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Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

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Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering you walk around and don’t have a problem with it, I’d wager that putting a more realistic walk model into a game and changing the control scheme to be a bit more natural would lead to a learnable system for control that would achieve both goals. Say ZMP

> Considering you walk around and don’t have a problem with it... I think humans are worse than this than you might think. Give it a try! Walk around and try to change directions on the fly, maybe have a friend shout suggestions to you. I can make maybe 2 or 3 adjustments per second, which gives about 400ms response time. That's about where RDR2 sits, and players criticized it for being unresponsive.

Tangential but a lot of sports drills are along these lines.

A great tennis drill is when your coach hits the ball to you and randomly yells "LEFT!" "RIGHT!" or "MIDDLE!" after you've begun your swing. Then you have to hit the ball in that direction. Helps hone your reaction time and helps you to have a "neutral" swing that doesn't telegraph your intentions to an opponent.

One can imagine variations in many sports.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#142
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I guess the problem there is pretty fundamental yes absolutely, you can't have both realism and snappy response times.

Considering you walk around and don’t have a problem with it, I’d wager that putting a more realistic walk model into a game and changing the control scheme to be a bit more natural would lead to a learnable system for control that would achieve both goals. Say ZMP

Have you played "Death Stranding"?

There you 'actively' walk and 'manually' keep balance. It's an interesting experience, but it makes walking a conscious act, it becomes something you do.

Arguably that is less realistic than just moving an analog stick, for most people walking is just telling your body to move in direction x.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#143
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My reason for refusing to give the Epic store money is pretty simple: Paid exclusives are bullshit. Especially when they're used as fodder to promote "competition", when such things are anything but.

The FTC would disagree with you. Generally exclusives improve competition unless it's a monopolist doing it. Which is not Epic in this case. https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui... As long as storefronts have to compete for games, this is what that looks like. There's not really any way to get rid of exclusives without hurting competition. Would you want a law passed for games to be required t…

No I think what I want is pretty obvious. No exclusives. I don't honestly care what shitty storefront something is on, as long as its not limited to one. That's literally my only gripe.

Besides publishers are already free to decide where the games they publish go or don't, so I'm not sure where the "too much power to publishers" thing is coming from.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#144
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FTC would disagree with you. Generally exclusives improve competition unless it's a monopolist doing it. Which is not Epic in this case. https://www.ftc.gov/advice-guidance/competition-guidance/gui... As long as storefronts have to compete for games, this is what that looks like. There's not really any way to get rid of exclusives without hurting competition. Would you want a law passed for games to be required t…

No I think what I want is pretty obvious. No exclusives. I don't honestly care what shitty storefront something is on, as long as its not limited to one. That's literally my only gripe. Besides publishers are already free to decide where the games they publish go or don't, so I'm not sure where the "too much power to publishers" thing is coming from.

>I don't honestly care what shitty storefront something is on, as long as its not limited to one.

But that's not unique to paid exclusives. That's not even unique to Epic, Valve's own games are exclusive to a single storefront. You should boycott them for the same reason.

There is a cost to releasing games on multiple storefronts, forcing games to release on multiple stores only hurts smaller developers. Some smaller developers also skip storefronts altogether. Minecraft and Factorio were initially sold without any storefront. Is that still considered limited to one and therefore an exclusive?

>Besides publishers are already free to decide where the games they publish go or don't, so I'm not sure where the "too much power to publishers" thing is coming from.

I'm talking about cases where the storefront doesn't want to sell the game. Say the game has adult content, or the game has is just unfinished and not good. If storefronts are required to carry games. Otherwise games that only get accepted to a single store will continue to be exclusive to that single store.

Same thing with smaller developers, are they expected to cater to the whim of multiple storefronts to be able to release a game? One of my favorites, Zachtronic's Opus Magnum was rejected from GoG initially.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#145
post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I guess the problem there is pretty fundamental yes absolutely, you can't have both realism and snappy response times.

Considering you walk around and don’t have a problem with it, I’d wager that putting a more realistic walk model into a game and changing the control scheme to be a bit more natural would lead to a learnable system for control that would achieve both goals. Say ZMP

Full body control input it is!

Like those arcade shooters where you duck and lean to dodge bullets, or a full fledged whole-body VR setup on an infinite omni-directional treadmill.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#146
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No I think what I want is pretty obvious. No exclusives. I don't honestly care what shitty storefront something is on, as long as its not limited to one. That's literally my only gripe. Besides publishers are already free to decide where the games they publish go or don't, so I'm not sure where the "too much power to publishers" thing is coming from.

>I don't honestly care what shitty storefront something is on, as long as its not limited to one. But that's not unique to paid exclusives. That's not even unique to Epic, Valve's own games are exclusive to a single storefront. You should boycott them for the same reason. There is a cost to releasing games on multiple storefronts, forcing games to release on multiple stores only hurts smaller developers. Some smaller…

I'm strictly talking about the ones that are paid timed exclusives, nothing else. No where did I say anything about being anyone being required to do anything. You added that.

If a publisher chooses to do a single store front, then fine w/e. I don't have a problem with that. Its when a storefront bribes a publisher to keep a product exclusive to one store, in an attempt to force consumers on to that store that they likely otherwise wouldn't have used, that I have problem with.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#147
post #113

Man, all these graphical enhancements and they still can't design a proper camera. Off-centre camera systems, aka "over the shoulder" cameras make me motion sick. I need the player to be in the centre of the screen or everything feels lopsided. By all means, do the RE4 zoom thing when the player aims a gun or similar, but while moving the camera should be horizontally centred. Halo tried something similar with giving…

>and they still can't design a proper camera

They did, it's just not one you like.

Most games that position the camera behind and centred have to zoom out or go weirdly high so you can still see what the character is looking at/heading towards. The off-centre camera allows you to be at the same height/viewpoint as the character and still see what's in front.

Look at the Red Dead Redemption 2 camera position when walking vs Alan Wake 2, totally different viewpoints. Both are different artistic choices, I'd say both work well for each game.

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#148
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't honestly care what shitty storefront something is on, as long as its not limited to one. But that's not unique to paid exclusives. That's not even unique to Epic, Valve's own games are exclusive to a single storefront. You should boycott them for the same reason. There is a cost to releasing games on multiple storefronts, forcing games to release on multiple stores only hurts smaller developers. Some smaller…

I'm strictly talking about the ones that are paid timed exclusives, nothing else. No where did I say anything about being anyone being required to do anything. You added that. If a publisher chooses to do a single store front, then fine w/e. I don't have a problem with that. Its when a storefront bribes a publisher to keep a product exclusive to one store, in an attempt to force consumers on to that store that they l…

I was going off your initial point of what you want: No exclusives. Not just paid timed exclusives.

>Its when a storefront bribes a publisher to keep a product exclusive to one store

That's not a bribe, that's a business transaction. Do you bribe a store to give you a product?

>If a publisher chooses to do a single store front, then fine w/e.

This contrasts with your previous: "as long as its not limited to one"

So now publishers are allowed to choose one storefront, but somehow they can't be paid to make that choice? How should they be making that choice if not by how much each storefront is offering?

Re: Northlight technology in Alan Wake 2

#150
post #21
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The perennial problem with marketing language seems to be that everything needs to be reworded to "make sense" to someone who doesn't know anything about the actual product that is being marketed.

Not nearly as big a problem as the positive spin they feel compelled put on everything. When everything sounds like a win, nothing does.

Always funny how Product 1 will be perfect, but when Product 2 comes out, Product 1 suddenly has obvious flaws which Product 2 corrects.
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