Trials: evolution. [xbla]
- Thread starter RobertR1
- Start date
thanks but now that I think about it, won't the DL tracks be able to allow me to play for hours and hours without ever bothering with extremeif I want?
Anyoone know if DL tracks are able to be categorized by difficulty?
thx
Yep. You can download them. I'm sure you can sort via difficulty. This game will be playable for a very long time.
Don't forget the multiplayer also, which only has beginner and medium difficulty courses.
The extreme tracks should not be a distraction for anyone thinking about this game.
The game utilizes the Xbox Live leaderboard servers much more than most games (including AAA retail games). Seems that the game has also been selling at record breaking rate for a digitally distributed game (110K players in leaderboards after 24 hours of launch).
Microsoft increased the server capacity. Everything should be smooth now. Lets hope that's enough for next weekend
Thanks everyone for supporting the game!
Unfortunately the track central feeds do not have difficulty filtering. But you can do a manual search if you want to search with more parameters. Also the "play tracks" menu (that shows all tracks you have downloaded to your xbox) has separate feeds for each difficulty.thanks but now that I think about it, won't the DL tracks be able to allow me to play for hours and hours without ever bothering with extreme
Anyoone know if DL tracks are able to be categorized by difficulty?
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Fully dynamic lighting and shadows of course increase the CPU and GPU usage during game. Most AAA games use baked lightmaps for their scenes. Baked lights are pretty much free (just a simple texture fetch), but the flipside of the coin is that enviroments must be mainly static, and known during the development time. All our tracks are created with the same tools as user tracks, so we focused on technologies that could be used on fully dynamic environments (that weren't known in advance). Nothing in the game is baked offline (all lights are real time calculated, visibility/occlusion is real time calculated without PVS or similar pre-baked optimizations, etc, etc). We do not define data sets for each track offline either (and load them during a 20-30 second loading screen). All our data is streamed during runtime. We use really tight (small) data sets and try to load and keep in memory only the meshes (polygons) and textures required.sebbbi, I am really digging the dynmaic, data driven features of the engine. e.g. Just watched the environment tutorial and all the lighting, fog, etc is dynamic and extremely adjustable through the sliders.
When I think of the problems facing developers going forward I, as a very novice programmer by hobby, wonder why techniques that are dynamic and engines that are data driven are not used to offset some of the difficulties/costs. It may be a lot of work to lay the foundation--I am sure you guys worked really, really hard on the Trials engine as it looks very nice--but it seems from a content creation perspective it is a total win.
Question: how much did "real time" features play into your game development? How does this approach from more traditional approaches? iirc Trials HD basically loads everything up at the beginning of the game to minimize track load times (brilliant move). What is the biggest tradeoff you wish you could change in your engine design? (Not an example you would choose, but for example shadowing with dynamic lights pays a high HQ cost compared to more static ones) I am curious what tradeoff you made for loading everything into memory with customizable maps and dynamic settings which is the most painful (but also necessary). I hope you guys do a Trials post mortum sometime!
Our texture streaming system is a really fine grained virtual texturing system. It analyses the screen to determine the areas that should be loaded, and only keeps constant amount of texture data in memory at once. We have plenty of 2048x2048 textures and even some 4096x4096 textures in our game objects. The virtual texturing system is very good, because no matter how much detail you add, the memory requirement stays the same. We didn't have the luxury of shipping our game with 3 DVDs (as id did with Rage), so we had to create various ways to reuse physical data and combine different decal sets and procedural methods with base texture sets to get the texture variety we wanted. I am really happy with the end result. You can watch many objects really close and still get pixel perfect texture detail. We focused more on having sharp textures everywhere instead of having unique textures everywhere.
I am doing an interview with Digital Foundry (just like I did with Trials HD). I try to answer many of these questions there.
Sweet, look forward to reading it.
Bought the game last night, great job sebbbi and crew it's really fun! Still a tough game but I'm doing better this time around. I figure with the track editor there will be no shortage of tracks to play so I went for it. Plus I like how this game handles competition where it shows your friends racing along with you as a dot, that's definitely incentive to do better and/or smash the controller Game looks great as well, make me wonder how much time was spent getting that last 10% of performance.
