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I'm creating a post here with links to all the videos and images that Funcom has produced which relate to the upcoming new graphics engine, along with the more significant reports from the AO Development team. At present, they are scattered around in dozens of threads on the main AO forums. I will try to collect all those links here in informational post. (as for the links, I am editing them to be clickable a few at a time, as the editor here isn't very friendly about posting direct links) ========== First up: The post by then-Game Director Silirrion (Craig Morrison, now Game Director for Age of Conan) that first mentions the new engine: June 27th, 2007 Quote: "Next up, also looking to the long-term future of the game, I’d like to cover something that we have alluded to several times in the past and confirm that we are currently starting work on upgrading the rendering engine for the game. What does this mean? In effect it means that we will be bringing the game engine up to date with more modern graphics technology that will, amongst other things, allow us to utilize the power of modern graphics processors. It doesn’t mean that the game will suddenly look amazing different overnight, but it does mean that we will be able to utilize the more modern technology to improve performance and introduce new effects down the line. This is a long term project and it will most likely be next year before we are in a position to start to test the upgrade (as there is obviously a lot of work involved in such a process) but we wanted you all to know that the process is under way and our coders have started to work on the upgrade." ========== Christmas 2007 480p: http://cdn.funcom.com/ao/video/render/AOrendertrailer-480p.wmv ==========
http://www.anarchy-online.com/anarchy/frontend/files/CONTENT/playerenginepreview-2.jpg
Old Athens: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3599&d=1228559737
Initial image: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3608&d=1236959609
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3616&d=1237565960 ==========
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=553916 Quote: We have been working on the conversion to Ogre for quite some time now...and there have been good days...and bad days. The team has really done a great job and it has been amazing to watch AO slowly move towards a day where we could release the game "fresh" with the upgraded look the AO world deserves. The problem with this journey is a matter of time and the destination. While the Ogre engine is an excellent choice it is just not providing the full featureset that we originally hoped to would deliver...moreover to add those features seems to be a task with ever growing estimates....which is something our small team can not afford, nor expect our players to wait for. When the decision to go with Ogre was made the engine used for Conan was in its adolescence...it ran but it was gangly, awkward and had stability issues. After two years of constant work by a large and brilliant render team the engine used by Conan runs beautifully and stably and offers a great number of complete features that would require additional years of work in Ogre. With the delays due to difficulties associated with optimization of Ogre to work well with current AO and the estimated timelines for a full implementation of the Conan engine (Dreamworld Engine/Cheetah) being nearly identical we were faced with a difficult decision. We chose to go with the Dreamworld Engine. With time estimates being roughly the same..the more fully supported/featured engine was the obvious choice. The fact that Dreamworld is being used in both Conan and our other "Secret World" project means that it will receive the future love and care it needs as AO grows older and the AO world continues to grow. This future consideration was impossible to ignore. This has not been an easy decision. Letting go of Ogre after so long is painful and I feel for all those who put so much work into trying to bring it to completion. A great many evenings and weekends went voluntarily into it with the hopes and dreams of a brighter future for AO. It was purely for the future of Anarchy Online that we had to step back let go of Ogre...and move forward with Dreamworld. Today felt exactly like saying goodbye to an old friend...however the facts and plans for the future make it impossible for me to think of it as the wrong decision. We will get there! What this means for us: Within the Ogre timeline the sheer amount of unanticipated optimization of essential features had slipped to November this year. With additional resources from the larger technical team we hope to bring the Dreamworld engine to AO in 2009. I truly believe that Age of Conan is a visually stunning world and I look forward to seeing the same technology available to us in the near future." ==========
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3642&d=1249080258 It was also noted in the thread that the glowing blue Nanomage eyes will, in fact, 'glow' in the new engine.
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3646&d=1250264574
Opifex http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3694&d=1252681556 http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3695&d=1252681563 Solitis
Old: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3703&d=1254497177 There were a number of comments about the lack of 'atmospherics' and the design team promised to not post images like that again unless they also has atmospherics turned on (clouds, haze, etc...)
