How Doom 2016 Renders a Frame
adriancourreges.com
adriancourreges.com
I specifically remember an instance where Doomguy needs to shut down some power conduit. The doctor on the radio specifies that you only need to shut it down temporarily and that it can solve the world's energy crisis (by harvesting the energy of Hell). Without a moment's hesitation the Doom marine just destroys the power conduit.
You basically play a Rage Elemental.
I agree. There's games like Rocket League (which is amazing), but that's a silly concept from the start. But you rarely see "hardcore" or dark games that are willing to admit that they are indeed a video game.
I love the mix between high quality, photorealistic graphics for the majority of things, and then the "gamey" elements, like glowing armor packs just floating and spinning in mid-air. Also other elements like the pre-recorded voice for the security system having dialogue for "Demon Invasion".
It's got a perfect balance of just campy enough to be hilarious, but without turning the game into a joke. Like Cabin In The Woods or something.
I also like that, as you say, it doesn't matter why glory-killing demons buffs you, but some valiant writer explained it anyway. (The database entry for the armor says that it's shot through with channels that absorb and repurpose demonic energy, or something.) I really appreciate it when someone actually takes the time to justify game mechanics like that; it helps with the whole suspension-of-disbelief thing for me.
I liked this one a lot--it was much more reflective, and a lot of it was really an examination of how social media and gaming culture affect the creators both negatively and positively. For instance, rather than just touch on the soundbite part of Phil Fish flippantly saying "Japanese games just suck!" in a panel discussion, they pull back and show a much more thoughtful response from Jonathan Blow on the differences between versions of Zelda, and how now games feel obligated to hold your hands, remove discovery, keep you on the rails. Similarly, how criticism affected Edmund McMillen, creator of Super Meat Boy.
The best parts, though, are the more atmospheric elements: the workstations and tools, the thought processes behind game mechanics, and the deeper themes and commentary built into games.
The original "Indie Game" was much more of a linear storyline following the developers, and this one isn't like that.
Japan has way more of those on a very regular basis. Maybe because consoles and handhelds are more popular there, not to mention actual coin-op arcades still thriving there.
Maybe it's something about the keyboard + mouse combo on PCs that doesn't really lend itself well to "gamey video games", but it's probably more to do with games and developers taking themselves too seriously in the West.
It's a complete 180 from Doom 3. I've tried to play Doom 3 a handful of times in the last decade. I never once got to shoot anything because I didn't have the attention span to get through the 30 minute intro/story/tutorial.
Sometimes you just want to shoot demons because they are demons. There is story in Doom but it rarely prevents you from continuing to send demons back to hell for more than a few moments. There's more in the menus but those can be read at your leisure.
If you're up for some traditional Arena FPS, take a look at Reflex, Xonotic, and UT4. Or just boot up Quake 3 (or Quake Live) again.
I almost forgot Half-Life Deathmatch. That's still an absolute blast to play.
Very interesting. Found this video gets into some of the details of strategy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIZ-PhgPLOY
Overwatch is also a superb FPS although very different.
2016 has been a good year for fans of FPS :)
Other than Uncharted 4 the only games I have played recently are DOOM, Overwatch and of course Rocket League (which is by far my favourite game in the past few years, it is just so much damn fun).
But some of the trees in certain levels are completely 2D bitmaps even in very near to the player areas. (eg the level after you emerge with the submarine to the surface) That is the only thing that could have been done better. And Tomb Raider 2013 and Tomb Raider 2016 already copied Uncharted gameplay in a very carbon copy way, but added some innovations. So if there will ever be a Uncharted 5, it will be harder than before without competition.
I want to be playing DOOM, but I haven't been able to yet: maybe when I get a PS4, or when I go to college, and don't have my mother breathing down my neck about playing M-Rated games.
I would love to see a non-gore FPS using the id Tech 6 engine. What I love about Overwatch is the art style. The cartoon design and lack of gore makes it much more accessible IMHO.
I don't have a problem with gore at all but sometimes I just want to frag without a million litres of blood going everywhere :)
If you want some less gory fragging, might I reccomend Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball? I swear I'm not making this up: It's a dodgeball-themed instagib arena FPS with an interesting weapon mechanic, as well as an interesting take on movement. I'd say it's worth checking out.
For some more traditional quake-style fragging, I'd check out Xonotic. It started out as a Nexuiz fork, but has grown far beyond its predecessor. Think Quake's movement, but with an extended weapon arsenal akin to UT in feel (largely due to having alt-fires, although a few weapons directly copy either Quake or UT), and a few tweaks of its own (you can hold space to automatically bunnyhop, dramatically lowering the skill floor, but keeping the ceiling relatively high). There's also a ton of maps, and quite a few gamemodes. And it's free. Just check out the beginners guide first. You'll be glad you did.
Or, if you're more into CPMA, and want some strafe-jumping-bunny-hopping action, go grab Reflex. It's a continuation of CPMA/OSP from some of the original developers. If you care, you already know the drill.
Also on the FPS radar, Warsow (its motto might as well be "you suck and that's okay," and it's got a playerbase that's arguably even more liable to pound you into a pulp than the above. But it is free), the UT4 beta (I've... heard it's good? Never been much for UT though. But it's free), Lawbreakers (it's kinda like Overwatch, but it's made by cliffyb's team, and it looks more arena fps inspired. Watch for it on store shelves in the next few years), A Fistful of Frags (A western themed FPS that really feels western: you can't just fire off your weapon constantly: every bullet is precious because reloads are slow, and if you're moving, you can kiss any chance of hitting anything goodbye, but if you stand still, you're a target. And it's free on steam), and Cube 2: Sauerbraten (it's coming om a decade old now, but it still feels fun. It also feels more like, say Half-Life than Quake (figure out the expansive map, use it to your advantage, get to a vantage point, and kill 'em before they know what hit 'em). Did I mention it's free?).
