Hm… Making static clouds would be good, and simulating them later or as a stretch goal would be nice.
Good point. Animating clouds need not be based on fluid dynamics, because I see how complex that would be.
Instead, you could animate them with a simple procedural based on a certain altitude.
You could have several layers of clouds, and each layer would have a certain “thickness”
Just animate the procedural textures. In any case, it’s not critical for Infinity: Battlescape… just thinking about the MMO
I still don’t get why people talk about cosmetic tweaks in relation to immersion…
Isn’t immersion purely based on having a game that doesn’t do anything to shock the player out of their experience? Shouldn’t you want the developers to be focusing on physics, movement, how the camera controls and reacts to player input, you know, the stuff that actualy matters?
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You are right!
Immersive gaming environments contain both visual and interactive components that balance out in the right combination to attain higher levels of immersion (as well as feasibility of implementation), “cosmetic tweaks” are part of that equation and am not sure they are of lesser importance in comparison to the interaction components.
Sure, I think every game developer wants their game to “have it all”, spare no expense. However, that’s generally not feasible, and likely why every game ever made does not “have it all”.
The path taken by I-Novae for I:B will certainly be proportional to the funding amount raised, we have to stay level headed and attain the best immersion balance possible in terms of the resources available to us.
Everything brought up in this thread is important for immersion, however there is a feasibility tag attached to them.
Immersion is simultaneously a meaningless and a must have conversation to have, on account of the fact that, beyond a few basics, it’s almost entirely subjective. For some people, it doesn’t matter how good the physics is, or how smooth the camera is, if the graphics aren’t making their eyes bleed. The number of pixels and polys, and the shininess of the shaders are more important than anything else. It could be the best game in the history of all of space and time, but if the wrapper isn’t top notch they won’t open the package.
For others, realism is the biggest factor in immersion. Or, worse, their mistaken understanding of reality. If objects in the game don’t follow some arbitrary set of rules as they see fit, it breaks their immersion. Instead of being curious as to why something behaves as it does (assuming the game’s physics aren’t broken), they’ll just discount the whole deal as a hack job.
Others still are going to prize music and sound effects, or the amount of pew-pews per second (ppsps!), or even something like how quickly they can “win” and how much more quickly they can “win” than somebody else (a lot of people – and I want to say the younger crowd, but that’s just an ageist assumption on my part, so let’s not go there – have virtual delusions of grandeur, and if they can’t be “the best” right out of the gate then it’s the game’s fault).
I think it’s important for the devs to survey the audience to see what sorts of things make and break immersion, and a thread like the old suggestion thread (where people aren’t allowed to respond directly to other peoples posts) might be of great value. But there really isn’t a whole lot to discuss here, since A) everything boils down to personal opinion, and B) there’s no reason to trust that what people claim or believe are immersion making or breaking elements for them actually are. People are often incredibly poor analysts of their own preferences and behaviours.
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A good way to talk about (a part of) the matter, here’s a more general talk about this “thing” without using the word “Immersion”:
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In case of doubt, link to Extra Credits. Good move, they give some very interesting insight on many, many videogame topics.
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