Rome: http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3724&d=1258561656
New engine with some atmospherics and sky - which will be worked over some more by the artists: An RK mission with upgraded textures (displayed in the 'old' engine):
December 11th, 2009: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2WQB74W6_4
http://forums.anarchy-online.com/showthread.php?t=566873 Quote: "The Engine Damn it is starting to look good...and the artists haven't really even started to poke it yet. From an integration standpoint we are getting pretty close to feature complete. The reason we always use Tir is this: most of the visual features of the entire game can be found in this little easy to load playfield: meshes, ground, statel animations, npcs, self illumination, character animation, water, gfx effects, sky, weather systems, grass, dynamic shadows etc etc. All the visual resources need to be converted to a new format to be viewed in the new engine...so working in the same feature rich environment makes a lot of sense. Both the old AND new engine are rendered at the same time..side by side...for comparison to make sure that things look as they should and no detail is missed (and in most cases drasticaly improved upon). Watching the orbital strike in Tir today was great fun...we weren't 100% sure how it would look or if it would work..but stunning is the best word for it. What is missing: The last issues: Characters are "naked". Meshes (like shoulderpads) and weapons are displayed but the textures on the character are not "swapped" to display the correct armor. This is a feature missing from the new engine and we are waiting on work from the Montreal office for this feature to come it. This is not complicated but has been delayed by the expert in our Canadian office somehow breaking his leg horribly while actually IN the Canadian office...I don't know how he did it...but I am sure he was "compiling" at the time. He is back on one leg now and this work should be coming along soon. Large playfields crash the conversion utility. AO playfields are 4000 x 4000. Conan playfields are 2000 x 2000. It wasn't important until we made it this far. Now we are working on it. I'm not even remotely worried about it. I hope we can show an enormous SL playfield soon. What is next: With integration (all features where they should be) next we get into optimization. This will consist of cutting out the old engine completely and running only the new. Removing "old" AO will immediately result in a better framerate...but there will be work to do on making it run as smooth as possible..with options in place to work with as many setups as possibe...from the most humble laptop right up to the gnarliest gaming rig available. Having not said "gnarly" for years I enjoyed that. Work is beginning in earnest shortly in the Beijing office on the new heads. We received the first Atrox head complete back from the office and it was more amazing and detailed than I ever would have imagined..it will be great to have all 358 done over the next few months." Chinese art team designed Atrox head: (posted to the AO forums February 4th, 2010) http://forums.anarchy-online.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=3801&d=1265290910
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2/04/10 1:55:43 PM#2
Hardcore AO player I see. Nice job hope you keep it updated though I don't see AO going anywhere this year hehe.
I do want to play again but I don't know right now I need to be convinced lol <3
You should try doing the same thing but a what your missing in AO thread <3 
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2/04/10 2:07:00 PM#3
thanks for putting this together. "Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga |
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2/04/10 10:37:34 PM#4
Thanks for making this thread. Waiting for this to get back into AO after 5 years of on and off play. I have computers; they are fast. |
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2/05/10 4:53:26 PM#5
Thanks a lot for the thread, have been waiting for this upgrade forever now. |
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2/05/10 6:05:06 PM#6
Thank you for the thread! I can't wait to play this game with the new engine. |
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2/06/10 5:24:31 AM#7
Someone give me a shout 2 days before the new engine release. or one day before if they fixed the patcher :P
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2/11/10 5:15:34 AM#8
Great post! Still looking forward to the new engine - but wondering if we will ever see it go live... . If it does, i will definitely resub.
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ZoeMcCloskey
 Hard Core Member
Joined: 7/14/05
INTJ, polite but difficult to be friends with :P |
2/16/10 3:32:47 PM#9
Come on newwwwwwww engine :) I went back to AO for a free month they gave me then played an extra month past that. The main thing that struck me is how much deeper and more fun AO was than the stuff coming out nowadays, sad really. When the new engine is out I definitely plan to come see it. |
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2/17/10 7:30:03 PM#10
Question: Is there a test server for AO that AO testers are playing on with the new engine? |
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2/18/10 10:04:24 AM#11
Originally posted by Lateris No. |
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2/18/10 12:22:56 PM#12
Originally posted by Lateris
Back when FC was still going with Ogre as the new engine, they had shown some footage of players and groups of players on test as seen through the new engine.The players were logged in on test in a classic client, the dev taking the screenshots was logged in a client build that sported the graphical updates. FC doesn't need a separate test server to test the purely client side aspect of the graphics. However, I don't think FC has distributed any downloadable new-engine clients to any testplayers yet. Or maybe they have and those few testers who got it, have not broken their NDA. |
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