2K ElizabethI'm going to get to spend some time with our resident water effects guru at Irrational, and I wanted to field your questions about anything to do with water for a little Q&A. Ask away!
Water Effects -- Got questions?
I'm going to get to spend some time with our resident water effects guru at Irrational, and I wanted to field your questions about anything to do with water for a little Q&A. Ask away!
Ok. So, how much dx10 tech will you be using for water effects etc. Separate dx10 path or some sort of hybrid or none at all? Sorry if this has been answered before. I guess you could call it a general dx10 question, but what the heck.
Thanks in advance
Much thanks for doing this!! Just greatOriginally Posted by 2K Elizabeth
1.) What did you do to get the water effects this realistic? Have you got your own water lab at Irrational Games, where you played with water? Did you go outside and watched spots with a lot of water?
2.) Will the water level change during the game or at certain places? (We discussed it a lot here)
3.) Are there puzzles combined with water?
4.) Are there underwater sequences, where you have to dive?
5.) In which ways are enemies or other characters able to interact with water?
6.) Can other characters drown? Can I use plasmids to hold them underwater and make them drown?
7.) Apart from plasmids: Can I use other things like electricity cables to interact with the water and kill enemies?
8.) Can I use water to shut down electrical machines?
9.) How far is the viewing distance into the open sea? I fear that I see some fishes and after a few metres I stare at a "ocean texture wallpaper", when I look out of the window.
10.) Are some marine lifeforms trapped inside the city of Rapture?
11.) Do characters get wet feet? In the Big Daddy Hunting video, the Little Sister walked through a puddle and left no footprints behind her.
12.) Do characters have a "wet layer" on their clothes? Let's say the Big Daddy walks under falling water - will we see his clothes getting wet?
13.) How do PC and 360 differ in terms of water effects? What is possible on PC and not on 360?
Last edited by Rapture_Tourist; 04-07-2007 at 04:09 PM.
how about real time reflections? are the enviroments/characters mirrored?
First things, first, tell him the water looks like it came straight from an $89 bottle straight from France (then tell him thats good). If he still doesn't get it tell him his water is more waterry than average water.
I know water has already been established as a big aspect of the game. How much of a role does it play in the game itself?
Will their be any completly flooded places? I know we've seen flooded bathrooms, but will there be entire city sects covered in water?
Will you have my babies?
Are there any water plasmids in the game? Can you control water with telekenesis? (me=information leech)
forget the diving!-lets have the mini sub!
in english please!!!
I'm really happy this guy will finally get a chance to speakI've been waiting for a while for this. Admittedly I would think a video would more clearly show the water capabilities but I'll takes what I gets.
My most general inquiry is about the challenges of developing the water effects and what their approaches were in solving problems. Please be as technical and jargon-y as you wishAny development anecdotes are more than welcome.
What has this generation of technology allowed them to do that couldn't have been done previously? What does BioShock have that is particularly unique about its water compared to other games out there? Will the game take advantage of DirectX 10 for its water effects, and if so, how?
I'd love for him to talk a little about how water behaves when interacted with by the player or an AI. I was very impressed by the falling water in the very first E3 video when the Big Daddy walked under it to bang on the vent, the way the falling stream wouldn't just stop there but would split up and fall around the Big Daddy as he moved. So what other stuff of that kind occurs and how difficult is it to develop stuff like that?
I'm wondering what the biggest challenge would be in implementing such a complicated system over such a vast area would be? I imagine he's lost many nights of sleep over the implementation here, but I'd like to know what caused the most hang-ups.
Secondly I'd heard mentioned in a few of the early video's about how the water is done on a particle system, if he could expand on that a bit and maybe give a few examples of the dynamics and physics involved in such a system that would be nifty too.
1. Will blood spread out in a pool of water if a splicer dies in it?
2. Will there be bodies of water that have 3D waves where appropriate? Like around the lighthouse; will there be something like the 3D ocean system in Crysis? Or will large splashes deform the surface of pools of water like they did to some extent in FEAR?
can you create traps involving water, such as leaking gas into a nearby pool of water, so that flaming splicers end up cooking themselves, rather than extinguishing the flames
1. Seeing as alot of effort (and I'm sure time and money) has been put into making the water as real as possible, could this same technology be used or even licensed for other uses, such as... lava? or even sand?
2. Can we use telekenisis on the water? Perhaps to create some sort of liquid anomoly as seen in the movie "The Abyss"?
3. Does being underwater have any effect on the rest of the sounds in the game? (e.g. realistically "drowning" out sounds in a particular room or area? (sorry about the pun))
4. Will the (salt) water have any effect on the weapons that have been submerged underwater such as rusting over periods of time?
Thanks!
This is something I was wondering (I'm also wondering if bodies will float) In the Hitman series you could dump bodies into swimming pools etc. but there was no blood. If it were to be more realistic I'd imagine the water would change colour, and that that change of colour might be enough to attract the attention of another A.I.
What kind of hardware will the water animation require? When it comes to the water effects, is there an advantage to having dx10 rather than dx9?
