Field Ops Developer Diary #3 - The Technology Feature

Attempting to merge an FPS with an RTS may sound like complimenting genres to blend, but the reality involved many long nights for the game's developer, Digital Reality. In the continuing series of Developer Diaries chronicling Freeze Interactive's ambitious PC title, Field Ops, Digital Reality's Zoltan "Z" Kovary (Lead Designer); Ferenc "Snowman" Szabo (Lead Programmer) and Róbert "Robika" Kovács (R&D Lead) share an insight into the problems that they've faced so far and the technology at work behind the game.

Long, late nights in Hungary...

We have been passionate in getting everything right with Field Ops. One of our goals, amongst many, wasto guarantee the best frame rate both in FPS and RTS view. To achieve this the engine needed a much wider range of fine tuning properties than usual. The in-house technology was created based on our long years of experience, and a state-of-the-art, high end, RTS engine. It took the team more than a year to develop the revolutionary hybrid system. All the solutions present in ordinary FPS games can create serious performance problems in a hybrid environment. Finally, one by one, we were able to sort all of them out.

Two of the most complicated issues causing a real headache were accurate hit location together with actual line of sight tests which are the foundation of all first person shooters. In FPS games, if part of the level geometry overlays the enemy it won't be rendered. In Field Ops visibility calculations occur between all units on the map, with the accuracy of first person shooters.

However, the most demanding task to complete during the development process was creating a multiplayer game. The fundamentally different philosophy behind the two game modes requires different approaches; in FPS changes of a well defined action zone are transferred to all players, while in RTS the issued commands are transferred to the synchronized participants. Using the FPS approach would result in a huge amount of data (bandwidth problems), while the RTS approach would be unable to provide the instant replies expected in an FPS. Our hybrid system enabled us to combine the advantages of both, but required intense development time and expertise throughout most parts of the game engine. We believe that Field Ops players will be satisfied with the results the engine provides.

Occlusion Maps, Rigid-Body Physics & Un-plastic Shaders

Most of the game engine components (like the 3D engine, the physics engine, multiplayer api, etc...) were developed in-house.

Our advanced shader technology enables our designers to apply the appropriate solution providing the best results in each case. For example, we also use dynamic shadows (for moving objects), along with static (precalculated) lightmaps and occlusion maps. The various materials used in our game are also rendered using special shaders, drastically reducing the well known plastic effect seen in so many other titles. The engine also supports the well known, pseudo standard features of today, like water with realistic reflections, post effects (like glow, colour, grain, etc.) occlusion culling and many more.

The physics engine was also developed in-house. Shots, blasts and vehicles can manipulate the objects present in the game, affecting even the gameplay. Apart from the rigid body physics system, it also incorporates an atmosphere module, which results in trees blown and trash swept along the streets by the wind.

Besides the perfect look and setting, all war games also require challenging enemies. To provide a new sensation of intensive firefights, we invented a brand new AI system. The soldiers are able to find and hide behind cover even in the constantly changing environment, track down their foes, and use special abilities, even against FPS players.

The sounds make extensive use of all the EAX system can provide, and even more. The units, apart from their standard speech elements seen in all games, will also react to hostiles giving their exact positions be it next to the bushes, under a tree, or anywhere else.

Status update

The current build is reaching Alpha stage. We are now seeing the light at the end of the tunnel after more than two years working together on the game, and we are very proud of it! We are working on speed improvement, bugfixes (including multiplayer desync bugfixes), gameplay fine-tuning and some new features which are required for better game-play experience.

Design: The design team is currently fine-tuning the gameâ??s many aspects (scripts, sounds, ambients, etc).

Art: The art team is bug-fixing animations and objects (boundaries, materials).

Programming: The code team is working on two objectives: target of the first subteam is a desync-free multiplayer version to allow the game-play testers to increase the fun factor of the game, while the other team is implementing the four new features and performing overall bug-fixes.

TVG will bring you the final chapter in the Field Ops Developer Diaries next month; concluding the development behind the title and looking forward to the hopes for the game.