Weeks 31 & 32
The Publishing Meeting took place last week in Eidos headquarters in Wimbledon. All of the publisher's most senior managers were there to evaluate the progress of the projects. We finished recording our demo CD at seven in the morning (my train for London was at 7:40 a.m...). We managed in extremis to show the bar scene: a barman and about ten animated customers plus two strippers dancing in Motion Capture, all in 3D real time with some fifty spotlights in the scene. We also showed the start of the Game Play of the Fighting part, and a large number of sets. The reaction was very positive, in particular about the quality of our 3D engine and our graphics in general. Eidos in particular confirmed that Omikron would be translated into five languages (English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, with an option for a Japanese version). It was also decided that a computer image film would be produced for the introduction of the game. A "Work in Progress" version of the Playstation version was presented to Sony U.S. which declared it was most impressed by our technology. Very positive feedback therefore, which encourages us to pursue our efforts to have a Game Play which is now up to scratch.
On the development side, Fabien, our chief programmer, has finished the ray-tracing. This technique will be useful especially for the collisions of the camera with the set. He has also added earth gravity, which allows the characters to fall from the tops of buildings at a realistic speed.
The great breakthrough of the week was certainly the establishment of transparent dynamic loading. It is now possible to move from one district to another without the game stopping for loading. This function raised a great number of technical problems, but was absolutely vital to the game: it is essential for us that the player is able to move in Omikron from one district to another, or from an outside set to an inside set, without the game stalling for loading. All the loading will be carried out completely transparently. Several compression algorithms have been developed, which allow us almost instantaneous loading of huge sets. Shiny had used a similar technique on MDK, but I believe we have gone much farther...
On the Fighting side, we are continuing to implement new animations with our animator Tony. The Fighting part is progressing rapidly, thanks to the combined efforts of Jean-Charles and Antoine.
On the graphics side, the design of the adventure's secondary characters is now completed. The lighting of the sets started at the same time as the sets of Sections 4 and 5 of the adventure were being finished. All the graphics team will soon be able to dedicate itself to the final scene of Omikron, which looks like being ambitious and visually highly original.
A last word about the rehabilitation of this site whose design had not been revised since its creation. Icons that take too long to load and the text in fluorescent yellow are to be swept away... This is also the first presentation of the "Omikron" logo created by our Artistic Director LoOc with a fount specially created for the game.
It makes a year since this site was created, when there were five of us working in a cellar on a prototype we hoped to sell to a publisher. Since then, Omikron is being produced by Eidos and there are now 25 of us. We have received hundreds of E-mails of encouragement from around the world and your interest in this development report has continued to increase. This shows a real interest on the part of players to see the backstage workings, how a video game is produced step by step. That is what we are trying to do here, and we will continue to do so until the game comes out. I hope that after having followed the development of the game week by week, you will feel all the greater pleasure in playing Omikron.
See you next week.
Autor: David Cage
Source: Quantic Dream
11/01/1999 Eidos Interactive ships Omikron: The Nomad Soul
09/23/1998 September News 2
09/15/1998 September News 1
07/28/1998 July News 2
07/14/1998 July News 1
06/08/1998 Week Beginning June 8
06/01/1998 Weeks Beginning June 1
04/20/1998 Week Beginning April 20
04/13/1998 Week Beginning April 13
03/16/1998 Week Beginning March 16
03/09/1998 Weeks Beginning March 2 and 9
03/03/1998 March 3
02/16/1998 Week 39 and 40
02/02/1998 Week 38
01/26/1998 Week 37
01/05/1998 Weeks 33 and 34
12/22/1997 Weeks 31 and 32
12/08/1997 Weeks 29 and 30
11/24/1997 Weeks 27 and 28
11/10/1997 Weeks 25 and 26
10/27/1997 Weeks 23 and 24
10/13/1997 Week 22
10/06/1997 Week 21
09/29/1997 Week 20
09/22/1997 Week 19
09/15/1997 Weeks 17 and 18
09/01/1997 Week 16
08/25/1997 Weeks 14 and 15
08/11/1997 Week 13
08/04/1997 Week 12
07/28/1997 Week 11
07/21/1997 Weeks 9 and 10
07/07/1997 Week 8
06/30/1997 Week 7
06/23/1997 Week 6
06/16/1997 Week 5
06/09/1997 Week 4
06/02/1997 Week 3
5/26/1997 Week 2
5/19/1997 Week 1
5/19/1997 Preamble to Week 1
Monday, December 22, 1997