Is there a bare minimum in terms of graphics cards required to support the water effects?
What other information can you give about recommended hardware etc.?
Will the DX10 path in Bioshock make use of the Geometry Shaders in DX10 hardware at all? And will they be used to enhance the water effects in the game ?
Thanks in advance
are there some other liquids (except blood) in bioshock? benzin, urine, nitrohydrochloric acid...?!
Yeah, I was wondering about that too, have you used the water implementation for other liquids as well? I may be totally wrong about this, but in the Hunting for Daddy video I thought I noticed the liquid squirting out of the pheromone plasmid stream out in different directions corresponding to the player's movement, like a real liquid would. It'd be pretty impressive if you use the liquid behaviour with things other than water.
My question is if my avatar gets thirsty will he be able to drink the seawater? If this is possible will it have the detrimental effects associated wth this such as kidney failure etc?
Soz I'm being silly it's just there's so many good questions here already I thought I'd mix it up a little with some light hearted nonsense. Still that said would be funny if you could drink the water a get ill as a consequence
I know this is probably meant to be more about the techinal sides of the water, but I was curious as to how water is used in the gameplay in the world of Rapture.
I know in numerous interviews Ken has said you get the feel that Rapture is slowly being reclaimed by the water on the outside, I was wondering how you've gone about achieving this? Is it mearley by having the water slowly pour through cracks in windows and walls or has the team implimented some sought of dynamic water level throughout the city, where upon returning to an area there's a noticeable rise in the water level? (that would be really immersive feeding illusion and instilling a sense of panic)
One last question, how will the water effects on the 360 compare to a PC running max settings on Dx10?
i already posted a thread earlier with my questions:
here
thx
Just from memory, I can think of several different water effects in the clips released so far -- the flooded bathroom, water trickling down a staircase, water washing away the "Above all do no harm" message on the floor, etc. I'd be interested in knowing what proportion of the water effects is situation-specific (requiring special programming/animation to achieve one effect in one location), and what proportion relies on a general model of water behavior.
Would be sweet to be able to suck out (with your hand, not with your mouth) balls of water out of... water, and use them to fight fire or hit enemies to give an attack bonus for the following lightning bolt. The way we manipulated those balls of energy with the gravity gun in Half-Life 2.
Of course, this is just fantasy, I bet we won't see it happen.
I can't spit at Little Sisters? Bah! I'm not playing this game then! (j/k)
I was just wondering if there is going to be a PhysX implementation for water effects as BioShock seems to be tailor made for using a PhysX card to do the particle rendering of so much water
...(continued)...
5. While the Big Daddys are obviously big and, no doubt, heavy, would each of their footsteps cause the rippling effect on the surface of puddled water?
Some of the videos seem to point that footsteps will cause ripples of some sort...
you could spit on zombies in dead rising
Do you recall if the video was "in-game"? or "cutscene"? Not that it matters, really. It would be a cool effect just the same.
...(continued)...
6. Will the temperature of the water play any part during gameplay? Will we have the ability to make it hot (boiling) or cold (frozen) using different methods?
I apologize in advance if my questions have already been asked.
I never thought of rapid temperature changes...good idea. (Exploding um...anything really like Alien 3 style would be awesome)
I just want to see liquids have layers such as putting oil/fuel on the surface of a deep pool then setting it ablaze or something.
This may have been answered too but do the NPCs/enemies look "wet"? Does water negatively affect electronics based items? (Chucking a security bot into a pool of water shorts it out...)
Do you recall if the video was "in-game"? or "cutscene"? Not that it matters, really. It would be a cool effect just the same.
...(continued)...
6. Will the temperature of the water play any part during gameplay? Will we have the ability to make it hot (boiling) or cold (frozen) using different methods?
I apologize in advance if my questions have already been asked.
In game for sure,I have every video released so far,and have watched them all until my eyes started to bleed.
I wonder when we can expect to see answers to some of the questions we have asked ? was any even loose eta given ? No pressure,just curious is all.
HAHAHA! Sweet!!! I can't wait!In game for sure,I have every video released so far,and have watched them all until my eyes started to bleed.
can you drink it?
Just kidding....
Will it be bottled and sold in stores ?
Will it be bottled and sold in stores ?
yea you walk in the store casually and a Big Daddy comes in and waves to you and you say "Hey Bob hows it going" and you guys start conversing and suddenly a splicer comes in yelling and the BD say "This'll just take a second" he turns around,sticks his drill through the splicers stomach,turns back around,and says "Now where was I?"
Have I missed something...a post ? an announcement somewhere about all these q's ? Or has nothing been said as of yet by the devs ? I would like answers to the water q's...
didnt 2K Elizabeth say she would go to the devs soon with our questions and report back - 2 weeks ago? something's up.
Patience is a virtue.
i suppose.... it is AND isn't when you're so obsessed with a game!
Saw the interview and the video. Mighty impressive!
oh boy, it was.... i can't wait to wade in it
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