Let’s say you’re making a high-end Multiplayer FPS for Console and PC.
It’s december 2016 and you start with UFPS and Photon multiplayer.
What are your top 5 asset picks for world creation, VFX, sound design, whatever you want…!
You’re going for futuristic/Scifi/Cyberpunk style, so the urban component is quite important, there’s probably raining and storms involved :p…
12/15/2016 Edit - Added a video i did last night for some Visual identity prospect, the ship in background isn’t my property, the rest is. To be clear, i’m considering every possibility, even going for Unreal Engine, if i can’t achieve what i want with Unity. UE4 Infiltrator tech demo is actually a relevant aesthetic for what i’m going for:
There’s some weird animation stutter and failed transculent material i need to figure out tho.
To get a rough idea of whether Unity could handle something of the scale of “The Infiltrator” demo from Unreal Engine, i also imported The Infiltrator map to Unity and applied a couple of y own materials, added some lightning…:
Same question but I’m working on multiplayer cod4 style
No solid advice I’m afriad.
In my start list I have a custom character controller with extracts of UFPS and I’m using unet. I’ll add Text Mesh Pro to my list as I use it in everything I release. Tactical Shooter AI which I’m going to use to get bots up and running.
My character animations are from mixamo at the moment but if I wasnt broke I’d be looking at Kubold’s character Rifle Pro / Pistol / Prone animations.
I’m afraid I’m still in the process of working on my FP controller & networking so no thoughts on environment art although the upcoming Archimatix looks very good and that combined with Probuilder could be used to create some interesting architecture for the kind of environment you are looking for.
In my experience the stock art on the asset store is only good for prototyping and alphas. You might get more joy with stock art + Probuilder so you can at least change the models to better suit your requirements.
Good luck.
Oh, and if I never see that ******* meme again it will be too soon.
For terrain I would do RTP (relief terrain pack) or Gaia or both. Make sure to put 4096x4096+ textures on all the things. High-res textures are actually what’s gonna make your game more “Crysis” like, than anything else. Chances are you won’t get there (I don’t think Unity can do Crysis), but high-res texture as much as you can when performance allows you to.
Probably just use SpeedTree tree’s and vegetation, unless you have a custom way of making trees or something. They’re good quality, but Crysis I think uses some magical vegetation voodoo that Unity probably can’t replicate, even now.
That’s pretty much all I can say because what things you buy on the asset store is dependent on your game choices (i.e. character models, weapons (if any), particle effects, animations, etc… It’s up to you. Study and read the assets and descriptions, and ask yourself “does this look and seem high quality” – if yes, give it a shot.
My main advice would be use as high a poly character as you possibly can (as performance dictates) and use as high a texture resolution as you possibly can (as performance dictates). The trick is balancing that quality vs. performance really.
I hate to say it, but “iamwee” is basically right – it’s almost impossible to replicate the AAA processes that a “Crysis” game would dictate, using Unity. You are going to have to heavily modify a lot of things in order to achieve that kind of AAA quality. With a lot of work and time you might be able to get kind of close though…maybe…lol. Good luck
I don’t get all this pessimism in every thread where people are asking about AAA stuff.
Multiple teams and Unity themselves have proven that you can replicate the look of AAA games in Unity. From there it’s just a matter of setting a realistic scope for your project depending on the amount of manpower you have available. If you’re just one guy then that scope would probably just be a tiny island with a couple of trees, a dude and a hut on it because that’s how long it takes to create AAA level assets. But there’s no reason that tiny island shouldn’t look the same or better than Crysis.
What does Crysis have that’s so impossible to achieve in Unity?
Just look at what Sonic Ether has done with a game like Minecraft. Thanks to him you can get visual effects in Minecraft that blow Crysis out of the water. And he’s just one guy who, unless I’m mistaken, hasn’t been doing this for that long.
