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November 02 Livestream Recap

JuliusBorisovJuliusBorisov Member, Administrator, Moderator, Developer Posts: 22,724
During today’s stream Beamdog CEO Trent Oster and Producer Luke Rideout shared the latest studio news and updates on Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition and the Infinity Engine games. Luke showed off a “keyholing” feature (work in progress) for Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition, which will allow players to see their character even when walls and other objects block the camera.

Check out the recap!

Comments

  • GreenWarlockGreenWarlock Member Posts: 1,354
    SoD is deeply discounted on Google Play, but you know another way to monetize SoD after all this time?
    Make it available on the Mac App Store at full price!

    Too many Mac customers are satisfied with their resolution of the Soultaker quest. Disappoint us by re-opening the quest line with an expansion, so we can feel once more we are part of the Beamdog community, complaining about the same things as everyone else. The heck with these completed games ;) !
  • FlashburnFlashburn Member Posts: 1,847
    Glad that v2.6 is coming before the end of the year. I hope v2.5's pathing issues get sorted out. I'll have to see those rule/spell changes myself before deciding to update to 2.6, though.
  • RadonGOGRadonGOG Member Posts: 17
    edited November 2018
    Beamblog said:

    The 2.6 patch will include rules and data fixes. It will also lay down infrastructure for multiplayer-compatible DLC voice and portrait packs. No major UI changes are expected.

    So, will the next patch afterwards be a "We´re remaking the UI from scratch"-patch then? Or do you want to deal with other issues first? (can be roughly translated to the decision between going for 2.7 or 3.0)

    Edit: And once you are going for 3.0, PLEASE create a dedicated UI-Discussion thread for it.

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  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Why does the UI need remaking? Its fantastic!
  • lefreutlefreut Member Posts: 1,462
    ThacoBell said:

    Why does the UI need remaking? Its fantastic!

    There are some bugs here and there (some of them are tagged fixed for 2.6 \o/). And some things need to be unhardcoded. But yes, the UI don't need a full remaking, only some polish.
  • RadonGOGRadonGOG Member Posts: 17
    edited November 2018
    ThacoBell said:

    Why does the UI need remaking? Its fantastic!

    Not sure (and I really mean; I just don´t know!) if serious or kidding?

    If serious: Just compare the quality of the Interface of PSTEE with BGEE, ICEE, BG2EE. Miles away in terms of sharpness, good use of space, consistency of aesthetics, size of text and therefor comfort.

    A dated posting of mine that goes a little more into detail:
    https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/71864/roadmap-for-userinterface-enhancements-for-bg-and-iwd#latest
    Really, the most important point is the blogposting dealing with PSTEEs UI. Once you read this, you know why I´m saying "from scratch" and why there is such a huge gap in quality.

    If kidding, what´s the joke I´m missing? Is there some guy on the forum that just calls everything fantastic or so?

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    Post edited by RadonGOG on
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @RadonGOG No joke, I really like the current UI. It has all of the relevant information needed with minimum clicking and still looks good. My only wish is that we get the option to select between the Bluestone of BG1 and the Obsidian of SoD at will.
  • RadonGOGRadonGOG Member Posts: 17
    ThacoBell said:

    @RadonGOG No joke, I really like the current UI. It has all of the relevant information needed with minimum clicking and still looks good. My only wish is that we get the option to select between the Bluestone of BG1 and the Obsidian of SoD at will.

    No joke: Okay, thanks for clarification.
    You like the current UI: Just because you like the current state doesn´t mean it´s fantastic. Especially it doesn´t mean that there is no tuning potential, actually, there is a lot.
    Minimum of Clicking: Definitely not. There are many unnecessary scrollbars. Why unnecessary? Well, the panels are simply not using all the space they could, therefor they have to be used ways earlier then they could be. Remember: The interface was a FullScreenInterface back then.
    Stone-Of-Choice: Yes, sounds like it should be a No-Brainer.

