The "Bug-Me" Thread: Answers

[jasser]

This thread contains the answered questions from The "Bug-Me" Thread: Your Questions for Croteam


The answered questions have been arranged into categories for easier navigation. The arrangement is as follows:

• SSHD
  • Graphics
  • Audio
  • Gameplay
  • Other

• SS3
  • Graphics
  • Audio
  • Gameplay
  • Other

• SE3
  • Modding/Mapping
  • Other

• Other

[jasser]

SSHD


Graphics

Q: The engine looks very cinematic. How customizable is this? (Can depth of field and such be turned on/off as an in-game setting?)
A: This is mostly for cinematics. Don't worry, DOF won't get in the way on playability in game.

Q: Will Serious Sam: HD for PC support 16:9 and 16:10 monitors?
A: Yes. And we are trying to cater even for some weirder aspects, as much as possible.

Q: Are the color sliders going to make a comeback?
A: Yes. You can make it look like you're on drugs.

Q: Will there be new music and sound effects in HD? Or Sam quotes? Will the voiceacting be re-recorded for better quality as well? Will the levels be changed anyhow, are there any neat gameplay additions so old players won't feel too familiar with what they're seeing?
A: Nope.

Will SS:HD, or SS3 be compatible with DirectX 9?
Yes.

Audio

Q: Will there be new music and sound effects in HD? Or Sam quotes? Will the voiceacting be re-recorded for better quality as well?
A: No.

Gameplay

Q: Will there be an achievements/unlock/rewards system for superior gaming skills?
A: Yes, check out the list here.

Q: How will the game's achievements work? Are they handled through Steamworks, or does the game have its own system?
A: Steam is used for the achievements.

Q: Is it just me or is the enemy count lower?
A: It's just you.

Q: So HD will feature improvements that are in on the line where FE was; can you share anything? New enemies, weapons? More maps/levels? Dare I hope for vehicles and turrets? (I bet a lot of people are against me on this one, but meh)
A: SS:TFE HD is a HD version of SS:HD. So gameplay is faithful to the original.

Q: Are we likely to see the NETRICSA database in SS:HD and back in SS3? Or will Netrisca just be an AI again, ala SS2?
A: Yes. No.

Q: Can I join a multiplayer game in progress?
A: You can join a game that's in progress just fine. Either find the server in-game or join through the steam friends list.

Q: The press release mentions 4 player online co-op on Xbox, will we see higher player counts than that on the PC side?
A: 16 player co-op on the PC.

Q: Are TSE weapons in TFE HD?
A: No.

Q: Quicksave?
A: Yes.

Q: Will the secrets/easter eggs be the same in SSHD?
A: Yes.


Other

Q: When is the game coming out?
A: Currently there is no official date (coming from Croteam or Devolver Digital). It is close to release though.

Q: What options do I have when buying the game?
A: You can pre-order it from Steam (currently at 10% off) or you can buy the retail game.

Q: How much will it cost?
A: Currently prices are only available for the Steam version: 20$ in USA and Canada, 20€ in Europe. For the rest of the countries, I suggest you check the game's page on Steam.

Q: System requirements?
A: Check here.

Q: Why is there HD in the title when we had HD resolutions way back when the original came out?
A: HD does not refer to resolution, but updated visuals. Look around for screenshots and you'll see what I mean.

Q: More on that, will Serious Sam HD require any additional programs to be running on the same time to play, such as Games for Windows Live? (Steam I'd understand if you bought the game from there of course, but I hope Games for Windows Live will be excluded or optional)
A: SS HD will be using Steam.

Q: Has the publisher revealed any information about what level of DRM will be used for SS:HD?
A: Steam is the only DRM used. It was deemed the best choice.

Q: Is Gamespy still used for online multiplayer?
A: No.

Q: Will SS:HD contain both FE and SE or is it just FE?
A: It will feature both. FE HD is coming out first and SE HD will follow some time after that.

Q: Serious Sam HD and Serious Sam Forever, apart from the different developers aren't these two going to be virtually the same game?
A: These were answered in more detail by others in the thread/forums.

Q: Will SE HD be installed as an expansion into the FE folder? If not, then will it at least be possible to merge them manually without any severe complications and bugs?
A: Croteam are planning on deploying it that way that you could do such a merge. Though it is probably not going to be officially supported as that would complicate techsupport issues.

