dreamworld-engine
Latest
Anarchy Online dev update talks new engine, server migrations, and more
There's a new monthly development update for Anarchy Online on the game's official forums. It's a fairly lengthy read, but then again there's a lot going on with Funcom's long-running sci-fi MMO. First of all, the devs are extending Halloween festivities through November 12th due to Hurricane Sandy. The team is also finalizing its scripts for the upcoming server migration, and work continues on the much-anticipated Dreamworld engine upgrade. New character models, animations, textures, and mesh armors are all on the table, and Funcom says it's "in the home stretch" on the project as a whole. Finally, this month's letter touches on AO's Steam presence as well as Funcom's plans for upgrading the new player experience. Read all about it on the game's official forums.
Anarchy Online feels the impact of Funcom layoffs, recommits to engine upgrade
Game Director Fia Tjernberg begins her monthly development update for Anarchy Online on a somber note, saying that the layoffs at Funcom have put a hold on the team's growth and a number of planned projects, such as the improved character creation system. Tjernberg did transition into a more upbeat tone as she emphasized that the team is still progressing with the graphical update: "Our Dreamworld engine upgrade is still one of our top priorities! We believe this is an important step in evolving AO and building for the future, and as this work is done in parallel to the rest of our commitments, we do not have to delay any other content because of this!" Other topics of the letter include a report from AO-Con, improvements to seasonal content, testing the new player experience, strengthening the community, and discussions revolving around the game's PvP.
Chaos Theory: The Secret World's bright (player-driven?) future
Apologies for not following through with part three of my crafting guide this week. I fully intended to do so, but a couple of interesting things happened over the past few days that merit some discussion. First off, Ragnar Tornquist published what can only be called a defiant state of the game letter. The Secret World's creative director engaged in some rabble-rousing penmanship that managed to inspire a metaphorical fist-pump from yours truly, even though I've been covering games long enough to cast a cynical eye toward similar rally-the-troops developer rhetoric. Tornquist admitted that TSW's competition is stiff, in particular new releases like Guild Wars 2 and Mists of Pandaria, but he didn't shy away from singing his game's praises. More importantly, he reiterated what early adopters have known for a while now: The Secret World is that increasingly rare MMO horse of a different color, and despite financial and personnel losses, Funcom knows it has a winner on its hands and is fighting to keep it.
The Secret World's Øystein Eftevaag gets technical
When it comes to gameplay, we've heard about The Secret World inside and out. We know all about the Dragons, the Illuminati, and the Templars and the ongoing war against the encroaching darkness. But what about what's under the hood? The folks over at The Hydra Initiative decided to have a chat with Funcom's lead programmer, Øystein Eftevaag, about the Dreamworld Engine, which is shared between Age of Conan and TSW. Eftevaag notes that the TSW team benefits from sharing the engine with Age of Conan, saying, "The main benefit of this to The Secret World, is that the features being collaborated on (like, say, memory usage improvements, loading time improvements and the upcoming single-server technology) get the full development and testing resources of two whole projects focused on them." So if you want to know all about The Secret World's engine and what makes the game tick, just click on over to The Hydra Initiative and have a look. If you're in search of more gameplay details, however, you're just going to have to sit back and wait. With the game's April launch fast approaching, we're sure Funcom has something planned.
The Secret World's engine takes center stage
Unified engines for MMOs have long been a rarity, simply due to the time needed to develop a game and the number of different companies developing separate products. The Secret World manages to buck this trend, using the same core Dreamworld Engine as Funcom's Age of Conan. A recent interview with lead programmer Øystein Eftevaag discusses the way that the engine interacts with the newer game, how the unified engine helps both games, and what special features the game is using in a technical sense. Eftevaag explains that the Dreamworld Engine benefits chiefly from cross-pollination; improvements made in terms of optimization for Age of Conan can be imported to the engine on The Secret World with minimal extra legwork. The engine also uses a series of dynamic equations to determine what player characters should be able to see, subsequently leaving obscured areas blank to save on processor cycles. It's an interesting look under the hood at the technical side of Funcom's upcoming conspiracy and horror title, even if this particular dream world is tilted toward a nightmare.