    May I ask you on which monitor resolution you are playing? I guess not on UHD/2160p, but on a lower res. The lower, the less obvious it gets (of course) that the interface elements are rendered/ drawn at real low quality. Every button is blurry due to being LowRes in the scaled version and well, the unscaled version makes everything tiny.
    That´s what I´m talking about when I say from scratch: Beamdog should look at elements of the interfaces in the originals and remake these elements in higher render quality, if they wanna continue to use them. They did it for PSTEE: http://blog.beamdog.com/2017/10/ins-and-outs-of-planescape-torment.html
    And well, the result is gorgeous. The starting screen alone is looking fantastic, whilst the starting screens of the other games are 800x600-Screens, if I recall it correctly.
    Of course, I wouldn´t mind Beamdog taking a look at the elements of the current versions as well. I´ve lost track of what exactly came from which version, which cool ideas they´ve incorporated and so on.


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  • BelegCuthalionBelegCuthalion Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 453
    two things i'd like to have from the interface:
    – real support for 4k/UHD resolutions, currently it's either huge (when scaled) or tiny. One can force the games to believe they run on 1920x1080, then it's okay, but it's not the point. Sharpness of High resolution textures would be a nice bonus, but i to me(!) it's not essetial, especially as the actual game content is not going to get sharper anyway, so the visual offset between UI and content would be even greater.
    – a real UI scaling slider to adjust the size just as it suits oneself, not choose between "scaled" and "non-scaled". That would also allow to set the relation to the font size as it pleases the individual eye and still fit the text into the boxes ... they may fit for english, but they definitely don't do well i.e. in german.

    (and that 2.x journal texture, that still looks like copied from some other game, not any of the IE games)
  • RadonGOGRadonGOG Member Posts: 17

    (...) Sharpness of High resolution textures would be a nice bonus, but i to me(!) it's not essetial, especially as the actual game content is not going to get sharper anyway, so the visual offset between UI and content would be even greater. (...)

    Do I get this right: For your personal taste, PSTEEs sharp interface textures didn´t provide any benefit for you? (I´ve looked though your comments and it sounded like you´ve played PSTEE)

    On a general level, I´ve never heard somebody complaining that due to perfect sharp vector text the rest of a pdf looked worse to them. Or that some textured background in an artbook or so made the art look even worse due to the background being highres. I can understand why people dislike it when some textures in a 3Dgame are ultra highres and some fairly lowres and would rather have all of them being fairly lowres. But I don´t think this effect applies to interface ontop of gameworld at all... (just like the examples stated above)

    Anyways, an option would be better then none, regarding that we are completely same minded, I guess. :smile:

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  • BelegCuthalionBelegCuthalion Member, Mobile Tester Posts: 453
    edited November 2018
    I'd be happy to see highres textures of the UI, it's just not that ultra important to me and I assume it would be quite some work to recreate that all, depending on how the original textures were created and sources were archived.
    When playing the games though (on a 4k Screen as good as it can be done with pseudo-support) I often tend to think how lowres the content actually is, while the UI looks okay to me compared to that, and I imagine the discrepancy gets worse with better UI resolution.

    Oh and I'm noticing (and silently regretting) when vectors and text looks perfectly sharp on websites or pdfs while the images don't deliver enough resolution to live up to that. Or even worse if some do and others don't, side by side. But I have a radar for that as a media designer for print and screen, i might be not mainstream there.
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @RadonGOG "You like the current UI: Just because you like the current state doesn´t mean it´s fantastic."

    Um, yes it does. I think it is fantastic, so it IS fantastic to me. No amount of yours or anyone else's dislike changes this. It would be just as feasible (read: non) for me to say that because you think it needs improvement, doesn't mean that it does.
  • RadonGOGRadonGOG Member Posts: 17
    ThacoBell said:

    @RadonGOG "You like the current UI: Just because you like the current state doesn´t mean it´s fantastic."

    Um, yes it does. I think it is fantastic, so it IS fantastic to me. No amount of yours or anyone else's dislike changes this. It would be just as feasible (read: non) for me to say that because you think it needs improvement, doesn't mean that it does.