It’s like when a great artist shows some amazing picture he’s drawn in MS Paint and people are like: “Waaaa? I can’t even draw anything close to that in Photoshop”, well doy, it’s not about the tools, it’s about how skilled you are and how much time you have available.
I will be very blunt and say that I’m 99,99% sure that anyone asking for what assets to use to recreate Crysis in Unity won’t recreate Crysis in Unity.
I don’t have any assets to recommend for you, but I do recommend that you start with the basics and build from there rather than looking for the correct assets to use right away. I would even recommend staying away from UFPS as that asset is so bloated now it’s practically it’s own game. I remember buying it when it was first released because I thought the weapon spring physics approach was cool and because the asset was so light at that time it was easy to extract and use in my own project, but now the asset is so big you’re practically forced to base your game around it rather than make it fit your game and then you’re off on the wrong foot right away in my opinion.
How about a team of artists? Crytek had decent art team.
There’s a matter of cost/revenue for making islands.
A “tiny island with a hut” can quickly turn into a fairly big project, because you’ll need massive amount of different object types and high res textures. Basically you can spend at least few months working on it, making different types of foliage, trees, rocks, etc.
Now, back to the question:
In this scenario I would ditch:
“High-end”
“Multiplayer”
“Console”
Photon
UFPS
And concentrate on making a single player experience compatible with my skills while buying nothing.
Basically I would try to sketch the environment, and then break it into pieces, Bethesda style.
I would aim at simplest possible art form that can still convey my idea, while eating least amount of my time.
It would also help to establish a timeframe for finishgin the project, and list of required and optional goals. Providing basic shooting experience would be a core goals, and aiming at multiplayer, highend and consoles would be a secondary optional goal that I’d try to implement only if there’s time/resources left.
I would probably avoid most store assets (because it is futuristic, meaning there will be very little awailable), but would certainly check out available options in term of substance materials. If substance material would allow me to quickly get visual style I want, I’ll stick with them, otherwise I’ll drop the quality bar lower.
The reason why I would ditch “High-end” part is because the project should be based on what you have right now. Do you have an art team? Or at least few thousands (or, better, hundred thousands) $$$ to pay an artist? No? Then you can’t make it high-end. The idea is a trap, pretty much, because you can fool yourself into magical thinking (“If I buy this asset, I’ll make Crysis!” Well, nope) and spending a lot on assets which will not help you to make the project you want.
Basically, get the idea, establish deadlines, evaluate costs, and compromise, compromise, compromise.
It’s just that, a lot of people on here, seem to think that you can get a bunch of assets from the asset store, put them all together and voila, Crysis.
It doesn’t work like that though.
I mean, even if you find appropriate models and textures for what you want, you’ll still have to considerably edit them so they all look consistent. AAA is all about consistency and polish after all, so a lot of hard work.
So, “One does not simply make a Crysis game in Unity” is true and not pessimistic. As is “One does not simply make a Crysis game, in anything”. There’s nothing simple about AAA.
Unless of course, by Crysis, the OP means, “a single level of a kinda good looking, generic modern shooter thing-a-magig”. Then yeah, buy a bunch of assets and slap them together.
There’s a difference between “one does not simply” and “one simply does not”
I think the question is a bit far-fetched, you could substitute any game in there and the result wouldn’t look much closer. There’s no way of finding assets on the store that would make 1/8 of any self-consistent game, let alone Crysis.
Actually, it could work if there was an asset that contained all the art from crysis.
Then again, even in this case one would need to waste quite a lot of time placing the stuff on that island, and modding crysis could be easier.
In the end, I think there’s important difference between giving it a try and making it happen.
If OP wants to try making a crysis-like island, he can go ahead and start spending money. If OP wants to make this actually happen, then I’d suggest to abandon the idea. Chance of failure is too high.
There were large environments created by small teams, it is just that I wouldn’t touch this kind of project alone.
Crysis needed a team because they made a massive game. OP makes a game that fits his team. If OP is a decent artist and the only person on his team then he has to base his scope around that fact. This is so obvious I don’t even understand why it has to be said.
