Oni Central Forum

geyser

Member

From: beyond the veil

Registered: 01/14/07

Website

Phoenix Engine

Until recently I regarded Serious Engine 3 as the only "public" engine that's modular and complete enough to emulate Oni's gameplay (hand-to-hand combat of course), adding support for the #1 "missing element" in Oni: multiplayer.
(Pierre's Flexine is a "private" engine. Konoko Payne does a decent job emulating Oni and even adds a few cool features, but no multiplayer is officially planned so far.)

Then a few weeks ago I checked back on Wolfire, a positively impressive (lone-wolf) developer responsible for games like Black Shades and Lugaru.

One "discovery" was that Lugaru has gotten quite popular... There's a large forum-based community, and there is modding (no total modifications though).
(actually, Script10000 is the one who turned my/our attention to Lugaru almost two years ago, by posting here on OCF, and now he's a big-time Lugaru fan)

The other discovery is that there's a sequel in development, based on a homemade but quite modern engine called Phoenix.
For Lugaru 2, Phoenix gets nicer graphics, but that's very secondary, to me at least (bump mapping, fur/hair/grass, advanced terrain stuff...)
The animation system is apparently quite elaborate (a lot of interpolation and IK for both combat and movement, and morphing on top of that).
And of course the announced multiplayer. Unlike SE3, which Croteam uses to develop a shooter, Phoenix is intended for hand-to-hand combat.
That means that Lugaru 2 will be the biggest breakthrough ever since State of Emergency (basic melee + multiplayer) and Oni (you know what).
And the Mac: Phoenix and Lugaru 2 are designed to run on Windows, Linux and the Mac... the whole developing environment and the game(s).

Here's an overview of the Phoenix engine
(for most of it a dev log for Lugaru 2, too)
http://wolfire.com/blog/category/lugaru-2/

P.S. I probably sound a bit too optimistic, as usual. Sorry about that

Last edited by geyser (06/24/07 19:06)

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Behold the power of that which is yet unborn! For the swirling images that flow forth from the Chrysalis are only a shadow of the sleeper's true power.

Mango

Member

From: VIC, Australia

Registered: 01/20/07

Re: Phoenix Engine

Hey! That looks pretty cool... However, the source would not be open source as it is a comercial company making the game... are you planning to buy it, Geyser?

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Bite off more than you can chew... then chew like hell!!!

geyser

Member

From: beyond the veil

Registered: 01/14/07

Website

Re: Phoenix Engine

Wolfire is a lone-wolf developer, not a "company".
Just like with SE3, we'd buy Lugaru 2 to support the guy.
And then we'd get the modding tools and some kind of SDK.
And just like with SE3, first off there'd be nothing but a mod.

If there's enough content for a total conversion, one could negotiate a separate build.
Depending on the license formats and support needed, one would then "buy" Phoenix.
The major difference with SE3 would be the melee multiplayer support by design.
That would lessen the need for engine hacking and make a mod more satisfactory.

Last edited by geyser (06/25/07 05:06)

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Behold the power of that which is yet unborn! For the swirling images that flow forth from the Chrysalis are only a shadow of the sleeper's true power.