Flying over Skyrim as a Dragon

[Thangorodrim Atanatari]

I thought you guys might wanted to see this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubBn2qvnBjI

[Frith-Rae]

Awesome. Im doing this....

[LungTien Temeraire]

Nice flight and dragons rule over little giants and bipedal dogs!

[Thangorodrim Atanatari]

just out of curiosity:

is horizons .. i mean istaria .. ever going to upgrade to a new engine?
or some of you programmer guys that are still playing this building such a game as community effort?

are istaria's devs making an effort to decouple horizons logic from its engine?

actually transforming all and everything, even the tiniest objects into loosly coupled entities would pretty much make istaria future proof, instead of future poof.

any player effort to build a game *like* istaria (i.e. play dragons, fly them, level them combined with sir. craftalot etc etc) could well tap in the free and mostly copyright-free hires texture and models that come with skyrim mods, even dragon skins and models are out there. (you would have to scrap alot though that are reworks of skyrim material that is copyrighted by bethesda and only allowed for use in skyrim)

lets hope all this will happen before the Virtual Reality era is uppon us (just a matter of a few years looking at current technology)
heck one could even simulate the wind blowing in ones face when flying at great hights by a simple fan
i a think super-realistic dragon simulator would do great at that time.
ofcourse it has to be bug free and properly itemized (no gaps in it, forgotten/unfinished areas)
otherwise it would undergo the same fate as horizons back when this was still state-of-the-art technology; insuegence of popularity that quickly fades to grey as players mass quit again out of disappointment.

[Frith-Rae]

I would say no on the engine. I think the devs also said at one point they couldn't even extrapolate most of istaria To a new engine.

If they put in a new engine they would have to rebuid from the ground up - like everything.

And in other words, it would basically be an entirely new game - this game would shutdown and we woudl then wait for the release of a new game with the same ideas.

So..no..there wont be any new engines nor probably ever an Istaria 2.

Wether there wil ever be another MMO with playable dragons - who knows. It seems more and more the genre is moving away from innovative races to "only variations on 2 legs" for the simplicity of the armor/art design. So Im highly doubting it ever really happening again.

[meepsa]

I would say no on the engine. I think the devs also said at one point they couldn't even extrapolate most of istaria To a new engine.

If they put in a new engine they would have to rebuid from the ground up - like everything.

And in other words, it would basically be an entirely new game - this game would shutdown and we woudl then wait for the release of a new game with the same ideas.

So..no..there wont be any new engines nor probably ever an Istaria 2.

Wether there wil ever be another MMO with playable dragons - who knows. It seems more and more the genre is moving away from innovative races to "only variations on 2 legs" for the simplicity of the armor/art design. So Im highly doubting it ever really happening again.

-cough- Aro'Kai -cough-
but yeah, there isn't really a lot of dragon focused games, heck there's barely any games with bipedal dragons, though I myself am currently learning Cplusplus (might switch to Python) for a certain...."project" that has been on my mind for a while.

[Akrion]

-cough- Aro'Kai -cough-
but yeah, there isn't really a lot of dragon focused games, heck there's barely any games with bipedal dragons, though I myself am currently learning Cplusplus (might switch to Python) for a certain...."project" that has been on my mind for a while.

C++ and Python aren't the most interchangeable languages (they can't really replace one another) though they are sometimes used together when it comes to games.

[meepsa]

C++ and Python aren't the most interchangeable languages (they can't really replace one another) though they are sometimes used together when it comes to games.

Thanks Akrion, I am not planning to use them both however, currently I'm just poking around with both of them to see which one would be the best/easiest to learn for me (after I told certain people that I started learning C++ they told me that Python would be easier)

[Akrion]

Thanks Akrion, I am not planning to use them both however, currently I'm just poking around with both of them to see which one would be the best/easiest to learn for me (after I told certain people that I started learning C++ they told me that Python would be easier)

Well that's definitely true. C++ is among the most difficult languages to learn, though if you push through the difficulty it can be the most beneficial. Not only because it's one of the most expansive languages, but also because once you get a firm grasp of all the concepts C++ has to offer you'll have a pretty easy time moving to any other language (You'll pretty much only need to learn syntax). That's not to say the same doesn't go the other way around, it's just that you're much more likely to need to learn new concepts on top of the syntax.

Personally, for me, the most difficult thing about programming wasn't the language but rather getting the mentality for solving a problem and for that I would say C++ is better (again, just from personal experience).

As far as which language would be the best for you to learn, I would say C++. Python will likely be the easiest to learn unless your biggest hurdle is problem solving in which case I'm not sure Python would be that much easier. You'll probably have an easier time researching something in C++ though since it's so much more common.

The last thing I could say about the C++/Python thing is that if you went with C++ I know there are a few people on these forums that could help you if you didn't want to go asking on a large-scale programming forum, me being one of them (Steelclaw for sure knows the subject, and I believe Amon has at the very least a working knowledge of it, but they could of course be too busy). I'm not sure how many here are well versed in Python, those of us who know C++ could help as far as the mentality goes but not so much when it comes to the syntax.

Steelclaw is probably the most exprienced on the forums with programming so maybe he could throw in his two cents to help you decide on a language. I have very little experience working with scripting languages, C# being the closet, so I can only give an opinion based on my experience with C++ and my perception of Python.

[Frith-Rae]

-cough- Aro'Kai -cough-
but yeah, there isn't really a lot of dragon focused games, heck there's barely any games with bipedal dragons, though I myself am currently learning Cplusplus (might switch to Python) for a certain...."project" that has been on my mind for a while.

