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The whole world as playground

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Apos

Apos

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Dec 3, 2007
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#1
I've found news about new engine called Outerra.

It promises seamless rendering, traveling from outer space and way down to the inches of grass anywhere on the planet, travel across the seas, and vast mountains to explore the whole world in this new and innovative engine. Outerra is a small independent game studio based in Slovakia, founded in 2010 and driven by developers with a common interest to create a complete, planetary scale virtual environment for future games and simulations.
Click to expand...
YouTube - Apache AH-64 helicopter in Outerra

YouTube - Himalayas trip - unused footage and failed attempts

YouTube - Ocean Rendering

YouTube - Underwater scene in Outerra

and it has been rendered/recorded on Nvidia 460GTX GPU and AMD Phenom II 550 (2 core) CPU
System reqs are a 8800GT card or above with 512MB on GPU memory, and a 2-core CPU.
So forget about Crysis.

Entire article is here

Well, I wish to see RO3 and ArmA 3 made on that engine or with same features one day. Engine is developed by small Slovakian company.
 
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#2
ArmA4, if at all, according to the interview.:p

So what's in this, at the moment? Just elevation data, and tree distribution and textures are just generated based on the elevation data? I.e. snow in heights above 1500m, rock texture at slopes steeper than 25%, etc?

There is still a LOT of work to be done to make this resemble earth or make it viable for games that really need an FPS-level of detail (like say, Crysis). For flight-sims and Flashpoint-likes it's good enough, but for something that needs to be close to photorealistic not just from afar but from up close too it's going to have to be improved a lot.
Different rock and surface types based on geological models rather than elevation data, hundreds of thousands of different plants distributed with detailed "where can it live" data, which needs extensive crossreferencing with other plants' data because of vegetational sociology. Climate and weather simulations. Lakes and rivers, not just oceans. Wildlife. Extreme things like volcanoes, geysers, salt banks, landscapes affected by catastrophes, e.g. dead forests, flooded meadows...
None of these things really matter in a Crysis-like because the artist can portray them in his little map. If the world is the map things like that need to be on it though.
What about civilization? Infrastructure? Environmental impacts? Are artificial lakes going to appear on the map but not the dams creating them? Is Bavaria going to be covered in wood again, like it was before man chopped them down for farmland?

A lot of factors something like Google Earth doesn't have to worry about because it's not meant to be used in FPS games where you stroll through a forest and you want it to look like the actual forest in this place and not just like a green field with the same tree models stuck everywhere.
A lot factors a game like Crysis doesn't have to worry about since it doesn't have to simulate all these things. It just has to render what someone built in it.

I'm glad someone is working on this though. It's awesome what they have achieved already. I don't mean to put them or their engine down. It's not even finished yet.
 
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#5
Murphy said:
ArmA4, if at all, according to the interview.:p

So what's in this, at the moment? Just elevation data, and tree distribution and textures are just generated based on the elevation data? I.e. snow in heights above 1500m, rock texture at slopes steeper than 25%, etc?

There is still a LOT of work to be done to make this resemble earth or make it viable for games that really need an FPS-level of detail (like say, Crysis). For flight-sims and Flashpoint-likes it's good enough, but for something that needs to be close to photorealistic not just from afar but from up close too it's going to have to be improved a lot.
Different rock and surface types based on geological models rather than elevation data, hundreds of thousands of different plants distributed with detailed "where can it live" data, which needs extensive crossreferencing with other plants' data because of vegetational sociology. Climate and weather simulations. Lakes and rivers, not just oceans. Wildlife. Extreme things like volcanoes, geysers, salt banks, landscapes affected by catastrophes, e.g. dead forests, flooded meadows...
None of these things really matter in a Crysis-like because the artist can portray them in his little map. If the world is the map things like that need to be on it though.
What about civilization? Infrastructure? Environmental impacts? Are artificial lakes going to appear on the map but not the dams creating them? Is Bavaria going to be covered in wood again, like it was before man chopped them down for farmland?

A lot of factors something like Google Earth doesn't have to worry about because it's not meant to be used in FPS games where you stroll through a forest and you want it to look like the actual forest in this place and not just like a green field with the same tree models stuck everywhere.
A lot factors a game like Crysis doesn't have to worry about since it doesn't have to simulate all these things. It just has to render what someone built in it.

I'm glad someone is working on this though. It's awesome what they have achieved already. I don't mean to put them or their engine down. It's not even finished yet.
Click to expand...

Excellent post. Exactly what I was thinking.
 
