Neowin Exclusive Interview with Pete Hines


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My most pressing 3 questions.

1 - Do the Buildings have shadows? (They have dodged this question numerous times. One Dev said that only Moveable objects lost shadows, and one said only Characters and Trees have shadows.)

2 - If a skeleton character has a shadow and you kill him, when his bodyparts go flying as seen in videos..... does the rib-cage and individual parts still have shadows now, since you can pick them up seperately?

3 - How large of size on the Xbox360 disc is the game compared to the PC's 4.6 Gig install?

Hey,

My Q's:

1) Will there be a "best settings for my computer"-button?

2) When does it goes gold? (I ask this to allow Pete to give us a date :whistle: )

3a) What type of pets will be in obivion?

3b) Will the pets be involved in combat? if so, will they level?

4) What are the perks for the different races?

Hagar

Edited by Hagar the horrible

XBoX360 Specific:

Q: You mentioned in an earlier interview that the Oblivion Construction Set presents a series of technical challenges if it was targeted at the XBoX360. Another 'official' source hinted that in order for something like this to become viable that Bethesda would have to effectively re-write the Construction Set code base. Considering the interest generated behind the opportunity to become the XBoX360's ground breaker for the Modding community could you offer your insight into the commercial and technical viability of such a project, and are we going to be disappointed if we hope for a workable solution in either Oblivion or TES 5 in the coming years?

1 Does oblivion use more than one type of HDR allowing cards not capable of FP16bit and SM3.0 to see such an effect? Possibly using a method analogous to Valves HDR implementation in DOD and lost coast?

2. If it does use such a method can AA be turned on with this method on Nvidia cards and ATI cards below the x1XXX series of cards?

1)Have you changed(downgraded) any of the graphics besides object shadows? (which is no big deal) Have all the textures, models ad stuff remained the same?

2)On the 360, does the controller rumble when you attack people or when you get hit?

3) Does teh character model look wet after coming out of the water?

4) how come objects can't hurt people? If you throw a book at someone, will they react?

5)When is the game's release date? :whistle:

6) Is the realm of oblivion cool?

7)Can horses jump? if so, do they do it automatically or do you control it?

Hello,

thx for the chance to ask some Q's and sry if there are official answers for these

Q1 - Will my computer run OB.... Jokes Jokes :D

Q2 - Will you able to Name your Horse and Pets?

Q3 - We are getting the Horse armour plug in, even though horses will not be used in combat - does this mean that the Horse armour is purely for show?

Q4 - Is the all FAMOUS or IMFAMOUS poison apple thread/idea possible

- Thx from OZ

Edited by Zerock

Will all the objects set up in, say a store room (save containers from what I've heard) be physics objects? If someone is disarmed does their weapon fly using physics and clang to the ground? Can you manipulate items through physics and the grab button to position and decorate your house? Will there be breakables like a vase that shatters when thrown or hit with a sword?

and

I apologize if this has already been answered, but will we Xbox users be able to download updates, patches, expansions, etc... through the standard version of XBOX live that comes free with the 360?

Edited by icemanstryka

1)Have you changed(downgraded) any of the graphics besides object shadows? (which is no big deal) Have all the textures, models ad stuff remained the same?

2)On the 360, does the controller rumble when you attack people or when you get hit?

3) Does teh character model look wet after coming out of the water?

4) how come objects can't hurt people? If you throw a book at someone, will they react?

5)When is the game's release date? :whistle:

6) Is the realm of oblivion cool?

7)Can horses jump? if so, do they do it automatically or do you control it?

8) can you break small obects?

9) are headshots with bows an instant kill or do they do the same amount of damage as a body shot?

10) Do arrows stick to enemies?

11) when your weapon breaks, do you actually see your blade break in half?

I'm from Hungary and I've heard of this oppurtunity on the official Oblivion forum. Just like the others I guess.

Any info about Pete's answers?

Heh word of this recently broke out to the Official forums where countless evil lurks.

Now you're going to be swarmed.

Hopefully I'll be doing the interview around 4PM EST this evening. But it won't be posted for at least another day or so later, as we have to have it edited and cleaned up etc.

