Hi,

I'd like to make a "Riven" type RPG and I'm wondering if GS is the right engine for that?

I've looked at many tutorials and demos for GS and I can't find anything that would make
me think that GS is particularly well suited for that. But then again, maybe I'm wrong.

When I looked at Virtools for example, I learned that "Syberia 2", which is similar to
"Riven", was made with Virtools. On the other hand, most of the demos/tutorials I found
for GS are for FPS games only.

My question: Can I use GS to make a "Riven" type RGP with really nice graphics etc.?

If you think that it's possible, I don't mind spending the time to learn how to do this with GS.
I'm sure that it's a long road, but as long as I know that I'm not wasting my time learning a
particular engine that, in the end, won't do what I need it to do, I'm fine with that.

I appreciate your take on this!
(Please reply in either English or German.)

Thanks,
Dr.Gonzo

With GS you do anything...

Riven: Myst 2 is an adventure game and not an RPG, so let's get that out of the way. Yes, you can make a 1st person point and click game with it, esp. if it's like RealMyst or Myst V which were full 3D. However, I think Riven was a panoramic 2D game which is a technique that fakes 3D. You have a series of nodes and at each node there will be a panoramic 2D image that will allow you to look in every direction. When you click on a hotspot, you'll be taken to the next node, and in modern games of this type, a video clip will play that is the transition from the current node to the new one.

Creating this type of game would be easy from a scripting point of view, however the one trouble area, at least for me, would be how to handle the panoramic image. There are programs that will convert a 2D render to a panoramic format but I'm not sure how the code would look to make this look right during runtime including making sure it moves with the mouse movement correctly. And, of course, creating the 3D levels from which you'll take your renders and video files will take lots of time.

To illustrate what I am talking about:

This:



versus

This:



.

Hi,
well first off: I've got the sneaky suspicion that that first sreenshot uses prerendered environments. Which means they were rendered in a highend 3d rendering program like 3DS max or Maya. The game character then walks around on a 2d picture.

Secondly that second shot does NOT show the quality of GS. Just take a look at the Gallery page. There are some really nice looking games that were/are being made with GS.

Of course you CAN, that's not a question of the engine but a question of the grafics you use in first case...

Of course the engine is also important, but with the GS you can achieve good results if you want to. But you have to keep in mind, that there wasn't only one person working on games like riven or syberia...

To achieve those results you would need very high quality textures and good knowledge of programming and a LOT of time if you want to do it alone.

EDIT: I don't want to say: 'What you want to do is impossible in gerneral'.
I would be very happy for a new classical adventure game, but keep in mind that taking riven as model for your game is like taking oblivion as model for an rpg.

Making a 2.5D game like Syberia can be done in 3DGS but it's kind of a pain. Read my first post in this thread to learn one technique:

http://www.coniserver.net/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/747240/

According to jcl, the engine will be given some features (see thread above) to make these types of games a bit less hassle-free, but we'll see. Of course, you can always make it completely realtime like Ankh, Sam & Max: Season 1, Culpa Innata, Bone, Dreamfall, Fahrenheit, Broken Sword 3/4, etc.

If you want an out of the box ready for 2.5D game engine, you're going to want Wintermute Engine. It's specifically designed for these kinds of games, and it's the only publically available adventure game engine that supports 3D objects. You can use Blender along with the free plugin available on their forum for the 3D graphics. You can also use Cinema4D which has a 3DS export that WME can use.

http://dead-code.org/home/

I'm making a 3rd person game like this, although it may or may not have point and click. There's a screenshot in the above thread. Please note that it is all realtime with no prerendering, and it is still work in progress. I'm currently experienting with combining a realtime 3D area with hand created/prerendered graphics like what is happening with A Vampyre Story. It gives you the detail of non-realtime but the benefits of realtime (mainly a movable camera and the realtime and/or 3D features that 3DGS has that something like Wintermute lacks) It's basically an evolved version of parallax scrolling and has been a trendy visual aesthetic esp. in the Flash animation field.

Open the link below, and click on the upper left thumbnail (it's called Underground) for an example of this technique in action (of course this is only a movie, but it's the exact same thing):

http://www.lostmarble.com/moho/gallery/musicvideos.shtml