Devspeak Updates - Thursday April 08 2004
Posted by Tasos on April 08, 2004 07:36

The Devspeak is a frequent community briefing by the Darkfall developers.You can find it on the right-hand side of Darkfall website homepage. Our latest Devspeak features Darkfall 3D artist Jon Hughes, along with our latest news.

April 8, 2004

We'd like to wish everyone (to whom it applies) a happy Easter.

There have been many interesting discussions on the community boards lately. The developers read the forum every day and your feedback and ideas are taken into consideration. If you're not a member of the Darkfall community yet, you may register here, participate in the discussions, and get a chance to playtest Darkfall.

The developers will be commenting on topics discussed on the boards during these regular community briefings.

A new FAQ entry was added a couple of days ago in the General FAQ category and it reads:
When is Beta?
Darkfall is currently in the final stages of internal beta testing. This means that the game is being tested in-house in preparation for public playtesting. A beta registration form will become available on this website soon

We'll remind you that the FAQ is being revamped, and if some of the the FAQ entries seem a bit dated to those of you that have been following Darkfall for a while, it's because they are. The new FAQ will contain fresh frequently asked questions from our community forum.

Two new monsters have been added to the monster gallery, the Deathless Mage and the Black Knight. The Black Knight handles a couple of huge swords that do not appear in the picture. The monsters we have up on the website are only a few of the 150+ monsters that we have ready.

Inspired by discussions on the community boards, Darkfall 3D artist Jon Hughes had a few interesting things to say on screenshots and in-game art:

"One general rule of thumb for creation of in-game characters for MMORPGs is that polygon optimization is of paramount importance, the higher the amount of polygons rendered in scene, the lower the frame rate, simple as that. To start with higher poly models and reduce the count during development is the norm.

The previous screenshots of characters on the old site had not been optimized and were on average exceeding double the current count (without any add-ons such as armour, clothing etc), optimization was therefore an absolute necessity. The reduction of poly counts in characters is undertaken with quality of graphics in mind, and textures and models are adjusted to compensate for the loss in resolution, inevitably though there are noticeable changes.

The current screenshots were made (with absolutely no re-touching) using our current engine build, which will change as it is still in development, and as such the graphics will progress too. The lighting will change, the shaders applied to the characters will be adjusted, along with all the other necessary tweaks and refinements, to the rendering, animation, models and textures...all in good time.

One other good point to remember about screenshots is also that they are static representations of in-game graphics, whereas during actual game play, the image is constantly dynamic. This difference means that screenshots may be open to more intense scrutiny as they are only offering a static preview of one aspect of the overall game experience."

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