Battlefield 3 thread - Server details in opening post -

[Frenzy]

I work with game devs. Like others have said this is likely an old build. They'll be monitoring reports for any newly discovered bugs. However this close to release the majority of them will have to be patched if they haven't been detected and fixed already by internal test teams.

You have to take into account that they have to get the discs manufactured, with this being such a huge release I wouldn't be surprised if they sent off a gold build 3 weeks before it hits the shelves. From personal experience I know its 2 weeks usually.

 

[Mr Krugga]

I have a bit of an idea on the development cycle of a game engine and products built on top of it - which maybe you don't - but these kind of bugs should have been ironed out a long time before they were starting to implement detailed game levels, class systems, replacing placeholder sound samples with the final ones, etc. etc.



TBH I'm not that impressed with what I see in the beta aside from the sound design which is top notch, graphically theres some impressive stuff but theres also a fair amount of ropey stuff but thats better left to judge from the proper game. There are 100s and 100s of texture issues (textures not aligned properly, flat poor quality textures used for bricks, stones, tiles, sandbags, etc.), player animations are mostly cack the death animations are especially lolarific. But none of that bothers me that much as those kinda issues can be sorted relatively painlessly - tho I still wouldn't expect them to be so prevelant in a public beta build - even one a couple of months old - this close to release. What bothers me are the bugs which indicate serious underlying issues with the game engine itself, problems in many core sub-systems that the rest is built on top of and issues here not sorted before you start fleshing out the product your building on top of it have far more complex repercussions and a whole chain of things need to be fixed and or tested against when you fix the underlying issues. These kind of issues should not be in a beta build released this close to the full game release it makes no sense to show off to the world how buggy your game is when there should be much more polished beta builds by now.

Finally someone with a bit of common sense and understanding of the real issues here.

 

[Gerard]

Nope, just get John Carmack in, graphics sorted.

 

[norm]

Solving the kinda issues that come up in the beta aren't overly difficult with a good dev team and don't need that many people, the problem is finding and reproducing them in the first place which needs a lot of people. i.e. that tank spazzing out was potentially a gimbal lock type issue caused by the object becoming unexpectedly stuck in the terrain and only needs 1 guy with a bit of experience to pick it apart.

But with this being the the 6th FPS game* they've made on the Frostbite engine, surely all the trivial things like ground glitches etc should be ironed out by now? It defies belief really. Or maybe the Frostbite engine just isn't as good as they say.

* BC1 > BF1943 > BC2 > MOH > BC2 Vietnam

 

[Frenzy]

I don't think you guys should be treating this as a demo, we don't know how many builds behind it is from mainline. They arent going to exhaust them selves making sure its perfect when they have bugs to fix.

 

[SuperTronNarwhal]

Whoop installed new PSU and GPU Running great!

 

[Mr Krugga]

But with this being the the 6th FPS game* they've made on the Frostbite engine, surely all the trivial things like ground glitches etc should be ironed out by now? It defies belief really. Or maybe the Frostbite engine just isn't as good as they say.

* BC1 > BF1943 > BC2 > MOH > BC2 Vietnam

Frostbite 2.0 is a new engine.

Whoop installed new PSU and GPU Running great!

I'm sure you gained a fair bit of an fps boost with that new PSU.

 

[Gzero]

I don't think you guys should be treating this as a demo, we don't know how many builds behind it is from mainline. They arent going to exhaust them selves making sure its perfect when they have bugs to fix.

Battlelog is current, therefore that would count as beta and demo.

 

[Gzero]

Was tongue in cheek for get someone in who knows what they are doing.

 

[norm]

Frostbite 2.0 is a new engine.

It's not new is it. They tweaked and redefined it like any software undergoing improvement.

Just as BF1943 supposedly had Destruction 1.5, and BC2 had Destruction 2.0.

 

[barmyllama]

Frostbite 2.0 is a new engine.

I don't believe for a minute it's a brand spanking, all new, build from the ground up engine.

There will be a lot of code left over from Frostbite 1 and older game engines they've used for that matter.

It's very unusual for a developer to throw away aboslutely everything and start again from scratch.

 

[shadowcreaper]

I don't believe for a minute it's a brand spanking, all new, build from the ground up engine.

There will be a lot of code left over from Frostbite 1 and older game engines they've used for that matter.

It's very unusual for a developer to throw away aboslutely everything and start again from scratch.

+1

its not new no way ho zay

the game feels very very simular to bc2 in a lot of graphic and engine areas and at times it hard to see what is actually new apart from the sound.

im looking forward to seeing what the full retail has to offer as i hope the many bugs and texture issues are sorted.

"eat my grenade"......"ow crud i forgot grenades cant go through bushes"

 

[Mr Krugga]

It's not new is it. They tweaked and redefined it like any software undergoing improvement.

