• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

NEW Development Trailer?

Sorry, it is spring here and tractor time, lol. My weekends/evenings get eaten up putting out seed, fertilizing, pulling trees, grading areas, etc.

A trailer should be fairly simple. We can tack enough assets together to make some nice vids. I think it needs to hold off until the sails are usable and we have them moving the ship based on environmental conditions. At that point we have a really usable vessel entity that isn't just a static object or pushed with a flowgraph (which is a hack essentially).
 
Captain Murphy said:
I think it needs to hold off until the sails are usable and we have them moving the ship based on environmental conditions. At that point we have a really usable vessel entity that isn't just a static object or pushed with a flowgraph (which is a hack essentially).
Click to expand...
You did have sails in your early videos, right? Could that method be used as placeholder content until a better one is developed?
For now, I personally wouldn't mind using hacks to make the trailer work.
As long as we have something for promotional use, we can show something better at a later stage. Right?
 
If we are making a development trailer then we show off what we have ACTUALLY developed, not hacks. Save those for the theatrical ones that are more for eye candy instead of showing and explaining what progress we have made in the progress of the game. Pretty much we would be deceiving people by showing the cloth entity objects attached to the vessel when in reality they are simple aligned with the boat and linked in the engine. They are buggy at best and horrible on the framerate (a rigged albans can drop the FPS from 120 to 10 on my machine). Wedori and I are currently working on the sail system so it won't be long before a solution is available.
 
That's al-right then. I was afraid it might have still required an engine update we are waiting for or something. :facepalm
 
Pieter Boelen said:
@Captain Murphy: What are your thoughts on doing a trailer soon?
If need be, perhaps we can just take shots from your Development Series and edit them together into something coherent.

Cool, mate! I think that makes two of you: @Flannery was also willing to do that.
Might be fun to use two voices though for different purposes. If we can add story content, we could have one narrator and one character, for example.
Click to expand...
That sounds great!
 
Here's possibly a fun thought: You know how film trailers always have a short list of names at the end?
What if we do the same with our next trailer and show all people currently on the HoO Team?
That would be nice for everyone to see and might give other people an incentive to want to be listed there for a third trailer as well. :cheeky
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Here's possibly a fun thought: You know how film trailers always have a short list of names at the end?
What if we do the same with our next trailer and show all people currently on the HoO Team?
That would be nice for everyone to see and might give other people an incentive to want to be listed there for a third trailer as well. :cheeky
Click to expand...

I like that idea :)
 
Just wondering.... But would it be possible to have a trailer done in early May?
Because I am supposedly going back to sea on the 10th, but am VERY much looking forward to seeing it. :wp
 
It all depends on when I get all the footage needed...
But it should be possible. But cannot really get much further before we have the "in-game" footage. And that again depends on how the work with sails are going I guess.
It would be best to have that in place - or else we are only a "Age Of ..." game in develpoment :p

But I guess @Wedori or @Captain Murphy can tell us more about the time they need to get that done :)
 
I am looking through what is there now, and will see - but will take a coupple of days from being a little busy with family life and easter ;)

But without not quite knowing yet what is there - I still think It might be strange to just scrape together what we have and create something that can be allot better and which will look both better and more professional in a short time.

And that video would have so much more impact on the viewer.

But as I said - I will check what we have and at least perhaps create a sketch using that which will simplify the work to understand and visiualize what we are aming for.

And at least maybe also decide on what we will do regarding voicing - If 1-2 of us will be used, or if it is better without.

Thats at least the most effective approach in my opinion.
 
If someone wants to give me a storyboard and script, I can knock out a vid pretty fast (with or without narration). I have been playing with the track view (animation and camera control for cutscenes) and can do quite a bit with it already. I can also get the other assets rounded up to put them all into one engine to show off.
 
Captain Murphy said:
If someone wants to give me a storyboard and script, I can knock out a vid pretty fast (with or without narration). I have been playing with the track view (animation and camera control for cutscenes) and can do quite a bit with it already. I can also get the other assets rounded up to put them all into one engine to show off.
Click to expand...

Thats great! Will have it for you in a few days :)
 
Im back today from my short holiday and return to my modellexports (and previous preparation) for CE.

But parallel to real life jobs etc. we need a bit patience to get things right in place. Most the textures for the harbor I recompile new and setup new. Based on this I try around for later, modular harbor scenes. In the free private time this all needs time.
I work forward but for real great footage its a bit to early.
 
