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Who We Are
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Rapala: 3DGN Staff Writer
Sub-Ubi: 3DGN Staff Writer
Stickyii: 3DGN CEO
Bakshra: Contaminated.net Web pimp
DreamWork: Seamus, Brady, Paul, Austin, all under one
nick! Really makes you think...
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<Rapala> ok everyone
<Rapala> Welcome to the 3DGaming.Net Trespasser chat
<Rapala> You will msg all your questions to me
<Rapala> Only me
<Sub-Ubi> sorry
<Sub-Ubi> :P
<Rapala> type "/msg Rapala Your question here
<Rapala> "<Sub-Ubi> "/msg rapla do the
dinosaurs have two sexes, like we do?
<Rapala> Ok, welcome Dreamworks. Why dont you guys introduce yourselves and say a
few things if you want :)
<Dritzen> "/msg rapala is it true about you and the chocolate chastity
belt?"
<Bakshra> heh
<Dritzen> (sorry, out of place) :)
<DreamWork> Hello all. We have here Seamus, Brady, Paul, and
Austin, and we're very psyched to be here.
<Cool> mine's caramel
<DreamWork> The dinosaurs will indeed have two sexes. We've
worked pretty hard to add differentiation within species.
<stickyii> how can you tell? :)
<Bakshra> The females should be bigger ;)
<Cool> sticky, hehe
<DreamWork> Bakshra is correct, there.
<Bakshra> hehe :)
<Cool> I heard something about there not being
explosions/fire, what's up with that? I was looking forward to torching dinos
<Rapala> hold on one sec guys, the questions will start in a sec :)
<Rapala> Ok DreamWorks, go ahead and answer Cool's, then I will start with the ones
msged to me
<Cool> i'll repeat
<Cool> I heard something about there not being
explosions/fire, what's up with that? I was looking forward to torching dinos
<Cool> rapala, check his pulse..
<Rapala> hahah
<DreamWork> We only wanted to show things that we could render
extremely well and physically correctly, e.g. like the water. We didn't have a good way to
do fire as well, so it doesn't go in. We will have muzzle flashes, however.
<Cool> good enough
<Rapala> *GiB_WaKeR* have they decided yet if they will
release a demo?
<DreamWork> We wouldn't want to do anything to push the
release date, would you? But if you guys want one bad enough...
<Rapala> *Bobby* Is the music in trespasser composed on
keyboard/midi? Or will the music feature a real intruments? IE: violins, trumpets, etc...
something never seen in video games.
<Cool> (the music in Monolith's Blood was real composed instrumental music)
<DreamWork> Our music is all orchestral, although it is
recorded electronically. It is not MIDI, it streams. We are pretty blown away by it. Also,
it plays on triggers, so it is reactive in a lot of situations.
<Rapala> <MajorNut> So what do you think the overall
gaming status will be. Do you think a lot of gamers will like the game or find it too
confusing?*** hurry is now known as bombad
<DreamWork> We're being very careful with ramping up,
orienting the player. The basic controls are a lot like Quake, and we add new things
slowly, one at a time. So I don't think players will have too much trouble.
<Rapala> <Bakshra> How far can the player
"see" before the engine cuts off the view plane?
<DreamWork> About a kilometer (.6 miles), when you're up on a
high place. In a few cases, further.
<Rapala> *Evilyam* How will the inventory system work? Can you
clip stuff to your belt?
<DreamWork> Yes, that's right. If you look down, you can see
it (e.g. a pistol) on your hip.
<Stusser> wow
<Stusser> heh
<Rapala> *WshMaster* Will the water flow or are there just ponds/lakes?
<DreamWork> Will waterfalls do it for you?
<Bakshra> whoa, neat :)
<Rapala> *Mac_Daddy* .. i know trespasser has 3dfx support ..
but all the screenshots iv seen are in software... will trespasser have hardware graphics
... or just 3dfx with software rendering?
