[Shifty Geezer]

Originally Posted by Gitaroo

anyone notice SSAO too? Seems like it.

The original game had a revolutionary new lighting model called irradiance slices, that provides a rough approximation of global illumination more sophisticated and realistic than SSAO. SSAO would be a step backwards, except maybe for point-lights which had no AO in LBP. That said, Alex Evans said they have a new lighting engine, which I guess is an advance on the first.

It does look awesome though, in textures, lighting, and IQ. Should be a landmark title for this generation regards photorealism.

[Shifty Geezer]

Originally Posted by Billy Idol

Regarding MLAA in LBP2:

I thought that LBP 1 was very CPU heavy due to the physics?!#

LBP was MM's first ever PS3 title. It's unlikely they were fabulously optimised, and rewriting core components has probably freed up a lot of cycles to spend on making the sequel even better, which is typical of game development.

[scently]

Oh, so Shifty G would soon become "LittleBigMod 2". Awesome.

[patsu]

LBP2 will support keyboard and mouse !
http://ps3.nowgamer.com/news/3117/lb...e-and-keyboard

Media Molecule's Mark Healey has confirmed that the powerful creation tools in LittleBigPlanet 2 can be controlled via a mouse and keyboard

[nightshade]

That's nice..but don't really see any use for them as long as the interface remains the same ie. the one built for a controller.

[Arwin]

Originally Posted by nightshade

That's nice..but don't really see any use for them as long as the interface remains the same ie. the one built for a controller.

Why are you saying that? You don't think that the interface they currently have could be very efficientely controlled with a mouse? Because if you do think that, I very strongly disagree! Any function currently done with the analog stick can typically be done better with the mouse, like drawing materials, placing textures and so on. Obviously though there is going to be stuff added that makes the mouse even more useful - for instance, you can now 'draw' properly in the creator, and you can do that better with the mouse.

[patsu]

It is probably an offshoot from the PS Move integration since both the mouse and the motion controller are direct manipulation devices, whereas the Dual Shock is less effective as a direct pointing device (e.g, drag and drop multiple bots).

Since LBP2 allows for "cutscenes", text input for story telling will be more convenient on the keyboard.

I'd say KB and mouse are important for heavy duty creation.

The PS Move 3D manipulation may come in handy too, for constructing 3D architectures. Remember Anton and Dr. Mark's 3D blocks placement demo ?

EDIT: Keyboard can also help non-native English speaking gamers to communicate better.

[nightshade]

Originally Posted by Arwin

Why are you saying that? You don't think that the interface they currently have could be very efficientely controlled with a mouse? Because if you do think that, I very strongly disagree! Any function currently done with the analog stick can typically be done better with the mouse, like drawing materials, placing textures and so on. Obviously though there is going to be stuff added that makes the mouse even more useful - for instance, you can now 'draw' properly in the creator, and you can do that better with the mouse.

I am not disagreeing to the fact that it'll be better....it'll be better than a controller for sure.
What I'm saying is that it still won't have the 'full potential' as the interface is designed for the controller from start.

And drawing a straight line is better with an analogue btw

[-tkf-]

faster stronger better

I got that message and even the trailer is better

[Arwin]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I am not disagreeing to the fact that it'll be better....it'll be better than a controller for sure.
What I'm saying is that it still won't have the 'full potential' as the interface is designed for the controller from start.

And drawing a straight line is better with an analogue btw

Full potential - what are we discussing now then - 80% of potential? Let's wait and see.

You don't know that - even the analog stick can draw a straight line more easily because LBP's editor supports a grid system. A grid system will make it easy to draw a straight line with the mouse as well.

[Yashamaru]

The keyboard support is even in LBP 1 i don't see any revolution except the Mouse support (more responsive than the Sixaxis/DS 3).

Except that i see a lot of improvement in every aspect of the game (firstly the IQ is very good), the use of MLAA seem to be superb too.
I love this game.

[Gitaroo]

http://www.1up.com/media/03/8/0/9/lg/621.jpg

new light model.

[nightshade]

Quite a bit of a difference.

[Shifty Geezer]

Originally Posted by nightshade

I am not disagreeing to the fact that it'll be better....it'll be better than a controller for sure. What I'm saying is that it still won't have the 'full potential' as the interface is designed for the controller from start.

In LBP, the developers ended up using the in-game tools because they were more efficient. Map Popit functions onto a right-click context-sensitive interface, and it'll be exactly what you'd design outright for KB+Mouse. So I disagree with you!

And drawing a straight line is better with an analogue btw

Drawing straight lines wasn't a problem as you had the grids and point-editing creating straight edges. The problem was drawing curves. Creation of detailed objects was very hard and time consuming, with careful point-editing and struggling with the agrressive LOD that'd eat points. Move/Mouse input (which I assume supports tablets too) will free up model creation considerably and elliminate one of the big barriers to user generated content (the biggest barrier being unresolvable - time and perseverance!).

Originally Posted by Gitaroo

http://www.1up.com/media/03/8/0/9/lg/621.jpg
new light model.

