.TuG.JJUK Posted March 30, 2009 Report Share Posted March 30, 2009 Obsidian Edge Moves to Crysis Wars SDK Written by CuZ Friday, 27 March 2009 Hi folks, it's been a while! As we have already mentioned on the forums, thanks once again for bearing with us throughout what must have seemed like an age for any true fans of this mod. We can only apologise if at times its felt like you have been kept in the dark... For what its worth, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, the hard times are hopefully over and with the community's help we can finally push towards release. With that in mind, in this update we cover: Announcement 1 - With the release of the SDK, we can now announce our shift to the Crysis Wars version of CE2 So where are we? - Shamelessly stealing from a forum thread title, we will bring you up to speed with the problems we have had over the last year and how we have responded to the challenges. Announcement 2 - Release Plans - Our rough aims for a road map to release Recruitment Drive - We need help do you have the skills and the drive? Announcement 3 - 1st Alpha Test Squad Some media for your perusal So, lets get straight into the content... Obsidian Edge moves to Crysis Wars SDK There has been a lot of speculation on the forums as to why we were active behind the scenes and yet so quite in public. The answer is simple, we have had a number of tough decisions to take, the most significant of which was what game baseline should we be releasing Obsidian Edge for the CryEngineTM2 on? Late last year we took a poll of active team members, it was unanimous, we should switch to the Warhead or Crysis Wars version of the SDK once it was released. Reasons were straight forward - Better optimised engine would allow more Squads and Clans to play Wars has more player numbers for us to try to appeal to The decision made all we had to do was wait... In late January of this year, we were given the opportunity to have early access to the Wars SDK. The whole team signed up to new NDAs with Crytek and a media update was scheduled to be released as soon as we received the SDK. We waited with baited breath for the advanced copy. It never came... We are currently evaluating the copy that was released to the public almost a week ago now. Our biggest concern is if there are impacts to our C++ code base, as initial indications are that our maps should transfer well. We will be keeping you posted on our findings over the next few weeks! So... Where are we? In all honesty? Not where we should be... Some parts of the mod have moved on at a pace, others had actually gone backwards over the last year. Those of you who have been with us since the start may remember us promising video footage that would take your breath away, yet years later we still havent shown you any. Put simply you can only get a quality mod done on time with a commited and talented team. Some extremely costly mistakes were made when recruiting... These mistakes have been finally been put right and we now have guys with the level of professionalism and committment that we need. As a result though we have had to take several steps back, dropping back to concept art in some cases before pushing forwards. That said 12 month late, we are only just getting in the position where we have work in progress Task Force Obsidian Edge characters in game. Here are a few shots of the 1st one off the production line! Having said that coding progress, prior to conversion to the Wars SDK, had been excellent, over 80% of the core Obsidian Edge features are now coded along with the Team Elimination and Enemy Territory game types. The complete features list currently includes: Night Vision Enhanced binocular effects Damage Spin Damage model - bullet hits and health levels Random Team Spawn locations Player Classes Team max deaths / Individual max deaths (either team or individual can be active, not both) Revised Scoreboard Player movement (speed, etc.) Tactical Reloads (feature in Crysis) Team locking Lockdown First person spectator Command map (viewable only) Colored stance/health indicator Team kill kick (feature in Crysis) Player casts shadow and can see own body (feature in Crysis) Weapon customization (feature in Crysis) Map downloads (feature in Warhead) Map Cycle / Map Repeat (feature in Crysis) Which kind of neatly brings us around to our release plans. Plans for Release Phased Approach: We are switching to a phased release approach. What does that mean? Well in the first instance it means that the intitial release, while containing all core OE features, will only ship with two gameplay modes and 3 maps: Modes - Team Elimination and Enemy Territory Maps - Arsenal (US Urban), Dunes (ME Town), Hunted (Scandinavian Forest) Other modes and maps will be added through later releases Timeline: Closed Alpha - ETA Mid April Closed Beta - ETA Early May Public Beta - ETA June These dates are our goals. Obviously they are subject to change based on progress. News Posts: This marks a change in our update style, in that it will be the last for now of the large news posts. In the future you will see more of the Devs posting regular blogs on their individual progress and activities; the idea is to keep you as informed as possible going forwards, so you will see news updates at almost the same time the Dev team does! Recruitment Drive Our current active roster is as follows (If you think you are part of this team but are not listed below, how about doing some work?): Coding: Soroc, James-Ryan Modelling: Suli, Stefan, Prozac, Sideshowbob, Pumbaa, Faraz, Spacehoshi Animation: Gizmo Level Design Osok, Snypr, Beloved Monster Sounds and Music StringedEvil, Dimitris QA CuZ, Bamboo, Jarhead While at first glance it might appear that we still have a large team, we are still desperately short in the following areas: Texture artists: We still have a huge backlog of weapons and vehicles that require texturing Character Artists We currently have one character model. We need different models for the competing factions and for the different classes within those units. Animators and Riggers While Gizmo has made a stunning start on the team, he needs all the help we can get! 3D modellers Environs, Weapons and Vehicles You name it we still need it modelled, if you are professional, committed and your work is of the highest calibre, then we have a place on the team for you, all that we ask is that you be able to texture your own work. 2D Artists We have revised 'work in progress' in game menus and HUDs, but what we really need is a talented 2D artist to give them that professional finish. Web Designer Think you can refresh the sites image? Then let us know! If you think you can help us out in any of the areas highlighted, please get in touch via the "Join the Team " application page... 1st Alpha Test Squad We would like to thank everyone who responded to our previous call for Beta testers. From those that were successful, we have hand picked a select few to join the team as alpha build testers and we will be contacting folks over the next week or so to get them set up with access to the test forums. Please dont be offended if you were not amongst those chosen, for what its worth, the choices to whittle it down to a manageable number was extremely difficult! Hopefully with the help of these fine folks, we can quickly progress to a closed beta where many more of you will be invited to help the testing. Media Our primary focus for media in this update is to introduce you to the Dunes map. Dunes is based in a small desert town somewhere in the Middle East, with a number of key control points the action will shift from the mercantile districts, through the almost shanty like dwellings of the poorer citizens, to the comparative opulence of the Mayors house. Lets take a look at some of the concept art that Sideshowbob has been producing, ahead of looking at some of the WIPs of models that he and Pumbaa have been producing: That's hopefully given you a taste for how Dunes is starting to look, but how do it and Arsenal sound? Here is a first sneak peak at the sounds of Obsidian Edge, It's 30 seconds of Dunes ambient wind featuring HK416, HKUSP. Then 30 secs of urban ambient featuring M24, M249, M4A1. There's also some of the distant impulses/trails thrown around as a concept of how they might be triggered and some distant fire... Enjoy! Sounds Concepts The following screens are from Spacehoshi, these are renders of a Swedish type hut that will be used on Hunted: Last of all, here is a wallpaper that Prozac put together: Hopefully there is has been a little something for everyone in this update, if not, or if you want more details on some of the things covered in this update, please feel free to discuss it on our forums here Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.TuG.Beaver Posted March 31, 2009 Report Share Posted March 31, 2009 jesus christ JJ, thats a long copy+paste!! I wondered when they would announce this move to the new crysis wars engine - would have been completely stupid for them to stick with the old crysis engine - although I fear that before they even release a working beta, that the next crysis game will be out and yet another new engine will be available!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.TuG.JJUK Posted March 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 31, 2009 LOL i got bored of just putting in the links:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Please sign in to comment
You will be able to leave a comment after signing in
Sign In Now