Behind the Scenes - Issue #3 - Page 2
Chris:
In comparison with programming, game design and graphics creation appear to be less technical but more creative and artistic. How much technical knowledge is actually necessary to achieve results of high quality?
Timo:
Quite much – also you have to distinguish carefully. A pure concept artist who works with pen and paper or with a graphic tablet and Photoshop in the best case doesn’t necessarily have to have a technical background, but the creation of 3D graphics in Max or Maya appears to be quite technical – I think that skilled 3D artists possess some sort of technical understanding for the matter. In the game design things render a bit different – hereby ideas can spout out of you without any kind of technical understanding or restrictions. Basically this isn’t wrong at the first glance – as unbound creativity actually never can be – but should be stemmed in an early phase to prevent to get lost in any versions that cannot be implemented. To have the technical understanding for possibilities, restrictions or working effort is of great advantage in the game design and even inevitable for some purposes. It is rather difficult to find these unbound ideas and hold on to them if your understanding tells you “This never will work out – way too difficult!” – Because if you can financially and time wise take the liberty to do so, the answer should be “Now more than ever!” Unfortunately this is not always the case.
Nick:
The creation of graphics also won’t work out without any kind of basic technical knowledge. This not only relates to how to create a “normal map” (Editors note: A normal map is a term from the 3D computer graphics and is used to achieve a high level of detail within shades without increasing the polygon count) but also the technical conditions how a graphics card is processing data to implement an asset optimally to tease out as much frames per minute as possible.
In the graphics creation, the working effort is growing day by day as well as the necessary knowledge and understanding. The times when it was possible to create low resolution textures without any additional effect maps are long one. In fact, modern graphic cards steadily offer new possibilities. As a graphics artist you have to grapple with these possibilities in the first place to achieve the best results with this newly gained knowledge, even if it the learning of new techniques to create said effects or maps in a time-efficient manner. The mix of technology and creativity is very powerful because you can create completely new things no one ever has done before and achieve fantastic results without much effort if you possess this appropriate understanding. It is definitely an ongoing learning process.
Next to said requirements for a graphic artist to create assets of high quality, it is also necessary to accept and heed self critiques and critiques from others. But without being a coder I would confirm that the artist job is much more creative and artistic. ;)
Chris:
In other space MMOs, but also single player games, it is possible to dock to a station with your ship to attend to your business in a graphical designed 2D environment. The gameplay trailer already showed that Black Prophecy will also have this possibility. In which form and scale will we see this feature implemented in Black Prophecy?
Timo:
A real graphical docking (the flight into the hangar) of the player ship is not available at the moment. But if you reach a specific distance to a dockable station, you have the possibility to dock to this station via the menu after that the ship will get removed from the current scene and the player can use the station features like ship alteration, modding, trade, clan administration, etc. Depending on the menu selection, the appropriate interiors are displayed as a 3D scene in the background. We consciously designed these interiors somewhat lavishly as we might have plans with this feature in the near future.
Nick:
As Timo already explained, there will be no visual docking for now. However, the required assets already exist. The implementation would be pure technical but you have to set priorities, like with so many other things in the game development, and the priorities are currently set to more important systems.
