Natural Selection 2 Engine Test

[Blink]

Unknown Worlds are hard at work on the upcoming NS2 and for those that have already pre-ordered you can now get your hands on a very early engine test:

Today is a big milestone for Unknown Worlds: we've just released the NS2 "Engine Test" to everyone that has pre-ordered the game. This is the first version of the game and game engine that will allow you to run around on a couple small maps and fire the rifle at animated dummy targets.

This release will also allow you to load up any map you build and run around it. Finally, enterprising mod-makers will also be able to start hacking around with the game script code that comes with it, although this is not meant as an official mod release.

Head over to their download section to grab a copy (you'll need your game key) or make a purchase now to get access.

[YokaI]

I'd like to mention that this is obviously very early, which shows.

I don't know exactly what it is, but something just "feels" off when moving and looking around. Maybe it's the lack of depth-based blur or motion blur, or maybe it has something to do with the anti-aliasing, but everything almost feels too crisp.

Also, the first person model goes through walls and such. XD pretty weird looking.

Lastly, the mapping is fantastic, and I love the atmosphere of the fans effecting lighting, however I feel that the way these shadows fade in/out is most peculiar. Often times being a few feed away from a shadow causes it to fade away and then it's just a normal light entity again. I understand why, but it seems to be a possible problem for gameplay, since this will mean that marines will have a major advantage at range, since the shadows that at one point obscured player vision are now gone and the room is pretty much fully lit. I think the engine should split the difference, so when you walk away from the fan, the lighting being cast is about 50% of the brightness it is when the shadows are casted on the floor... It's kind of hard to explain, shall I make a video? X3

I do like how smooth the movement is though, but there's probably going to have to be a lot more optimization. I was playing on ~ 1 year old computer with rather powerful specs but it was rather choppy still. Also, the amount of tris being rendered at times seemed rather ridiculous, but maybe I'm just not used to super modern games. (you know, I don't know the standard amount of tris a game like modern warfare has rendered at a given time...)

Edit: Also, the 3d skybox menu is cool looking, but I'm starting to wonder if this trend is really best. This same concept could be done easier using a flashed-based game menu (similar to that in Super Street Fighter 4 and Modern Warfare 2 (I believe) ) with a movie of said maps scripted sequences playing in the background. Ultimately, I think it's more important to have a game that loads quickly than one that has "real time backgrounds"

Yeah, I'll probably post something more detailed on the unknown worlds forum when I get the time, but kinda busy right now to say the least