Greetings,
I was wondering do you think it is a wise choice to be using the Unreal Engine 4 to create City of Titans? I'm not saying I'm against the idea of it.. But, using that good of a engine will require people to up to date computers or designed for gamers even for a MMO setting with like hundreds/thousands of people constantly around you and spells flying all around.
I know Marvel Heroes uses the Unreal Engine 3 but the game is viewed from a different stand point and not from a third person view. So, I'm wondering how much of a crowd is City of Titans trying to cater to?
A coworker and I were discussing this the other day and he says that's a terrible engine to use for a MMO. So, I'm curious what do you all think?
See also the [url=http://cityoftitans.com/forum/update-city-titans-use-unreal-engine-4]Update: City of Titans to use Unreal Engine 4! Discussion Thread[/url]. ^_^
Your question seems very important to me. I think a main question on any game engine (after, "Does it make adequate use of top-end computers' resources?", and possibly more important) is how wide a range of computers it can be stepped down to cover.
And Warcabbit already covered that question [url=http://cityoftitans.com/comment/47914#comment-47914]back in March[/url]:
Foradain, Mage of Phoenix Rising.
[url=https://cityoftitans.com/forum/foradains-character-conclave]Foradain's Character Conclave[/url]
.
Avatar courtesy of [s]Satellite9[/s] [url=https://www.instagram.com/irezoomie/]Irezoomie[/url]
Do consider the timeline as well. UE4's main restriction as far as older computers goes is a requirement for DirectX 11 on Windows machines. DirectX 11 is now 5 years old, hardly cutting edge anymore.
No, this will not run on Pentium 3 machines running Windows 98. But on any machine built this decade should handle it fine.
Technical Director
Read enough Facebook and you have to make Sanity Checks. I guess FB is the Great Old One of the interent these days... - Beamrider
Unreal 4 has BETTER resource usage that Unreal 3 did.
Also Marvel Heroes is in Unreal 3 and their CHOICE of iso-view is not one I support. But please also realize that DC Universe Online is also Unreal Engine 3.
Unreal performs better than Unreal in most every valid way to me as a gamer consumer. As a developer the engine is not quite fully cooked, but as a consumer its obvious that this engine is made for more platforms (pads, mobiles, consoles, and personal computers).
If the original post is referring to the devs need to wait on some technological catch-up then perhaps it is a harder choice. But as a consumer.. no possible way it's not the best and smartest choice. Honestly I can't speak enough to how much faith this project earned with the announcement of Unreal4
Crowd Control Enthusiast
No disrespect meant to your coworker but I don't really think he/she has considered the "big picture" when it comes to MMOs and their graphics engines. In general you actually do want to develop any new MMO with the most up-to-date, advanced engine you can, even if that means pushing the envelope in terms of forcing the playerbase to upwardly adapt to it hardware wise.
The reasoning for this is simple: graphics longevity.
Consider CoH as the obvious example. By 2012 the only thing that was seriously handicapping the game from growing in terms of major graphics/animation updates was the fact that the Devs had stretched the 2002-2004 era graphics system the game was based on to the absolute limits. Even if the game had not been shutdown in 2012 it would be facing major problems with "looking old/dated" in the 2014-2015 timeframe.
The only way to ensure that CoT will thrive for many years AFTER its launch is to make sure it starts off with the best engine it can from the very beginning. Let's put it this way: by the time 2025 rolls around CoT will look better based on old UE4 tech than it would on ancient UE3 tech.
CoH player from April 25, 2004 to November 30, 2012
[IMG=400x225]https://i.imgur.com/NHUthWM.jpeg[/IMG]
I have a well-built but not at all "high-end gaming" system that is almost 8 years old with a 2 year old nothing-special mid-level graphics card, and UE 3 MMO's play as smooth as a baby's butt at high settings and look good.
If any of the things that I've read by people who really know what they are talking about are true about UE 4, it's a great choice for an indie MMO studio in just about every way.
You won't be able to play on the 1998 laptop you found in your neighborhood dumpster, but this was a GREAT choice for this game and I'm sure you'll be able to play just fine.
FIGHT EVIL! (or go cause trouble so the Heroes have something to do.)