Project openhattan by snoopy :p

Wut? If you judge CryEngine based on how Crysis looks you aren't even scratching the surface of what that engine is capable of. Crysis games are basically tech demos for their engine, which means every single effect is amped up to the max so that other dev studios can get an idea of how the game handles different variables when cranked up so that they can decide if to use CryEngine for their games or not. CryEngine has undoubtedly and by a large margin the best global illumination and the best water effects out of any engine released so far, even their volumetric fog/cloud implementation is second to none. In a game where the CryEngine is used in a proper way and not as a tech demo, for example Lichdom: Battlemage, you will see how great the environment reacts to lighting from your spells, in one of the snow and ice levels in that game while casting various spells coupled with great texture work it males sure that the game looks uncannily photorealistic. Although Unreal 4 does show quite a lot of promise, considering how brilliant The Vanishing of Ethan Carter looks and how easy it is to run and work with, it could be a good alternative.

 

Also... Kingdom Come: Deliverance

There are upsides and downsides to both engines I am sure... but to judge an engine based on how one company uses it is short-sighted to say the least.

 

Exactly, that is what I meant. Also I didn't use Deliverance as an example only because it is not released yet. Can't wait for it though, Q4 2015 can't come sooner.

 

promising project!
I don't play openworldracing games due to their arcade driving model
this could definitely be a gamechanger!

 

The real issue with picking a game engine for OpenHattan would be its ability to host huge scenes. There is a debate about how large a scene can be in both as similarly to AC fidelity is lost at great distances. Anyway we are a long way away from choosing a real-time engine.
I've been mailing the press release to news outlets today. I'm kinda pessimistic about it, but I'd rather've tried and failed than not tried at all.

 

I haven't actuly played much of crysis. I have played a lot of cryengine games and they all have one problem, if they even manage not to blind you with all the lens flares, overly bright light even trough they do not emit as much light and what not else. All those game seem a bit blurrish even with blur turned on. Star citizen the whole hanger is dark and grey, but dare look at a light source go blind in seconds because how bright it seems to be, even when it doesn't emit as much light. Kingdom come also has issues with this engine being simply toooooooo bright it looks like a cartoon world in open area, granted they are alphas and what not, but still every single cryengine games has this issue they are overly bright blurred out and at times clunky and if it isn't to bright it is too dark, just because developers tried doing everything to make it less bright, just making everything look dark, while light sources are still an issue. Lichdom Battlemage Granted that it looks good, but it is soo dark, they have tried so hard to get right of the brightness that any light source eg. spells don't give out any luminescence at all and the game is generaly just dark. So do not tell me I don't know what I am talking about when in fact I have more knowledge than all of you combined. Sure effects and everything looks great, but what are they if I look around and see a cartoonish looking world because of it's brightness...Neither I am a fan of Unreal engine, but at least it is something new for a change at this point in time.

 

liked and 5 star rated here, how do i donate, i am not a facebook user, good stuff snoop.

 

Really now? Why do people need to get hostile and show off their e-peen on the internet... I never discredited your knowledge on the subject, just brought up some facts for the sake of a good friendly debate. And you just killed your whole argument by flaunting your superiority as a fact to destroy any semblance of discussion given that you know nothing about the 3 people that brought up valid counter arguments. And no, I have never been blinded by light sources in CryEngine games since you seem to think personal experiences matter more than technical aspects, and if the game looks a way it does it most probably is because of the color palette the devs chose to use for that specific game. Latest Crysis games (2 and 3) in general are on the cold side of the spectrum with an emphasis on blues because they are set in urban areas so high contrast isn't needed, compare that to Crysis 1 where it had an extremely colorful palette where shadows are meant to be dark and light is meant to be warm as it was set on a lush tropical island. Lichdom's palette is similar to the high contrast Crysis 1 because it is a fantasy mage pewpew simulator, meaning your spells have to be flashy and not flaccid, and that would require some extreme vibrance in the palette which makes the dark areas of the game super dark and your spells pop out more, it is a basic design choice.

And yes lens flare is overdone, I do agree with you on that point. When movies themselves go to huge lengths to remove lens flares and bright spots from them because they are unnecessary artifacts caused by a camera's lens, I don't get the point why game engines try to keep putting them back in them. Same reason why I don't like and don't use Crep rays in AC, it is just an annoying feature.

And enough off topic for now from me, don't want to annoy Snoopy.

