Author Topic: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios  (Read 21662 times)

Offline jmmreview

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Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« on: March 07, 2016, 05:47:28 AM »

Hey everyone I am still new to the website but I have a lot of love for Turok so I look forward to being a member on here, really excited about some of the mods you guys are working on.

I thought you guys might be interested in it the above video I made about an email interview that took place between me and the lead developer of Turok Sam Villarreal.
I will copy and paste the text version but here is a link to the post on my website too: http://www.goldenedgegamers.com/?p=1579

Improved level design

JMMREVIEW: I was really shocked when I turned a corner on the first level to find an area had changed! Can you please settle a debate, did the first area change so you could remove the auto-shotgun or was there a different reason?

Sam Villarreal: The reason was because players who are new to the game will almost be guaranteed to miss the 2nd key, which is hidden in such a obscured area. Also most keys in Turok are usually placed in grand-scale areas protected by enemies and whatnot. The location of that 2nd key just felt really underwhelming so I wanted to revamp that section and make it more of a grand entrance, as if that key is really well protected.

Also the shotgun secret is still there. Just keep looking around

Q: There are parts of level 3 where the platforms are extended which makes jumping the gaps much easier, was that the general idea behind improving the level design, to make it more accessible?

A: Yeah, a lot of the level design in Turok is actually built around the fact that the user understands that strafe-running would boost their speed when making long jumps, but its never explained anywhere in the training session. Again, players who are new to Turok will never even realize that it’s possible, so that area was tweaked to make it possible to jump to those platforms without requiring strafe-running.

Removal of the 30 FPS cap

Q: I am not sure if the game runs at 60fps because I haven’t tested it but I can tell the frame rate has dramatically improved. Can you confirm the game is 60fps, if so was it difficult to achieve this?

A: The original game actually ran on two threads, one thread ran the game logic at 15 fps while the rendering thread ran at 24 fps (it could of been 30, I am not sure). The challenge with the new engine was making all of it work well with a single thread that ran 60 fps across the board. That meant that things had to be tweaked and reworked like the delay time for enemy respawning (which continued to cause problems after the initial launch of the game). Movement speeds for particle effects were the biggest annoyance because it had to be perfect in terms of timing so it ended up being a lot of trial and error in tweaking the speeds and time factor.

Controls 

Q: The original Turok had a controller with only one analog stick but we now have the ability to freely remap all keyboard, mouse, and gamepad inputs. How important was it to modernised these controls 

A: Very important. As a FPS game being built for the PC, it was mandatory to get those controls right.

Clearing the way

Q: Removing the fog is another huge improvement that alone mixed with the support for high resolutions and widescreen makes it feel like a different game…
You are working on Turok 2: Seeds of Evil, the fog doesn’t seem as intense in that game and I think the graphics are slightly better because it used an expansion pack. Are you finding any major differences or challenges with Turok 2 compared to Turok 1?

A: Some of the biggest changes in Turok 2 is skinned models and dynamic lights. Levels in the first game were built with static meshes and rendering a scene was very quick and straight forward due to redrawing the instanced meshes over and over. Turok 2 on the other hand will have lights that will affect per mesh and dynamic meshes. This will complicate things a lot more since now rendering meshes won’t be simple and direct anymore but this will go well with some of the ideas I have for the enhanced renderer.

N64 vs PC 

Q: From what I understand the enhanced version uses elements of the N64 version and the PC version, what was the reason for this?

A: N64 version has way superior sounds compared to the original PC port. The initial launch got a lot of negative feedback regarding to the sounds since it initially was using the sounds from the 1997 PC port. The 2nd patch introduced sounds taken directly from the N64 version. The minigun sounds in particular are way better than before now.

Dynamic lighting, bloom, FXAA, enhanced water effects, lights shafts

Q: I am assuming these kind of effects couldn’t be achieved using the hardware at the time, with things like the water effects did you somehow reprogram the existing water or did you pretty much start from scratch on most of these effects?

A: The water refraction/reflection effects were very easy to implement. All post process features that were implemented had very minimal risk and did not require any change to the core scene renderer. Though I did have to create a material system which allowed me to specify what textures should be treated as ‘water’, but that data were created separately and didn’t require modification of the original assets.

During rendering, all water surfaces were added to a list which was used to mask out the stencil buffer and rendered the reflected scene as well as the refraction scene. All of this was completely independent of the core scene renderer.

The future at Night Dive

Q: So we know Turok 2: Seeds of Evil is on the way and I know a lot of people are really happy about that, myself include but will the lesser known N64 game, Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion ever get an enhancement?

A: Our team has really been focused on delivering the best re-mastered experience of Turok and Turok 2, and we’re ecstatic about the positive feedback we’ve gotten so far. Personally, I’d love to see that happen, and if this keeps up, Turok 3 could definitely be something we consider and discuss for the future.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2016, 07:57:59 AM by jmmreview »

Offline ひまわりくん

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2016, 06:31:03 PM »
I KNEW IT

PC version has crap audio quality.

Thank you for such interesting interview, nice of Kaiser to consider the possibility of T3 in the future.

Offline jmmreview

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #2 on: March 07, 2016, 08:34:43 PM »
No problem man, I wish I asked them more questions, I frantically drafted these questions one night, hopefully I can send them questions about Turok 2 when it comes out :)

Offline Duke64

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #3 on: March 08, 2016, 02:02:59 PM »


Hey everyone I am still new to the website but I have a lot of love for Turok so I look forward to being a member on here, really excited about some of the mods you guys are working on.