Or just boot up your favorite Quake game that isn't Quake 4. Or load up Half-Life. The deathmatch hasn't stopped being good as those games got older.
It will be a long time (very likely longer than you'll play the game anyway) before you can say "There is nothing more I can do. I am at the bottleneck of my performance, and the only possible way I can improve is by getting a mic so I can speak instead of just listening to callouts and using the callout buttons in game." You probably won't even reach a point where that is the most impactful change you can make.
In fact, if you're a jerk, then not having a mic might be improving your success due to being less toxic and not demoralizing the team ;)
OTOH, given that I already have the original doom, is the new one really worth it? I mean, it's good, but it's not exactly going to beat the original at it's own game...
Granted, Portal ain't exactly fast-paced, but still.
I'd rather wait for Shadow Warrior 2 (upcoming native DRM-free Linux release).
Whether that's because of retarded use of DRM or because I apparently chose the wrong DVD player for $MEGACORP to even know that I exist, is completely irrelevant.
More likely though, Denuvo will simply be broken for good (it's already happening), and versions with DRM removed will surface.
You know, I was going to finish that sentance, and then I remembered what DRM is, and what it does. In short, I came to my senses. Somebody should crack it ASAP.
I avoid it as there are rumours it is trashing your SSD/disk with many many littles writes. And the infamous Sony root kit... And all SecoROM games are broken on newer Windows versions - the gamers "love" that. Everyone should avoid to buy titles with Denuvo and it will go away by itself - as it worked with DRM music, nowadays we have non-DRM MP3 music, that's great and he end consumer won.
Yep.
http://advances.realtimerendering.com/s2016/Siggraph2016_idT...
It's cool how it's presented so openly, like a scientific project.
I still get floored by our computing power sometimes.
If a phone ran like our games, people wouldn't buy it because it has no apps.
For instance you're given no guarantees for execution time on a phone. That slice of time that Sony/MS takes for their overlay that's mandated to no less than x% of a frame? Doesn't exist on Android/iOS. The OS is welcome to wake up some background process(or another app on Android) and steal away one of your cores.
From a development side you just don't have the same resources to dedicate to performance on phone development that you get in gamedev. Combined with a culture that doesn't value performance as much(hello Java) that's why you see different results. Google/Apple is targeting the guy in his garage who wants to put out something in ~3 months. Rarely do you see the development times that games have and that is where the divergence happens.
For example, trying to share your GL context across multiple threads is a good way to crash or hang your Android app, even though in principle it's supposed to work.
Windows hardware is also very varied, but it seems like desktop Direct3D drivers are relatively good compared to mobile GL drivers. (OpenGL drivers, unfortunately, are also really bad on desktop.)
You've just described rasterized rendering. ;)
There is an alpha of Duke Nukem 3D (LameDuke) which had some screen space reflections. As I recall, the game crashed when you look up or down on the reflections, likely because of a pixel read beyond screen boundaries.
Discussion here: https://forums.duke4.net/topic/1329-lameduke/
(and, I assume marking the wall between as a mirror so it knows to also render the dynamic objects mirrored--but I don't know for sure, I was quite young and didn't have a lot of success with this level editor because I didn't understand it fully)
Like, why can't we have a high-level engine running on the GPU itself, updated through drivers, and just feed it a monolithic file containing the game level's entire geometry, for example?
So that developers can say, here's the world, here's the textures, here is the models for monster A, monster B..and then just update each model's location and the camera position every frame?
Also postion is not enough, but that's details.
Seems to me that if a certain tech is used across multiple games, couldn't it be factored out into the hardware itself?
I wonder why the article mentions this: "Unlike most Windows games released these days, DOOM doesn’t use Direct3D.".
Implementing Direct3d today seems a waste of development time to me and a useless self-restriction to a platform. Why would anyone do that? Is there a source that compares release titles of direct3d games vs opengl/vulkan on windows?
If your question is "why use D3D [or insert other proprietary API] over platform-agnostic APIs", the reasons are many and varied. Better tooling, more mature drivers, more familiarity among team members, better support from the OS vendor, etc. That's not to say it's always the right decision, but I would never expect the quality of Vulkan or GL on Windows to be as high as D3D.
That's how it is and will be as long as Microsoft shares their Direct3D implementation between their platforms (Xbox and PC).
There will always be exceptions but they are exceedingly rare and will continue to be so for the foreseeable future. Vulkan has a future but I expect it to be more of a mobile focused one.
From what I've heard, Direct3D (up to 11) and OpenGL work somewhat similarly, as will Vulkan and Direct3D 12. If a dev has already abstracted their engine to support a console (or two, or three), supporting another PC graphics API isn't that big of a deal, until driver bugs appear. Which they inevitably do; that's why new drivers appear suspiciously close to big game releases.
EG: Game X is telling us Y, but in reality algorithm Z produces the same results a lot faster, so use Z.
Most modern game engines have most of the features they talk about (the article really good about linking to sources), but those pieces are organized in a different manner so you end up with different restrictions, changes in performance, or scalability to different hardware / scenarios.
The novel thing here is how they put together the pieces, not the pieces themselves. Most cutting edge articles are about a specific technique, so it's really good to see how it all fits together in an article like this.