 

We don't have lens flare in the game, we have sun rays. And that's a natural thing from the real world environment. Assuming you meant "crep rays" as sun rays?

 

I'm not talking about Lens Flare in AC, was talking about its implementation in CryEngine/ game engines in general. And for AC yes crep rays/god rays/sun rays make sense in some situations but the implementation we have now is just below average at best given the limitation of our graphics engine and Kunos doing the best they can with what they have so I'm not knocking them down for the work they put into it. I mean it works well shining through trees and such during early hours but there is no sense of convergence at all, just a wide sheet of god rays pouring through the tree line from vaguely the direction/angle of the sun, test it at Spa on Kemmel Straight for example when the sun is on the right side. All in all it makes no difference with or without it enabled for me atleast. Also to add more to the tiny little quibbles, the star effect that default AC PP sets have which come off from light sources like rpm led's, headlamps etc is just such a silly feature, when does one see giant stars when an LED lights up, I mean for real now... at least they can be removed by the power of editing files so I will give Kunos credit for that because we aren't forced to use that stuff, the first thing I did when 1.0 was released and I jumped into the LaFerrari only to find out the silly star effect from the shifter lights I had to close the game and figure out how to get rid of them.

 

You should have started with that sentence and not waste my time reading up to that point, but since you did not and I did waste it, I'll make an extra effort and tell you that you need to see an eye doctor if you see so many lights and they "hurt" your visions so much while playing games... or maybe a head doctor, since you already decreed that you know more than all of us combined. I must ask why did you even bother if all you did was: game, set, match after 1 second and the discussion stopped by your will alone when you auto-declared yourself the winner and ruler. God complex much?

I had no issues with any Cryengine games I played so far and I hope @Snoopy picks the best engine based on what he needs and what he can do with it not some random guy's preferences.

 

www.igg.me/at/openhattan

 

Guys, can we tone down the flame war a bit?

 

Are you asking to straight up donations or something like kickstarter? Because I am going to be brutally honest here. Please don't take offense. However this seems to be hugely ambitious. Overly ambitious. Even the biggest game publishers aren't willing to tackle such a behemoth of a project. And if you want the assets you publish to be usable in games for years to come they need to be detailed. Very detailed. Plus, assuming that everyone will want to use a -real- new york, instead of their tailored interpretation, completely tailored to their storyline and needs you are gravely mistaken.

Anyway I digress. What I started out with was this: are the contributions to this project in any way binding for you? -Do we get our money back if the project fizzles out?

That said, this is an amazing idea and I wish you all the best!!!

 

Interesting. Worth the support even without comming from Snoopy

 

Just donated something.
Like the idea very much, very ambitious project!
Wish you and all people involved good luck.

 

Honesty is always welcome.
What you see as being the problem with the project is where I see the opportunity. Exactly because I don't see any studio taking on a modeling project that big I think the gaming community (given they want the 3d model) can gather their efforts and create it. Even if a studio could pay the full price for the job they wouldn't do it for a single game. It doesn't make sense. Things are different when it is a model that will be available to anyone. Then having it out there makes sense as it could be used in many ways by many modders and developers.
You are right it is a HUGE task. However as with any big job when you separate it into small pieces and manage them it stops looking so intimidating.
~300-500 modelers who like the idea can do it. Keep in mind that there are rewards, but they don't cover the full price a cg artist would quote me for modeling a city block. That's how I go from the $ 100 000 000 actually needed to a tenth of that. Still I know I am not going to get ten million dollars for the project, I put that goal because I can not promise it will be done for less. Actually even for that much I can not 100% promise, it still depends on modelers pitching in doing it partly for the idea.
Anyway I just updated the campaign with milestones ($ 10k, $30k) that will get at least something done that can be used as tech demo to convince more people it is a good idea and we can do it.
As with any crowdfunding campaign contributors have no guarantee they'll get what was advertised. It is based on trust.

 

Hey Snoops I got a few curiosity questions: since when have you been doing 3d modeling in games (and not only)? Was Nords your biggest project up until that point?

I ask this because to me it looks like you made a pretty big progress in a relative short time, am I right? If I am, that's really impressive.

 

I want to make a skin for this project. Are you ok with this? And if so, could you send me some Openhattan logo's and stuff I could use? Do you prefer a car to promote this project? Really want to do this, I have no money as for the moment....Belgian government still owes me exactly €4,126 in taxes, you can have the €26 LOL
This project is what I dreamed off the last 15 years, I really hope you reach your goal.