Piranha Bytes - Sascha Henrichs Interview @ World of PB

Piranha Bytes' level designer and texture artist Sascha Henrichs has been interviewed at World of Piranha Bytes. The conversation mostly covers Sasha's background and experiences on the Gothics:

And than came Gothic 3. Was that a great change? Suddenly working with something completely different: next-gen graphics and new programming tools and equipments? How did you get accustomed to that?

Yes, it was really a great change since we didn’t know anything about these techniques. That's why we made so many bad normal maps, forced too many polygons on some parts where it wasn't necessary and so on. We made many mistakes… but we must have made something right too since the overall graphical beauty of G3 is - well, at least in my opinion and with all video settings on maximum - still in the lead when you compare it with similar games like Oblivion, Two Worlds etc. Our level of detail is still unmatched by any other current game of its genre.

More information.

We made many mistakes… but we must have made something right too since the overall graphical beauty of G3 is - well, at least in my opinion and with all video settings on maximum - still in the lead when you compare it with similar games like Oblivion, Two Worlds etc. Our level of detail is still unmatched by any other current game of its genre.

That is too frank IMO…She could've just said better than other titles in the genre without naming them

Hmm, great features are perhaps: a huge world free of instances, nice graphics, a great atmosphere, cool dialogues, complete voice output and it's a sequel of a huge story.

The first three maybe but the rest I strongly disagree..

Sascha Henrichs is a 'he' .

10. Why did you change the heroes' faces in G3? Our nameless hero looks like a "dolt". Mike Hoge was a better model.

"That is your opinion. Some like it, some not. Making a sequel is some kind of evolution. When designing the hero for the 3rd time it can become a religion rather than just another design solution. But since we are all so very professional and restrained, we soon agreed to an omnipresent, positive opinion about the heroes design… all of us at Piranha Bytes liked the hero… well, ok that was a joke. However, at some point in development you have to close the design chapter no matter if it fits anyone's personal preference."

LOL!

Originally Posted by Dhruin
(…) but we must have made something right too (…)

Dammit! When he said this I thought he was going to talk about the mechanics and stuff, but no… -_-

I´ve made a small update to the newsbit.

Our level of detail is still unmatched by any other current game of its genre.

I'm inclined to say : "The level of bugs also."

Yup. And the level of crappy performance, too.

Originally Posted by Moriendor
Yup. And the level of crappy performance, too.

Oh I dont know about that. NWN2 is a very strong contender after all

We made many mistakes… but we must have made something right too since the overall graphical beauty of G3 is - well, at least in my opinion and with all video settings on maximum - still in the lead when you compare it with similar games like Oblivion, Two Worlds etc. Our level of detail is still unmatched by any other current game of its genre.

Well, she got us there. We all know playing games isn't about playing a game as much as admiring the game's graphics. I can forgive a lot if the graphics are awesome. And the graphics aren't just regular awesome, they are awesome in all capitals letters with a bunch of exclamation points as follows: AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! And, really, thats all I can really ask for in a game.

And that $70. video card really displays them AWESOMELY TOO!!!!

Darn tootin'. I don't pinch pennies when it comes to AWESOME!!!!!!

He does have a point though, G3 displayed on max settings on a rig with GF80 series cards or similar(and enough RAM) will be way ahead of both Oblivion and Two Worlds. The level of detail in the world really is exceptional.

Also, it's not really close to "most crappy performance", I've seen games breaking down completely or being unable to even install or run at all. In fact, almost any game that has the infamous Starforce will have more issues running than Gothic 3 does.

I can just repeat what Jaz already said :

Originally Posted by roqua
Well, she got us there.

Originally Posted by Jaz
Sascha Henrichs is a 'he' .

Originally Posted by Maylander
In fact, almost any game that has the infamous Starforce will have more issues running than Gothic 3 does.

Huh ? I never had any problems with Starforce, despite what you might reply.
And of course you don't use Windows98SE, I guess …

heheh funny how all the pb threads nowdays are like Benthesa threads… sooner or later it all turns out either bent bashing or pb bashing

I think there might be a lesson there for all of us!!

Starforce has the ability to disable half your computer. Litteraly. It installs its own drivers, without asking in most cases, that runs hidden in the background whenever you try to run games. These drivers have the unfortunate effect of causing major unstability on different systems, because they trigger various reactions in Windows XP (don't know about 98) that may, as an example, result in CD/DVD roms becoming virtually useless. There have been cases of people having to completely re-build their PC or format their harddrives to get it to work again.

So why is Starforce still in business? Their own answer is simple: They are protected by the EULA when you install the game that their copyprotection is supposed to protect.

Anyway, this was just an example, let's not turn this into a Starforce discussion.

Maylander, I already know this ! I even own a Starforce game !

I'm not as stupid as you might think.

I agree with you that the approach made by the developers of Starforce is compromising a system,

but on the other hand I have never had any problems.

So … There's imho the need for looking at what kind of general risks such a ciopy protection includes, and what individual risks and experiences are there.

Of course, not everyone know as much about copy protections as we do; but I believe that the bad reputation of Starforce shoul already have spread across the internet so that mostpeople might already know what it does.

The only problem lies with the absence of a definitive list of all games thatuse what kind of copy-protection (like Starforce).


Finally, I agree that Starforce discussions should be held elsewhere.

My point is just that starforce protected games will, in many cases, cause far more problems than G3. In fact, I've had more problems with every single starforce game than I ever did with G3, so the statement earlier in the thread that G3 "topped the crappy performance" list is simply not correct. There are many games that are way ahead of G3 as far as problems go.

On your system, yes. But not on mine.