Only one light source at a time?

[[SI] Bobdelion]

Well as a PLC, their financials are pretty transparant. They come on here all the time. The company is in great shape. The only thing that you could be talking about is that it could be sold. But again that is still speculation.

This. Conspiracy theorising based on 'privileged information' gets us nowhere, and frankly is not even all that relevant to the discussion anyway.

I'm almost getting sick of seeing myself post the same stuff [...] it's becoming clear this investment I have is becoming semi-obsessional. I'm certain many forum posters are sick of seeing my rants, even if they don't understand the reasons why I keep poking FDev.

Then don't do it?! Seriously though, if all this is doing is getting your blood up (none of what we have discussed here re. engine tech is anywhere within either of our direct control, and we are all operating with partial information at best) then why expend effort wishing things were other than they are? Fact; Frontier did not use another game engine to make this game. That is the rock in the sand - it is not going to change. Decrying the merits of that choice is to shout into the wind, particularly because as already stated the choice of engine is only one decision in many and would not necessarily change what we currently see with the lighting model in the current version of the game. If anything tell us why having multiple main light sources in this game would be valuable to you and argue for its implementation within the future game. Go 'glass half full' if you will. Persisting on the idea that all of this is wholly dependent on Frontier's decision to stick by their investment in their existing technology in favour of the flashily marketed alternatives (and using this to then slight the games developers) won't change the current situation in any shape or form.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

This is not a 32-bit limitation. It's either bad planning/bad decision or lack of experience - take your pick.

It was decision made on performance basis. They couldn't get good enough performance when having multiple stars as light sources, so they decided not to do that yet.

It has been hinted numerous times that it will change in future.

Also it is almost as indication that if there are some graphical regression or something does not look like right speculation is that it is either FD is incompetent, either COBRA is bad and it should be so easy and flowers and puppies.

Seriously people, as long as you have no serious credentials to back such heavy hitting claims, maybe just...don't?

FD is accused of not communicating. Beige has been communicated for eternity now. Same with multiple stars as light sources. It has been discussed with devs over and over. You might want to ask why there's no improvements. Well, because most of PG universe improvements ended with 2.3. It seems team has been working on different branch for long time now, that's why there's no improvements. Also both things require serious rewrites. So what's the point FD devs communicating this if people does not listen?

Stop going in circles. Hug a puppy or something.

 

[Rafe Zetter]

@ Max Factor - never said they created COBRA just for ED. I know it was already being used but I doubt it was "good to go" to create ED, because it had never done anything like it previously, while I am doing a lot of speculating, everyone else is also speculating on the possibility that no modifications to the COBRA engine were required to make ED.

Regarding CR, not sure what your beef is with him as a Dev, but his track record of output in the genre is undeniable. I have Freelancer running on my machine right now after playing it years ago, with maybe 20/30 hours logged so far - no it wasn't ground breaking in it's day, and yes there are issues; most of which could be attributed to it going out the door a couple of years late and requiring an overhaul after CR left the company it was being developed with.

- OK lets's give this a try..... Their financials are not quite as transparent as might appear to a layman; there have been some fairly serious ommissions and to-do's with HMRC in the past; 2 board members resigned in quick succession, and a recent share report was also both incorrect and omitted an entry that FDev are legally obliged to disclose regarding the aforementioned share issue cash grab. To date they have not. There's also the fairly serious issue of DB not even owning majority share in his own company - steps have been taken apparently, but no confirmation of this has been made as yet. Anyone who's followed the games industry as I have would know that if the main creator of a franchise is no longer at the helm, things happen; usually new people direct the franchise away from the franchise previous developmental direction - the longterm plan and drive of how this game is developed sits solely with DB; everyone else, including Sandro, takes orders from whomever is writing the cheques. How DB is going to raise the £8.6 million he needs to do it, when his entire net worth is only 3/4 of that I don't know; can't sell his shares [obviously], and a loan would make no sense as you're just transferring ownership to a different 3rd party. Yes, again this is speculation, but the facts remain DB has yet to be confirmed as the SOLE majority owner of FDev, this could be a problem and I'm not the only one who thinks this.

