Couple questions regarding Unity. [WantToMakeAGame]

News & General Discussion
1

Hello everyone!

I have a couple of questions that I’d like to ask not only the Unity crew, but experienced people as well. Very well, then.

I’m sure you’ve all heard something like this before, but yes. I have a dream, and that dream is a certain game. A game which I have been wanting for a very long time. I know now, that the ideas that I have in this game will never be made, but I’m not saying no one else has thought of it, I just haven’t seen it. Have you ever played a game which you just completely loved a certain feature of it but you wish it was…say, expanded a bit more or you wish certain features in various games were combined in one game? I have got about 100 pages of information that I have written down and etc about the game I want to create, but before I decide to even create this game, obviously I need to know I “CAN”, which brings me to why I am here.

Before I ask these questions, I’ll tell you right now, I don’t know jack. I don’t know a single thing about programming, or anything else related to making games. I could always learn, but right now, I need to find out if this is possible.

I guess I’ll start then.

1a) In Unity, are you able to create Open World Sandbox RPGs, more specifically, Medieval-styled RPGs?(No, not fantasy, I think we’ve had enough of those, seriously.) I’m sure you all know what I mean, but I’m trying to go beyond that. Think of Skyrim, for example, but without any loading screens whatsoever. Completely open.

1b) If yes, is there a, say, “size limit” for such a world? To perhaps give you guys an idea of what I mean, take a look at ARMA series. ARMA 2 has a map of 225km2. Would it be possible to create an open world with that size, perhaps even larger? If so, is there a limit? (An example would be, one of the islands in the game would be perhaps 250-300km2, with a total of 500km2(or more) in the world. This is obviously not accurate, but these are the numbers I’m possibly looking at.)

(Only Answer If Applicable) 1c) If no to 1a, is there an Engine that can, or is it even possible?

1d) Is it possible to create this “open world map” in Unity, or would I require some other type of program to create the map first?

  1. Models. Apologies for not reading tutorials and such, but is Unity able to create player/building/object models and such, or would I need another program, such as Blender?

  2. Physics. Is it possible to apply physics to practically everything? An example would be, a medieval castle siege. Wherever the catapults hit, it’ll do the damage its supposed to, and not just “bounce” and not even scratch it. BONUS: If possible, is it possible to make sure that, say, debris stays rather than disappear like in some games? ex. Piece of the wall gets destroyed, some debris fall on people, perhaps killing or injuring them, and STAYING THERE until you somehow(depending on the feature of the game) remove it.

  3. Blood&Gore. I’m sure this engine is able to do this, but is it possible to say, be able to have complete mutilation? I could give some examples, most notable would be Skyrim, Fallout (even though they do not have full, only head on Skyrim, and limbs on Fallout.) The reason I ask is because I’m trying to reach a certain level of realism in the Medieval RPG game I’d create. I just think, in my opinion, a “medieval” setting game that you slash somebody and they just…sort of, fall back and “die”, I don’t really enjoy it. If I have a sword, I’d like to be able to slice my enemies head off, perhaps even his arm, taunt him a bit, you get the idea.

  4. I have asked these questions on the CryEngine 3 forums and I was told that “the world size would only be practical/stable at about 50km² since CE3 doesn’t have level streaming” and then went on to explain: “Well in order to run a large environment efficiently you need to make sure you’re only loading objects that are around the player, no point rendering a shack 3 miles away they can’t see. Games like Skyrim do this through cells where the game only loads objects for an area 5 cells across and long (which I think is about 100 yards or so in any particular direction), anything beyond that is a 2d LOD texture and even they get faded out after a certain distance.” And mentioned that “At the moment Cryengine isn’t able to do this since it’s geared towards games that are split into levels just like the Unreal engine”. I guess my question would be, is Unity able to do this? If not, is there an engine that CAN?

I apologize for the long and perhaps even longer(maybe) post, but I really need some answers. Any and all advice would be greatly appreciated, and don’t fret! If the answers are good, I will begin reading tutorials and such.

Thank you all for your time, and have a good one!

2

I can’t tell you anything about the size of the world you can create. Only that games like Skyrim achieve this by loading sections of the world as you move through it, the loading screen only occurs when you travel between exterior/interior or fast travel to a place where the game needs to load that section of world. I’m sure the guys who made Skyrim would have loved to not have any loading screens, if they needed them I imagine you would too, unless your game would have no fast travel and no changing between levels.

Blood and Gore, dismemberment etc are all possible but you have to build the system for it. if you want people’s arms to be able to be cut off you need a model designed to have limbs cut off. I’m sure there are tutorials.

If you apply physics to everything, I think the game would crash, but there are tricks, ask around.

Yes, you will need a program like blender to make models, Unity is not a modeling program. You can add only very primitive shapes with unity. Unity does however have a terrain editor.

BTW, welcome to the forums

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Not entirely true.

http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/RigidbodySleeping.html

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Unity isn’t the limitation. It’s entirely up to your skills, resources and design.

5

Thanks for the answers, guys.

In regards to what Khyrid said, my game would have absolutely no Fast Travel and no changing between levels. If I’m thinking of the same thing as you, there will be no sort of levels. It’s just a completely open world. If this is not what you mean, apologies.
And thanks. :stuck_out_tongue:

Tiddlesworth, thanks for that link, it helped out a lot.

Would appreciate some more answers, thanks again everyone!

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Do you have any experience with scripting? If not you may want to learn either C# or Unityscript(Unity’s version of Javascript).

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DangerousBeans, I have absolutely no experience with scripting. However, I will eventually learn everything I need, as long as I know that this game is possible to make!

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The same can be said of Assembly and C. :slight_smile:

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It’s definitely possible and unity is the most practical tool to go with by far. If feasibility is what you’re worried about, you came to the right engine. Still even with Unity, making a game is a huge undertaking, especially with what you have in mind. As everyone will tell you, start off slow, take baby steps and before you know it, you will know exactly what you need to do to make your game.

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That sounds good to me. Thank you all very much for your help and advice. I will begin studying and learning the necessary things to be able to create this. Have a good one, everybody.

11

Apologies for double post, but I just remembered a question that I wanted to ask.

Would it be possible to have, say, A LOT of NPCs near you at the same time? What I mean is, for example, Two armies face each other in a field. I’d say the number ranging from 100 or even more per side. Is that possible to have in a game, whatever engine that may be?

Thanks a lot!

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Correct, those are also other tools capable of making a game - albiet far lower level.