Tomb Raider: Underworld
- Thread starter betan
- Start date
ShootMyMonkey
Veteran
Well, if anybody's interested, now that we're inching ever closer to beta, there's some more media floating around. Main one, though, is a new screenshot we sent out earlier today --
And, for those who like to really nitpick, there's an oversized version of the same shot (5120x2880) right here --
http://i.tombraiderchronicles.com/tombraiderunderworld_x360_screenshots_01/screen010.jpg
Among the other stuff thrown in are some various "money shots" of Lara. Of course, TRC being a fansite, it should come as no surprise that they took those and did some comparisons against Legend counterparts.
http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/underworld/laracroft_model_renders_01.html
http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/underworld/laracroft_comparison_01.html
Example --
Some more substantial media coverage is yet to come. There's still some unfinished work before we might willingly release more by our own troth, and we did our most recent press demo a few weeks back.
And, for those who like to really nitpick, there's an oversized version of the same shot (5120x2880) right here --
http://i.tombraiderchronicles.com/tombraiderunderworld_x360_screenshots_01/screen010.jpg
Among the other stuff thrown in are some various "money shots" of Lara. Of course, TRC being a fansite, it should come as no surprise that they took those and did some comparisons against Legend counterparts.
http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/underworld/laracroft_model_renders_01.html
http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/underworld/laracroft_comparison_01.html
Example --
Some more substantial media coverage is yet to come. There's still some unfinished work before we might willingly release more by our own troth, and we did our most recent press demo a few weeks back.
Betanumerical
Veteran
Any word on amount of AA/AF/Resolution?.
Looks like fun, a lot of fun. I wasn't really into those kind of games till i played duderaider.
Looks like fun, a lot of fun. I wasn't really into those kind of games till i played duderaider.
ShootMyMonkey
Veteran
No idea, actually. We do support 0, 2x, and 4x MSAA in the engine itself, but what will be enabled in the final build is not my domain. I actually turn it off when I'm debugging (which I frequently do on the PC), so I'm not really sure what the default is -- never really paid attention, anyway. As far as resolution, that at least, I'm fairly certain will be 720p on consoles.
I can't wait for this, the screenshot posted here looks great an can't wait to play it.
Forgive me if this is somewhere I missed, but which is the lead SKU for this game?
I ask because I want to get this on PS3, more for controller preference and quieter machine, so I'm hoping the version released for it wil be solid. Although I do have faith in CD... Man I LOVED those blood Omen/soul reaver series. Next gen remake or se/prequel needed
Forgive me if this is somewhere I missed, but which is the lead SKU for this game?
I ask because I want to get this on PS3, more for controller preference and quieter machine, so I'm hoping the version released for it wil be solid. Although I do have faith in CD... Man I LOVED those blood Omen/soul reaver series. Next gen remake or se/prequel needed
ShootMyMonkey
Veteran
There isn't one, really. At most, you can say that there are subsystems which are lead on one a specific platform, but I don't think I can say that there is one dominance across the board. Things you'd expect to be 360-lead are 360-lead (primarily because there was a 360 codebase before PS3 came out), and things you'd expect to be PS3-lead are PS3-lead (multithreading was prototyped on PS3 first). And of course, there are the things which are unique to each platform (e.g. online support)
Well, it should hardly come as a surprise that there are people here at Crystal who would like that as well... Some who've been here for ages, and some who are new to join but were fans of the series. Whether it will actually become a real project or not is up in the air.Man I LOVED those blood Omen/soul reaver series. Next gen remake or se/prequel needed
Hi ShootMyMonkey (poor monkey) will this new Tomb Raider be a longer game than Tomb Raider Legend? Along the lines of Anniversary length? I felt Legend was far too short and had an annoying ending. Forgive my boldness
Thanks for the reply, I wasn't expecting one
am definately more excited to get hold of the game now and less worried about getting it on the PS3.I also have a bit more hope to one day see a legacy of kain series game then, I'm glad there are people there with the same thoughts. It was such a wonderful series. The cinematics were expecially fantastic, some of my favourite VO's in it's time.
But yeah, back on topic. I also hope the game will be longer than Legend. I agree that online co-op would be a waste of time. I'd much prefer to see the single player game get all the development time it can.
ShootMyMonkey
Veteran
Being that I'm on the engine team, and not specifically on the Tomb Raider team, I'm not likely to give you a very accurate estimate. There was a podcast a week or two back where Eric Lindstrom(Creative Director) said that for the TR team, who know all the steps to all the puzzles in both Legend and Underworld, the playthrough time for Underworld was about twice as long.Hi ShootMyMonkey (poor monkey) will this new Tomb Raider be a longer game than Tomb Raider Legend? Along the lines of Anniversary length? I felt Legend was far too short and had an annoying ending. Forgive my boldness
I have a feeling a large part of that is the size and scope and number of steps in some of the puzzles.
Mod Note: Copied off-topic bits to another thread.
Thanks for the response! Way more info than I expected (*thinks of more questions...*).