@ Whitehair - yes SC is still in development - it's 2 games in 1 - technically 3 if you count the spacelegs. If SC had been developed in the same manner as ED, it too would already be out and having more stuff bolted on bit by bit, but it would have been so disjointed it would be a horrible experience. SC chose a different path, doing Arena commander (CQC sort of thing) and the spacelegs FIRST, which required mocap and a whole heap of things more complicated than simply writing code. Side by side to this they are doing the voiceacting and performances required for Sqdrn 42 and I've just realised if I listed what's been done that's different to ED and why it's been done in that order, this would turn into another wall of text, so I'm going to suggest you do some reading of your own if you truly want to be informed rather than inferring "it's not out yet, so SC using the cryengine / lumberyard must have been a bad decision".

@ CMDR Russell - Unreal 4 fees are 5% of PROFIT from commercial sales over and above $3,000 USD for Unreal used assets ONLY - no physical merch is included in that - NOT $3,000 per product PLUS 5% commission on turnover (a very different thing) which is how your comment reads. You can spend as long as you like using Unreal 4, and pay NO FEES until you produce a commercial product and make profits in any quarter that are above $3,000 USD. Sell a t-shirt; NOT included. Sell a cosmetic skin, included.

I did say that, twice at least - admittedly not all in the same posts.

@ Shadowdancer - Pathers ARE leopards, or Jaguars. A "Black Panther" is the melanistic version of both (btw I actually already knew this, in a previous life I worked in Chessington Zoo). Melanism is the opposite of Albinoism. Black instead of White, pretty cool looking, but up close and personal you can still see the normal spot markings underneath; however I wouldn't suggest it unless you happen to know a freindly one raised in captivity as I did, but take my word for it.

Think that's it.

However it's clear people are either skimming and not catching the pertinent parts of what I write, or just aren't understanding, so I'm going to bow out of this thread.

 

[[SI] Bobdelion]

- OK lets's give this a try..... Their financials are not quite as transparent as might appear to a layman; there have been some fairly serious ommissions and to-do's with HMRC in the past; 2 board members resigned in quick succession, and a recent share report was also both incorrect and omitted an entry that FDev are legally obliged to disclose regarding the aforementioned share issue cash grab. To date they have not. There's also the fairly serious issue of DB not even owning majority share in his own company - steps have been taken apparently, but no confirmation of this has been made as yet. Anyone who's followed the games industry as I have would know that if the main creator of a franchise is no longer at the helm, things happen; usually new people direct the franchise away from the franchise previous developmental direction - the longterm plan and drive of how this game is developed sits solely with DB; everyone else, including Sandro, takes orders from whomever is writing the cheques. How DB is going to raise the £8.6 million he needs to do it, when his entire net worth is only 3/4 of that I don't know; can't sell his shares [obviously], and a loan would make no sense as you're just transferring ownership to a different 3rd party. Yes, again this is speculation, but the facts remain DB has yet to be confirmed as the SOLE majority owner of FDev, this could be a problem and I'm not the only one who thinks this.

That is quite a bomb to just lob into the room and then walk away. I'm fascinated to know what actual evidence this theory crafting is based on. You seem to be implying access to detail here but implication is a tricky customer without real substance.

 

[S3B4ST13N]

@ CMDR Russell - Unreal 4 fees are 5% of PROFIT from commercial sales over and above $3,000 USD for Unreal used assets ONLY - no physical merch is included in that - NOT $3,000 per product PLUS 5% commission on turnover (a very different thing) which is how your comment reads. You can spend as long as you like using Unreal 4, and pay NO FEES until you produce a commercial product and make profits in any quarter that are above $3,000 USD. Sell a t-shirt; NOT included. Sell a cosmetic skin, included.

I did say that, twice at least - admittedly not all in the same posts..

Thanks for the correction, although a correction on my part .. it's not profit, it's 5% gross.

If I release a commercial product, what royalties are due to Epic, and when?

Generally, you are obligated to pay to Epic 5% of all gross revenue after the first $3,000 per game or application per calendar quarter, regardless of what company collects the revenue. For example, if your product earns $10 from sales on the App Store, the royalty due is $0.50 (5% of $10), even though you would receive roughly $7 from Apple after they deduct their distribution fee of roughly $3 (30% of $10).

- https://www.unrealengine.com/en-US/faq

However, my point still stands .. some companies are not willing to part with 5% of their revenue.

 

[Zambrick]

Are you kidding me? - is this true?

That FDev were trying to make a "next gen super duper" (according to a great many of the devblogs) game run on systems that even at the date of the KS were over TEN YEARS out of date?

This cannot possibly be true, why on earth would you deliberately hobble yourself like this?

Because the original kickstarter was started in 2012 and the average gaming PCs back then were 2 years of age or older. Its not hobbling. Its using the current standard API and supporting your player base.

