CryEngine

[jitspoe]

CryEngine is now "pay what you want" and there's a humble bundle pack of assets, which, surprisingly, includes some paintball stuff:

https://www.humblebundle.com/cryengine-bundle

I grabbed it (might as well), but I'm not sure if it's worth doing anything with.

Pros:
- Support for higher quality graphics (obviously).
- Some of the feature requests (animation blending and such) would be done or easier to do.
- Probably has a better level editor (haven't tried it yet).
- Less likely to have licensing issues, so it would be easier to distribute on things like Steam.

Cons:
- Won't run well (or at all) on older hardware.
- Framerate will be lower.
- Will be difficult or impossible to replicate the strafe jumping feel we currently have.
- Organic terrain doesn't really work well with the current movement (lots of little bumps and dips would make strafe jumping very unpredictable because sometimes you'd hit a microscopic incline and go flying, and other times you wouldn't).
- None of the old maps would be compatible and would have to be rebuilt.
- Getting the game caught up to where it is now with a new engine would be a LOT of work.
- I have doubts about the quality of the networking code for this type of game.


Overall, I'm not really sure if it would be worth the effort.  I used to think a lot of the reasons that this game wasn't popular had to do with the graphics quality and the fact that it was paintball and not "real" guns, but seeing so many games like Nexuiz and Toxikk flounder, I'm not sure it could ever really be successful.

[xrichardx]

I think that strafe jumping, paintball gun physics like bullet drop and flight time, and the fact that it is free and very small are the things that make this game unique. A new engine would be fine, even if it needed better hardware, but as soon as one of these aspects I mentioned gets changed drastically, I doubt it would feel like paintball anymore. When they get removed, it would probably just become one of the games you mentioned.

So:
No more strafe jumping (due to implementation or terrain) / low framerate? That would definitely be a problem in my view.
Catching up to where we are now in development: Do you think that you have the time to do that? I think you are way too busy and there wouldn't be that much of assistance from other developers tbh.

About the better graphics argument:
I don't think that graphics quality is a very important factor for the popularity of a game. When the gameplay is good, that should be enough for getting it quite popular. I'm thinking about how popular cs:go is when the graphics are still pretty bad in comparison to modern games - and people even disable effects to get an advantage eg. when looking at an HE explosion. Still, having paintball with really good graphics wouldn't hurt...

[Squeeze]

Everybody is crying that game need updates, why not. CryEngine would be cool, even if it will change strafe movements or another aspects in game. Other FPS games have updates where physics are being changed too, example CSGO, they changing hitboxes, movement, movement speed, maps, graphics, etc. etc. and if people wanna play it or stay good, they will get used to it, they will learn new updates.

People are crying about this game not being updated, I think it's good idea.

+ Who knows cinema4D or maya or 3DS max, it's similar user interface in cryengine + you can connect maya and cryengine together to make some cool stuff.

[Rick]

Everybody is crying that game need updates, why not. CryEngine would be cool, even if it will change strafe movements or another aspects in game. Other FPS games have updates where physics are being changed too, example CSGO, they changing hitboxes, movement, movement speed, maps, graphics, etc. etc. and if people wanna play it or stay good, they will get used to it, they will learn new updates.

People are crying about this game not being updated, I think it's good idea.

The thing is, it wouldn't really be an update when you're reworking every core component of Paintball, it would be a new game.

Let's ignore the fact that jitspoe hasn't got the time to do this alone and that, besides xrichardx, no one has stepped up to help in a while: If core physics components were to be changed, how would it effect the popularity of the game? We'll use CS:GO as an example, as you did, now what makes CS:GO great and popular (in terms of physics not the million dollar tournaments and pro scene)? Not the hitboxes, not the movement and not the maps and graphics (if you count those as physics :3). Gun physics is what makes CS:GO great. What would happen if gun physics were changed such as spraying? The community loses its excrement and makes Valve revert everything. What about adding a new weapon? The community loses its excrement and Valve nerfs the excrement out of it to make it useless. What about changing an existing weapons physics? Valve changed the m4a1-s' fire rate, boom, everyone stopped using it. I think the key difference between an update on CS:GO and a port of dp2 is that, one is hours of paid work that can be reverted, the other is hundreds of hours of unpaid work that would be completely useless if it fails. It's a really big decision.

I'd love to see this game ported to a new engine, I just don't believe that it'll be the same game.

[jitspoe]

Also, CS:GO is just using newer iterations of the same engine.  It's not like every aspect of the game engine was completely replaced.

[Squeeze]

The thing is, it wouldn't really be an update when you're reworking every core component of Paintball, it would be a new game.

Let's ignore the fact that jitspoe hasn't got the time to do this alone and that, besides xrichardx, no one has stepped up to help in a while: If core physics components were to be changed, how would it effect the popularity of the game? We'll use CS:GO as an example, as you did, now what makes CS:GO great and popular (in terms of physics not the million dollar tournaments and pro scene)? Not the hitboxes, not the movement and not the maps and graphics (if you count those as physics :3). Gun physics is what makes CS:GO great. What would happen if gun physics were changed such as spraying? The community loses its excrement and makes Valve revert everything. What about adding a new weapon? The community loses its excrement and Valve nerfs the excrement out of it to make it useless. What about changing an existing weapons physics? Valve changed the m4a1-s' fire rate, boom, everyone stopped using it. I think the key difference between an update on CS:GO and a port of dp2 is that, one is hours of paid work that can be reverted, the other is hundreds of hours of unpaid work that would be completely useless if it fails. It's a really big decision.

I'd love to see this game ported to a new engine, I just don't believe that it'll be the same game.

I said csgo as an example only because Richard mentoied it. I wasn't talking about popularity of the game, but updates. Were you reading my post and replying to it? Doesn't seem like u replied on my post.

To spraying in CSGO, it was changed couple of times. Physics, spraying patterns...
As you said THE COMMUNITY loses its excrement and makes Valve revert everything.
The nerf was good. It was an awp for 800 bucks.
Changing an existing weapons physics? They changed m4a1 people used it a lot still. Now they use it even more. I was playing csgo that time and I was never fan of m4a1, but I saw more than 3 people of the team used it even that it was nerfed. They got used to it. Nerfs in league of legends? People will stop playing that champion and they will find different way how to dominate or they will get used into it.

As you said THE COMMUNITY.

So the community is crying that the game is outdated with bad graphics, no updates at all or once per year or how physics doesn't work properly while shooting or is it ball speed? No idea. Something changed, people are complaining about it, nothing happens or once per long time. Why don't give to this game new soul.

+ to jitspoe, why you bring something like this if you know that you got no time for that.

[Ace]

Cryengine is pretty, but it's not a good idea for this game imo.

If we are looking at some physics changes, I think the only worthwhile one to me would be a better implementation of CPM physics. Kind of goes in the direction the game has taken over the years (fast paced and jump focused) and introduces some nice new things like air turning and wall clipping.

Also, it's a reasonable thing to do on limited time unlike a cryengine update