    Sorry, but when I read fantastic, I think of something beyond opinion. A word you could even use for something that doesn´t meet your taste. Or in sentences like "it´s not fantastic, but it´s still my favorite"...
    Maybe that´s just a some different, region-specific use of language. Especially america is often cited to suffer from fantastic being regularly used out of context. I often forget about that issue. Sorry for that, should have probably poured more information in that sub-answer.

    Anyways, it´s a very central part of that posting.

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  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    Fantastic is synonymous with excellent.
  • CahirCahir Member, Moderator, Translator (NDA) Posts: 2,819
    Personalny I'd call Pecca's or Lefreut's UI mods as fantastic/excellent. Current 2.5 UI is fine, though (although I wouldn't mind a polishing here and there).
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    edited November 2018
    @Pecca " Soultaker plot? Fine as it is."

    LIES AND DECEIT

    (This is hyperbole and meant to be taken in a lighthearted manner)
  • SorcererV1ct0rSorcererV1ct0r Member Posts: 2,176
    Any progress towards un(hardcore) the spellbooks? And allow custom classes?
  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,181
    ThacoBell said:

    Pecca " Soultaker plot? Fine as it is."

    LIES AND DECEIT

    Au contraire, in fact the ending is fantastic. :p
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235
    @Pecca What ending? Also, have you heard what Beamdog had originally planned for a resolution? It was pretty neat.
  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,181
    I'm just teasing @ThacoBell :)
    Just pointing out that it's not just the new content that community desires, some people also want a UI upgrade and you seemed surprised by that.
  • DaevelonDaevelon Member Posts: 605
    Pecca said:

    I'm just teasing @ThacoBell :)
    Just pointing out that it's not just the new content that community desires, some people also want a UI upgrade and you seemed surprised by that.

    This is true, but my opinion is that an expanded (completed?) plot should be official while a UI upgrade can be performed by community without problems, especially because somebody likes the UI AS-IS (i'm one of them)
  • PeccaPecca Member Posts: 2,181
    edited November 2018
    Daevelon said:

    Pecca said:

    I'm just teasing ThacoBell :)
    Just pointing out that it's not just the new content that community desires, some people also want a UI upgrade and you seemed surprised by that.

    This is true, but my opinion is that an expanded (completed?) plot should be official while a UI upgrade can be performed by community without problems, especially because somebody likes the UI AS-IS (i'm one of them)
    That's an entirely understandable expression of your preferences, but I could express the opposite by similar wording. I think the team should officially fix their UI (especially since some things simply can't be fixed by modders) while they could leave adding new content to modders without problems.
  • kungfuhobbitkungfuhobbit Member Posts: 169
    ThacoBell said:

    @Pecca What ending? Also, have you heard what Beamdog had originally planned for a resolution? It was pretty neat.

    What's the original ending?
  • ThacoBellThacoBell Member Posts: 12,235

    ThacoBell said:

    @Pecca What ending? Also, have you heard what Beamdog had originally planned for a resolution? It was pretty neat.

    What's the original ending?
    Sorry, "resolution" was a poor choice of words. They described the initial quest thay had planned on a previous livestream. The idea was that we were going to go back to Chateu Irenicus to search for the dagger, and it was gonna be all ruined and in disrepair. Someone else was going to have moved in and set up as the new master of the place. There was gonna be a small questline for it.
  • MrSextonMrSexton Member Posts: 396
    ThacoBell said:

    ThacoBell said:

    @Pecca What ending? Also, have you heard what Beamdog had originally planned for a resolution? It was pretty neat.

    What's the original ending?
    Sorry, "resolution" was a poor choice of words. They described the initial quest thay had planned on a previous livestream. The idea was that we were going to go back to Chateu Irenicus to search for the dagger, and it was gonna be all ruined and in disrepair. Someone else was going to have moved in and set up as the new master of the place. There was gonna be a small questline for it.
    Excellent idea!!!
    /J
  • WarChiefZekeWarChiefZeke Member Posts: 2,651
    Keyholing feature for NWN is nice, but when are we gonna see something that will excite someone who wants something really new to NWN, like a new module or enhanced player models like were shown. I want to buy NWN and throw money at whatever gets monetized for it, which is hopefully a lot, I really do, but ya gotta give me something more than some convenience tweaks.
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