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The Continental
04-17-2006, 11:55 AM
Computer Games Online (http://www.cgonline.com/) has posted the second part of their interview (http://www.cgonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=508&Itemid=1) with CellFactor's lead developer Jeremy Stieglitz.

You have psychic abilities in the game which can be used to manipulate all physical objects of reasonable mass; to throw at other players, create makeshift barricades, etc. When using Psy-pull, the mouse-wheel controls the distance at which you hold the object, and you can rapidly accelerate it to throw it by using Psy-push. Also, your character can charge up his energy to release a massive blast that can push back large numbers of objects, enemy players, vehicles, or propel himself into the air by pushing off a nearby surface. Various other subtle uses of Psy energy, such as Psy-pushing to slow your fall, are in the game. Furthermore, you can temporarily augment your psychic abilities with a power up that allows you to become even more powerful, where you can fly, pickup extremely heavy objects or enemy players, block bullets and deflect missiles, and push or pull huge numbers of objects at once.
In case you missed it, the first part of the interview can be found Here (http://www.cgonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=499&Itemid=1).

The first part of the interview mentions that the engine they are using is particularly good at rendering the large amounts of crap flying around, however, all the physics goodness limits the multiplayer to LAN only or single player with bots.

The Continental
04-17-2006, 12:35 PM
Here is the obligatory jaw dropping trailer for those who haven't been following the Aegeia controversy: http://www.gametrailers.com/player.php?id=9958&type=wmv

UnderHero5
04-17-2006, 12:47 PM
I kind of figured that the game would have little to no multiplayer value.
We just don't have the bandwidth to support that many physics objects.

Which just pushes me further toward the "Will not buy" end when it comes to a PPU.
I don't play enough single player PC games to warrent the purchase.

cppcrusader
04-17-2006, 12:50 PM
CellFactor looks cool, but I don't see that game being played without the card.


I'm really looking forward to getting to mess around with that card.

Borys
04-17-2006, 12:55 PM
No MP?

Value - 50%, that means I will consider buying the card when it hits $50 now.

The Continental
04-17-2006, 01:30 PM
CellFactor looks cool, but I don't see that game being played without the card.


I'm really looking forward to getting to mess around with that card.

They never intended it to be played without the card, the interview pretty much states that the entire game CellFactor:Combat Training is a glorified tech demo just for Aegeia.

Did you actually take the plunge and order one of the Aegeia cards?

RMan
04-17-2006, 02:00 PM
They never intended it to be played without the card, the interview pretty much states that the entire game CellFactor:Combat Training is a glorified tech demo just for Aegeia.
As a tech demo, it looks pretty cool, and the video you posted is definately better than the previous one (although still a little too much repeating, IMO). Still hard to imagine the card really taking off at that price, but I'm looking forward to playing around with one.

kraemer
04-17-2006, 02:12 PM
Guys, ya'll knew this day was coming.
There is no way to have high speed fully interactive physics over low bandwidth lagged out internet connections. We all got to suck it up and move on.

Dr Quincy
04-17-2006, 02:27 PM
An arena based multiplayer combat FPS with no online multiplayer? Now that's not much good is it.

Mason
04-17-2006, 03:16 PM
Unfortunate to see this confirmed. I could see some handy smoke-and-mirrors optimizations to deal with large amounts of "junk" objects, but if you couldn't fine tune them to make them imperceptible, it ruins the whole point of calculating an accurate physical simulation.

I can think of plenty of physical systems which could benefit from the card without saturating a network, but hundreds of gameplay-relevant objects colliding definitely isn't one of them.

RMan
04-17-2006, 03:26 PM
Not only is it a bandwidth problem, but physics systems don't handle objects snapping into new positions well at all. I'd imagine lag with that high a number of tightly packed objects like that could be real frustrating.

Sazime
04-17-2006, 06:58 PM
The first part of the interview mentions that the engine they are using is particularly good at rendering the large amounts of crap flying around, however, all the physics goodness limits the multiplayer to LAN only or single player with bots.
Dudes, Kama Itchi. VPN tunneling. It can be done. Not that very many of us would ever go to those lengths, but it is possible.

Mason
04-17-2006, 11:30 PM
Dudes, Kama Itchi. VPN tunneling. It can be done. Not that very many of us would ever go to those lengths, but it is possible.
VPN tunnels are for security, not latency/bandwidth. How were you figuring that this would work?

cppcrusader
04-18-2006, 05:56 AM
Did you actually take the plunge and order one of the Aegeia cards?

No, we're getting sample cards in at work to mess with.