After spending a lot of time messing with the Unreal and CryEngine SDK's, I, along with some other people, want to take the experimenting to another level: Actual compile of game, with user designed HUD/UI, and network set up for testing.
Because this might be a rather "touchy" subject for some, or some just have a lot of questions, I made a little FAQ you can read here for it.
The reason this is in the "Off Topic" is because:
1) This really does not have anything to do with Age Creation using the GoW Plugins, or Cyan's Plugin and the Plasma game engine. All of which this forum and people here are very much dedicated to, so what I'm helping test is really in that sense "Off Topic"
2) Discussion for testing that we want to do will be carried out else where as to not clutter up the forum here, and I'm sure the powers that be would appriciate that, especially not wanting to confuse any new comers over what goes on here, and my mad, scientist experiments. However, wanting to be open, I'll post a link as to where the detailed discussions are carried out, and will come over here to this thread and post updates to show results. That way everyone can see what is going on, and watch the progress on it.
3) For some, the idea of anything Uru or MOUL being in or on another gaming platform is a "No-no" and feel that it detracts from Uru and MOUL, or might even take what few people are still there away from it (I know this from personal experience of said people being upset about this). Rest assured that is not mine, or others intention at all.
So without further ado, here is the little mini FAQ:
Are you attempting to import Uru / MOUL over to another game engine?
Yes and No. The original question was can it be ported over? The theory that it could be always said yes. Actually trying it on the other hand was a different mater. I was curious enough to actually give it a try, and the answer is that yes it can, with not as much effort as I feared (having to make everything from scratch).
Legally however, the answer is "No." because doing so would result in action from Cyan. Their "assets" or "content" is not opened sourced and public domain.
Are you going to attempt to see if it can be legally done?
Cyan knows about my experiments, and like the results of them. As far as getting legal permission to do anything, I have emailed Tony Fryman at Cyan, asking for permission for certain things: IE permission to display these images and videos of what I did on the MOUL forum, permission to possibly use some assets, or if Cyan would be interested in porting MOUL over at all. The last couple of questions, I have a gut feeling the answer is going to be a flat out "No." from them. But it doesn't hurt to ask, but I will have to wait until he gets back from vacation.
So what is it you are trying to do now?
While my experiments have show that porting over is not impossible or so hard that it might as well be, there are still other things to try out: Game Play options. Gamer performance. Network performance. Which is easier to get fan content into? All sorts of questions I have and want to know the answer to.
Are you trying to replace Uru / MOUL?
No. At least not in the sense that the word "replace" means to remove something and put something else there. Uru and MOUL are not missing, they are both still very much there. While people might be interested in what I'm doing, there are still many that are very dedicated to Plasma, and using Uru / MOUL.
Are you trying to take people away from Uru / MOUL?
Absolutely not! If I were to make something out of these SDK's where people can go to, that is all it would be, another place they can go to. If they want. Just as there are different shards out there. If I helped make something, it would more than likely be completely different (see above for legal problems of porting Cyan assets and contents).
Why not continue making stuff for Uru / MOUL using Plasma?
Because I'm bored. Because while Plasma has the ability to make some wonderful looking places, I look at all these new games, have played many of them, and I want to create something that can be rendered with modern game engines (but is not a First Person Shooter). MOUL itself isn't really going anywhere, any time soon. Open Source improvements are plagued with license issues, causing it to stall out (at least for the mere mortals that don't know how to compile code). There are lots of projects out there, but none of them really interest me. What really interests me, goes back to Riven, and that kind of quality rendering. Since it is now possible to do that, I want to make and explore in an environment like that. I've always been a little disappointed with how Uru looks (compared to all the other Myst games, save Myst V), but that was really unfair of me because all those games use pre-rendered images, and game play was point and click (some with 360 panning, starting with Myst III and on).
But now, these newer game engines are giving us the ability to have an adventure genre game with that pre-rendered quality. The barrier has been broken, and I want to cross over into it.
If I was sane, and if Cyan were not in the state they were in, I'd wait until they made one for me to go play. But I've always been a little crazy, and I would not hold my breath on Cyan unfortunately.
So what you are saying is you are going to make a game or MMO? Why would people come play it? What's the point?
I'm not going to say that I'm going to create a game or MMO. At least not all by myself. That would require other people helping and supporting it. I'm just one person, and even as fast as I work, and as easy as these SDK's make things, no one person can make all that in a reasonable amount of time. First step is to realize your limitations, and I'm not the greatest artist out there. I also don't know how to do certain kinds of programming and scripting.
There still needs to be a lot of testing done, and questions to be answered before anything like that can be done. I've already answered a lot, and convinced myself that it's "do-able". But there are still many game performance unknowns at this time, but that I'm working on too.
I have no idea if people would play it or not. It would depend on a lot of things, and how those people feel.
The point of it all is simple: I'm bored with Uru and MOUL. I want to see something other than the core Ages, and I want to see them rendered like Riven (not like Plasma). I never did play MOUL because of social interaction. I played it to play the game, explore and solve puzzles. That's just me, and that's why anything I make will have AI interaction included.
There are new things out there (Fan Ages) and new places to go (Shards), so this might seem redundant. But at the same time, this will be a new place to go, that LOOKS completely different. That has the ability to have even more complex puzzles (inventory system for having to get or aquire items (Red Page or Blue Page?), AI involvment with puzzles (a bit more complex than chasing critters into the water), with different physics (Objects like "Kickables" can actually float in water, you can set up Gravity Volumes and Pressure Volumes).)
The point is: to move on and explore out there. To me (and this is just MHO), staying with Plasma is like playing MOUL for the first time, only once you do the Cleft, you don't touch any other book. You just stay in the Hood and Relto. I want to see what can REALLY be done, heh.