The video is pretty descriptive on Turok, only true fans would know that much about the changes and new features. Great video and welcome glad you like the forum I appreciate that and the interview being posted :) Very nice interview though! I am sure Turok and Turok 2 will both do great and rock the world. Then we will be looking forward to Turok 3 and Turok Rage Wars... I hope so at least. Anyways, I did subscribe and added the video to my favorites :P (Don't think I didn't notice that Turok action figure near the end lol)
« Last Edit: September 01, 2023, 05:31:27 AM by Dinomite »
Dinosaur Hunter
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"Suck it down"
"Boo, No soup for you"
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Offline Jay Doomed

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #4 on: March 08, 2016, 03:09:24 PM »
Oh damn I love seeing Kaiser talk about Turok 3 even if its small talk. Yes bring them all back Kaiser. Hey nice video and interview to thanks for sharing it. I found the reflective water answer to be really interesting.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't belong in this world."

Offline jmmreview

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #5 on: March 09, 2016, 01:57:10 PM »

So basically, you registered on the site to get views for your video?

One of my motives for joining the website was that I am really interested in the Brutal Turok mod you guys are working on, I would like to make a video about that some day. 
I am not interested in video views that is just a number but I do want the opinions of real Turok fans, if I am wrong about something in the video I want other fans to point it out. The average person on YouTube wont be able to spot when I am wrong about something. I think of it as peer review and where better to get it but here!   

I don't think its just that Dinomite...

I have been reading lots of other posts so I knew to watch of for Dinomite, I was expecting a post with something like that, it could be worse, at least he didnt say the post was a waste of time xD


(Don't think I didn't notice that Turok action figure near the end lol)

Well spotted! That was a happy accident, I think I recorded that footage even before I new Turok was coming (I think I found out about Turok as I was editing that video)   

Oh damn I love seeing Kaiser talk about Turok 3 even if its small talk.
Is Kaiser Sam Villarreal? You aren't the first person to call him that but I don't know why.

Offline Rok

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #6 on: March 10, 2016, 09:03:39 AM »
Nice interview here cool idea to your video and interview covers alot of ground though.. oh yeah Turok 3 needs to be justified probably the most its hardly even known anymore lol. Yeah Kaiser is his alias he did some Doom stuff including Doom64 ex also :) He made a post about Turok ex in 2011. I think it was on a forum maybe it was shooters forever but I forget now. Turok remaster took a bit longer to finish then most think ;)

Speaking of Dinomite im sure he didn't mean any harm its just that the lizard bites. Joking Dino :p
« Last Edit: March 10, 2016, 09:16:42 AM by Rok »
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Offline Duke64

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #7 on: March 11, 2016, 07:33:39 PM »
I split the topic in case it decides to continue on here.

Turok remaster took a bit longer to finish then most think ;)

That's true though 2011 was pretty long ago now man sheesh. I mean to touch this game up it took a lot of work for Kaiser.



« Last Edit: March 12, 2016, 07:04:24 PM by Duke64 »
Dinosaur Hunter
"Its time to make tracks"
"You are tiny grasshopper"
"Suck it down"
"Boo, No soup for you"
"Arrrgghhhh"
"I live again"

Offline jmmreview

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #8 on: March 12, 2016, 08:02:51 PM »
Good idea Duke! I would much prefer talking about Turok! ;)

You should look at some of the comments on the Turok comparison videos it was really quite sickening. That is part of why I wanted to make my video and do my best in setting the record straight!

Source:







That last one is so annoying! a day?!
Even if the the guy who says "What a shit looking remaster" is trolling he got 92 likes!?!?
It makes me so mad. I hope the game sells well!

Edit: Duke I just noticed a lot of the questions have been removed from the interview did something happen to it? I didn't remove it.
« Last Edit: March 12, 2016, 08:06:54 PM by jmmreview »

Offline Duke64

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Re: Turok Enhanced Interview with Night Dive Studios
« Reply #9 on: March 13, 2016, 12:11:54 AM »
I am not sure what happen here it is probably from splitting topics that the post bugged, I sent you a pm about it. I never really went on that price and remaster topic. So for the record here is my opinion :)

It could take me a long time to respond to the price and remaster complaints like this. Well with me it might not count because well I was about willing to pay out whatever it took to get a Turok released with editing tools those thoughts included Turok 2 also. Even if it meant finding all the right people to help in getting it better on our own.. thousands didn't sound ridiculous to me. And if you bring up a level editor for this game that makes me very excited this is the reason I wished the game wasn't so sealed shut before if you will. It held us back from helping it grow but not from loving it. Duke Nukem 3D is a very open and moddable game and of course you know Doom is also its very fun to add to your favorite games. If we can have this for Turok its something I have wanted very badly. Now its like the community can keep it alive we been depending on the root game and its got far just by that but now things can expand very soon. Plus I mean this is without mentioning how much better the game runs all around. I love the original game its my favorite but I would be crazy to say it runs like this one even with the 60 fps mod for the original its not the same.

I had my share of the battle with some people just like this on my steam review and because I was a tester for it probably helped that lol. But I essentially just let all of this rush over me because I have spent over 200$ on copies by now for friends and upcoming giveaways for it so more people can have it I bought them at full price :P no regrets either somebody gets to enjoy this game somewhere lol its a game that you can't hate :P But i'm just a big fan who's favorite game is the original Turok lol.
« Last Edit: March 13, 2016, 12:17:34 AM by Duke64 »
Dinosaur Hunter
"Its time to make tracks"
"You are tiny grasshopper"
"Suck it down"
"Boo, No soup for you"
"Arrrgghhhh"
"I live again"

 

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