OpenEQ Beta 2 Screenshots

daeken_bb · #1 09-16-2004, 09:13 AM

Well, we've been hard at work on the latest version, and I'm pretty damn happy with the current result

Currently we don't support their water effects, and it's a bit slow because my old culling code doesn't apply well to the new zones... guess I have an excuse to work on the BSP/Octree shit.

We also are planning now to convert the old-school zones to EQG to take advantage of the new features, as well as standardize the file format and give biiig performance increases

Happy Hacking,
Lord Daeken M. BlackBlade
(Cody Brocious)

daeken_bb · #2 09-16-2004, 10:49 AM

Some screenshots of wall of slaughter:

Raddiux · #3 09-16-2004, 12:39 PM

Wow nice work! I can't wait for this thing to get closer to release. There must still be a ton of work left though :sad:

Just curious, but why don't you use any kind of mipmap filtering? All the textures are pixelated.

daeken_bb · #4 09-16-2004, 12:45 PM

Thanks

We will mipmap eventually... you have to realize that that is the product of about 10 hours of reverse-engineering and about 1 of actually coding lol. Give us time, and we'll have something truly great looking

Raddiux · #5 09-16-2004, 01:15 PM

Btw, are you also a network coder? There must be a lot of work involved with the server <--> client communication. Or do you plan to open the project up so others can help you?

daeken_bb · #6 09-16-2004, 01:25 PM

Yea, I also do network code... was just working on the Loginserver we're using before I started RE'ing the new formats lol. The project is GPL'd and we make source releases every once and a while. The 2nd beta release will have partial network support, as well as some other new features... you'll have to wait to hear about those

Cisyouc · #7 09-16-2004, 02:49 PM

Impressive. Very very nice renders on Walls of Slaughter.

daeken_bb · #8 09-16-2004, 03:03 PM

Thanks

Speaking of wall of slaughter... can anyone confirm that the textures are right? It just doesn't quite look right to me...

Raddiux · #9 09-16-2004, 04:23 PM

I'm not sure if you can answer this, but I guess I might as well ask since you seem to know what you're doing as far as rendering.

What is it about the "new" EQ engine (meaning the Luclin engine) that looks so much worse compared to the original EQ engine (Classic, Kunark, and Velious). I can't quite put my finger on it, but its almost as if everything Luclin and beyond is displayed as full bright, with no shadowing whatsoever. I know EQ never used lightmaps, but the original engine looked far superior in terms of lighting compared to the Luclin terrain engine. Even with its low poly count, i'd still say the old engine looks better than the new one.

Compare for example these 2 pics:

The first screenshot is taken from GOD. Notice how there is absolutly *NO* shadowing taking place. Looking at that shot almost makes me nauseous because there is no way for the eye to tell distance. There is no shadowing to help give a feel of depth to the different objects/walls.

The 2nd shot is taken from original EQ. Notice how walls are shaded differently depending on what direction they are facing and where the sunlight is coming from. This 2nd shot is far more pleasing to look at. Sure, it might have lower poly counts due to the more primitive BSP engine, but it looks far better, IMO.

Do you know if this is some problem related to terrain engines? Or is Sony just too lazy to do proper lighting? I personally can't stand looking at any zone after Velious, because the lighting is just so off.[/url]

daeken_bb · #10 09-16-2004, 10:10 PM

Hrm... no, I don't know. I don't know much about the inner workings of the official EQ engine beyond what's in the files, and that doesn't say much about shadows and such.

daeken_bb · #11 09-16-2004, 10:56 PM

Well, I had doubts about my texture code before, but now I know it's right

I just got riftseekers rendering (there was an issue with handling the material lists that I fixed for placeable objects but not ground meshes) and it looks fucking fantastic

I'll post screenshots when I get around to it... right now I'm too tired lol

killspree · #12 09-17-2004, 01:35 AM

Ya, textures are right on walls of slaughter. Oddly enough the object textures are showing up perfectly(like they do on the live client), the terrain textures seem to be the only thing pixelated.

Btw, I'm sure people will be pleased with proving grounds, it's an oldschool style maze type dungeon.

daeken_bb · #13 09-17-2004, 01:56 AM

This is getting fun now

Every zone I've tested (about 1/4 of the new zones) works damn nice. I'm cleaning up memory leaks and the code in general, as well as working on getting proper alpha blending and such. It's coming along nicely

Hopefully by the end of the weekend we'll have placeable objects rendering in-place in the zones, as well as at least basic frustum culling

dy5functi0n · #14 09-27-2004, 01:04 PM

Hey Daeken. It's Xiao. Remember me? Well, I still don't know python, but bleh. Anything I can do to help this project, I wll. I'll try to learn python, but I think at this point, It'd take me a hell of a long time to be useful. :/

Tzwizard · #15 10-03-2004, 04:12 AM

Daeken..... I Beta Tested for Omens of War....

& Visited Wall of Slaughter..

Those textures are right.......

Keep up the good work man!!! :-p