I was thinking a tiny island with a hut would take him years, but I can think of a lot of really cool shooter ideas I could make if I had a tiny island with a hut. Crysis 1 was a mediocre game, Crysis 2 and 3 were trash. OP, if he’s skilled, could make something superior to those games, but he obviously could not rival the scopes of those games if he’s just one man. The most fun I had in Crysis 1 was when I was modding it and most of that time was spent on a tiny island with a hut.
But you did say it was almost impossible which in my opinion is about as pessimistic as it gets, and in my opinion completely false.
Well, the first reply in the thread, which you liked, tells OP that it’s impossible to make a game like Crysis in Unity.
Obviously.
That statement means it’s impossible, it has nothing to with something being easy or hard, it means it’s impossible, which again, is completely false.
He obviously doesn’t mean that.
This is exactly what I mean by pessimism. I’m the most critical and realistic person I know, and I often get a lot of hate for it from people who apparently lack the ability for rational thinking, but I am not, at least from my point of view, pessimistic. Being critical and realistic and being pessimistic are not the same.
Telling someone they can’t make Crysis in Unity is pessimistic, and false. Telling them that they should set their sights appropriately is realistic.
Just the other day someone was asking about AAA terrain in Unity and the same naysayers as always crept out of the woodwork and shut him down, even though we just recently had a small team of ex-AAA guys prove to us at Unity 2016 that they were able to make AAA terrain in Project Wight with just 2 assets, the Relief Terrain Pack and Quixel Megascans.
It’s the same with the MMO threads, stop telling people what they can and cannot do if you’re clueless. We have no way to judge the capabilities of OP in this regard. He could have an entire studio of AAA guys ready to begin on this project for all we know. Or it could just be himself, but he’s in fact extremely capable.
I was watching Quill18’s live stream of Ludum Dare this weekend and even though he’s a fantastic guy and a very capable developer he just kept botching up everything in his physics based games, first a car game which he abandoned, and then a pinball game. And he was presenting his problems as Unity problems when it was obviously just him not being comfortable or experienced with Unity physics and him being pressed for time, and his chat kept regurgitating this bullshit for the duration of the stream. Anytime anyone asked why that was wonky or why he abandoned his car game people would say “Because Unity”, “Unity physics suck”, “Impossible in Unity” or similar crap like that, which obviously isn’t true. Creating a game based around polished physics in 48 hours is a ludicrous idea to begin with.
Now, back to the topic, if I were to personally, alone, make what I’d consider to be a Crysis multiplayer game in Unity in a realistic amount of time:
First I would break down what I meant by that.
I obviously can’t have a cinematic story with multiple voiced characters and whatnot, because I’m just myself working alone so scratch that.
I didn’t care for Crysis’ singleplayer campaign so scratch that as well.
And I just realized I’m making a multiplayer game anyway so 2. and 3. was never in my scope to begin with, an easy couple of hundred thousand man hours saved.
I would need great looking terrain, apparently I can use RTP and Quixel Megascans for that.
I would need great looking water, I could ask the Subnautica or Stranded Deep guys what they’re using for their water, or just browse the Asset Store because I know there are a bunch of fantastic water assets on there.
I would need a great looking sky, again I could ask the Subnautica or Stranded Deep guys or just browse the Asset Store because I know there’s also fantastic sky assets on there.
Unity is working on great looking image effects, but there’s also a bunch on the Asset Store so I have that covered as well.
I would want fantastic shooter mechanics. I would focus most of my own own time here initially. Until this works how I want it I would not proceed further. Crysis didn’t have fantastic shooter mechanics or even good shooter mechanics, but this is my game and I want that. This includes the feel of the shooting and the visual and aural feedback.
I would need some kickass weapon models and at least one character model. I’m not sure if there are any character models of the quality I want on the Asset Store so I would make him myself. It shouldn’t be too hard, but it would be very time consuming. The weapons models I should be able to find somewhere or at least good bases to tweak.