I have to agree with Wedori.
It's way to early to make a new trailer. Captain Murphy's video updates are great but we don't have enough content to create a good trailer. Which in fact should be a trailer and not dev update ;)
 
We definitely need some sort of a "video summary" of what we currently have, so that when people wonder "what is this HoO thing all about",
we can point them to one video of a couple of minutes length that will give them the answer.

It does not need to be a perfect cinematic trailer; it is OK if it shows some rough edges. After all:
1. We're very much NOT done yet
and
2. It might encourage people to help

At the moment we do have one great video for that, but that one contains only screenshots from when @Wedori was first working with the CryEngine.
And having people watch all of @Captain Murphy's development videos is asking a bit too much.
 
Last edited:
**EDIT: Hahahaha, Pieter you JUST beat me to it...:p**

It depends on what the trailer is to be used for.

If the trailer was to show off how things will look at the end towards release - I would agree.

But this is not the purpose of a new trailer.

Yes, Captain Murphy's videos are very important for the continuance of feed - especially towards those who know about HoO.
But towards the ones who do not know anything about the game and its development - it is way to much to ask of them to look through all the footage out there.
And people would honestly not go there first.

This trailer is first of all to draw attention from new people - and possible contributors.

We now have the tools to make a much more interesting video, which not only shows still pictures of content put into CryEngine 2

We can now stage footage in CryEngine 3 - and make something that will leave a even bigger impact on its viewer.

This is what this video first of all has as a purpose.
Of course, we need to wait for some things to fall in place.

In a few months we will probably make another development trailer - and then the new stuff will be put into that.

Look at this trailer as more of a sum of all that has been done since that last trailer.

Do not get me wrong - we can still wait a few weeks for some material to get finished, but we should not wait months for anything right now.

Just imagine if we get that small demo ready sometime this summer - then THAT is the right time to show off a new trailer with development and the announcement of the downloadable demo.

At least that is my opinion on the matter.
 
Short reply in this theme: Please think about all other things we need to rise the CE3 content to a optical impression, comparable with the old CE2 - "Drakes Legacy" mod, the base of the first trailer.
For this mod, the most of the custom content was placed in standard scenery of the game "Crysis". So we have had the change to create FAST an enviroment that looks natural great. Many content we need to create for the SDK because there is no standard content or its quality is real bad.
The next thing: In the time we only change the original islands bay, we have seen how many work is need to make a map real good looking. An professional old mapper from CE2 told me, that he (after school and with some weekend works) need a half year to create a real good and natural looking bay. Note: A BAY, not an complete island! To have a great visual map for the Alpha, I suggest an maybe cracy idea: Take the existing CE2 island we have for test in place CE3 but without great vegetation setup. In my eyes for the "Alpha" its necessary to create the illusion of a caribbean island and the old CE2 island bay with the steeply rising mountain slopes have very great conditions to safe time in mapping but create a great visual experience. The islands natural borders can easy define new by the mapper, to restrict the exploring possibilitys by the Alpha players. When the bay is intact for Alphacontent and the rest of the island will lowered down to a small island, its in my opinion a good method to get a vulcanic island, without the lost of quality. Many options for cliffs and rocks / mountains.
Please note too, that the island we have in CE3 as simple test, have a possible water depth of 100m. This was need to create the Time Of Day and watercoloring / transparence effect close to the "reality" without the use of massive underwater ground coloring and water fog. Thats a thing you didnt have when you start in standardmaps. The standard water depth is there 16m and you need many skill to create the visual experience of clear caribbean sea. I didnt say that is too hard, I didnt say here is no one who can do this, I only point to a SHORT way to get a good looking Alphamap. Harbor, small town, enviroment, all this is easy to setup in a small bay at a small rocky vulcanic island.

Thats only my suggestion when I think about this theme. I didnt have a real big knowledge in the HoO background organisation in this theme but I think in context to this theme here in this thread its good to tell you this. In my eyes a fast result for a map for the Alpha.
 
Just pop'ing in to say sorry for the delay with the sketch work for the trailer. Suddenly spring came with almost Summer temperatures and this means I have to prioritize some out door activities. Will be done by the next week though.
 
Although it is looking like I will not see this happen before leaving for sea, I would again like to point out the value of making a new video summary of some kind.
It would allow us to answer the question of "What is Hearts of Oak and why should I care?" with one single link that will clarify this within a couple of minutes.

The weekly progress articles are going to be great, but could also be quite overwhelming to people.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top