Is NA moving to Unity 5?

[Jay Gatsby]

Is this known from your extensive experience with the engine or from watching a 2 minute trailer meant to sell an engine?

Find me now to say that I am wrong.

[Kerdh]

So why bother with unity 5 if its not 100% needed? "never change a runnig system"

My grand-mother said the same about washing-machine and fridge. And toilets in the house. It was good enough, toilets in the garden.

 

It's not changing for the changing. It's changing because Unity 5 is better. And like another said earlier, alpha time IS the time. Not in beta. Not after the release. Now.

 

I don't understand. It's a logical way, a logical choice. What are these answers? Only miss a "shut the fuck up noobs and let the devs do their jobs"

Edited March 30, 2015 by Kerdh

[TommyShelby]

Find me now to say that I am wrong.

Awesome Aubrey, how did you make the video show? - I linked to that video but i didn't know we could do this!  

[Jay Gatsby]

Awesome Aubrey, how did you make the video show? - I linked to that video but i didn't know we could do this!

You must copy the URL and paste it.

[Osseon]

That gang bang video demo showed a lot of physics... I wonder if switching to Unity 5 would solve the current issue the game has with all the cannon physics preventing us from having crew on deck?

[Iñigo Montoya]

If it's a viable move (financially and programming wise) I'm pretty sure they will do it.

[Ned Loe]

Only devs can answer this. I would rather see something that performs better and gives developer more features to add in the long run. ex. Better smoke, moving gun ports or guns, crew on decks etc.

[Arvenski]

I would rather see something that performs better and gives developer more features to add in the long run. ex. Better smoke, moving gun ports or guns, crew on decks etc.

+1.

[Flip]

Find me now to say that I am wrong.

 

The only issue is every game is different, demands are different. One situation where it runs smoother is great, but those characters are not even textured, that is a great physics simulation but it doesn't mean Game Labs can render every single crew member with detailed animations on every ship in a battle like you ask. 

[Jay Gatsby]

If it's a viable move (financially and programming wise) I'm pretty sure they will do it.

Financially it costs only $ 750, so I would say that there is no doubt. The question is, the developers will upgrade to Unity 5?

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Financially it costs only $ 750, so I would say that there is no doubt. The question is, the developers will upgrade to Unity 5?

 

That's the hard cost - is that per developer?  Then there is the soft cost in labor as a full regression test has to be performed, incompatible features fixed/reworked, bugs identified and repaired, and any graphics changes that must be made to incorporate the new engine completed.  

[Devante del Nero]

I think it's worth it after watching comparison videos and reading developer testimonials. And better sooner than later.

 

The code shouldn't be an issue in updating apparently it performs automatic code porting quite well. The work would be in going back over all of the textures and setting them up for the new shaders. But the largest benefit would probably be the increase in animation performance costs -- like people are saying with having (seemingly) a full compliment of animated crew aboard ships.

[Clinch]

Not sure if you could have a full compliment even if changing to 5.  The Devs have always stated they wanted the game to be available to everyone and not just those with great pc specs.  What we have in game now is a compromise between ships, waves, sails, crew, smoke, sky, etc...  I wonder how much an improvement 5 could make over 4 when u add all these elements?

[kang]

It's always best to wait for the .1 version and I wouldn't be surprised if the devs aren't in any hurry to migrate to 5.  I'm fairly confident they will eventually migrate just to stay current.  And further guessing, I'd say they'll probably leverage the performance gains to add more gameplay elements before they start animating every little thing.  Which i wholeheartedly support even though it would be pretty cool to have little dudes shooting your cannons.

[TheJRT]

Thinking more about it, wouldn't it be better to move to Unity 5 in order to future-proof the game overall? 

 

JRT

[Devante del Nero]

Well of course it wouldn't be a literally full compliment of crew members, just enough at the highest count to seem that way or close. And I imagine it would be an adjustable graphics option like anything else number of visible crew for one's own ship and for other ships and draw distance and whatnot. And if you think about it, even just porting over to 5 with the 2 or so hours most devs claim it takes for the code without altering the graphics, the game would become available to people with computers that aren't able to run the game currently on its lowest settings.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Thinking more about it, wouldn't it be better to move to Unity 5 in order to future-proof the game overall? 

 

JRT

 

That all depends on whether or not the move would delay currently achievable development goals.  You can spend time version chasing, or you can stay where you are and try to get the code completed.  Now, having said that, you also don't want to write a crap-ton of code that isn't compatible with a later engine, which would cause a lot of technical debt.  So it's a balancing act.

[ParaBellum]

I think it would be silly NOT to upgrade to unity 5. Granted, I know nothing of coding or game developing, but...

 

I soooo love these kind of posts...

 

[Devante del Nero]

It isn't like Unity 5 is a completely different engine from Unity 4. 5 is able to update ported code from 4 with only small manual labor. It isn't like switching to Cry Engine or Infinity. So that softens the Iphone syndrome -- that is, by the time you get set up with the new one the next one is out.

