caledonianblues wrote:L3M182 wrote:theoretically the whole game could be moved over to that platform "as is".
No, not even theoretically. The engine the game is running on now was nothing to do with Avalanche or Expansive Worlds. Yes, Expansive Worlds may have developed it since they inherited / acquired theHunter but it's a totally different engine to the one the Just Cause series runs on. Sure, some stuff could be used, but none of it could be moved over "as is". It would be a massive undertaking. I would estimate somewhere in the region of at least a few million dollars in cost. I would even question whether a team of developers the size of the one at Expansive Worlds could even do it in two years. Think about the amount of content, all the animal AI which would need to be re-written, the behavioural properties of all the weapons and projectiles. None of that stuff could just be "moved over". All that stuff would have to be done again from scratch. Then take all the backend, the interaction between the client and backend, the control system for the game character, the inventory management system, the dogs, the harvesting system, in-game notifications, the way the weather impacts hunting (animal scent, wind direction etc).
This game has magnitudes more content than most modern games, and those takes a couple of years to develop (more in some cases) with teams of hundreds of developers, and giant budgets. Don't get me wrong, I want it as much as everyone else. I just know, without question, that it's not a case of drag and drop and away we go. Not to mention the fact that a new engine would be a prime opportunity for the developers to "get rid of the crap" and do it again properly. Nobody with an ounce of common sense would even consider migrating this game with all the bugs, botch jobs, and band-aids it's endured over the years.
I'm not trying to be a naysayer or claim that it's not possible. Of course it's possible. But is it financially viable for such a niche game? Could Expansive Worlds swallow that cost? I don't know. I'm just trying to help set some realistic expectations. I want it to happen, and would love to be wrong about this, but I don't want a new engine at the cost of losing all the great stuff we have now.
with respect dave i know you know what youre talking about when it comes to this stuff. and probably a hell of allot more than me but it is the same engine just cause 2 runs on just customized to suit thehunter, and they could do it the way i said. the 2 engines are similar just one is newer and better version.
"Q: What does the near future look like, do we get a new Game Engine? (DirectX 11-12)
A: Currently we have no plans of changing Graphics engine. It would require many months of work to convert the game and everything around it to the latest Avalanche Engine. And the game does not automatically get a lot prettier just because you change rendering system. It will still be the same models, animations and effects as before. The lighting may look nicer though."
"Q: This game engine may be fine or may not be fine... I do not know if it has any limitations... Is there any other game engines you easily can switch to, or do this include a lot of programming and time...?
A [Danny]: It has its limitations, like any other game engine out there. We use our in-house engine, created by Avalanche Studios, and I find it really hard to believe we would ever change to another one since we know how to work with ours, we can get help with ours when we need it, and because we believe it’s the best one suited for our need. Another thing is to upgrade it since there are newer versions of it, like the ones Mad Max and Just Cause 3 are using. And that is a possibility, but it is a very expensive and time consuming thing so we’ll see if or when that happens."
from the AMA 18 months ago.
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