So far looks like they've added shadow casting on top of their irradiance slice. Look forward to learning more.

[2real4tv]

Some more here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/s3ntry9...7624037447628/

Note: taken from GAF credit to Sentry

[inefficient]

I was hyped already from the trailer. But I just watched that Interview video with Alex Evans. And now I am REALLY excited!

[2real4tv]

Looks like AA is not being applied to some edges in this shot any reason why?

[Shifty Geezer]

As the ibjects not receiving AA are the 'ropes,' I can only assume at the moment they are being drawn after the AA phase. Which doesn't make a great deal of sense!

I really hope they have good rope mechanics. Most roping games have been very poor in my experience, but a game called "Fury of the Furries" on Amiga had some superb rope play that made it extremely fun to swing around a level. That was achieved in part by disregarding the laws of physics and allowing the player to hold a postion at an angle against gravity.

[ultragpu]

Wow, I'm getting a Monster Inc. vibe from some of the screens, irradiance slice is really something else! Is this lighting model too much for a game like Uncharted 2 or Killzone 2 to handle though?

[deepbrown]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

As the ibjects not receiving AA are the 'ropes,' I can only assume at the moment they are being drawn after the AA phase. Which doesn't make a great deal of sense!

I really hope they have good rope mechanics. Most roping games have been very poor in my experience, but a game called "Fury of the Furries" on Amiga had some superb rope play that made it extremely fun to swing around a level. That was achieved in part by disregarding the laws of physics and allowing the player to hold a postion at an angle against gravity.

What about PixelJunk Eden?

[deepbrown]

Originally Posted by 2real4tv

Looks like AA is not being applied to some edges in this shot any reason why?

Apparently this isn't their current build. May change.

[Shifty Geezer]

Originally Posted by ultragpu

Wow, I'm getting a Monster Inc. vibe from some of the screens, irradiance slice is really something else! Is this lighting model too much for a game like Uncharted 2 or Killzone 2 to handle though?

Yes. The technique doesn't work for large 3D depths, which is why LBP was 2.5D. The lighting model is the perfect fit for a side-ways scroller, and of course extensions of that pizza-box proportion (big and shallow) environment like kart racing which LBP2 can pull off.

Originally Posted by deepbrown

What about PixelJunk Eden?

No, that didn't have it. I can't explain why. I'd need to play 'Fury of the Furries' again to pinpoint what made it shine. Perhaps it was the level design?
Edit : I had a quick look at some YouTube clicks. This one is a 2.5 hours playthrough! Just jumping through it, at 30 minutes you can see the rope in action, both holding the Furry out to the side, and then being able to work upside down. It was an utterly unrealstic method, but lead to a very fun mechanic - something modern phyiscs engines seem to have a neegative impact on.

[Gradthrawn]

Another good interview. This time with Alex Evans.

The QR codes [2-D barcodes] for print are a fun feature that we didn’t emphasize in the presentation. If you make a QR code of a link, “lbp.me/john” or whatever your link is -- the game is constantly looking out with the PlayStation Eye for QR codes. And if you hold a QR code of a level up, it will take you to that level. Hold up the QR code of a creator, it will take you to that creator’s stuff.

Read more: http://g4tv.com/games/ps3/63750/litt...#ixzz0ncy56WmZ

I was wondering how they planned on implementing Move given the additional overhead it imposes. But given that the camera is already, always, active perhaps it's a trivial matter (performance wise) for them.

Thought this was interesting as well:

G4: Are you limited by the choice to keep backward compatibility with LBP levels?

Evans: Yes!

G4: Was there any debate on that decision?

Evans: There was no debate, actually, and it was the right thing to do because people have made such an investment of time and money. I love the fact that we’re doing what no other sequel has done in terms of the value you get. On launch, you get 2 million levels built with the content of a game you don’t even have to own. Plus a new story, plus the new [content]. So the value proposition is awesome. And we were like, “There’s no reason not to do [backward compatibility].”

And then I realized that there is: It’s a technical nightmare. Just investing in the testing to make sure that we don’t break the 2 million levels is really hard. I’m so glad we did it, and I hate myself. [Laughs.] So, yes, from a design standpoint, it was the right thing. From a technical standpoint, we’ve had to rework so much stuff and remaster so much. It’s been a great challenge. Maybe I’d say “never again,” but it was still the right thing to do.

[patsu]

I'd say Sony should make QR code standard for PS3. I should not need to type in promo-codes. They should be able to encode special deals and virtual items in events and print advertisement with QR code or barcode. It's one of the features I thought should be standard in PSEye (and Natal too) !

[ultragpu]

Originally Posted by Shifty Geezer

Yes. The technique doesn't work for large 3D depths, which is why LBP was 2.5D. The lighting model is the perfect fit for a side-ways scroller, and of course extensions of that pizza-box proportion (big and shallow) environment like kart racing which LBP2 can pull off.

I see, guess it's a pretty smart design decision by MM then since they could have just gone with any other conventional way of rendering. Can't wait to see their new particle system which I heard was something amazing.