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I've just read an article on Deus Ex II (which sounds like a pretty spiffy game), but what really grabbed my attention was not the physics engine or the dynamic lighting but the idea of "talking" to each other. According the article, they have a dictionary of 15,000 words to choose from. They don't have pre-scripted exchanges, but their conversations and responses are 'emergent'. I can't even begin to comprehend how this is going to work (or what exactly 'emergent' is meant to mean in this sense), but if Ion Storm pull it off then it'll surely have as much impact on the future of videogaming as any new display technology, faster processor or peripheral.
But you just know that you're going to get some completely incomprehensible conversations forming. Or repeated conversation. Or mistakes. Ion Storm knows that this might happen, they know it's too ambitious. So they will probably implement a simplified version of what is being told to the press. But if they can do it... Very exciting times ahead.
LF.
But you just know that you're going to get some completely incomprehensible conversations forming. Or repeated conversation. Or mistakes. Ion Storm knows that this might happen, they know it's too ambitious. So they will probably implement a simplified version of what is being told to the press. But if they can do it... Very exciting times ahead.
LF.
Deus Ex is one of my favourite games ever, I can't wait for this.
The first step taken to 'control' your character's responses was used in games such as Deus Ex and The Phantom Menace, where you had a choice of what to say. This sounds like you actually get to choose the words your character says...truly amazing if it works, even if just to a small extent.
The first step taken to 'control' your character's responses was used in games such as Deus Ex and The Phantom Menace, where you had a choice of what to say. This sounds like you actually get to choose the words your character says...truly amazing if it works, even if just to a small extent.
That sounds like a bloody marvelous idea. The first Deus Ex is still one of my fave games and the new one (what with it's snazzy graphics) looks set to improve by quite a huge jump. Having unscripted conversations would be bloody hard to implement but would result in, as you say, fully evolving game worlds and characters. Christ. The next step, of course, is to have fully interactive environments. I was playing DX the other day, and it struck me that I couldn't do stuff like slide down banisters, just because it's not something you're "allowed" to do. There is no button/menu option/button combo you can activate to make ou do these things. God knows how they would do it, to make everything fully interactive. Deus Ex made a start - you could pick up vases and throw them at people (which made them say "stop fooling around" or "that's not funny") or throw bodies off skyscrapers, or go into the ladies' bathroom and get told to stay out by your boss in the next briefing. It's getting there, and I fully expect DX2 to improve on this by a fair amount, but totally interactive is probably a long way away...
Perhaps the problem is input. It's going to be difficult to interact with anything in any way if all you've got is a mouse, keyboard and gamepad to tell your character what to do. Maybe some kind of VR, movement sensetive cupboard type effort, where you go in a tiny room and are totally surrounded by the images. You could have motion sensors which could track your movement and put it into the gameworld. To slide down the banisters you could just sit down and let go... how cool would that be?
yeh... (wheeeeee!)
Perhaps the problem is input. It's going to be difficult to interact with anything in any way if all you've got is a mouse, keyboard and gamepad to tell your character what to do. Maybe some kind of VR, movement sensetive cupboard type effort, where you go in a tiny room and are totally surrounded by the images. You could have motion sensors which could track your movement and put it into the gameworld. To slide down the banisters you could just sit down and let go... how cool would that be?
yeh... (wheeeeee!)
This could be the first true step towards eveolving, self maintaining game characters. ooh, I cannae wait.
I've just read an article on Deus Ex II (which sounds like a pretty spiffy game), but what really grabbed my attention was not the physics engine or the dynamic lighting but the idea of "talking" to each other. According the article, they have a dictionary of 15,000 words to choose from. They don't have pre-scripted exchanges, but their conversations and responses are 'emergent'. I can't even begin to comprehend how this is going to work (or what exactly 'emergent' is meant to mean in this sense), but if Ion Storm pull it off then it'll surely have as much impact on the future of videogaming as any new display technology, faster processor or peripheral.
But you just know that you're going to get some completely incomprehensible conversations forming. Or repeated conversation. Or mistakes. Ion Storm knows that this might happen, they know it's too ambitious. So they will probably implement a simplified version of what is being told to the press. But if they can do it... Very exciting times ahead.
LF.
But you just know that you're going to get some completely incomprehensible conversations forming. Or repeated conversation. Or mistakes. Ion Storm knows that this might happen, they know it's too ambitious. So they will probably implement a simplified version of what is being told to the press. But if they can do it... Very exciting times ahead.
LF.