Day and Night cycles???

[cybrpnk]

Don't know if this has been discussed...but will HD feature variable times of day??? If not, is it even possible with a downloadable update later on???

On another note...this is for Colin, Egg and the SL crew...did you ever consider variable weather and weather effects??? eg rain, snow, sand storms...

Been watching a few Far Cry 2 videos lately and the day and night cycles on that is just insane...love the lighting that creeps in through the trees in the jungle...but I digress...

EDIT...I don't mean like racing on a track from day to night, but having the option to race on a track either in the day, midday, evening or night...would be cool to race on say, Vineta K in the morning, when the sun glares off metals with vibrant colours and blue skies all around, then have the option to switch and race at night, where the track takes on a whole new look with neons plastered all over the place, psychedelic electric wonderland...

[Darkdrium777]

Do that for all four times of day and the game weighs 4GB ;)
It takes textures to do that too, not only rendered lighting.
I think an XBox360 racing game has day and night cycles realtime, but it's on two discs because of that. Don't quote me on that though, I'm really not sure.

Of course it would be great, but it's a lot of work too.

[Chill]

Aaaand an extra one for overcast... :pirate

[eLhabib]

But the who likes overcast? Are you english? ;)

[Egg]

... and weather effects would hit the frame rate.

[Axel]

Oh we can't be having that!! I need my 60fps please :)

[Egg]

Yeah, I think it's the sole reason they didn't get put in.

Big, full-screen effects = bad

[cybrpnk]

Fair enough...just a thought...:)

Bring on the 25th...can't wait...

[eLhabib]

I guess that's the same reason we won't be seeing Blue Ridge, right? Stuff like grass and trees eats up framerate pretty effectively... :(

[zerojay]

Weather effects and a day/night cycle were added to Burnout Paradise over the weekend. No, redone textures were not needed.

[Axel]

It's the way the engine has been designed. Chances are the programers for Burnout Paradise probably had this feature on the drawing board but wasn't able to implement it due to time. Playing the demo, it did seem to me that feature was possible.

With HD though, they will need to redesign the engine for the game to implement this mode which is a lot harder at the moment

[Bytehawk]

btw I just fired up Burnout Paradise, this update rocks. I really like the bikes.

back ot: the day/night cycle in Burnout makes the game harder (in the dark you can't see so much). This would be a great addition to Wipeout for us diehard fans.

[Chill]

But the who likes overcast? Are you english? ;)

Naw but I was born and live close by Seattle, Wa... (Arc Prime anyone??? ;) ) but that track should of seriously had rain as well... but anyway, it rains quite often their, and I've learned to like it very much...

Oh yeah, guess we'll have to wait tell the next PS3 Wipeout for those type of affects...

[DawnFireDragoon]

i wonder if what egg said only applies to the tracks already in-game. thus people hoping for a remake of gare d-europe with rain and lightning down the way can still hope! :)

[Darkdrium777]

Yes of course it only applies to the tracks already in the game. If they were to design a track with rain and night in mind of course it would be possible. ;)

[Chill]

If they were to do this, it should be Manor Top baby!!! Yeah!! ;)

[eLhabib]

I think Egg was referring to the possibility of effects like rain in general. Raindrops, puddles, reflections - that's a lot of stuff to render full screen. Kills the framerate right away. I don't think we'll be geting it for wipEout HD.

[Shozovulnai]

Speaking of day and night cycles, weren't those implemented in the original WipEout when switching from Venom speed class to Rapier? Venom tracks were usually bright (though Altima VII was always all dark and gloomy) while Rapier tracks were driven at evening/night. Just a reminder. :)

[smwood71]

Good old Wipeout 1 on the PS1 had a different look/time of day for each track when it was raced on both Venom and Rapier classes. I really liked that idea as it made racing each track on a higher speed level unique. I miss that feature as they never brought the idea back for any of the sequels.

Oh well...I can always dreams.

Looking forward to download day though :)

[Yome NetSan]

Speaking of day and night cycles, weren't those implemented in the original WipEout when switching from Venom speed class to Rapier?

Right ! And funny enough, I've discovered this only 2 weeks ago although I played this gave from day one !
I guess it's because I've never race Venom and Rapier on the same day !

[Darkdrium777]

Yes indeed the first WipEout had day for Venom and evening/night for Rapier, but guess what: that means there were two sets of textures for each track. It most certainly doesn't calculate the lighting for day or for night all the time (That would be horrible for the loading :O)
If anything like this is implemented in WipEout HD or future ones, it would be the same thing: darker textures for the night, some reworked prebuilt lighting and that's it (Well it's a lot of work, but after that work that's it ;)). But this doubles the size for each track as I said, because you have two textures slightly similar but one is darker than the other.
I guess it has not been brought back because of the amount of extra work needed to pull it off.

[eLhabib]

AFAIK, nowadays you don't need a new set of textures for different lighting, it's now all done by the...well...lighting ;)
(except for stuff that glows in the dark, like neon signs)

[Darkdrium777]

Hmm I wouldn't be so sure. I may be wrong, but even though lighting is more evolved today than it was then, I think some texture reworking is necessary so it blends correctly in the environment. Not as much as before, but still quite a bit, and with the new high resolution shader effects and bump mapping and etc, it's a lot of work, even if there are only ten textures to rework per level.

[Egg]

I'd say the main argument against it is - the average punter (Wipeout newbie) is paying again for a track they've already got. The lighting makeover would have pretty limited appeal.

That said, it could work as a bonus addition to a more meaty DLC pack.

( Opinions my own, not that of SCEE, of course :) )