Its simple. I dont see how you people cant see it. They didnt hobble themselves, they proposed a game that would run on the average PC of the day. Thats all. They were not out of date at the KS. When the KS started the market has as of yet to adopt DirectX11 as a standard. More games were running on 9 and 10.

You do play games on the PC don't you. You know all this so dont act like you dont. The games are just now starting to try and utilize DX12 and that was released 3 years ago. Adoption of the latest Direct X or Open GL updates are generally 5+ years behind the introduction of the API in the first place.

The standard that most games were using at the time of the KS and up until launch was DX9 and 10. How many games go back and update their game to run on the current API? Seeing as how the majority of the games that are being released today are being developed using the DX11 API.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

@ Max Factor - never said they created COBRA just for ED. I know it was already being used but I doubt it was "good to go" to create ED, because it had never done anything like it previously, while I am doing a lot of speculating, everyone else is also speculating on the possibility that no modifications to the COBRA engine were required to make ED.

And this is exactly the point. There are no engines out there that have done anything like ED, so using there own engine that they already know about is no brainer surely. They are not re-writing the wheel, DB pretty much invented it with the first Elite game.

Regarding CR, not sure what your beef is with him as a Dev, but his track record of output in the genre is undeniable. I have Freelancer running on my machine right now after playing it years ago, with maybe 20/30 hours logged so far - no it wasn't ground breaking in it's day, and yes there are issues; most of which could be attributed to it going out the door a couple of years late and requiring an overhaul after CR left the company it was being developed with.

Well SC is looking more and more like a failure and as I said, not a massive fan of the other games apart from Freelancer which had issues as well.

- OK lets's give this a try..... Their financials are not quite as transparent as might appear to a layman; there have been some fairly serious ommissions and to-do's with HMRC in the past; 2 board members resigned in quick succession, and a recent share report was also both incorrect and omitted an entry that FDev are legally obliged to disclose regarding the aforementioned share issue cash grab. To date they have not. There's also the fairly serious issue of DB not even owning majority share in his own company - steps have been taken apparently, but no confirmation of this has been made as yet. Anyone who's followed the games industry as I have would know that if the main creator of a franchise is no longer at the helm, things happen; usually new people direct the franchise away from the franchise previous developmental direction - the longterm plan and drive of how this game is developed sits solely with DB; everyone else, including Sandro, takes orders from whomever is writing the cheques. How DB is going to raise the £8.6 million he needs to do it, when his entire net worth is only 3/4 of that I don't know; can't sell his shares [obviously], and a loan would make no sense as you're just transferring ownership to a different 3rd party. Yes, again this is speculation, but the facts remain DB has yet to be confirmed as the SOLE majority owner of FDev, this could be a problem and I'm not the only one who thinks this.

So they didn't disclose the the shares with Tencent even when it went public and we all saw the disclosure pretty much when it happened. Also it wouldn't be in their last report and accounts as that was for April/May and the Tencent deal went through in July. We will see it in the next report and accounts I would think.

As to DB only owning 49% (i think its that) of the shares, that may not be an issue depending on who owns the rest of the shares (tencent only has 9%). He is still at the helm, I am not sure of his title within the company, but possibly CEO who would have authority to write the checks and still has full authority over the companies direction. There is nobody else taking over the company at the moment unless he sells up. It would take a monumental effort for all of the other share holders to gang up on him and dispose of him as the CEO, the odds are slim to none depending on the other owners. This is pretty basic business stuff here, even in the company I work for the CEO is not the majority share holder, his brother is but has full control over the company.

As to the 2 board members leaving in quick successsion, that could mean anything and means nothing until we get details which we may not ever get.

This all looks like a load of nonsense to me, and that is coming from someone who has owned his own company, been a sole trader and been in partnerships in the past.

 

[Zambrick]

@ Max Factor - never said they created COBRA just for ED. I know it was already being used but I doubt it was "good to go" to create ED, because it had never done anything like it previously, while I am doing a lot of speculating, everyone else is also speculating on the possibility that no modifications to the COBRA engine were required to make ED.

Regarding CR, not sure what your beef is with him as a Dev, but his track record of output in the genre is undeniable. I have Freelancer running on my machine right now after playing it years ago, with maybe 20/30 hours logged so far - no it wasn't ground breaking in it's day, and yes there are issues; most of which could be attributed to it going out the door a couple of years late and requiring an overhaul after CR left the company it was being developed with.

