Moving the Game onto a completely new engine?

dragonlord500

Zos has made too much money on ESO and it's time for this game to be fully put onto a completely new engine and when that happens then perhaps the whole game will be opened up seamlessly without loading screens just like games like Black Desert Online and Genshin impact.

Maitsukas

You might as well ask for a completely new game to be developed, since it is a massive* thing to take on.

If a new engine would require rather beefy hardware, my PC would not like that, since I have to play on the absolute minimal settings on 1080p currently.

• By massive, I mean nearly 100 GB of data to be handled.

Grizzbeorn

Maitsukas wrote: »

You might as well ask for a completely new game to be developed, since it is a massive* thing to take on.

If a new engine would require rather beefy hardware, my PC would not like that, since I have to play on the absolute minimal settings on 1080p currently.

• By massive, I mean nearly 100 GB of data to be handled.

They'd also have to rebuild the entire game from scratch, code-wise.
There is no "moving" a game to a new engine; it has to be rebuilt on the new engine from the ground up.
Like you said, one might as well ask for a new game.

People make this suggestion as though it is something simple to accomplish.

mb10

cross play in 2023 would be nice...

ZOS_Kevin

As a few people have mentioned, that's not how game engines work. It's not like you can copy and pasting code into Unreal Engine 5 and therefore ESO will run in Unreal. That ask is making an entirely new game. There are things that we can do like the next-gen overhaul we did for consoles a few years ago and work within the existing engine for some graphical improvements.

Elsonso

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

As a few people have mentioned, that's not how game engines work. It's not like you can copy and pasting code into Unreal Engine 5 and therefore ESO will run in Unreal. That ask is making an entirely new game.

What if you work weekends?

dragonlord500 wrote: »

when that happens then perhaps the whole game will be opened up seamlessly without loading screens just like games like Black Desert Online and Genshin impact.

When building your own game engine, you pretty much get to choose what to put in it. While I would love seamlessly loading zones, I figure that it's not that the "engine can't do it" so much as they didn't want it bad enough for it to make the cut.

I am curious as to what they will do with Occlusion Culling, though. Maybe they can use that to eliminate some of the door transitions. I'd love to find out if it can be used to eliminate situations like what happened in Jorunn's basement in Windhelm.

Maitsukas

Elsonso wrote: »

I am curious as to what they will do with Occlusion Culling, though. Maybe they can use that to eliminate some of the door transitions. I'd love to find out if it can be used to eliminate situations like what happened in Jorunn's basement in Windhelm.

Occlusion Culling is a feature that disables rendering of objects when they are not currently seen by the camera because they are obscured (occluded) by other objects.

Kappachi

dragonlord500 wrote: »

Zos has made too much money on ESO and it's time for this game to be fully put onto a completely new engine and when that happens then perhaps the whole game will be opened up seamlessly without loading screens just like games like Black Desert Online and Genshin impact.

I wouldn't want seamless open world... Would make farming in zones a bit too confusing if I got a bit too far in the direction of one area and all of a sudden enemies start droping the set pieces for the other area that i'm nearby... Loading screen is a visible way to see that you've changed zone, even if it does pop up sometimes when i'm walking normally and didn't think I was going into the next area it's invaluable for telling me to stay on one side xD

Elsonso

Maitsukas wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

I am curious as to what they will do with Occlusion Culling, though. Maybe they can use that to eliminate some of the door transitions. I'd love to find out if it can be used to eliminate situations like what happened in Jorunn's basement in Windhelm.

Occlusion Culling is a feature that disables rendering of objects when they are not currently seen by the camera because they are obscured (occluded) by other objects.

Exactly. It is what "other objects" they create to take advantage of this that I am interested in.

ArchangelIsraphel

I honestly don't understand why its a problem for some people that ESO isn't "seamless". Why should it be? Whats wrong with a two second loading screen between zones? It doesn't break immersion or cause any real problems, at least as far as I'm concerned.

The only two reasons I'd personally want ESO to be seamless is if they added actual sea travel where I can sail a ship or a boat between continents, swim and explore underwater, or fly. But most of this is impossible within the constraints of the engine, thus I content myself with modding Skyrim.

Also, this isn't a game built in Unreal Engine, thus it can easily be slapped into Unreal Engine and made to work (As Kevin said, that is just not how game engines work)

jad11mumbler

dragonlord500 wrote: »

Zos has made too much money on ESO and it's time for this game to be fully put onto a completely new engine and when that happens then perhaps the whole game will be opened up seamlessly without loading screens just like games like Black Desert Online and Genshin impact.

Lol what

ixthUA

I would not mind better textures, even if client size goes to 160 gb.

AlterBlika

Most zones aren't connected with each other, and anyway these loading screens take a few seconds if you run the game on a ssd. Plus, if playing on somewhat potato pc with a hdd you could notice that sometimes the zone you're in can't manage to load chunks of terrain in time - it looks blurry and if you go there you'll get a loading screen. So such a feature is already in the game, but it just wouldn't make sense to do it with whole Tamriel we currently have playable.

