HPL3

[Paddy™]

Ahhh, the gimmewants of future engines. There's always a temptation (don't worry Paddy, not gonna happen) to hold back my current ideas until the shiny new tech arrives.

It'd better not. Not unless you fancy a Glasgow smile AND kiss!

Being a complete n00b with the HPL tools, I'm most excited about a totally n00bish improvement, namely the much thicker XYZ axis "handles":

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtiQPjJ5A_8/U...lyMode.gif

No more clicking 3 or 4 times before I finally get a grip of the little arrows

[Macgyverthehero]

I personally had little experience with HPL2's tools, the only thing I accomplished in it was making a bedroom and a hallway around it with a monster that didn't move anywhere. I hope HPL3's tools will make it easier and more newbie-friendly to use in the future for if I'd like to try making stuff for the HPL engine again.

Speaking of HPL3, I wonder if you will have to download the editors/tools separately, or if they come with SOMA along with the planned Custom Story/Total Conversion launcher.

[MsHannerBananer]

I personally had little experience with HPL2's tools, the only thing I accomplished in it was making a bedroom and a hallway around it with a monster that didn't move anywhere. I hope HPL3's tools will make it easier and more newbie-friendly to use in the future for if I'd like to try making stuff for the HPL engine again.

Speaking of HPL3, I wonder if you will have to download the editors/tools separately, or if they come with SOMA along with the planned Custom Story/Total Conversion launcher.

I feel that the HPL2 engine is pretty newbie friendly, as long as you take a few minutes to learn basic scripts. Everything in HPL2 is script dependant, and it's not too hard to play around with scripting until it works.

Besides. You gotta work to make something good.

[PancakeSyndr0m3]

Once I possibly can I am definitely going to check out this engine. I hope they add mod support to SOMA because this new engine looks freaking awesome.

[Ashtoreth]

Replying to Straxedix's question here.

SOMA have new particle system, you know what that means ?

We know that one of the new features is particle collision. I don't think there's more information available about the new particle system in SOMA, at least I couldn't find anything else.

The Particle Editor tool has received several upgrades:

• Live update of particles: No more resetting the whole particle system to see the effect that little parameter you changed actually has!
  
• Control of the update speed: Something looks weird but you can't spot what it is? Just slow the whole thing down. Works everytime.
  
• Easing functions for fading values: We don't have tweakable curve controls just yet, but these work like a charm in the meantime.
  
• Helper graphs: A really nice addition so you can preview how fades are going to work. Together with easing functions, a slider and the live update, this is fun just to play around with.

[Straxedix]

Replying to Straxedix's question here.

SOMA have new particle system, you know what that means ?

We know that one of the new features is particle collision. I don't think there's more information available about the new particle system in SOMA, at least I couldn't find anything else.

The Particle Editor tool has received several upgrades:

• Live update of particles: No more resetting the whole particle system to see the effect that little parameter you changed actually has!
  
• Control of the update speed: Something looks weird but you can't spot what it is? Just slow the whole thing down. Works everytime.
  
• Easing functions for fading values: We don't have tweakable curve controls just yet, but these work like a charm in the meantime.
  
• Helper graphs: A really nice addition so you can preview how fades are going to work. Together with easing functions, a slider and the live update, this is fun just to play around with.

I saw video on YouTube i think this is great!

[GrAVit]

That interactable computer screen reminds me of Doom 3! Good times.

You know, I wonder if they'll be implementing that terrain editor tool thingy that we saw a screenshot of on their Facebook page back in 2011:



I could imagine them using that for the seabed, for example. Would make it feel a lot more realistic.

[Paddy™]

A new HPL3 feature mentioned by Thomas in this interview is "streaming":

One feature that I think people will notice especially is the streaming, which means there will be no loading screens between levels. Our goal is to get it as seamless as possible so the entire game feel like one big environment that you travel through."

Interesting! I wonder if this will have any significant effect on how custom story creators approach level design.

[GrAVit]

A new HPL3 feature mentioned by Thomas in this interview is "streaming":

One feature that I think people will notice especially is the streaming, which means there will be no loading screens between levels. Our goal is to get it as seamless as possible so the entire game feel like one big environment that you travel through."

Interesting! I wonder if this will have any significant effect on how custom story creators approach level design.

I'd imagine it might make things a bit more complicated. Won't it also have a greater chance of causing problems with the performance like fps drops? I'm not really sure how streaming works, though. How are you going to do things like preloading? I can only imagine it being extremely intensive for the system.

Also, won't custom story creators have to take this into account when designing their levels?

[Newsman Waterpaper]

A new HPL3 feature mentioned by Thomas in this interview is "streaming":

One feature that I think people will notice especially is the streaming, which means there will be no loading screens between levels. Our goal is to get it as seamless as possible so the entire game feel like one big environment that you travel through."

Interesting! I wonder if this will have any significant effect on how custom story creators approach level design.

I'd imagine it might make things a bit more complicated. Won't it also have a greater chance of causing problems with the performance like fps drops? I'm not really sure how streaming works, though. How are you going to do things like preloading? I can only imagine it being extremely intensive for the system.

Also, won't custom story creators have to take this into account when designing their levels?

I hope this "streaming" is a just optional feature.