- OK lets's give this a try..... Their financials are not quite as transparent as might appear to a layman; there have been some fairly serious ommissions and to-do's with HMRC in the past; 2 board members resigned in quick succession, and a recent share report was also both incorrect and omitted an entry that FDev are legally obliged to disclose regarding the aforementioned share issue cash grab. To date they have not. There's also the fairly serious issue of DB not even owning majority share in his own company - steps have been taken apparently, but no confirmation of this has been made as yet. Anyone who's followed the games industry as I have would know that if the main creator of a franchise is no longer at the helm, things happen; usually new people direct the franchise away from the franchise previous developmental direction - the longterm plan and drive of how this game is developed sits solely with DB; everyone else, including Sandro, takes orders from whomever is writing the cheques. How DB is going to raise the £8.6 million he needs to do it, when his entire net worth is only 3/4 of that I don't know; can't sell his shares [obviously], and a loan would make no sense as you're just transferring ownership to a different 3rd party. Yes, again this is speculation, but the facts remain DB has yet to be confirmed as the SOLE majority owner of FDev, this could be a problem and I'm not the only one who thinks this.

@ Whitehair - yes SC is still in development - it's 2 games in 1 - technically 3 if you count the spacelegs. If SC had been developed in the same manner as ED, it too would already be out and having more stuff bolted on bit by bit, but it would have been so disjointed it would be a horrible experience. SC chose a different path, doing Arena commander (CQC sort of thing) and the spacelegs FIRST, which required mocap and a whole heap of things more complicated than simply writing code. Side by side to this they are doing the voiceacting and performances required for Sqdrn 42 and I've just realised if I listed what's been done that's different to ED and why it's been done in that order, this would turn into another wall of text, so I'm going to suggest you do some reading of your own if you truly want to be informed rather than inferring "it's not out yet, so SC using the cryengine / lumberyard must have been a bad decision".

@ CMDR Russell - Unreal 4 fees are 5% of PROFIT from commercial sales over and above $3,000 USD for Unreal used assets ONLY - no physical merch is included in that - NOT $3,000 per product PLUS 5% commission on turnover (a very different thing) which is how your comment reads. You can spend as long as you like using Unreal 4, and pay NO FEES until you produce a commercial product and make profits in any quarter that are above $3,000 USD. Sell a t-shirt; NOT included. Sell a cosmetic skin, included.

I did say that, twice at least - admittedly not all in the same posts.

@ Shadowdancer - Pathers ARE leopards, or Jaguars. A "Black Panther" is the melanistic version of both (btw I actually already knew this, in a previous life I worked in Chessington Zoo). Melanism is the opposite of Albinoism. Black instead of White, pretty cool looking, but up close and personal you can still see the normal spot markings underneath; however I wouldn't suggest it unless you happen to know a freindly one raised in captivity as I did, but take my word for it.

Think that's it.

However it's clear people are either skimming and not catching the pertinent parts of what I write, or just aren't understanding, so I'm going to bow out of this thread.

Again do you or does anyone like you create AAA titled video games for a living? Do you even know how to use Unreal 4 engine beyond youtube tutorials? Do you work for Unreal? Do you work with the Cobra Engine?

You are defending a game engine absolutely no idea of which you speak. You are doing this with Zero insight into successful game development. You are an awfully indignant armchair game designer with no chance whatsoever of convincing anyone of your ignorant uninformed point of view.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

It is highly likely majority of PG universe limitations come from ED supporting DX10 for 1.x versions. FD plans to remove this limitation as far as I know. Everything else is just nonsense really.

 

[Rafe Zetter]

Again do you or does anyone like you create AAA titled video games for a living? Do you even know how to use Unreal 4 engine beyond youtube tutorials? Do you work for Unreal? Do you work with the Cobra Engine?

You are defending a game engine absolutely no idea of which you speak. You are doing this with Zero insight into successful game development. You are an awfully indignant armchair game designer with no chance whatsoever of convincing anyone of your ignorant uninformed point of view.

I'd say this and other posts shows a great deal of indignance from you Zambrick. Max Factor disagrees with my posts, but does so in a way whereby an actual discussion is going on. I respect the fact that he has continued the discussion when others such as yourself have devolved into comments such as the one above.

You however seem to be attempting to use "shovel method" as in "hit them with a shovel and bury the body before they wake up".

