Spore

[Moros]

I do however fear a lot of crap-creatures to pop up, something like an eye with a single leg and a mouth on an arm.

how did you know I was...

I don't think they'll be selected on looks much because you can't expect that they are going to hire people to rate every creature. The game probably will select it based on a few stats. (So you wouldn't have to much of the same type of creatures on one planet.) But it's quite difficukt for a computer to rate the prettyness of something so that's not going to happen I'm afraid.

[Kraxis]

No, I didn't mean looks. I actually think that if the creature works then it is cool. But undoubtedly there will be people who create creatures that just can't perform properly.

[Papewaio]

No, I didn't mean looks. I actually think that if the creature works then it is cool. But undoubtedly there will be people who create creatures that just can't perform properly.

Since it is procedurally based... it may be an art form to make retarded creatures that the game has a hard time making move.

[Kraxis]

Since it is procedurally based... it may be an art form to make retarded creatures that the game has a hard time making move.

Well, sometimes people do take a pride in such things...

[Papewaio]

Well, sometimes people do take a pride in such things...

To know ones limits, it helps if you go past them occassionally.

[econ21]

Since it is procedurally based...

The presenter kept mentioning that term "procedurally based" - what does it mean?

Great video, by the way. The game concept is impressive (although I'd never want to play it) and the presenter was great.

[doc_bean]

The presenter kept mentioning that term "procedurally based" - what does it mean?

Great video, by the way. The game concept is impressive (although I'd never want to play it) and the presenter was great.

Say you have 2 bars connecting so that rotation in one direction is allowed. Traditionally you'd tell the computer all the positions it can be in and how it should move from one position to another (eg what the next and previous position should be). 'Procedurally based' means that the computer analyzes the system and determines what positions are possible and how it can move.

That's at least a very simple explanation of how I understood it.

[GoreBag]

The presenter kept mentioning that term "procedurally based" - what does it mean?

Great video, by the way. The game concept is impressive (although I'd never want to play it) and the presenter was great.

Essentially, it means that the game's engine is more concerned with the physics of the creature and its surroundings, and creates the animations to match it, instead of having a huge library of animations from which to pick and display.

[BelgradeWar]

I have this feeling that the whole procedural thing will take it's toll in hardware requirements:(

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

If they're smart it shouldn't be too bad.

I imagine it could work like this: every time something is "defined" procedurally there is some data stored in a library somewhere, maybe online. Then it accesses that file every time, instead of continually regenerating content. Kind of like how your computer stores temporary internet files so you don't have to keep downloading them.

Of course, that's only my speculation.