Just as BF1943 supposedly had Destruction 1.5, and BC2 had Destruction 2.0.

I don't believe for a minute it's a brand spanking, all new, build from the ground up engine.

There will be a lot of code left over from Frostbite 1 and older game engines they've used for that matter.

It's very unusual for a developer to throw away aboslutely everything and start again from scratch.

Afaik it's a new engine that may use bits of the old code from Frostbite 1.0/1.5 but it compiles a lot of new technologies and is written from scratch (or at least that's my understanding of it).

http://www.frostbite2.com/?page_id=50

 

[Gerard]

Well that was interesting, a guy glitched underground at the A mcom, and managed to snipe me from there to the escelator underground.

Wasn't the main point of the server update to stop people glitching underground? Obviously worked amazingly well..

 

[Gzero]

Afaik it's a new engine that may use bits of the old code from Frostbite 1.0/1.5 but it compiles a lot of new technologies and is written from scratch (or at least that's my understanding of it).

http://www.frostbite2.com/?page_id=50

I'm betting the tank code is still the old stuff from BF2.

You can only write some functions in so many ways until you end up rewriting the same thing, nothing wrong with reusing old code, especially if it's fast, efficient and does exactly what you need. Not sure why you call it technology though, not like they are selling/buying the code.

 

[Limenote]

TBH I'm not that impressed with what I see in the beta aside from the sound design which is top notch, graphically theres some impressive stuff but theres also a fair amount of ropey stuff but thats better left to judge from the proper game. There are 100s and 100s of texture issues (textures not aligned properly, flat poor quality textures used for bricks, stones, tiles, sandbags, etc.), player animations are mostly cack the death animations are especially lolarific. But none of that bothers me that much as those kinda issues can be sorted relatively painlessly - tho I still wouldn't expect them to be so prevelant in a public beta build - even one a couple of months old - this close to release. What bothers me are the bugs which indicate serious underlying issues with the game engine itself, problems in many core sub-systems that the rest is built on top of and issues here not sorted before you start fleshing out the product your building on top of it have far more complex repercussions and a whole chain of things need to be fixed and or tested against when you fix the underlying issues. These kind of issues should not be in a beta build released this close to the full game release it makes no sense to show off to the world how buggy your game is when there should be much more polished beta builds by now.

So what exactly is it you are taking issue with? the fact that the beta is buggy? or that you think the retail product is in jeopardy because of it? You are calling DICE out on their planning methodology because this beta build is not the kind of polished beta come demo we are used to seeing in recent years.

I only take issue with your argument because you seem to be judging the entire project based on buggy public beta code played on a single map (by the majority)

 

[Gerard]

So what exactly is it you are taking issue with? the fact that the beta is buggy? or that you think the retail product is in jeopardy because of it? You are calling DICE out on their planning methodology because this beta build is not the kind of polished beta come demo we are used to seeing in recent years.

I only take issue with your argument because you seem to be judging the entire project based on buggy public beta code played on a single map (by the majority)

Its worse than that, hes (supposodly) judging it by videos as he's claiming not to have played it as he doesnt want to install origin.

 

[Gerard]

Little late aren't they? Only posted today..

 

[LeJosh]

I have a bit of an idea on the development cycle of a game engine and products built on top of it - which maybe you don't - but these kind of bugs should have been ironed out a long time before they were starting to implement detailed game levels, class systems, replacing placeholder sound samples with the final ones, etc. etc.



TBH I'm not that impressed with what I see in the beta aside from the sound design which is top notch, graphically theres some impressive stuff but theres also a fair amount of ropey stuff but thats better left to judge from the proper game. There are 100s and 100s of texture issues (textures not aligned properly, flat poor quality textures used for bricks, stones, tiles, sandbags, etc.), player animations are mostly cack the death animations are especially lolarific. But none of that bothers me that much as those kinda issues can be sorted relatively painlessly - tho I still wouldn't expect them to be so prevelant in a public beta build - even one a couple of months old - this close to release. What bothers me are the bugs which indicate serious underlying issues with the game engine itself, problems in many core sub-systems that the rest is built on top of and issues here not sorted before you start fleshing out the product your building on top of it have far more complex repercussions and a whole chain of things need to be fixed and or tested against when you fix the underlying issues. These kind of issues should not be in a beta build released this close to the full game release it makes no sense to show off to the world how buggy your game is when there should be much more polished beta builds by now.

Thought you weren't playing the beta?

No way you could analyse textures at that level without being in-game and using youtube videos as reference...

Edit - **** rush.

 

[norm]

It's very unusual for a developer to throw away aboslutely everything and start again from scratch.

I find it interesting that all games previous to BF3 omitted prone through "gameplay choice". But now they include it suddenly we see the glitches associated with it.

I don't doubt the gfx engine part of FB has been updated, but physics/netcode are still as buggy as they once were.