I don't have to have produced a AAA title, used the COBRA / UNREAL engines or worked in the games industry to be allowed an opinion - I live in a free democratic country; it's my right by birth to say as I feel. It's your right to use this UK based forum to disagree or even to ignore me - because we brits allow TOTAL freedom of speech because we are nice like that. It's even your right to use this forum to say what you did above, but NONE of those rights, make YOU right. It's just YOUR opinion. Even if you have years and years of experience of the Unreal, Crysis or Unity engine, clearly you have no experience of the COBRA engine or you would have said so by now, so your defense that one is superior to the other is an opinion based on... what?

Your defence of COBRA over the other game engines is as much speculation as mine is of thinking there could have been a better way, which is all I've ever said.

My opinions come from having been a gamer in one form or another since hmm 1982? I started to take an active interest in the games industry in 1989 because once a upon a time I had a wild idea that I might try to enter it, but it soon became obvious my ability was lacking. Didn't stop me from buying magazines, didn't stop me spending hour after painstaking hour copying the code published in the magazines to get a BASIC game running, and even more hours checking the code, correcting then de-bugging. I used to have piles and piles of gaming magazines, I found a few of them recently. I used to play games whereby you had to load it from TAPE, and get the levels *just so* or you had to start again. Loading 1985 Elite used to take 5 MINUTES, with only a 50/50 chance of success, the merest *blip* in the sound levels and you had to start again. I have read THOUSANDS of computer gaming magazines, and articles - my friends and I would talk about computer games the way others talk about football or baseball, I have PLAYED HUNDREDS of titles across the vast majority of platforms, I have been gaming online since 2001, and previously dabbled with MUD's - I've also run private servers for a few games that had multiplayer built in, Freelancer being one of them. I ALSO built my first GAMING computer in 1998, and every single machine since. I have also built 2 arcade style multi platform machines (Mame), one for myself and one for a friend. I am currently in the middle of a build to make *the computer case to end all cases* integrating it into a desk with 4x 200mm fans, sound baffles and a heap of other technical wizardy so I'll never again have to worry about buying a new case regardless of GPU size or quantity, heat or sound.

It would be no exaggeration to say I have spent almost as much time either playing or reading about games as I have working. I know a great deal about the games industry; the movers and shakers, the screwups, the poor graphical designer that died while working on Bioshock 1 (I think - could be another title it was years ago); the solo developer than released a game called Treadmarks with fully destroyable landscape WHILE HE WAS DYING OF HODGSONS LYMPHOMA, I know more and have read more than you likely ever will - or at least as much as has been publicly disclosed, and even some which wasn't via personal connections INSIDE the industry - a couple of my friends actually made it into the industry. I was there at the start and I have lived it ever since. If I owned my own house there is no doubt at all that I would have already turned one room into a full on simpit. When I backed ED in the KS I spent close to £3,000 building a rig and peripherals JUST FOR ED. I bought that instead of a newer car or tools for my business.

So you see, I am REALLY REALLY quite serious about my gaming. It's my addiction and escape that keeps me sane. If you'll check my sig, I am not and have not played ED since Alpha, and yet, here I am posting in a forum about a game that I'm not even playing with the hope and desire ED becomes all it can be.

Most visitors to this game, if they like the game, they stay, maybe even read the forums occasonally but otherwise don't really get involved. I GET INVOLVED Zambrick; I am trying to be involved in ED's development and spending my time giving my input, even if it's ignored by FDev; but it saddens me a little to see that even though I am doing all this and even though I AM FIGHTING IN YOUR CORNER, whether you understand this or not, that you think I have no rights to be here.

You Zambrick, I don't know what past experience of the gaming industry backs up your opinions or what your reasons are for being here, maybe it's just to pick fights, I dunno, you've not previously been on my radar enough to notice you.

No, I don't even know how to use Unreal engine at all, but I'm pretty nifty at handmaking furniture, and it'll last longer too.

I'm not in politics but I'm allowed to vote, which in turn will have an impact on a national, even international level. If you are over 18, so can you in whichever country you reside. Even PRISONERS, rapists and child murderers get the right to vote in the UK on national issues with or WITHOUT a ...king clue of what the issues are and thier impact, last general election and BREXIT are cases in point.

and yet you are inferring I should sit down and shut up, because according to you I'm not allowed to have a say or opinion on a game and it's engine, that only has an impact on maybe a few million people. A game I PAID FOR.

and YOU call ME indignant.

I'd slap you with my gauntlet if I thought you would even show up.

get a grip lad, really, before you blow an artery.

 

[Zambrick]

I'd say this and other posts shows a great deal of indignance from you Zambrick. Max Factor disagrees with my posts, but does so in a way whereby an actual discussion is going on. I respect the fact that he has continued the discussion when others such as yourself have devolved into comments such as the one above.