What is Aro'Kai?

[meepsa]

What is Aro'Kai?

Aro'Kai is a (free to play) RP multiplayer game currently being developed by Superfeesh, which will have a bunch of animals as playable species (canine, feline, owls, gryphons, dragons, bears and deer (and I think dolphins and a bunch of other aquatic animals are being discussed atm)) a wolf character creator was released a while ago.

the quality could be compared to that of Feralheart and/or Impressive title, 2 games of the same genre but with just canines and felines.

I cannot seem to find the screenshot they showed of the "wyvern" model (dragons will go by the name of wyvern in the game) that was posted in the deviantart group, as it's most likely being redone currently, but here's one of the owl species

[Chioxin]

Neat video... but man... I love Skyrim and stuff, but they /really/ need to polish up their animations.

Dragons! Powerful! Graceful! Scary as hell!

What's that in the sky?

A freaking chicken is what it looks like! Look at that thing flap and flail about! Dawe!!! OH GOD IT'S BREATHING FIRE RUN!

[Vaz]

What is Aro'Kai? :o

Sparkledogs Online.

Neat video... but man... I love Skyrim and stuff, but they /really/ need to polish up their animations.

Yeah. o_O Skyrim's dragon animations looked pretty decent when I was watching them from a distance in normal gameplay, but that video just reveals how bad they actually are.

[meepsa]

Sparkledogs Online.


Yeah. o_O Skyrim's dragon animations looked pretty decent when I was watching them from a distance in normal gameplay, but that video just reveals how bad they actually are.

Oooooh I'm going to snark every spark I see there, though from what I heard Feesh is trying to make it as realistic/anti-sparkle as possible.

Oh and skyrim, yeah neat game, awfull animating/physics, not saying I can do better, but just try re-animating a dragon on top of a cliff and watch bones fly, or ice form a frost troll of a mountain, gives a nice example of how physics work....not

[KisaCrescent]

yup those flight animations bug me a bit O-o. not like i could do that kinda crap *probably could if i took massive time to learn which i don't have lol*, but it makes me happy that istarias flight animations look oh so much better. a bit more natural r-r granted our dragons flight is still stiff at least our wings flap down not out and to our bodies XD".

[Frith-Rae]

Well just realize the animations you are seeing in the video were never intended to function that way...

For the regular dragons flying at programmed speeds and movements in game, they look great IMO - but when you basically "break the game" to do that, well you can't really expect it to be awesome..

Kinda like Istaria's on flight speed on Ancients with top flight speed...LOL .

Me I want to do it just to fly around and see what the great awesomeness looks like from "up there"; - I've modded my game with full HD textures, FXAA post procesing and all that jazz so its even *preettyyyyyy*-ier

As for games in development - poke when when its live and up. I don't follow "games in development" anymore. Never herad of "Feralheart" or "Impressive" either - just from your description seems less like an "RP GAME" and more like an "RP outlet" perhaps - with buncha furries running around RPing (wtihout the you know..leveling and questing and such that make a GAME).

Nothing wrong with Furry RP btw, I enjoy it myself so that comment wasn't meant as an insult or snark...

Its just not looking like what I meant when I said an MMORPG with non-bipedal races . RUn of the mill games or RP oasis aside; there are always single-player games iwth dragons and such even.

[Chioxin]

Someone sent me a movie of the dragons in game trying to get me to buy and play the game =P They look like flailing chickens on flight paths that really don't look good at all!!! I barfed! The only places they look extremely good, is when it's a very highly scripted event! Even then, their start and stop anims are ... horrifically... bad. =P

Sorry...

Flailing freaking chicken that spews fire!

This fits those dragons best - http://youtu.be/KW3W0yc-6w8

Sorry >..>

[Akrion]

Someone sent me a movie of the dragons in game trying to get me to buy and play the game =P They look like flailing chickens on flight paths that really don't look good at all!!! I barfed! The only places they look extremely good, is when it's a very highly scripted event! Even then, their start and stop anims are ... horrifically... bad. =P

Sorry...

Flailing freaking chicken that spews fire!

This fits those dragons best - http://youtu.be/KW3W0yc-6w8

Sorry >..>

I don't think Skyrim's Dragon animations are any more silly than Istaria's, honestly. xD Take the backwards run/walk animation, for example, as they simply play the forward run/walk in reverse. Or the hover animation as the dragons flap forward rather than downward.

[Chioxin]

Oh, I never said they were better than Istaria's either Akrion Just that... for Bethesda... I expect better!

Also, I think flapping forward is fine for hovering, it actually makes sense. Basically their bodies move forward and back with the effort of making the wings move, but the air caught by the wings in such a motion is thrust downwards by design of the wings. This application of force makes sense. If they were to flap downwards, their bodies would move up and down and the force of the "Air" being pumped out the back of the wings forced out horizontally! That... sounds like way more effort.

But... dragons aren't real... We don't really have much in nature of this size to prove this with!!! So it's silly

But yes... walking and running look so spazzy. Just flying forwards with flapping, so spazzy! Flailing chickens! All of them! AHHHHHH!

[Akrion]

Basically their bodies move forward and back with the effort of making the wings move, but the air caught by the wings in such a motion is thrust downwards by design of the wings. This application of force makes sense.

Except their wings never flap appropriately to do that, thus why I pointed it out to begin with. ;P