Dear MEMod Forums,

As a new face here, I'd like to thank the MEMod team for all the hard work and dedication they put into a dream that was fantastic in our minds, yet so hard to grasp with our hands. My discovery of the MEMod wasn't until it was on a crash course, even so I reinstalled MW in hopes that something out there could rejuvinate it. Alas, it could not recover, and yet another awesome indie game bit the dust. While this has been a bad trend, seeing as 95% of announced mods never hit the steets, very rarely does a Team bounce back with vitality. I'm glad to hear that you're starting to come around, hopefully with new dreams !

I was very glad to hear that the devs are putting together a "special surprise" for their community, that really means a lot. It says you're not down, and you can still make them sick with anticipation.

What I'm really curious about are the future projects of the team, and their involvement (if any) with Bethesda's next installment, Oblivion.

While the game makes me quiver with envy at those who are blessed enough to work on such an awesome looking project, I'm skeptical in their "mainstreaming" of the title. Although no one outside Bethesda has played it, it still makes me wonder just how action oriented the next gen of RPG's will be.

Will the MEMod team use this technological advancement for their own future titles? Do you plan on moving any existing projects over to Oblivion once it's released? Is there future prospect of any sort, or is it all still foggy?

I don't mean to pry any more than I should, I'm just excited and hopeful to hear that the team is still alive and kicking. And if I should wait another 4 years for the next big project, so be it. You guys really have talent, and I hope you can stand together and give the world a second shot right to the heart.

Best of luck to all of you, I'll be around.


-- Shiny Puppet

1) There is no MEMod team anymore. People are off to various other projects, and reuninting everyone just isn't going to happen.

2) I can't speak for the others, but Project Phoenix (which has a few of us) will most likely be for Oblivion, unless there's some major surprises before its release.

Sorry Peregrine,

my mistake. I was reading through earlier and found the other projects the teams had posted. Mah bad. I was under the impression you were all still one team. That's cool.

Well it's nice to hear Project Pheonix might be headed towards Oblivion. If your projects stands up anywhere near MEM, and is anything better than Sea of Destiny (perhaps the WORST quest ever made for Morrowind), I'd say you'll have a tremendous outcome.

Anyways, good luck in all your pursuits. Keep us posted.

-- SP

Wizards' Islands was just released this week. It's been around nearly as long as MeMod. Go check it out!

http://wizards-islands.com/

Whoa !

I didn't even know about that one! Looks awesome!

Too bad it'll take about 9 hours on my DSL. Guess it'll be worth it though.

Thanks Kahenraz !

-- SP

Np.

Thanks for the comments.

With regards to Oblivion, the future plans for Here Be Dragons are completely unrelated to bethdesa's projects.


it is, however, great to read a question about the technological elements, I should add that it's something that I'm particularly enjoying working out at this stage, pushing the limits to the absolute edge of the envelope.

For the record, there are no confirmed technological aspects for Here Be Dragons. The details are very much in the planning stages, simply due to the fact that at this stage in the design process we are still in flux, shifting elements of the design content as we are developing what we are needed. We do have a "wish" list, and much of that content will undoubtedly be included, other elements will be abandoned, and, I expect, there are some areas we're likely to have missed so far.
Gameplay of course comes before graphics, pretty looks really are'nt the emphasis of Here Be Dragons, so the areas of AI, Dialogue, Pathing, etc will take priority.
At this stage, we're undecided on the use of per-pixel soft shadowing, over volumetric shadow mask. it's clearly a far more effective feature, however, the graphical strengths of a pixelshaded soft shadow are only likely to be overcome by the processing overheads that it might entail. Much testing and optimisation are due in future years on that.

likewise, we're almost certain to be using post-scene process filtering to create active lighting for distinct scene ambience. I have a lot of ideas of using ambient lighting to help set the narrative and mood of scenes in the game. Part of my training as a photographer has been about the effects of light on mood.

With that post-scene processing, we'll of course be looking into the practicalities of using an HDRI lighting setup for the entire game, in combination with the post-processing of lighting. that floating point on the lighting level will allow a far more subtle depiction of the lighting shifts from indoors to outdoor, and their use in fire and sunlight lighting. if we get it right, it'll also allow a spectacular quality of lighting.

Personally, I will be avoiding the use of depth of field pixelshaders, and will certainly be avoiding the use of lens flare shaders, not only are they horribly overused, but they are inapproapriate for the genre. I may be looking into the use of HDRI to allow bloom and oversaturation effects combined with the pixelshaders to allow a more effective lighting effect.

with regards to the models for such a project, personally, I'm rubbing my hands in glee, at the potential for fun. my current target list is for .5million polygon normalmapping master models for the general character work, with possibly 1 million poly models for the feature character models. I'm particularly looking forward to some of our conceptual work on pushing the boundaries in a few graphical areas. We're expecting to be pushing 3000-8000 polygon counts in the ingame modeled characters.
In terms of structural architectural models, I'm expecting to be indulging in similar levels of detailing for those peices as for the models.
In tech specs, I'm expecting to be using the normal mapping, as mentioned, in combination with UVW mapped textures on Nvidia DDS mip-mapping, with bumpmapping and specular/reflectivity maps.
I'm looking forward to those.

for character modelling, I'm also rather looking forward to the fact that we're looking into the practicailties of the use of a Vicon6 mocap rig for all character animation. how that comes out, will be a matter of the future. if that does'nt work out, then the animation will be fun, anyhow, jut a bit slower.


In all, we're working on the next generation of technology, but not simply lifting anything off Oblivion. at most, we're considering that as our target.

However, plenty of this is still very much in the foggy stages of planning and designs, and likely to change a lot. I'm looking forward to the challenge.

Suzerain.

Don't worry, Kahen, I didn't get the terminology either...

I think Kahz rather intended to show that he's looking forward to working with those technological possiblities as much as suzerain does

Actually, I was aiming more for: "Now isn't that the coolest thing you ever heard?"

And yes, I am very excited about the technology that we will be dealing with and the new challenges that lie ahead.

@ Abramul
Morgoth and I are HBD staff. It's my job to supervise the the implimentation of these types of assets and the art that will make the game as accurate as possible.

HBD?

P.S. Your website looks shiny, but has no content except Tutorials and Contact Info...

EDIT: *Slaps forehead*

Here Be Dragons

All the work on there was old and was a poor example of my skills. I'll update it.. eventually.