You however seem to be attempting to use "shovel method" as in "hit them with a shovel and bury the body before they wake up".

I don't have to have produced a AAA title, used the COBRA / UNREAL engines or worked in the games industry to be allowed an opinion - I live in a free democratic country; it's my right by birth to say as I feel. It's your right to use this UK based forum to disagree or even to ignore me - because we brits allow TOTAL freedom of speech because we are nice like that. It's even your right to use this forum to say what you did above, but NONE of those rights, make YOU right. It's just YOUR opinion. Even if you have years and years of experience of the Unreal, Crysis or Unity engine, clearly you have no experience of the COBRA engine or you would have said so by now, so your defense that one is superior to the other is an opinion based on... what?

Your defence of COBRA over the other game engines is as much speculation as mine is of thinking there could have been a better way, which is all I've ever said.

My opinions come from having been a gamer in one form or another since hmm 1982? I started to take an active interest in the games industry in 1989 because once a upon a time I had a wild idea that I might try to enter it, but it soon became obvious my ability was lacking. Didn't stop me from buying magazines, didn't stop me spending hour after painstaking hour copying the code published in the magazines to get a BASIC game running, and even more hours checking the code, correcting then de-bugging. I used to have piles and piles of gaming magazines, I found a few of them recently. I used to play games whereby you had to load it from TAPE, and get the levels *just so* or you had to start again. Loading 1985 Elite used to take 5 MINUTES, with only a 50/50 chance of success, the merest *blip* in the sound levels and you had to start again. I have read THOUSANDS of computer gaming magazines, and articles - my friends and I would talk about computer games the way others talk about football or baseball, I have PLAYED HUNDREDS of titles across the vast majority of platforms, I have been gaming online since 2001, and previously dabbled with MUD's - I've also run private servers for a few games that had multiplayer built in, Freelancer being one of them. I ALSO built my first GAMING computer in 1998, and every single machine since. I have also built 2 arcade style multi platform machines (Mame), one for myself and one for a friend. I am currently in the middle of a build to make *the computer case to end all cases* integrating it into a desk with 4x 200mm fans, sound baffles and a heap of other technical wizardy so I'll never again have to worry about buying a new case regardless of GPU size or quantity, heat or sound.

It would be no exaggeration to say I have spent almost as much time either playing or reading about games as I have working. I know a great deal about the games industry; the movers and shakers, the screwups, the poor graphical designer that died while working on Bioshock 1 (I think - could be another title it was years ago); the solo developer than released a game called Treadmarks with fully destroyable landscape WHILE HE WAS DYING OF HODGSONS LYMPHOMA, I know more and have read more than you likely ever will - or at least as much as has been publicly disclosed, and even some which wasn't via personal connections INSIDE the industry - a couple of my friends actually made it into the industry. I was there at the start and I have lived it ever since. If I owned my own house there is no doubt at all that I would have already turned one room into a full on simpit. When I backed ED in the KS I spent close to £3,000 building a rig and peripherals JUST FOR ED. I bought that instead of a newer car or tools for my business.

So you see, I am REALLY REALLY quite serious about my gaming. It's my addiction and escape that keeps me sane. If you'll check my sig, I am not and have not played ED since Alpha, and yet, here I am posting in a forum about a game that I'm not even playing with the hope and desire ED becomes all it can be.

Most visitors to this game, if they like the game, they stay, maybe even read the forums occasonally but otherwise don't really get involved. I GET INVOLVED Zambrick; I am trying to be involved in ED's development and spending my time giving my input, even if it's ignored by FDev; but it saddens me a little to see that even though I am doing all this and even though I AM FIGHTING IN YOUR CORNER, whether you understand this or not, that you think I have no rights to be here.

You Zambrick, I don't know what past experience of the gaming industry backs up your opinions or what your reasons are for being here, maybe it's just to pick fights, I dunno, you've not previously been on my radar enough to notice you.

No, I don't even know how to use Unreal engine at all, but I'm pretty nifty at handmaking furniture, and it'll last longer too.

I'm not in politics but I'm allowed to vote, which in turn will have an impact on a national, even international level. If you are over 18, so can you in whichever country you reside. Even PRISONERS, rapists and child murderers get the right to vote in the UK on national issues with or WITHOUT a ...king clue of what the issues are and thier impact, last general election and BREXIT are cases in point.

and yet you are inferring I should sit down and shut up, because according to you I'm not allowed to have a say or opinion on a game and it's engine, that only has an impact on maybe a few million people. A game I PAID FOR.

and YOU call ME indignant.

