Hi Thomas. Have you chosen the persons you want to have in your beta-tester-team for Monti? I have never got an answer from you there I send you a request!
Best regards Søren. Mail & MSN: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Webside: http://www.coolfortheblind.dk ----- Original Message ----- From: "Thomas Ward" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Monday, March 12, 2007 5:54 PM Subject: [Audyssey] USA Games News > > > USA Games News > > March 12, 2007 > > > Introduction > > Hello gamers, > It has been along time since USA Games has released one of these monthly > progress reports, and we feel at USA Games that one is long over do. We > certainly have a bit of ground to cover in this issue. > > Montezuma's Revenge > > Some time ago we reported Montezuma's Revenge will begin beta testing > sometime this spring. To our knowledge the beta is still on more or less > the same time table though the release date will be set back by a couple > of weeks do to some necessary upgrades we will be making to the engine. > During early testing of the Alpha version the USA Games test team and I > have converted the keyboard handling from Windows Events to Microsoft's > DirectX Input technology. The advantage here is faster keyboard response > as well as a wider range of keyboard options. With DirectX Directinput > now a core component for the game it shouldn't be long before joystick > and mouse support will be added as additional input devices. > In addition to improvements in keyboard input the first two levels have > been fully written, fully debugged, and are quite stable for game play. > In addition the core game engine is now ready for new levels and > additional expansion once we make a couple of upgrades which is going to > hold up the release for a couple of weeks yet. > Since it really is very difficult for us to record, trim, edit, wav > files for processing speech we have decided to build Sapi 5 support in > to Montezuma's Revenge. There is a great deal of technical complications > in making wav files act the same as a good tts engine we have decided to > add the support for directly interfacing with tts engines, and hope that > those of you who wish to have high quality speech will buy a compatible > high quality tts engine which will work with all our future titles. > For example, if you liked the Neospeech voices Kate and Paul you can > easily purchase them at Nextup.com and then use them with our titles. We > also will support the Scansoft RealSpeakvoices, the AT&T Natural Speech > system, and any tts engine that meets the basic Sapi 5 specifications. > The advantages of this change for us is significant. Faster upgrades, > easier management, less work, no need to record and edit every voice wav > file, better game performance, and several other technical updates. > So if you are willing to wait a few more weeks for us to make the > conversion we feel this will improve the game rather than harm it. > > USA Raceway > > We've received a few requests this passed month or so about Raceway, and > have not been able to fully explain the status to each and every person > who asked. So we have decided to answer as many questions as we can via > this forum. > Do to work on Montezuma's Revenge we have not had much time to really > work on Raceway. All our resources have been spent on stablizing the > Monty game engine and preparing it for public beta release > status.However, here is a brief overview of the status thus far. > Like Montezuma's Revenge we fully plan to remove any use of wav files > for speech output, and convert it to a Sapi 5 support. That said some > things such as radio messages, race announcer, etc will remain as a > human actor. However, Sapi will fill in for giving in number of laps > remaining, weather conditions, speed, position, score, etc. > One of the major things that is slowing Many you have asked why it is > taking so long to put out a demo of Raceway. Many of you have to > understand we are rewriting the engine from scratch. The main reason for > doing so is the differences in languages. > Initially James North had written the first beta in VB 6 which is > rapidly becoming a very old programming language which is slowly but > surely being fazed out. He then started on a VB 2003 version, but that > engine was far from complete or playable. As a result USA Games decided > to start over with a fresh and clean engine written in C++. The main > reason for using C++ rather than VB C++ and C# have better support for > game devices, especially ff game devices, then the more beginner > programmer languages like VB. Apparently, Microsoft holds profetional > development languages such as C++ more valuable for DirectX features > than beginner languages like VB which was primarily designed for > non-profetionals or profetionals who need to rapidly produce an > application or prototype. > One major distinction in this new Raceway engine is it is geared for > season based play. It will keep track of season scores, season earnings, > and all points will be earned specifically on the Nascar based scoring > system. > In addition, Raceway will offer several different weather conditions > ranging from sunny and clear, light rain, heavy rain, snow and icy, > etc... These weather conditions may cause additional hazards like > slipping and sliding on the track, low visibility, and other dangers > that would not normally be allowed for in a standard race, but in the > game will add substantial challenge to each and every race if weather is > turned on. > > > Final Conflict > > Obviously, do to the Monty release schedule extremely little time has > been spent on STFC, but we have certainly decided on an up and coming > 2.0 release of STFC. there are many things we would like to change in > STFC, and many of the plans for the new version are still undecided. > One thing we are strongly conciddering is allowing you, the player, to > decide the enemy to play against. Rather than fighting x Cardassians, x > Klingons, and Romulans all in the same battle have you choose one enemy > to face off with and you will face say 15 Romulans, or 15 Cardassians, > 15 Klingons, etc... This is not yet anofficial feature but a thought. > Another possability is to base STFC on the Dominion War as such. I can > imagine being able to command several Federation as well as Klingon > vessels against Jem'hadar, Breen, and Cardassian ships. > No matter if this is going to be TNG or DS9 based the new STFC will > certainly have specific missions rather than all out war as before. > You may have a mission to explore the disappearence of several ships in > such and such a sector. When you and your fleet show up you find out a > Borg cube is responcible and the Borg are building a base there and have > to destroy it. > However, again since we are thinking more in terms of missions it might > be preferable to scrap all move based games for an all out real time > game which would be certainly more fun in the long run. > > > > _______________________________________________ > Gamers mailing list .. [email protected] > To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can > visit > http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make > any subscription changes via the web. > > > -- > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG Free Edition. > Version: 7.5.446 / Virus Database: 268.18.9/719 - Release Date: 12-03-2007 > 08:41 > _______________________________________________ Gamers mailing list .. [email protected] To unsubscribe send E-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] You can visit http://audyssey.org/mailman/listinfo/gamers_audyssey.org to make any subscription changes via the web.