Anumaril

I'd be in favour of developing a whole new game for ESO on a new engine, but realistically that's not going to happen. Graphical overhauls are much more likely/realistic, so if anything we should focus on that.

jommerryrth

Most layers would just be happy with getting through the doors in blackheart haven and wayrest sewers on a consistent basis

Tyrant_Tim

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

As a few people have mentioned, that's not how game engines work. It's not like you can copy and pasting code into Unreal Engine 5 and therefore ESO will run in Unreal. That ask is making an entirely new game. There are things that we can do like the next-gen overhaul we did for consoles a few years ago and work within the existing engine for some graphical improvements.

Have there been any talks about a sequel to ESO?

I’m sure if our paid cosmetics transferred over people wouldn’t be wholesomely opposed to it.

Elsonso

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

As a few people have mentioned, that's not how game engines work. It's not like you can copy and pasting code into Unreal Engine 5 and therefore ESO will run in Unreal. That ask is making an entirely new game. There are things that we can do like the next-gen overhaul we did for consoles a few years ago and work within the existing engine for some graphical improvements.

Have there been any talks about a sequel to ESO?

I’m sure if our paid cosmetics transferred over people wouldn’t be wholesomely opposed to it.

Heh. By the time they got such a thing to release state, none of us would be around to play it.

Pelanora

O man, this game is never really going anywhere is it. If you can't update the engine.....i mean i love an old car as much as anyone but.... it's not sustainable to maintain old games indefinitely.

Kappachi

Elsonso wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

As a few people have mentioned, that's not how game engines work. It's not like you can copy and pasting code into Unreal Engine 5 and therefore ESO will run in Unreal. That ask is making an entirely new game. There are things that we can do like the next-gen overhaul we did for consoles a few years ago and work within the existing engine for some graphical improvements.

Have there been any talks about a sequel to ESO?

I’m sure if our paid cosmetics transferred over people wouldn’t be wholesomely opposed to it.

Heh. By the time they got such a thing to release state, none of us would be around to play it.

Phantasy Star Online 2 reinvented itself... personally I really disliked it but it seems like it's finally picking up steam. it's possible to do something like that, but it's a huge undertaking and you risk alienating the audience.

Kaelthorn_Nightbloom

ArchangelIsraphel wrote: »

I honestly don't understand why its a problem for some people that ESO isn't "seamless". Why should it be? Whats wrong with a two second loading screen between zones? It doesn't break immersion or cause any real problems, at least as far as I'm concerned.

Zones and world boundaries are very immersion breaking for many players.

Elrond87

looks fine just update all old textures, from the old costumes, old zones and the old motifs

mocap

What ZOS can do without new engine:
- new water render
- more volumetric lighting
- volumetric footprints (on snowdrifts, on sand, on mud etc)
- completely redo grass renderer, because now it's drawn by billboards (facepalm)
- more detailed weather effects
- improved swaying of trees and vegetation in the wind
- increase draw distance and get rid of damn distant fog. I want to see White-Gold Tower while being in Rawl'kha lol
- RTX
- add dynamic change of camera perspective during dialog (like in Fallout 4 and many other games)

Most of the above is just new shader effects and since ESO use DX11 it shouldn't be a big problem.

barney2525

Let's try running it on a steam engine

danno8

Ask the guys doing Skyblivion or Skywind how easy it is to just move an old game to a new engine.

SpacemanSpiff1

seems simple enough. they can prolly bang it out in a week.

Elsonso

SpacemanSpiff1 wrote: »

seems simple enough. they can prolly bang it out in a week.

Probably less if they work nights.

ZOS_Kevin

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

Have there been any talks about a sequel to ESO?

I’m sure if our paid cosmetics transferred over people wouldn’t be wholesomely opposed to it.

Currently, the intention is to continue support for ESO for years to come. There are plenty more stories to tell.

danno8

Elsonso wrote: »

Maitsukas wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

I am curious as to what they will do with Occlusion Culling, though. Maybe they can use that to eliminate some of the door transitions. I'd love to find out if it can be used to eliminate situations like what happened in Jorunn's basement in Windhelm.

Occlusion Culling is a feature that disables rendering of objects when they are not currently seen by the camera because they are obscured (occluded) by other objects.

Exactly. It is what "other objects" they create to take advantage of this that I am interested in.

Usually loading screens are there as a way to manage memory (or to create encounter "pens"), whereas occlusion culling is a way to manage GPU cycles. While the two aren't mutually exclusive I don't really see a way that you can substitute one for the other.

Also, this game is rather CPU bound on most machines. Occlusion Culling is probably going to negatively affect most users if they choose to enable it since the CPU is now having to calculate whether to send information to the GPU for rendering or to cull it.

ZOS_Kevin

Elsonso wrote: »

What if you work weekends?

Tenthirty2

ZOS_Kevin wrote: »

Tyrant_Tim wrote: »

...

Currently, the intention is to continue support for ESO for years to come. There are plenty more stories to tell.

This made me smile, thank you