I'm so glad to hear the puzzles are going to be more lengthy...and hopefully tougher. I think with Tomb Raider...the platforming puzzles were difficult because the platforming itself was puzzle-like (ie. how exactly do you get to that platform...) whereas now, the moves and platforming is so easy to do (due to improved controls and moveset), that the puzzles really didn't feel too difficult (improved in Anniversary from Legend)...so I feel they really need to be stepped up in these new games (puzzles in Uncharted were too easy, as were they in God of War 1).
Prince of Persia and God of War 2 have had the best puzzles of recent years IMO, and what I find really interesting is not overusing the same mechanics to complete the puzzle (ie. pulling levers for every puzzle can become a bore)...or even physics puzzles, or water puzzles etc... Anyway I'm rambling.
Glad Lara is isolated again...and I hope to see animals as enemies. Would be cool to see online leader boards, akin to DMC4...Though I suppose this will come with Achievements and Trophies...
Mod Note: Copied OT bits to other thread
Achievements superficial?!? Blasphemy! Pictures look really nice, I'm in. Definitely a huge fan of Legend, I even had a massive poster of the game on my previous office door. I do wish this time you guys offer some downloable content, like new missions, places to visit, etc. I buy any and all dlc for Oblivion and Mass Effect, it would be cool to add TR to that list
ShootMyMonkey
Veteran
I take it you have yet to see things like this --
In case the images don't work ( link1 and link2 )
BTW, although those screens appeared around February(?) or so, they actually date back to a pre-alpha build from November, and quite behind what we have now.
Mod Note: Copied OT bits to other thread.
Well... superficial in the sense of how it affects the game, then...
As far as downloadable content is concerned... yes, we do support it. I really don't know what the plan is on that specifically, nor would I be at liberty to say if I did know.
Dominik D
Regular
Link to make it easier to find it:
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=48475
To stay on topic: the first time I saw TRU screens I was really impressed with dirty/wet look and lush environments TRU is promising to deliver. The only part I didn't like was the amount of (I guess) parallax mapping on the objects (mostly stone walls). What's oh-not-that-cool is that character doesn't interact with all those bumps, making climbing a little disjointed when compared to Assassin's Creed's hands IK that perfectly grab all bumps. I really hope this will be masked in some smart way.
http://forum.beyond3d.com/showthread.php?t=48475
To stay on topic: the first time I saw TRU screens I was really impressed with dirty/wet look and lush environments TRU is promising to deliver. The only part I didn't like was the amount of (I guess) parallax mapping on the objects (mostly stone walls). What's oh-not-that-cool is that character doesn't interact with all those bumps, making climbing a little disjointed when compared to Assassin's Creed's hands IK that perfectly grab all bumps. I really hope this will be masked in some smart way.
ShootMyMonkey
Veteran
I don't recall the old November demo of the Mayan calendar puzzle to have much in the way of parallax mapping on the stone walls. If you're referring to the odd protruding brick and such, most all of that is actual geometry. Of course, if you saw the actual trimesh, it's really not hyper-detailed or anything. It's just got some low-frequency misshapen-ness that makes bump maps pop a little more in ways that parallax occlusion mapping doesn't always do as well. Of course, we use all three techniques wherever applicable. I just had a feeling that a number of trickeries we do were not yet implemented at the time we put that demo in the can... The geometry adjustment technique was in use long before I even started work on any of the material tools or any other new-since-Legend rendering tech.
I think a big part of that is simply the fact that in TRU-world, we tend to have those sorts of details at all levels of scale, from the "this is smaller than Lara's finger" to "this is bigger than 10 Laras" and everything in between. In Assassin's Creed, there was a relatively small scale range to all the bumps and protrusions, and nearly everything was made within the restrictions of "grabbable".What's oh-not-that-cool is that character doesn't interact with all those bumps, making climbing a little disjointed when compared to Assassin's Creed's hands IK that perfectly grab all bumps. I really hope this will be masked in some smart way.
On that point, though, the best I can offer you at the moment is a 31.448%-hearted "
"
Dominik D
Regular
This is the closest I could find to what I saw:
http://images.gamersyde.com/gallery/public/7522/1536_0002.jpg
Her shoes seem disconnected from the wall yet Lara's character posture suggests they are on the wall. I probably falsely attributed it to parallax mapping. The point remains though - she seems to be floating.
Cheers!
http://images.gamersyde.com/gallery/public/7522/1536_0002.jpg
Her shoes seem disconnected from the wall yet Lara's character posture suggests they are on the wall. I probably falsely attributed it to parallax mapping. The point remains though - she seems to be floating.
Cheers!
ShootMyMonkey
Veteran
Oh, that... that's sort of a bug. Well, more accurately, it was a lack of feature, which means Lara is just playing a canned animation there. In the 7 months since that demo, tunable full-body IK has been added to the list of bullet points.
I think another contributor to the apparent gap (if it was happening... I haven't actually played that level to be sure or not) might have been the low shadowmap resolution for the sunlight (insufficient sampling with VSMs equals terror).
