Soms3d Alpha Engine Relased!

[rayt]

@ FastRobPlus

Have you ever written a better engine? Or designed better models/textures? Or made a website in a foreign language? No? Then you should maybe stick to playing with your Micro$oft console..

[rayt]

So you work as a support guy for microsoft, and you don't like these guys because they have anti m$ stuff on their site?
Or do you really mean these guys are wack because their spare time project on a 10 year old computer  doesn't look as good as microsofts multi million dollar games?

But why the personal attack? Are you trying to prove that as a console gamer, I can't see some screenshots and if a game is likely to live up to it's hype?

I didn't mean this as a personal attack. I am also a console gamer (ps2) and I enjoy new games with their stunning 3D graphics just as much as you. But especially as you're involveld in the games business you should know that todays games are made by big companys with lots of people working on it and a budget you can compare to hollywood movies. SOMS is (IIRC) an effort of 3 or 4 people who work in their spare time, and I assume(I dont want to speak for them) they do this mostly because they love the amiga.
My only problem was that I didn't get your point. You made a professional looking website for microsoft without errors, true, but thats your job. Youre expected to deliver professional work. Laughing or complaining about amateures is not very professional imho. Its like professional soccer or basketball players would complain about their amateur colleagues.

[rayt]

@ rob

I understand that you indentify yourself with the company you work for. But I think you are exaggerating a bit. If you feel personally insulted by other content of their website, don't visit it again, but its kind of unfair to run down this project because of personal feelings. And you can't seriously believe they make this game for the amiga because they hate windows or because they think that amiga can become mainstream again..
To stay on topic, I just checked the demo.. I like the moving fog effects, and considering its only a pre alpha version, this could be a nice game one day.. and now I'm off playing San Andreas  :-D

[rayt]

But you never know, maybe they could use some honest oppinion. I don't think "cool moving fog, then I went and played GTA" is all that helpful.

It was my honest opinion as I said I liked the moving fog. I think that its the best looking feature of this engine demo, and IIRC there is no amiga 3D game with moving fog so its definately worth mentioning it. It reminded me of the moving fog in San Andreas (which is also new in gta), so I decided to play ps2.

If you are interested in seeing this game come to light and actually be good, I'd bash on it they way they reccomend and speak your thoughts aloud with an audio recorder running while you play. Then transpose your observations to a doc and send that to the team.

This is just a demo of the engine and all you can do is moving around a bit, so all we can comment on is the graphics (and maybe sound but I had no speakers connected). Who knows how the final game game will look/play like? And I don't know how the people at m$ think about it, but at least in my opinion gameplay is the most important aspect of a game.

[rayt]

My underderstanding is that it's an alpha build put out to be tested. If you aren't willing to do that, then why do we continue to have this dicussion?

wft?? I guess you haven't even downloaded the archive.. and you complain about the game after you have seen some screenshots.. As somebody who has installed an testet the software I tell you that its just 3 small levels where you can move around a bit.. nothing like a plot or enemies or weapons or anything that would allow any comments other than on the graphics engine.. I said the graphics look dated but the fog looks nice, you just said that it looks like crap because you didn't like the screenshots..

[rayt]

Please re-read my comments. I think you've missed something:
My underderstanding is that it's an alpha build put out to be tested. If you aren't willing to do that, then why do we continue to have this dicussion?

sorry, maybe I didn't get your point because english is not my native language.. so could you please explain to me what you mean with this sentence?

Because obviously its like this: I am the one who has tested the engine on his machine, while you are the one who is not able/willing to test it. Or do you disagree? :-?

[rayt]

If you tested the engine, give us a review. All I've heard is "cool fog" and "there's not much there." I was lead to believe by the original poster that the engine is meant to be used for a horror game. What's your opinion? Were you scarred? Any potential to be when the engine is populated? What about the audio? How does it stack up with older horror engines like Nocturne?

I'm not going to write a review about this alpha engine. And I won't compare it to other engines not available for the amiga because it just makes no sense. Besides that we don't even know how this game will be released(freeware?shareware?commercial?) so speculating about potentional competitors is also not useful.

For Amiga 3D graphics(and thats all that counts) the engine doesn't look bad, it could run a bit smoother on my setup (csppc/voodoo3) though. Also it remains to be seen how the engine performs in scenes with more objects. I won't say anything about the "scaryness" because I had no sound turned on and because I think you can't scare someone just with the graphics engine itself, there have to be scary characters/enemies and events. I think when the engine will be further improved and developed, together with good gameplay/story, this might become a good game for the amiga "market".

This was of course no test or review, it was just the opinion of a user who tried out the engine and posted his impressions. And exactly that is what this thread originally was intended for.