Q: Will there be voice communication support so players can talk to each other?
A: Yes.

Q: Can you tell us more about the physics in SSHD? Will SSHD make use of ragdoll and destructable environments?
A: Yes.

Q: Will Sam retain his stylized look from Serious Sam 2?
A: No, he has a new look.

[jasser]

SS3


Graphics

Q: Will Serious Sam 3 utilize fully dynamic lighting/shadowing?
A: Yes. SSHD does so too. All the torches that were destructible in SS:FE/SE are now dynamic as well, thus destructible.


Audio




Gameplay

Q: Will Serious Sam 3's story continue where Serious Sam: The Second Encounter left off (we saw Sam leaving the grand cathedral in a big spaceship, heading for Sirius I think)?
A: I ain't giving away any spoilers.

Q: Will the normal array of weapons still come around? Or will it be more modern/futuristic like SS2?
A: As you have probably already read elsewhere, SS3 is more serious, gory and non-cartoony. The way SS:FE was in its time. The new tech allows it to be so even more.

Q: Will Serious Sam 3 go back to a more serious design of enemies (for example the very serious-looking Werebull vs. the toy Rhino)?
A: Yes.

Q: Will Serious Sam 3 come with a set of deathmatch maps?
A: Probably.


Other

Q: When is it coming out?
A: Some time after TSE HD if nothing changes.

Q: How well will Serious Sam 3 work with the video capture software of today?
A: Don't know. Haven't tested it.

Q: It was said that Serious Sam 1's netcode could handle latencies of up to 500ms, which is impressive, while the netcode of Serious Sam 2 starts to break down after 150ms, generating player warping during online play. How would the performance of Serious Sam 3's netcode compare?
A: "It was said" is a good term. As it is more of a "legend" than a fact. SS1 netcode had its strengths, but also had a lot more weaknesses. It was more biased towards modem connections, and not that good for modern internet play. Player warping and other netcode issues are something that I would like to address, but that will come gradually. The good thing is that we are now going to ship several products on the same platform with gradual improvements from one to another. That will allow much better tuning than with what happened with Sam2. But don't expect it to be perfect at the first shot.

Q: Will we see the return of many of the features from Serious Sam 1 that were absent in Serious Sam 2 like Mental mode, custom gravity and saturation/colour bias sliders?
A: Mostly yes, plus, SSHD holds some more improvements that are in the line on where SSFE was, and SS3 adds some more specific stuff to gameplay and options, but I won't go into details. But gravities, unfortunately not yet. I've explained for SS2 that, while the new physics engine supports arbitrary gravity, puppets, projectiles and particle effects are hardcoded for downward gravity. That saves a lot of development time on the AI, and we haven't yet found enough reason to go for directional gravities.

[jasser]

SE3


Modding/Mapping

Q: how will the terrain making process look compared to the Sed2 (where,iirc, you used RGBA chanells on tex to blend 5 difrent textures) and in general, what how will you deal with terrains?
A: Similar. The approach is same, but improved. There are tools and bakers to automatically mix textures based on height, slope, etc. plus manual baking on top of that. The crumbs system is also improved to integrate better with terrain, to support dynamic shadows, better lodding, etc, etc.

Q: How well can SED3 and SED2 interact with each other? Can we expect to export levels, models, particle effects and such? How much have the editors changed? Is macro still used?
A: SED3 is a new version of SED2 (and SE3 or SE2). I.e. no complete recode this time. So all the stuff you have in SED2 you also have in SED3, plus tons more. In general, you can load most content directly (there is no exporting needed), but there are of course compatibility issues due to changes in the games themselves. SS2 used LDR and 1.x/2.0 shaders. SSHD/SS3 use full HDR rendering and 3.0+ shaders. So you can load all models, but have to recreate/substitute the materials.
Macro still exists, but it is deprecated and not used in SSHD/SS3. SE3 uses Lua for all scripting. Lua scripting in levels is very similar to the way macros work: Same stuff with event, on-handlers, etc, same user interface, with drag/drop for entities, group variables, etc. On-the-fly syntax suggestion and help is much better this time though, and the language itself is much more powerful (of course, because Lua is a general purpose language). You can do amazing things with it in the levels, but explaining that all deserves a lot more space.