<DreamWork> All current major cards will be supported; all
graphics will be rendered in hardware except those that are bumpmapped. Currently
bumpmapping is not well supported in hardware.
<Rapala> <Xynder> how do you think gamers will feel only
being able to take a minimal amount of damage?
<DreamWork> I think what you want to know is, how does damage
work?
<Cool> makes the game only more exciting
<Cool> actually gives the player incentive to ligve
<Rapala> like action quake maybe :)
<Stusser> Is damage region-specific? If you get hurt in the
left leg, do you limp around?
<Cool> that wouldn't be too fun
<DreamWork> No, we figure that would be frustrating. The dinos
have hit-location, though. Head-shots are devastatiing, and they pretty much shrug off
hits to the tail.
<Stusser> it'd be an incentive to duck
<Cool> are there damage skins? or are those too memory
consuming in a game like trespasser
<DreamWork> Let me put it this way -- you will not wonder
where you hit the animal.
<Rapala> *Iscariot* Will Trespasser have OGL support?
<DreamWork> No. OGL support would be redundant, given that
cards supported through OGL are a subset of cards supported through Direct3D.
<Rapala> *G* How much benefit will Trespasser recieve from the
3D Now! instruction set? Will it be like the Voodoo 2 Quake 2 3D Now! Mini GL driver, or
as good as Unreal, or will it be even greater?
<DreamWork> Given the amount of floating point we do versus
typical 3D games, we expect great performance gains. We have some routhines that have been
hand coded by the designer of the chip.
<Rapala> *Hanif* what is spielberg doin for the game
<DreamWork> Waiting to play it just like you. Actually, he was
so psyched he asked to design some puzzles... So be on the lookout...
<Rapala> *BloodFire* question:If you visit a lavatory in
Trespasser, will a T-Rex rip off the top and kill you?
<Bakshra> heh...
<DreamWork> That certianly *could* happen; the engine would
certianly do it. I don't know if we have a bathroom in an exposed enough place. The game
is *big*
<Cool> are there any Jurassic Park 4x4's? Like the ones seen
in the first movie...if not, are there any operational vehicles?
<DreamWork> There is plenty of stuff that the guys from the LW
movie left on the island. But after a few years, some of the trucks are pretty screwed up.
But there's no harm in getting in them, right...
<Rapala> *Linguica* Why in the world are the raptors' mouths
always really wide open in the screenshots? Do they have some sort of reverse lockjaw or
is it just a very strange coincidence?
<Bakshra> hah
<DreamWork> We'd thought you'd want to see the attacks in the
screenshots. Perhaps they want a bite of sausage, linguica.
<Cool> cause it looks cool..
<Rapala> <Bakshra> Will Trespasser take advantage of MMX
technology?
<DreamWork> The 3DNow! instruction set is built on top of MMX,
that will benefit. We do make some use of Intel's MMX instruction set as
well.<Bakshra> good :)
<Rapala> <Xynder> what are the specs for a system that
will run Trespasser without any hiccups?
<DreamWork> We've tried really hard to make the renderer and
other systems very scalable, so that you can get nice framerate on a wide variety of
machines. Our minimum is a 166/32, and we already get a good framerate. We take this
pretty seriously, framerate is cool. Heheheh
<Cool> Have you guys tested the game on the Riva TNT? if so, how was the
performance?
<DreamWork> Yes. Tomorrow we are meeting with the NVidia
people, in fact: they are stoked!
<Rapala> *_TheDude_* how many raptors in a tribe?
<DreamWork> Depends which, actually. The jungle and forest
ones are the most populous - 40 or 50. Other tribes inhabit the ruins and the mountainous
areas -- smaller niches.
<Rapala> *Angus* How far in development is Trespasser? Have
all the "areas" been completed?
<DreamWork> 98% and a fourth
<Rapala> *Mattimus* Do dinosaurs start in preset locations ?
Do they appear at preset times?