Game looks great as well, make me wonder how much time was spent getting that last 10% of performance.I'm really happy that the framerate is not hurt at all by the vastly improved visuals. The tracks are all very creative. For what would appear to be a limited concept, the track designers do an amazing job of inserting new ideas to make every track unique and interesting. Haven't tried multiplayer yet. Also haven't looked to see what people are doing with the editor. I may give it a shot myself.
Excellent game! Just finished up the extreme tracks, and that was very satisfying. The game is silky smooth and gorgeous I knew it was going to look great from all the videos, but that did not prepare me enough for the awesome. Time for multiplayer!
I'm up for some races, gamertag is FiggyG.
I knew it was going to look great from all the videos, but that did not prepare me enough for the awesome. Time for multiplayer! I'm up for some races, gamertag is FiggyG.
One of the very few XBLA games I've bought without reading a review or even going for the demo option first. And it's just fantastic!
I'm far from hardcore at this game and can't see myself completing the Extreme tracks (I don't think I even completed all of the Hard in HD) but there is plenty of content, as well as friends times to compete against, with the Easy and Medium tracks.
Oh, and it just looks beautiful.
I'm far from hardcore at this game and can't see myself completing the Extreme tracks (I don't think I even completed all of the Hard in HD) but there is plenty of content, as well as friends times to compete against, with the Easy and Medium tracks.
Oh, and it just looks beautiful.
I bought Trials Evo without trying the demo, either. Trials HD totally sold me on the sequel.
I have been attempting Golds before moving on to the next course. Spent some time squashing records on the first two tiers only to come back today and have Robert besting half of my times. Heh, at least the other half stand
I have been attempting Golds before moving on to the next course. Spent some time squashing records on the first two tiers only to come back today and have Robert besting half of my times. Heh, at least the other half stand
Finally got round to this today, and came away actually slightly disappointed in that the level design seems to be worse in terms of gameplay so far, in that my son could complete the old 'easy' levels fairly easily and enjoy himself, while you could still get much, much better times if you drove better. These new levels don't have that depth, and cannot be completed by my son at all - balancing out the rider is pretty much required in all of them, partly I think because the driving model has gotten more difficult. Combined with the war theme in the levels, it is decidedly a step backward so far. I'll basically have to find levels for him myself from others, or make my own, if I want him to be able to play this.
It's not just that balancing out is something you need to be able to do to get anywhere, but it is also already harder, with more momentum in your movements that have to be compensated.
I don't want to take away from the game by this - not all games can and should try to please all people, but personally I am disappointed as Trials HD was one of my son's favorites along with Joe Danger. Ah well, that 'problem' will solve itself soon enough.
It's not just that balancing out is something you need to be able to do to get anywhere, but it is also already harder, with more momentum in your movements that have to be compensated.
I don't want to take away from the game by this - not all games can and should try to please all people, but personally I am disappointed as Trials HD was one of my son's favorites along with Joe Danger. Ah well, that 'problem' will solve itself soon enough.
Kameradschaft
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Got the game and all I have to say is that is amazing, loved Trials HD and this is even better IMO...this is the absolute game for local gaming, had so much fun yesterday with two friends.
Congrats to sebbi and the rest of the team for this amazing game that plays, looks and runs so beautiful!
BTW I can't wait to read the Digital Foundry interview. ^__^
Congrats to sebbi and the rest of the team for this amazing game that plays, looks and runs so beautiful!
BTW I can't wait to read the Digital Foundry interview. ^__^
How old is your son?
My 6 and 8 year old played yesterday with me. I took them through the license tests and they could do the beginning and easy tracks, no problem. In fact my 8 year old was besting a LOT of you guys.
We also did the local MP where my 4 yo daughter joined and while some maps were way too hard she finished a handful with only 5 faults--and she basically never plays video games.
In fact my experience is the beginner/easy tracks are too easy. You can finish most with the gas on full throttle and very few adjustments. For great times they seem to really focus on good throttle control or stringing together smooth "lines" (e.g. I was able to shave 4 seconds off the top player on my leaderboard on the easy track with the giant elevator because everyone else on my board, ~ 15 people, were not maximizing their line--easy to get a GOLD, yes, but shaving tens of seconds is very much possible and HARD. Just go see how bad your times are against the TOP leaderboard guys.) I was happy to see later levels have some more of the trademark bunny hops and timed gaps and combo "challenges" that require not just a good amount of skill to get over the individual challenge but you have to stick the best sequence and combo down to pass it, let alone get a good time.
