it's a youtube livestream but gives a great intro into the ship builder and how that all works.

 

[Alexios]

 

[eyesabitdull]

Games like this and that shooting arcade game at the launch of the PS4 that uses vocals makes me wonder why they're often not used.

Since it's introduction, the biggest thing I've seen using voxels is the destruction capabilities of the engine.

So why aren't they using it more in modern AAA games?

I recall videos that claim that voxels are overrated or that it's not as what it seems many years ago - but I'm sure voxels have proven itself worthy by now, no? o.o

 

[McCheese]

Games like this and that shooting arcade game at the launch of the PS4 that uses vocals makes me wonder why they're often not used.

Since it's introduction, the biggest thing I've seen using voxels is the destruction capabilities of the engine.

So why aren't they using it more in modern AAA games?

I recall videos that claim that voxels are overrated or that it's not as what it seems many years ago - but I'm sure voxels have proven itself worthy by now, no? o.o

Deformation is the biggest advantage of using voxel landscapes, but destruction is very tricky from a gameplay perspective.

But you might be surprised by how many games use voxels for things that are not immediately obvious, clouds etc.

 

[eyesabitdull]

Deformation is the biggest advantage of using voxel landscapes, but destruction is very tricky from a gameplay perspective.

But you might be surprised by how many games use voxels for things that are not immediately obvious, clouds etc.

That's actually true, I guess I wouldn't know when it is being used in any game in recent memory if it's used sparingly.

But still, it appears to be quite handy and so I wonder why not enough games utilizes voxels completely for their game.

Then again, I've never seen a character models using voxels so maybe there is a huge limitation to it.

 

[hariseldon]

That's actually true, I guess I wouldn't know when it is being used in any game in recent memory if it's used sparingly.

But still, it appears to be quite handy and so I wonder why not enough games utilizes voxels completely for their game.

Then again, I've never seen a character models using voxels so maybe there is a huge limitation to it.

It’s computationally expensive in terms of physics and rendering, then you also have to factor in getting AI to respond to an object that might be changing shape or becoming multiple smaller objects. Those things don’t sell games as well as 55TF and 50 billion polygons.

 

[eyesabitdull]

It’s computationally expensive in terms of physics and rendering, then you also have to factor in getting AI to respond to an object that might be changing shape or becoming multiple smaller objects. Those things don’t sell games as well as 55TF and 50 billion polygons.

But deformation in games isn't that rare now?

For example, UC4 or Control, they have destructive environments that the AI does adjust to.

I mean, Drake even lowers his stance even more when his cover gets blown in half. Same applies to enemies (unless I'm wrong).

Surely it's doable?

Then again, I have zero knowledge to these things so do excuse me if I sound awfully naive.

But thank you to you and McCheese for taking the time to explain.

It's very much appreciated!

 

[McCheese]

Think of traditional modelling as papercraft, and voxel models as built out of Duplo.

You can make a lot more shapes using triangles and it's much easier to animate as things can exist and move about freely in true 3d space.

Voxels are essentially stuck to an invisible grid, so you can't really move or animate things quite as freely without using tricks.

 

[Alexios]

No, voxel content doesn't have to be blocky like duplo just because Minecraft popularised that. But yes, there are (currently?) drawbacks hence most devs working with standard polygons instead (which I guess means the drawbacks of voxels aren't worked on as much so it's kind of a cycle).

Back in the day games that used voxels often looked less blocky than low polygon games of the era, in some ways. Yes they had other drawbacks but terrain rendering for example was often way smoother with that method so sims from novalogic and other companies used it to good effect.


Other games like Blade Runner used voxels for the character models to pretty good effect too though (I guess in eras before skeletal animation became a thing that elevated the ease of use of polygons further using voxels wasn't as much of a bad thing in some of these ways in comparison).

 

[hariseldon]

But deformation in games isn't that rare now?

For example, UC4 or Control, they have destructive environments that the AI does adjust to.

I mean, Drake even lowers his stance even more when his cover gets blown in half. Same applies to enemies (unless I'm wrong).

Surely it's doable?

Then again, I have zero knowledge to these things so do excuse me if I sound awfully naive.

But thank you to you and McCheese for taking the time to explain.

It's very much appreciated!

I've not played either but I'd wager it's scripted deformation - ie the deformation will be the same every time you play, and thus the AI doesn't have much to react to, nor does the rendering engine have too much work to do (just an extra set of pre-baked bits).

 

[Threeshotgamer]

Of course I get this Alpha invite when Cyberpunk launches but i'm super excited to give this a try later today.

 

[iHaunter]

I just want a good space MMO so I can craft a giant space dick with a giant ram on the front
Because I'm a child

Star Citizen Alpha is the best you're going to get. This genre is dead.