<DreamWork> It varies -- we've laid a few traps for you, but
there are also roaming dinos, random factors. It will be different each time. It's their
island -- we mostly let them go about their business there.
<Rapala> *Sub-Ubi* when you say I can look down and see the
gun on my hip, does that mean I can see my feet and everything?
<DreamWork> When you say everything... Seriously, when we
first started, we planned on locomoting the player in the same way that we do the dinos.
But while it's cool to watch them run around and place their feet and such, it was just a
pain in the butt for the player -- you'd look down and want to place your foot somewhere and, well, how do you design an interface for that? So we cut
that in favor of playability, a decision we've had to face a lot. You will not
<Rapala> *Evilyam* Can you, for example, fill a bucket with
water?
<DreamWork> You'd be able to see your feet, if other things
were'nt in the way...
<Rapala> *Evilyam* Can you, for example, fill a bucket with
water?
<DreamWork> No, no pouring water. Good god, we need to ship
this someday. Actually, like we said before, we wanted a world in which *every single
object* behaved correctly *all the time*. So while you won't be slowly chipping walls away
with a chisel, or chopping down forests, or slowly draining lakes... Good god, you people
need to get a life if that sounds fun.
<Bakshra> hahah
<Rapala> <Xynder> are there any moments that make the
player jump out of his seat?
* Dritzen wonders where he can purchase this 'life'
<Bakshra> Dritzen: you gotta be "cool" to get one, darn it :\
<DreamWork> Just kidding. We tried to do every single cool
little detial we could, it's just taht we can't do it *all, today, before Christmas ;^)
<DreamWork> I certainly hope so. I always get this creepy feeling when I can hear
the dinosaurs moving around near me, but can't see them.
<Rapala> *Langsuyar* Q: how do you guys keep yourself from
letting the realism and physics get in the way of gameplay and fun? play "robinson's
requiem" at least once a week? :)
<DreamWork> This is a good question, which comes up a lot. We
have a lot of realistically designed structures and areas, which we use as jumping-off
points for design. But when we model stuff on reality, we always try to look first and ask
'Is there a fun gameplay dynamic behind this, or is it just a pain?'
<Rapala> <MajorNut> How cool is the death scene if there
is one? Does it show Anne being torn apart and stuff? =Þ
<DreamWork> Hey, MajorNut. It's cool to watch the dinosaurs
gnawing on Anne once she's dead. It doesn't end with your death, man. It's not pretty.
<DreamWork> We have to get back to shipping the game, so let's take a final
question...
<Rapala> ok..
<Rapala> give me a sec to find a good one :)
<Sub_Ubi> Thank you DreamWorks! you guys rock
<stickyii> ditto on that
<Cool> i cacca'd myself
<Bakshra> Yeah, Trespasser is going to kick ass :)* Dritzen is still looking for a
life.. got a spare? :)
<Rapala> <Stusser> I hear you've concentrated heavily on
immersion in the game; will the audio support Aureal3D, Directsound3D, or Dolby Digital?
Cool gives dritz some of his life<Bakshra> Dritzen: just get back to chiping away at
the buildings with the rest of us ;P
<DreamWork> We support AuReal, SBlive and DirectSound3D. Maybe
more. EAX, anyone? Seriously, the sound, sound effects, music, and environmental sounds
are going to BLOW YOU AWAY. We were basically stunned when it started working, and we
looked at one another like, goodness, this is a lot cooler than we thought it would be.
Also, SounDelux, the Movie sound company that we are woring with, has really taken it to
the next level.
<Rapala> Ok DreamWorks
'<Rapala> We thank you for being here..
.<Dritzen> Thanks for coming by guys :)
<Bakshra> Yeah, this was great :)
<DreamWork> Ok, thanks for listening everyone, time for us to
go back to chipping OUR walls down...
<Cool> im gonna go change my diaper
<Stusser> Yeah, I can't wait for the game!
<Rapala> you guys kick ass and we are all looking forward to trespasser
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