[TommyShelby]

That all depends on whether or not the move would delay currently achievable development goals.  You can spend time version chasing, or you can stay where you are and try to get the code completed.  Now, having said that, you also don't want to write a crap-ton of code that isn't compatible with a later engine, which would cause a lot of technical debt.  So it's a balancing act.

As with the other thread ("Numbers") i am sure the Developers are doing their best to both future proof the game and make it best possible at the moment. That said i'd love to see the game better optimized (graphics as well as performance) but as a previous "Closed Alpha/Beta/Early access" tester i have achieved a lot of patience and i honestly have no problem waiting for when they feel ready themselves.

"Wind", mentioned he would rather see them move to a more "future proof engine" (Something along those lines i believe, correct me if i'm wrong Wind!) 

- Can anyone ellaborate? What other Engines are there to choose from (Unreal, Crytek etc...)? 

NB. As with modelling of ships - Which can be done by "volunteers", i am sure there are probably a couple of people out there who would love to be given the chance to help with conversion/development in general if they were given the chance. I suggest asking the community for volunteers to help with certain stuff - But ofcourse, i'm no developer and i probably don't see the loads of problems this might bring, anyways, it's a suggestion. Take it or leave it, as long as someone reads it i'll be happy. 

Cheers. 

Tommy Shelby.

 

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

You have some great points Mr. Shelby.  Wind, like myself, is a Player Forum Moderator.  We have Staff tags, but we are not employees of Game Labs, just folks like you that have stepped up to help police the forums so the small Dev Team can focus on writing code and making a great game.  Graphics Optimizations are definitely on the future list of things to do - Admin has been very upfront that graphics are not currently optimized nearly as well as they'll need to be at a much later phase of testing.  There are a number of engines out there, but we have no idea what the Dev Team may be planning, both with regards to Unity Version, and with regards to any other engines that may be out there.  The Dev Team has been mum on that point.

 

Ship modelling will, at some point, be opened to the Community.  My personal opinion is that right now, the Dev Team is still finalizing the exact specifications of what they want to see in a ship model (polygon counts, quality levels, etc.).  As such, it's hard for them to go to the community and request models when they know it could all change next week, or that they'll have to request a modeler repeatedly tweak and resubmit a model.  

[TommyShelby]

You have some great points Mr. Shelby.  Wind, like myself, is a Player Forum Moderator.  We have Staff tags, but we are not employees of Game Labs, just folks like you that have stepped up to help police the forums so the small Dev Team can focus on writing code and making a great game.  Graphics Optimizations are definitely on the future list of things to do - Admin has been very upfront that graphics are not currently optimized nearly as well as they'll need to be at a much later phase of testing.  There are a number of engines out there, but we have no idea what the Dev Team may be planning, both with regards to Unity Version, and with regards to any other engines that may be out there.  The Dev Team has been mum on that point.

 

Ship modelling will, at some point, be opened to the Community.  My personal opinion is that right now, the Dev Team is still finalizing the exact specifications of what they want to see in a ship model (polygon counts, quality levels, etc.).  As such, it's hard for them to go to the community and request models when they know it could all change next week, or that they'll have to request a modeler repeatedly tweak and resubmit a model.  

Once again your answer is quite satisfying and informative! 

- I wonder how many "phases" there will be, i bought access in february. I knew it was in early testing but i opened the game and sure, at first it's obvious (The Simple Interface etc.) but as soon as i got into an actual battle i totally forgot that i was supposed to be a "Tester" because i simply enjoy the game too much i think. The more phases the better the game and the longer wait time for the full game, but hey, if Sea Trials aren't removed and OW testing begins i don't think anyone would mind the game being in "constant" development to be honest.

 

- That's very cool, when ever more information on that kind of stuff comes i might have to look into modeling again. 

 

It's awesome when the community is involved in the development process and from my experience so far and from what i've heard so far that is exactly what is happening here.

Cheers.

Tommy Shelby.

[mansfield]

I soooo love these kind of posts...

 

 

 

And what exactly do you find funny in it?

[Oliver H. Perry]

And what exactly do you find funny in it?

 

I believe he was referencing the "I know nothing about this subject, however here's my opinion".  It's much like my taking my car to the mechanic, and upon pulling into the garage, saying "I know nothing about fixing cars, but I'm sure that noise I'm hearing are the muffler bearings and you can replace those to fix it.  Oh, and while you're at it, please change the muffler oil too." 

 

It wasn't meant to be disrespectful, it's just interesting to hear someone who admits no knowledge about a subject put forward an opinion on how hard or easy something will be to implement.  That said, however, your points were quite good and valid.

Edited April 4, 2015 by Thomas Hardy

[mansfield]

Well, I think not many of us who have posted opinions on this thread have actual experience in game developing, but are making their opinions based on all the information we have gathered, e.g developer comments, Unity's blog and videos - with a hint of common sense. I think it is acceptable to post your opinion after studying the subject and let the developers themselves come and correct us if we are on completely wrong track.

Edited April 5, 2015 by Count Crapula