Age of Conan dev update talks House of Crom, upcoming content patches
Craig Morrison has posted his latest monthly Age of Conan dev update. Funcom's game director is known for his interaction with fans and for his verbosity when it comes to all things AoC, and this month's letter is no exception. The lengthy read lays out current and future AoC updates in a linear fashion, beginning with yesterday's 3.1 patch (which Morrison says was slightly delayed and also slightly problematic due to the slew of behind-the-scenes tweaks that were performed on the game's Dreamworld engine). The extra time apparently benefited the upcoming 3.2 patch, though, because it gave Funcom artists even more time to add both beauty and detail to a patch that will add both Khitai raids and the huge House of Crom dungeon instances. Head to the official AoC website for a look into Morrison's Hyborian crystal ball.
Funcom releases Age of Conan 3.1 update, Dreamworld tweaks
In case you missed it (and we did, since it was 3:00 a.m. and we do occasionally sleep), Funcom posted the latest Age of Conan patch notes on the boards earlier today. Yep, the 3.1 update is here, and while the bulk of the new code is devoted to Dreamworld engine tweaks, there are also quite a few class-related changes to peruse. Players have also been reporting various issues due to running custom user interfaces, and various fixes and workarounds have also begun showing up in the official 3.1 feedback thread. As always, more info is available at the official AoC website.
The Anvil of Crom: Is it just a dream (world)?
So the Dreamworld update is finally here, and Funcom has either made a mess of things or kicked a lot of graphical butt, depending on your perspective (as well as how your computer decided to handle the new engine rollout). Yes 2.1.3 went live last week, and it's got the Age of Conan community talking. Rangers and the newbs people who play them also have the AoC community chattering away, but really, when is that ever not the case? In this week's Anvil of Crom, I'll add my two cents to both discussions, and I'll also bribe, cajole, extort, and yes, coerce readers into voting in the latest poll to determine the grisly fate of my upcoming community-driven avatar.
Massively Exclusive: Age of Conan's Craig Morrison on Blood and Glory, grind, and the future
Interesting times are just over the horizon for Age of Conan, and whether it's due to the Dreamworld game engine upgrade or the recently announced Blood and Glory PvP servers, Funcom's sword and sorcery epic isn't standing still as it moves toward its third anniversary in May of 2011. On the heels of the PvP ruleset announcement, we sat down with Funcom executive producer and AoC game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison for a chat about ruleset specifics, PvP balance, grind, and what we're likely to see once Dreamworld hits the live servers. Join us after the cut for all that and more.
Age of Conan's Morrison talks tech upgrades
Age of Conan's Craig Morrison is back with his latest monthly development update. The October edition is very tech-heavy, with a lot of emphasis on the tweaks and additions that Funcom engineers have been making to the game's Dreamworld engine. While a lot of the details may go unnoticed to your average player, the goal is to continue improving the game's performance as well as add tools to further content creation down the road. Of particular note are the additions of Lua scripting capability (to facilitate dynamic events), improvements to the game's collision detection (and the implementation of nVidia PhysX), and tweaks to both DX9 and DX10 clients. Morrison also confirms that Guardians will be the next class to receive a substantial update. He also clarifies the upcoming PvP minigame changes. Check out all the details on the official forums.
The Anvil of Crom: Deconstructing the development update
Crom bless Craig Morrison. Not just because Age of Conan is developing into a terrific MMO under his watch, but also because he's one of the rare developers who communicate with both the fans and the press on a regular basis. From a fan's perspective, it's gratifying to see the head honcho hob-knobbing with the customers and keeping folks reasonably well-informed. From a journalist's perspective, the monthly development updates (as well as the frequent forum postings) make the job of finding something to write about Age of Conan a veritable walk in the park. Speaking of development updates, Silirrion released the latest this past week, and with it a preliminary glimpse at Age of Conan's fall patch schedule. Join us after the cut as we break down what's coming, and what we hope is coming.