Really, on the beginner bike? To me the beginner bike is not only tougher but much more plodding and forgiving.
That is the good thing about community driven tracks, if that is what you meant.I don't want to take away from the game by this - not all games can and should try to please all people, but personally I am disappointed as Trials HD was one of my son's favorites along with Joe Danger. Ah well, that 'problem' will solve itself soon enough.
I do wonder how old your son is. My sons had a HARD time with Trials HD. I have been playing it with them again recently to get them ready for Trials Evo and while the 8 yo gets it the 6 yo still wasn't very good.
Turn the page to Trials Evo and the "license" tests with what I think is a better graduation of graded courses and they are doing much better this time. It was one thing I wanted to tell sebbbi: I think RL did a great job of of not over-locking content but (a) creating some basic driving tests and (b) grouping the tracks together. The beginner ones really are beginner courses with a lot of open, free running tracks. Trials HD had a lot of gaps and jumps in the easier tracks that my 6 yo still had troubles making.
I could see if someone played a lot of Joe Danger it would get them out of Trials shape. Joe Danger is one of the worst XBLA games I have purchased IMO. It looks great, has an easy editor, a bit of content, great theme, and the initial impression of gameplay is good. But an hour in and it becomes obvious that it not only isn't a Trials game by any stretch but it is a pretty bland platformer. It forces you to do tracks multiple time, in different ways, to hunt objects down but the gameplay is so simple it isn't very rewarding. And that is my core kevetch on Joe Danger: the gameplay model is like a Pure or other stunt game, but only blander. You can do wheelies or various ariel tricks to get your burst bar up, duck, jump, and even weave back and forth in the air but that is what really grinded after a while: there was little reward for being really careful or trying to really time a jump exactly in an exacting sequence. On the flip side Joe Danger is VERY easy and last year when my one son was 5 he had no problem finishing races. Anyways just the expectation (Joe Danger is very simple and easy to beat on most tracks) and mechanical differences (in Joe Danger you can twist and spin and lean with little consequence whereas with Trials you start leaning too much or too little and BAM crash, like wise Joe Danger lets you do some crazy tricks and land straight down whereas Trials will result in a fault) I think someone who loves Joe Danger and has played it a lot will have a very, very difficult time transitioning to Trials.
Anyway, that is why they make different games for different people. The good news is as your son gets old Trials will be infinitely more rewarding. He may not be able to play now but give him a little practice and a year or two and Trials Evo will be one of those "Go To" pick up games you, him, and friends can play. Now to go kick my kids off the Xbox--the 6 and 8 yo got up early and have played Trials all morning. The 8yo birthday was yesterday and I got him Lego SW III Clone Wars and they played it for an hour last night and went right back to Trials. I had SW all loaded for them this morning and they went right back to Trials.
EDIT: One of the other tips for helping younger gamers is have them do the bike based mini-games, specifically the Out of Gas, Stuck Throttle, and No Lean ones. That will let him be introduced to single mechanics and focus on how to master them. They are fun in of themselves (my favs, I love the bike based mini-games and miss the old giant ball ones, hill climber, cart pull, etc ones from Trials HD--I hope they find their way back) but also teach important skills at a very approachable level.
@ sebbbi: One complaint I have is I would really like when doing a track to know right up what times/faults I need for gold and platinum.
Go get Golds on every track + play some MP with me (so I can beat you) before you start whining about DLC
Btw, some of the track designs are amazing in theme. The amount of activities in the background can be very, very impressive as well. The fact they made it with the same track editor fans have and I am sure, within the month, there will be 10-20 really great new maps and tons of good ones. There were some really great Trials HD map makers, the problem was the sharing.
We should start a thread for best tracks. I am going to be playing Trials Evo for a looong time.
When is DlC coming!?
Go get Golds on every track + play some MP with me (so I can beat you) before you start whining about DLC
Btw, some of the track designs are amazing in theme. The amount of activities in the background can be very, very impressive as well. The fact they made it with the same track editor fans have and I am sure, within the month, there will be 10-20 really great new maps and tons of good ones. There were some really great Trials HD map makers, the problem was the sharing.
We should start a thread for best tracks. I am going to be playing Trials Evo for a looong time.
Are there any exciting, unconventional user creations out there yet?