I'd slap you with my gauntlet if I thought you would even show up.

get a grip lad, really, before you blow an artery.

Get A grip you say. You do not exist on this planet. You have no idea what the real world is about. I was around well before video games were invented and I have seen the whole thing. I am sorry you cannot keep up with modern times or lack the ability and mental fortitude required to keep up. Don't pretend as if it were me that started throwing around generalized anger toward anyone who opposes your views with facts and reality. People had been doing it for several pages and your arguments never changed. I just wanted to see the thread move forward and let the people who actually know what there talking about speak.

All Graphics and gaming interface APIs are adopted 5 or more years after it has release. It has been that way for 20 years. Its never going to change because technology does not stop moving forward. Simple fact. You either deal with it or quit crying.

You are taking this personally because you have nothing to stand on and you are trying to turn this into a debate. There is no debate. The debate ends here. You are wrong.

Not only are you wrong you are indignant, ignorant, and desperately trying to grasp as straws to prove your point. Not to mention you seem to take offense at the drop of a hat. That is a personal problem of which you and your therapist can deal.

This entire post was started because the OP noticed that there is a singular primary light source in systems even if they contain multiple stars. Everyone told them that yes that is correct, because at the time of the KS and development that is all the average non enthusiast gaming PC could handle at the time. Then some idiot hopped on the hate train and is trying to blame it on the Game Engine and the fact that they are not using an out of the box third party engine.

The people such as yourself hating on the Cobra engine have absolutely less than a clue as to what you are talking about. Not only that but you speak from the platform of authority suggesting that somehow the Unreal Engine is superior. Again you have no idea. You didnt bother to ask what the Cobra Engine was capable of and you have no idea what the Unreal engine can and cant do. Then you continue your misinformed self righteous tirade against people who differ from you opinion.

Some yahoo started throwing around stock prices and share ownership as if that has 1 thing to do with video game development.

You need to step back and smell what you are shoveling. Then you need to let other people get a word in vertical before you disagree with them.

That sad sad part of it is unlike the Unreal Engine the Cobra engine can be modified and changed to fit any need of this or any other game. Seeing as how Frontier owns the engine and can continue to update it and change it as they see fit.

When you buy any application or anything for that matter from a third party, you are agreeing with that products limitations and you cannot operate outside of them. If you do, then you lose the third parties support.

So next time instead of getting angry grabbing the pitch fork and going after Frontier, how about you pick up your keyboard open your browser and actually learn something. Its not hard.

 

[Kerrash]

If you can't say your point without ranting. :|
Please avoid saying it at all.

 

[Stachel]

and can do anything from first person shooters

Uh? When has this Cobra engine ever done a first person shooter?

to large open world GTA type games

Uh? When has this Cobra engine ever done a large open world GTA type game?

 

[Stachel]

We do not know whether they are actively working on it. In fact all the evidence that we have suggests that they are

No, the evidence we have suggests they are NOT actively working on fixing the planet colours. They've said there will be no fix soon.

Which is no surprise, since the reason they removed them in the first place was to improve game performance. That was at the time they were porting to PS4.

 

[Stachel]

@ Max Factor - never said they created COBRA just for ED. I know it was already being used but I doubt it was "good to go" to create ED, because it had never done anything like it previously

It certainly was not good to go.

2012: "We already have a large team who are very experienced at delivering complicated projects, and the key high-risk components (like networking) are already in place." -- David Braben's kickstarter spiel

2017: ED multiplayer co-op still wrecked by rubbish networking. Having sacked the programmers who wrote the netcode, Frontier has given no indication it is ever going to be fixed, despite that it has virtually killed the main feature of the latest expansion, multi-crew. Every time it triggers another crisis, they come up with another excuse e.g. when it hit the recent PS4 launch, Frontier tried to shove the blame on to BT routers!

Back in 2012 Braben must have known that Frontier had no twitch multiplayer experience or technology. He must also have suspected that if he'd told the truth, he'd have been less likely to succeed in getting KS backers to hand over the money he desperately needed.

He also made no mention in the KS spiel that ED would use the Cobra engine. I am sure that had he done so, quite a few people would have pointed out that Cobra had never been used for any successful large-world game, and perhaps he should be looking instead at a proven industry-standard game engine.

