[WileE]

Originally Posted by vorlon31

Yeah lets have the game dump on the guys who have stayed with it thick and thin and ubercharge it to win back them who left it for dead. Sweet.... :/

I like the option of high spec, but a low spec option is a selling point too - if it can be done concurrent to the upgrade.

I play another sim too or did till they upgraded the graphics for vista which in turn halfed the fps on my xp system - I dont play it now and the games forum dried up too (which i take as an indication of a drop in overall interest). Making sure it runs on low spec but is sweet on a high spec seems smart to me.

You have to look at relatives. Trying to take Jumpgate from the days of DX7 (just a guess) to DX10 would be insane. That would kill the game, because most everyone would have to upgrade alot of components. I don't see where anyone is advocating that.

Making a move to DX9, where you have alot of great things you can do with shaders and light effects and particles and whatnot would be the smart move IMO. That requires that the minimum specifications be increased to accomodate that. As I have said prior, I have a Radeon 9600 that is old as all get out, but it runs some basic DX9 games. I would shoot for a tier above that. By going with Shader Model 3.0, you gain alot of neat for a little expense. That would require at least a 7300GT class video card (if I remember correctly off the top of my head). You can get those for just under $100.

The bottom line is this, if you are going to spend the resources to upgrade, you should do it right the first time, because you do not have the time or money to do it twice. I will be honest, if you are still running a machine that is at or near the minimum specs for Jumpgate as it is now, or even what Scorch has presented (which I think is low), then you are starting to live on borrowed time hardware-wise anyway.

To not go for the brass ring at this point would be the biggest mistake ND could make in my opinion. But what the hell do I know.

[Radi]

Not doing DX 10 support is going to hurt in the long run. You always have to think about the future. While DX 10 is not a standard right now, it will be. It is only matter of time.

And like Ambro said, making games is a business. Sounds cruel, but that is how it is.

[Viper2c]

AMD Athlon Dual Core
2 gig RAM
120 gig HDD
160 gig Serial ATA2
Onboard Sound (my SB Audigy mic port bit the dust)
512 M Geforce 7950
FF2
Recorder (for film clips that I am and have been collecting from a variety of games)


Viper2c
Lampshade

[Powo]

As for making support up to DX10, would that require everyone to upgrade to Vista? Or would it be possible to make the game run on both Vista and previous versions of that?

Another question about the graphics update, with the free game client download and the $9.95 monthly subscription fee plus a free trial, should there not be too much expected for the price of that?

Because what I was hoping to see with the Jumpgate graphics update for a long time is: bump mapping, glow mapping, light mapping(to make objects shine), more artistic details to the game models(2k to 3k polies max for each ship for an example that can be toned down via LOD system) and textures as in making the texture sizes larger(512-1024), pixel shader 2.0 and the ability to toggle the many different features for them on and off, motion blur, bloom from the lights especially when you hold up an object in front of any bright lights, and something else I missed.

Maybe artistic talents can help make the skinned models with different maps attached to it look more fancier and polished as well.

[Scorch]

Originally Posted by Powo

Because what I was hoping to see with the Jumpgate graphics update is: bump mapping, glow mapping, light mapping(to make objects shine), more artistic details to the game models(2k to 3k polies max for each ship for an example that can be toned down via LOD system) and textures as in making the texture sizes larger(512-1024), pixel shader 2.0 and the ability to toggle the many different features for them on and off.

LOL, I am pretty sure we have everything you are asking for here, but the poly count is even higher. Also, the skyboxes go as high as 2048 to really get some beautiful and detailed backdrops.

A few games that have achieved both truly great graphics and also very good low end support are Guild Wars, EVE and World of Warcraft IMHO. MMOs do have different problems to solve than other games but you can still have the best of both worlds I believe.

