The future of mods and modding

[Spike]

I dont know allot about crysis leveldesign, but arent all the buildings and stuff models?
and you can only make a island with models on them...
if you want to do something like a urban setting you will have to make allot of models?

well, that's how lots of engines work.

[source-maps]

I dont know allot about crysis leveldesign, but arent all the buildings and stuff models?
and you can only make a island with models on them...
if you want to do something like a urban setting you will have to make allot of models?

well, that's how lots of engines work.

oh oke.. I didnt know that
I only know 'some' stuff about source

[abathor]

I dont know allot about crysis leveldesign, but arent all the buildings and stuff models?
and you can only make a island with models on them...
if you want to do something like a urban setting you will have to make allot of models?

well, that's how lots of engines work.

oh oke.. I didnt know that

I only know 'some' stuff about source

But your name is 'source-maps'!

[source-maps]

yeah very creative nickname *caugh

[Jangalomph]

Remember Source is way easier to use to some degree than the other engines. And as you said, not many people have the great skills, and time needed.

[BillyDa59]

I dont know allot about crysis leveldesign, but arent all the buildings and stuff models?
and you can only make a island with models on them...
if you want to do something like a urban setting you will have to make allot of models?

well, that's how lots of engines work.

I could be wrong but I think the geometry in GTA games is 100% models. Something I'm sure of though is that Crysis' map editor allows you to create brushes. But that's mostly for very basic things, because the number of textures is extremely limiting and I think you can only create blocks.

[RefaelBA]

Well I don't think that modding is going to change much.
Even today mods like Dystopia or BMS are not very common, and are being worked on for years. So what's the difference? Same will continue in the future. I do believe, however, that the working tools will improve greatly and that many developers will start using automation on their editors. I picture to myself Hammer with lots of pre-defined "themes" for hi-res textures, lights, and so on.

[Jangalomph]

Well I don't think that modding is going to change much.
Even today mods like Dystopia or BMS are not very common, and are being worked on for years. So what's the difference? Same will continue in the future. I do believe, however, that the working tools will improve greatly and that many developers will start using automation on their editors. I picture to myself Hammer with lots of pre-defined "themes" for hi-res textures, lights, and so on.

One day, as in automation, as i can hook my comp to my brain, and make hammer read my mind and produce what i think. That would be awesome.

Other than that, it wont change i don't think.

[Absurdistof]

Putting models into the Source engine is an absolute nightmare when compared with Crysis.

Easier doesn't [always] mean better. Now you have some kind of a "protection" against 11 year old [stupid] kids. As for the level editor. Sandbox 2 [crysis wysiwyg lvl editor] is almost as easy as pie [same for dunia/fc2]. But do you see large amounts of stunning and impressive crysis levels? I don't...

Good point. In my opinion, a lot of people design Crysis and UT3 maps to look pretty. All of the props are gorgeous, the physics are all in place. Heck, ut3 already has its own visual programming language called 'kismet'. The thing is, is that all of these pretty maps can run into a lot of problems when it comes to gameplay. Also, just because I have used the ut3 editor, to make a commertial level would take AGES.

Aand on a complete side note: GOW2 is practically a mod of ut3 the mapping is SO F.CKIN IDENTICAL!!!!

That is all.

[Rick_D]

There haven't been any massive leaps since the Quake days, and id are pushing most of those now anyway. What makes you think in 10 years time we won't still have model-heavy bsp based engines.

Or sandbox-style heavy lodding fog-culled wastelands?


The only thing that really changes is the hardware that runs the games, and allows developers to go higher res.
There really won't be that much change, honestly. There is no reason to push that change - look at cod, most acclaimed game, MP and SP, for years; it's still using a variant on radiant, with some pretty simple techniques. their editor has some decent tricks implemented but it's still pretty old tech at its core.

Killzone 2 team used maya to build levels (same engine is being used by Drakes Fortune 2 team), so for what was hailed as a technical masterpiece they didn't even implement any editors. Just some clever scripting and code; ie: the designer/artist didn't have anything mindblowing to work with.


The real problem with mods is that people want AAA titles as mods. No. It's a mod.
There is no harm in taking pride in your work but too many people start a mod team and simply make CS or CoD4 with some minor changes.
Insurgency for example, it's CS meets Americas Army, but done as a mod team would do it - with a heavy hint of the amatuer about it.

If you think back to what CS did to HL, or what TF did to Quake, then you realise that modders are not really doing naything particularly new or exciting. Just copying things they have seen before.

The problem isn't the games getting more complex to build for (each new iteration on Source, for example, adds new things, but also makes it easier to make great looking content), it's the community the mods are made for. they are whiny cunts who want AAA games for free. Well fuck you.

Boom.

[Mr.Mguee]

Putting models into the Source engine is an absolute nightmare when compared with Crysis.

Easier doesn't [always] mean better. Now you have some kind of a "protection" against 11 year old [stupid] kids. As for the level editor. Sandbox 2 [crysis wysiwyg lvl editor] is almost as easy as pie [same for dunia/fc2]. But do you see large amounts of stunning and impressive crysis levels? I don't...

Well, Crysis models pwns Source models in all the ways.

And for the level thing, that's not the engine fault, that's because there're lots of kids making maps for Crysis and FarCry2, they just open the editor and make a crap. But I'm sure people can make awesome maps with them.

Omg, have you seen all the crap those nine year old kids dish out in halo 3?

[Armageddon]

A. UT3 Engine sucks. All static environments. No physics but player physics. It's laggy. The aliasing sucks. And it's a little bit hard to mod for.

B. Cryengine 2 looks good but. Most PCs can't run it, unless it's very laggy. You have to have models for buildings, witch takes away the reason for being a mapper. It takes skill to make brush or mesh buildings. But if you have a modeler to model building there is no reason for a mapper.

C. Source is simple, clean, and has very good physics. Easy to mod for (except for coding ). Lighting is really good in ep2 build. The modeling is a little dumb though. Six different files just to make a model look right.

D. Most games are very limited in modding.

I would choose source in 5-10 years. Just update the engine a little bit. I believe that game quality has pretty much reached it's limits for a LONG time.

[Rick_D]

A. UT3 Engine sucks. All static environments. No physics but player physics. It's laggy. The aliasing sucks. And it's a little bit hard to mod for.

That is all so incredibly wrong I don't even know where to start. This is UT3

As for the rest, well, not entirely correct

[Surfa]

That is crysis.

Edit: Other than that though I totally agree that the unreal engine is one of the best engines out there if not the best just because of its versatility.

[marks]

The problem isn't the games getting more complex to build for ... it's the community the mods are made for. they are whiny cunts who want AAA games for free. Well fuck you.

You just went from "some guy I swear I recognise his name, oh he works at XYZ" to "my personal hero" in one sentence. I salute you sir