 

[nanite2000]

When has this Cobra engine ever done a large open world GTA type game?

Can't tell if serious...

No, the evidence we have suggests they are NOT actively working on fixing the planet colours. They've said there will be no fix soon.

Which is no surprise, since the reason they removed them in the first place was to improve game performance.

What is your evidence for this?

2017: ED multiplayer co-op still wrecked by rubbish networking. Having sacked the programmers who wrote the netcode

What is your evidence for this?

Frontier has given no indication it is ever going to be fixed,

What is your evidence for this, especially given they've included network performance improvements in almost every major ?

Every time it triggers another crisis, they come up with another excuse e.g. when it hit the recent PS4 launch, Frontier tried to shove the blame on to BT routers!

What is your evidence for this?

Back in 2012 Braben must have known that Frontier had no twitch multiplayer experience or technology. He must also have suspected that if he'd told the truth, he'd have been less likely to succeed in getting KS backers to hand over the money he desperately needed.

What is your evidence for this?

He also made no mention in the KS spiel that ED would use the Cobra engine. I am sure that had he done so, quite a few people would have pointed out that Cobra had never been used for any successful large-world game, and perhaps he should be looking instead at a proven industry-standard game engine.

What is your evidence for this?

Like Kerrash said:

If you can't say your point without ranting. :|
Please avoid saying it at all.

 

[Zambrick]

Uh? When has this Cobra engine ever done a first person shooter?



Uh? When has this Cobra engine ever done a large open world GTA type game?

You are playing one right now. Elite is anything if not a FPS with RPG elements. Its open galaxy not open world. It just lacks content. The engine is not the problem. They just havent finished the game yet. We know that it can have more than one light source per system. Locally it can show the shadows of your ships, SRVs and the shadows cast by the star. However Globally in the system when in Super Cruise, there is a singular light source. If they can make multiple shadows locally, then they can do it globally. They just havent because there are is a lot of rendering going on and adding another layer of complexity would have killed systems that were the norm during the KS.

Now that they are jumping to DX12 support, then they can do many more things. Such as spread the processing load across all cores of your CPU without pegging one so hard that your CPU has to throttle due to a single core being pegged at 100%. Without that bottle neck and the improved efficiency many more things can be rendered and simulated at the same time.

Example is the new Doom game versus ED. I have a 1080ti and when I run my copy of ED whilst using my Oculus Rift, I have the settings at mid range because any more than that and it will start dropping frames. Average frame rate is around 45 which is filled in by asynchronous time warp to the aforementioned 90 FPS. Its not a true 90FPS but it stops you from getting sick. That is with no background applications running other than the rift app and ED.

When I run Doom I am running it from steam so that steam UI is using my processor, I am using VorpX which is an app that allows me to play Doom in VR, I am running the Oculus Rift app as well. Thats 2 very heavy usage apps 1 light one and then the game. The game I am running on Ultra on all settings at 4k resolution and I never drop bellow 118 frames per second. I have to turn asynchronous time warp off of my oculus otherwise it will throttle it. The only difference between the 2 similar in both speed and effect driven games is the API. Doom is DX12 or Vulkan and both are many magnitudes more efficient than DX 9,10, or 11. So with 4.2 comes DX12 and all of its benefits. So we shall see if its an issue now that they are using an API created within the last 5 years.

Since Frontier owns the Cobra Engine, even if it cant display more than one source at this moment, there is no reason why they cant update their proprietary lighting engine. Its their engine and they can do whatever they want with it. That is why going with Unreal and working within its constraints is a bad idea when it comes to a game of this scope and size.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Uh? When has this Cobra engine ever done a first person shooter?

This game is pretty much a first person game.Just a different type of locomotion.

Uh? When has this Cobra engine ever done a large open world GTA type game?

Uh. When the they nearly.completed a game called The Outsider. And ED is an open world game.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

No, the evidence we have suggests they are NOT actively working on fixing the planet colours. They've said there will be no fix soon.

Which is no surprise, since the reason they removed them in the first place was to improve game performance. That was at the time they were porting to PS4.

Nope. All the evidence says they are. All the quotes by the devs say that they are working on it.Please stop lying. Everything that comes out of your mouth is pretty much a lie.

 

[Eymerich]

Nope. All the evidence says they are. All the quotes by the devs say that they are working on it.Please stop lying. Everything that comes out of your mouth is pretty much a lie.

I disagree too.

Development has been halved compared to 2015.

Now I would like to see facts no more words or promises: those last usually comes from politics and we all know how things go...