mjfabian

Oh, the AI I programmed was only easy because I had a tutorial holding my hand. Having tried to actually get a vehicle working in UDK I have nothing but respect for all the scripting that's been done so far. I don't think you should bother trying to make the AI better because it won't matter with multiplayer anyhow. If you go back and read my posts I never once complained about Renegade-X's AI, or suggested that the team spend time improving it. So I don't know why you're getting all defensive. I was speaking hypothetically and responding to the idea that one couldn't implement a cover system using unrealscript only.

Hostile much? I went through most of the Mastering UnrealScript tutorial from UDN where you code fish AI, and it just seems like something that's within the scope of UnrealScript. That doesn't make me an expert by any means, but I don't see why you couldn't work out a system of defining where the cover is on a map and and making AI enter "get behind cover" animations, etc, etc. Also do you have some sort of source for the fact that they had to edit Unreal's source to get AI to move from cover to cover?

Not that I'd expect the team to do so, but I'd imagine the AI could be improved by adding to the unrealscript files that govern their actions. Do people really think that, say, Mass Effect 2, had to make changes to the UDK source code just to get enemy AI to get behind cover? I think it's perfectly possible given the limitations of the engine, just not something that's necessary or in the spirit of Renegade. Also, to add to my comment about 5 seconds not being enough time to return to the battlefield... it seems that there is also an issue with when the "get back on the map!" state gets activated/deactivated. Walk up to the border of a map where you know you'll be out of bounds soon and take a single step off the map. You'll notice that it will actually take 3 steps to get back on the map, not just 1. -edit: I've been playing some more and it seems that the dip in framerate seems to correlate with too many smoke particles being rendered. You might want to lower the number of shader instructions for that material given how you use that particle for pretty much everything, including when bullets hit dirt.

Wait so what are the problems with the game that are specific to UDK and out of the developer's hands?

Ah I see, makes sense. Well in that case the AI is perfect I forgot one more bullet point for "the bad" (Jesus, I'm being so judgmental while I sit back and do nothing, huh?): -Unless you can get the mammoth antennae to sway back and forth naturally with the tank's movement like in UT3 or Battlefield3, I'd just remove them completely.

An AI that can intelligently flank you and go from cover to cover doesn't really match the style of Renegade and is more scripting and animating than we can reasonably expect from a team that's working for free. If they were going to include better AI, I don't think we'd be playing this game as early as 2012. The good: -Sprinting! -The texture and model work on almost anything is fantastic. The graphics in general are wonderful and it's obvious how much time and effort has been put into this. -New HUD is great -Morph targets for vehicles! -Congrats on porting this to UDK and making it available for free! The bad: -In the main menu, the cloud texture for planet earth is far too low resolution and pixelated. The earth surface texture is barely passable in terms of resolution. -Nod gun emplacement muzzleflash and flamethrower particle effects need some work. In general, muzzleflashes shouldn't look so much like tiny vehicle explosions. -In full screen mode, alt-tabbing makes the terrain section that you are currently standing on not render. -SAM site explosion camera animation plays even when you are pretty far away from the explosion and not facing it. -Dialogue is a very painful mixture of bad voice acting and inserting random Havoc sayings that didn't seem to fit well. McFarland's accent is so over the top it makes me cringe (if it's being voiced by someone speaking naturally, I apologize!). -The lower LOD for fire particle effects are too low and the individual fire "puffs" are too apparent. -Ferns are way over-used and sometimes over 8 feet tall. The "swaying in the wind" effect for the fern's leaves looks really strange. -Dying can cause the HUD to disappear once you reload -McFarland's beard is the most disgusting pube-beard I've ever seen. -Bullets and particle effects have too much glow/emissive. Did GDI and Nod decide to make bullets out of glowsticks? Keep the effect but just make it more subtle. Reserve using that much glow for laser weaponry. -"Dust cloud" particle effects for tank treads only work when making hard turns (on purpose?) -5 seconds to get back onto the battlefield is not enough time sometimes. Especially with the Mammoth Tank. -GDI gun emplacement firing sound changes every 100 rounds or so. It keeps using a more metallic sound and then switching to a different one. Not to be confused with simply using two sounds randomly within a sound cue. -Game needs more optimization in general. In some of the larger battle scenes it felt like my fps was struggling to stay above 30. I get around 50 fps in Battlefield3. I had a fair bit of fun despite rage quitting a couple times. Ultimately though, this was time that would have been better spent on multiplayer since the replay-ability of the SP isn't so great. Was there even a large demand for a SP campaign or was this something you guys wanted to do? Despite its various shortcomings, on the whole this project is and continues to be very impressive for an indie team. Bring on the multiplayer!

I'd like to apply for the weapons artist position. I do quality work, I can model, unwrap, texture, rig and animate, and I take never ever take criticisms personally. Although I *have* done a projection mapping before to get high poly normals onto a low poly model, I've only done it once and would need to brush up on it. Here's my portfolio: www.mattfabian.com/media.html.