I would need some static assets to fill my world with like rocks, trees, bushes, huts, bunkers and whatnot, but surely I can find these in the quality I need somewhere on the interweb and if not I’ll just sit down and make some myself.
And seeing as my game is going to be multiplayer I would before I started on any of the above make sure that I was able to create a fluid multiplayer experience with the number of players I wanted in my game.
Hey presto, it’s a Crysis multiplayer game. This would take me many years to complete, but if I was actually passionate about this and actually considering getting this game on modern consoles I would surely seek out freelancers to help me with this, investors or publishers.
The OP did not ask if a game like Crysis could be made in Unity. The OP asked what 5 assets could be purchased from the store to build a game like Crysis.
Well, I’m going to participate inspired by TwiiK’s well thought out comments.
I’ve been here researching the Unity forum for a long time, on and off over the years, yet intensely over the last six months. Having read through possibly thousands of threads and posts, many in the Asset Store forum as well, I have rarely ever seen this on display. Sometimes, yes. Yet it is brought up and presented as a truth far more often than I have actually seen it happen, is what I’m trying to say.
What I do see frequently though are hard working, intelligent, inspired and hopeful people, asking questions and trying to understand incredibly complicated things, for some maybe the most complicated and challenging thing that they have ever attempted before, intellectually and industriously. And yet here they are still, sleeves up and spending hours in the engine every day, participating on the forums, researching the documentation and answer base, supporting the developers, each other and the Asset Store economy.
And then there are your colleagues trying to make a living in the Asset Store. Putting in the hours of skill, design and effort trying to create something to support themselves, their families and those I reference above. There are a lot of people here on both of sides of this exchange who want the Asset Store to succeed and to be a good and positive thing.
Then you clearly don’t know the context of the photo.
That is at the end of the journey, after all four of them have been changed beyond repair or recognition to their own people, having survived the journey that they went through together, toasting all who were lost and all that was lost within them in order to succeed. Here is the article that the photo is from if you want to read more.
Everyone posts that meme, about walking into Mordor. Yet the whole point of the story is that even the smallest and the humblest of us, with enough heart, determination and love, can accomplish the insurmountable together.
I see so many posts on here where people ask for the advice from those with experience and the post just gets shot down in flames.
It seems there are people with thousands of posts but not much of worth to say which is a shame because when you look at the signatures, in general they have some pretty nice stuff to show and can surely share some experiences in a more positive light.
So lets get back to the original post then.
And for those with nothing of value to contribute - jog on.
What Twiix said about UFPS is why I’m working on my own FP controller. I want to make it light weight but keep the spring animation from UFPS for the weapons.
I think RTP is a must if you are doing terrain and some decent terrain editor like gaia or terrain composer 2 - perhaps you should research the available terrain tools to see what suits best. Speed tree assets come highly recommended too.
As The-Britain and myself mentioned Probuilder is a go to tool if you are doing an FPS. And I’d throw in Archimatix to that too when its released as I’ve been lucky enough to participate in the beta and its awesome.
neginfinity mentioned Substance Materials which is something i’ve looked at briefly and will look at more in-depth when the time comes. Perhaps substance + stock models + probuilder could be a way to go?
Not sure I agree with the dropping multiplayer though. I don’t know the OP’s experience but from my point of view I’m more a coder than a designer and designing a single player campaign scares the shit out of me. @neginfinity thanks for the link to Miasmata - its inspiring seeing stuff other people have achieved.
Nimian Legends is another great terrain example of what one person can achieve even on a freakin iPad.
And there’s a guy thats been working on an FPS for some time on here who’s work is quite inspiring too - No Heroes
Not Crysis. And the last one on the list I have no experience with directly, yet know the developer’s other work well. A wide selection of content, effects and tools; yet more importantly, working with all five of those developers and their communities will teach you a tremendous amount regarding Unity along the way.