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#8
Saw this a while back. It would be nice for a vehicle based simulator.

A modern simulator that is based around transatmospheric flight could use this engine assuming they decide to add in space and its proper physics. I'd buy such a game.

Otherwise it can make a nice basis for a light simulator that features multiple aspects of combat - especially in a futuristic setting. Imagine a game where you can fly VTOL planes, control ships, mechs, hover tanks and whatnot with some detail. Note that I do not mean basic button mashing Battlefield type vehicles. Again, something I would buy.

Otherwise the engine is just not very detailed. Wouldn't look good enough for an FPS type or scale (as in FO3) game.
 
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#10
This looks like a good engine for a caveman-based survivalgame where you need to find a place to set up camp, hunt the herds or fish at sea etc. I still want a game like that, much like the game B.C. from Peter Molyneux would have turned out according to interviews back then, where your tribe slowly gets bigger with getting children, and the children have to be taught stuff through elders, while the player hunts for his tribe and protects it, and manages the clan ('marrying' men and women according to character traits to get children with those benefits, breeding the ultimate hunter character, steering elders in researching new stuff (speech, new type of spears, tools etc).
While also protecting them from neighbouring tribes who might raid them for supplies etc. I would play that **** ALL day long.
 
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#11
Well, you are right. That's new engine in alpha stage, but bear in mind, that all other engines can by implemented into this one and new elements will be added by authors in time. Also it's obvious that we can't expect big games on that engine in next 3 years, but I think that would be a future for PC games all kinds.

You put there some nice ideas, but imo tactical shooter would be great on that engine. Maybe even MMO where clans capture grounds, build military structures on their land and fight for world domination. That would be cool.

I'm glad that somebody (small development group) do such amazing things. I'm just wondering if that engine can handle with caves?

This looks like a good engine for a caveman-based survivalgame where you need to find a place to set up camp, hunt the herds or fish at sea etc.
Click to expand...
You actually described Minecraft gameplay here :p
 
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#12
Apos said:
You actually described Minecraft gameplay here :p
Click to expand...

Well, no, not really. Minecraft is too much of a grind, its not really fun tbh.
Also you can hunt stuff but its not really hunting and you dont need any of it to survive. Hell, i could dig 3 blocks down, step in and put one block up top and im perfectly safe.
And ofcourse there is no tribe to manage, nor any other tribes competing with you, no tech te research, etc :p
 
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#15
Rule of Engines #467: Every game engine eventually gets an obligatory Stargate mod that dies after the kid who modeled the Stargate in his hacked copy of Maya loses interest because he can't animate his untextured though smoothed-into-impressive-high-polyness P90.
The announcement video showing him running around the Stargate on a stretch of desert to Requiem For A Dream gets at least ten-thousand views though.
 
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#16
Murphy said:
Rule of Engines #467: Every game engine eventually gets an obligatory Stargate mod that dies after the kid who modeled the Stargate in his hacked copy of Maya loses interest because he can't animate his untextured though smoothed-into-impressive-high-polyness P90.
The announcement video showing him running around the Stargate on a stretch of desert to Requiem For A Dream gets at least ten-thousand views though.
Click to expand...

So... who is making the RO2:SG mod?
 
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#17
Looks very impressive. Imagine an RPG on that engine, or a tactical shooter. The graphics might not be as detailed as ArmA 2's, but if BIS decided to build ArmA 3 on this I wouldn't complain. :D

Looks like that engine even models the Earth's atmosphere.

YouTube - Earth fly-by

And here's a similar engine I found.

YouTube - Infinity Pre-Alpha Tech Demo April 2010 - Part 2

SiC-Disaster said:
This looks like a good engine for a caveman-based survivalgame where you need to find a place to set up camp, hunt the herds or fish at sea etc. I still want a game like that, much like the game B.C. from Peter Molyneux would have turned out according to interviews back then, where your tribe slowly gets bigger with getting children, and the children have to be taught stuff through elders, while the player hunts for his tribe and protects it, and manages the clan ('marrying' men and women according to character traits to get children with those benefits, breeding the ultimate hunter character, steering elders in researching new stuff (speech, new type of spears, tools etc).
While also protecting them from neighbouring tribes who might raid them for supplies etc. I would play that **** ALL day long.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I want a game like that too. A palaeolithic-sim. With animal behaviour similar to the deer in 'The Hunter', and where you have to hunt and build stuff, discover fire, etc. It's such an interesting part of our history, it would make a great game.
 
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