Q: Compared to Sed1 and 2, how easy will sed3 be?
A: SED3 is SED2 improved. The approach is the same, with a lot of new stuff. Lot of places in the UI have improved, new tools added, etc. Still, beware: HDR rendering adds more tricks to the editing game, and that will take some time getting used to. But the results are astounding (IMO).

Q: How flexible can games made on the Serious Engine 3 be without the need for coding a mod?
A: A bit more than SS2 in places. We are aiming for more scriptable things, but that is not yet completely finished.

Q: Would it be possible, then, for a fan to add directional gravity in with a mod?
A: Probably, but it would be very involved.

Q: Will it be possible to de-finalize models (assuming they are going to finalized) in SS3 (and SSHD)?
A: A tool to do that could be written, but we don't supply it by default. Understand that we have to finalize the content for disk/dl space reasons. The fact that levels are not finalized on the PC is a compromise for modding, but to do that for models would require much more space.

Q: Will there be entity support for cut-scenes like in SS1 or will I have to Lua my way through it like in SS2?
A: Heh. I wasn't thrilled with that, but for SS:FE/SE compatibility SSHD re-introduces the triggers&friends. So you can now do it both ways. Suppose that should be a good thing. Just don't blame me if you strangle yourself in a tangled web of triggers. Again.

Q: AND WILL THERE BE A " Collision " fixer/finder in the editor ??? SO ALL those bad triangles can be fixed ???
A: There is a tool that finds invalid polygons if that is what you mean.

Q: Would it be possible to create refraction effects with transparent objects?
A: Yes.

Q: Will the editor come with neat features like "Carve a Canyon" "Fill with water" and "Paint a forest"?
A: Well... we've implemented that, but than ditched it all and replaced it with the Uber-tool: "Auto-generate level". It has sliders for coolness and fun. It really lessens the burden on the level designers. Seriously.

Q: Which programs will Serious Editor 3 be able to export to and import from?
A: Same as with SED2, SED3 exports/imports through intermediate ascii formats, so whatever someone writes importes/exporters for. We use them for LW, but I think there are versions for Maya, Max and even Blender, IIRC. The format is mostly the same as for SED2, so the same scripts can be used here.


Other

Q: Will Serious Engine 3 use anything similar to Id's Megatexture technology?
A: No. We have to be able to create downloadable games (XBLA, etc.), not Blu-ray titles.

Q: How elaborate will the demo playback and recording system be? Will demo rewinding be possible?
A: Same as in Sam2, probably some fixes, but not much more. No rewinding, certainly, as we haven't plan on doing any further improvements there yet.

Q: Will free-roaming cameras be possible for live online sessions and demo playback?
A: Probably.

Q: Will the sound engine have more extensive support for integrated sound cards and soundchips?
Will the engine include support for OpenAL implementation as an alternative to Creative EAX?
A: SE3 supports DirectSound W&W/O EAX, OpenAL, and XAudio2. But XAudio2 rocks so much, you don't want to use anything else. That will be the default, and there probably won't be a menu option to use the other two at all (only through the console). XAudio works perfectly, no matter which chip you have. We were never able to pull this much reliablity in reproducing the same sound effects with other APIs before, ever since our old software mixer (which is not used for quite some time). Effectively, XAudio2 _is_ a software mixer, and that is why it works so well.

Q: Will SS3 be designed to take advantage of multiple CPU cores? If so, two only or all four of a quad core?
A: Yes, SE3 is "multi-core-friendly".

Q: Will Serious Engine 3 have full dynamic lighting and SSAO?
A: Yes, see above. See SS3 Graphics

Q: Will the enemies use pathfinder or move to a target along the straight line?
A: Both.

Q: Will SE3 support physics acceleration (PhysX PPU, Nvidia CUDA) and will SSHD use it?
A: No.

[jasser]

Other


Q: Is there any chance of open-sourcing the source code for Serious Engine 1/Serious Sam 1 to the community?
A: Probably not yet.

Q: Do you plan on giving Broussard the ultimate kick in the balls by eventually developing a Duke Nukem game on the Serious Engine 3?
A: Seems like there are too many DN games being developed already.

[Gimli]

FAQ updated, check it out.