Someone on the thread said it all starts with great art, and they could not be more correct. I watched that DVD that comes with the Star Wars trilogy a long time ago about how they made the movies and one thing that always stood out to me is that Lucas was saying he always hires a industrial designer to design ships because of how they approach it. We finally have done that with the new Jumpgate designs and its really paying off. Having awesome concepts to start from means awesome art once its in the game and we really have an amazing art team cranking on this project now. Its really a dream for me to see this idea we have had for a long time finally being realised by an amazing group of artists now.

As to Ambrosius' comment about Jumpgate becoming a click game like EVE (or most other MMOs frankly) that is not what we are doing. Jumpgate will always be about the pilots skill, not a dice roll. There are plenty of changes in store to make the game better, but going to click and watch is not one of those changes.

Also, the min spec is what we are shooting for, certainly not in stone. We just want to allow as many people as possible to play this game. As Vorlon31 mentioned, we also want to make sure that the people who have stuck with the game through everything that has happened can still be a part of the future of where we are going.

Also, remember what we are doing is much more than just a face lift. We'll have many more details about that in the near future, its not really time to get into that yet. I am just trying to get a feel for where the community is now min spec wise to do our best to run on everyone's computer.

We are working on a DX9 engine that we have developed in house to replace the old Jumpgate engine. The current Jumpgate engine is DX8 BTW, I ported it from DX7 about 2 months before we launched just to be more future proof.

[vorlon31]

Sounds like great stuff!

How will the Conflux fare amongst the new stuff Scorch? Any hints of what we might be seeing with them?

[TexMurphy]

Originally Posted by vorlon31

Sounds like great stuff!

How will the Conflux fare amongst the new stuff Scorch? Any hints of what we might be seeing with them?

Id like to expand on this question... when you talk about AI rework are you just reworking how the AI behaves or what type of AI a pilot can encounter...

For example I would love to see NPC "human" pilots... merchants, pirates, navy, ect ect...

Tex

[WileE]

Originally Posted by Radi

Not doing DX 10 support is going to hurt in the long run. You always have to think about the future. While DX 10 is not a standard right now, it will be. It is only matter of time.

And like Ambro said, making games is a business. Sounds cruel, but that is how it is.

DX10 will not be mainstream from a game engine perspective for at least 12-18 months. The problem is you cannot just port DX9 to DX10. You pretty much have to build your graphics system from the ground up. Given that DX10 is a brand new standard, untested, and unused at this point, to upgrade that far is not a smart business decision. DX9 is refined and mature, and still has alot of power left in it. I am glad to see that ND is going with DX9c. That extends the life at least 3-4 years before you have to think about redoing anything. With that kind of timetable, I would hope that JG2 would be in development to take advantage of the latest technologies in AI, graphics, etc.

On an aside, it is pretty cool to see this much interest in what is going on in Jumpgate. I still find it curious the level of passion Jumpgate has created.

[Lordopic]

With regards to the GM_S post, Im getting the suntan lotion on now as it seems like its going to be a hot one.

The light isn’t just getting brighter its starting to burn.

[Scorch]

The timing is just not right to go into game play details simply because we are still trying out ideas ourselves. We have lots of ideas and we read what all the vets are asking for and, trust me on this, you guys who have been with us all this time will be in the beta helping us shape what is to be the future of Jumpgate.

[Wild_Bill]

Boss, I said it before and I'll say it again, "you build it, and I'll do whatever it takes to play it". I'm hard-core addicted to JumpGate. If it takes a new computer to play JG2, so be it. Please don't hold the game back, or nerf it, just on account of me or other old-farts with lame-ass antique computers. I fell in love with this game in Oct '01 and I'm still in love with it now. I will say to take your time and get it right though. I want to play the new game yesterday, but I also remember EP2 and I don't want to see that happening again. When you get it ready, just tell me what I'll have to have to hit the middle to deep end of the pond computer-wise and I'll take care of buying a machine to get me there.

[Jump]

Let's keep this thread to the question asked regarding specs. I made a new forum for suggestions and ideas if you guys want to post some thoughts on game play and such.