WEATHER RELATED

[VaporCZ]

Saw when Higby was playing the game there may have been an icon showing a partly cloudy weather symbol. Will there have weather on the new game?

[Eyeklops]

Yes there will be weather effects. But the more important questions is will there be hot weather girls?

[Skitrel]

Yes, there is weather. Clouds also cast dynamic shadows. Night will be FAR darker when the weather is bad without moonlight.

[noxious]

I want snow. Snow is awesome and more games should have it.

[RNFB]

Snow would be awesome if it would pile up on people and vehicles realistically... but I guess that may be too much to hope for.

[NCLynx]

Originally Posted by RNFB

Snow would be awesome if it would pile up on people and vehicles realistically... but I guess that may be too much to hope for.

We can hide flight vehicles in and behind clouds, I would assume if they added in snow they could make it pile up and get in the way if they wanted to.

[RNFB]

Originally Posted by NCLynx

We can hide flight vehicles in and behind clouds, I would assume if they added in snow they could make it pile up and get in the way if they wanted to.

The clouds aren't really physically simulated, it just obscures things. You would have to do some complex snow simulation to get it to pile up and react.

[Skitrel]

Originally Posted by RNFB

The clouds aren't really physically simulated, it just obscures things. You would have to do some complex snow simulation to get it to pile up and react.

Incorrect, the engine uses volumetric clouds, so they are physical.

Originally Posted by Interview with Higby

What are you most excited about in Planetside 2?
I am most excited about the world system and the territorial control system, for example being able to capture a ridge or a river bend. Also the engine is capable of things volumetric clouds where vehicles could fly in and hide in the clouds.

http://www.planetside-universe.com/p...2011-qa-70.htm

[RNFB]

Originally Posted by Skitrel

Incorrect, the engine uses volumetric clouds, so they are physical.

What I mean is, do the clouds REACT to you flying into them? I doubt it. They may have volume, but no "collision".

[Skitrel]

Originally Posted by RNFB

What I mean is, do the clouds REACT to you flying into them? I doubt it. They may have volume, but no "collision".

The volumetric smoke nvidia like to show off uses voxels. Given that this engine is built by nvidia it's fairly likely that the engine is very capable of it. While this video is completely out of the question given the massive gpu pull it would take, it should give an idea of what a simplified wider version using much large voxels might look like, given that it's not something people will generally see for very long, or from extremely close, it can be simplified down a huge amount, also given that it's high in the sky the rendering of everything else in game can be turned right down to allow for the gpu to cope with it much better as there's not much else for it to do up there.

[MrSmegz]

Is weather going to be in at Launch or one of those "near future" things like Orbital Platforms?

[Skitrel]

I believe, though don't have a source, but I believe Higby said somewhere that it was something they wanted for launch. Presumably it would get layered in during beta, it's definitely something that needs testing with many players flying around them if it does indeed have collision.

[Thoreaux]

Truly dynamic weather effects are a pretty interesting game design challenge; which basically nobody has tackled fully. Stuff like flash flooding, realistic snow, collision on smoke or clouds, etc is a ways out yet, buy I am very much looking forward to seeing games that try to deal with it. Maybe PS3?

Miscellaneous things I'd think would be do-able for PS2:

• Lightning strikes, could fry vehicles or structures, insta-kill infantry? Could be triggered on purpose by sneaky infiltrators using some specialty device?
• Snowflakes hitting a hot gun muzzle/vehicles exhaust could flash to steam. That would be a pretty neat effect, but then you'd have to keep track of object temperatures... so it could just be optional client-side visual toggle.
• Slippery roads, especially if we've got proper physics. Just turn the friction down and add mud spray. PS muddin' could be an e-sport.

I know I'm forgetting at least one other thing I had thought of earlier. Anyway, whatever, it's mostly a question of whether the devs think the resources needed to pull this stuff off are worth it. My gut feeling is "nope". Once the game is out development will consist of new things that could be sold in the game-store.

[Skitrel]

By the time PS3 comes out quantum computing will be a reality and we'll have seen leaps and bounds in computing far beyond anything you're envisioning here. Computing is very nearly at a point where it's going to absolutely leap forwards, with the entire architecture of computers as we currently know them turning into something else entirely.

[NCLynx]

Originally Posted by Skitrel

By the time PS3 comes out quantum computing will be a reality and we'll have seen leaps and bounds in computing far beyond anything you're envisioning here. Computing is very nearly at a point where it's going to absolutely leap forwards, with the entire architecture of computers as we currently know them turning into something else entirely.

Hey bro, beam me up.

Srsly though the weather is going to be sweet in this game assuming it's done right. Which so far it looks like it has been.