:)

1) What did the three-month delay allow you to accomplish? If you were given another three months, what would you work on?

2) What are the three biggest lessons your development team learned over the course of the last three years, that you can apply towards your next game?

3) How were the decisions made to eliminate spears and combine blade skills? Was this a cause or effect relating to the game's character creation system?

Please try to come up with questions besides 'Is X in the game?' We'll know the answers to all those questions very soon, when the game is released. This is an opportunity to 'peek behind the curtain'.

Thanks for giving us the opportunity to contribute to your interview. Look forward to reading it.

(Yes I'm an official boards cross-over. But I hope you like my questions anyways :D)

I have some questions:

1) Im really intrested in the pets and Im hoping to have one like the woman in the E3 video (But taking bether care of it). Can us give some info about them? Can I name them? Do they fallow me around? Can I heal them?

2) I know that levitate wont be in the game as a spell. How will it be in? Will we be able to levitate on the inside of the great cities or will it be forbidden like in Mournhold?

3) Will there be any towns or something like that in the Realm of Oblivion? And if Oblivion is endless, how will I be able to stop myself from getting lost?

4) Will I be able to make friends with the NPCs in a more advanced way then I could in Morrowind? Will I be able to have some sort of relasionship with them?

5) Can you give any info about Dragons in the game at all?

6) In some pics there are powerfull blooming effects and in some there is almoust none. How will it be on the finnished version? And will it be the same for PC and XBox 360?

7) Will there be any CGI FMW in the game?

8) Rumors has been floating about Dwaven Guns that shoot bulits being in Oblivion. Is that true or false?

9) Will the PC and XBox 360 versione be released at the same time? And will the US version and the Europe version be released at the sametime?

Sorry for the spelling. I got dyslexia. Thanks for ansering.

Edited by Weslor

3) How were the decisions made to eliminate spears and combine blade skills? Was this a cause or effect relating to the game's character creation system?

That one I can anser. It had to do with the battle animasions. They could not make it work with the new attack/block system. So the Spear would just work like a normal sword with would make it pointless.

1.Explain further how vampires work. And how RAI vampires will act (will we see NPC vamps feeding on other NPCs?)

2.Telekinesis once and for all how does it work and can it effect living/dead/paralysed NPCs in any way?

3.Are static shadows still in(Walls, Chairs, buildings.) or just areas of darkness?

4.Will the making of DVD contain any videos of the crazy RAI stories we have heard? Will it contain footage of the removed soft shadow system working? What is the length of the DVD?

5.Will there ever be an Oblivion 360 faceplate?

6.Will we still see cool random RAI events.

7.Will there be alot of special spells available? Such as the effect of "the skull of corruption", Reanimation, or turning an NPC into a sheep?

8.How long will reanimated corpses last?

9. Are there any more new aspects of necromancy?

10.Do you have a golden DVD anywhere laying around the office?:p

Holy crap, this will be the longest interview evar! :shiftyninja:

Hmmm, perhaps you should read some of the Fan Interviews which were submitted on previous occassions. The third one had a total of 60 questions ;)

So I hope there won't be cause for alarm just yet :p

One thing is for certain about The Elder Scrolls though; it has a very devoted community :)

Kind greetz,

Milt

Edited by Miltiades
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    • Nope. That lack of surround sound capability (analog) won't fly with me. Sure, I use headphones most of the time, but still.
    • Creative Sound Blaster AE-X PCIe review: your headphones will love it by Steven Parker If you have been reading Neowin for any length of time, you may remember that I reviewed the Sound Blaster Audigy FX Pro back in April. I found it to be an excellent budget sound card, even though it lacked support for formats such as DTS over the included SPDIF port. Anyway, Creative reached out to me again asking if I was interested in reviewing the Sound Blaster AE-X. It is a card mainly targeted at headphone wearers, which I'll get into a bit later. Before we get underway, here is a disclaimer: Creative Labs provided a free sample without any review pre-approval. 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I should also note that the card does not support DDL/DTS encoding technology, but it is said to support decoding through the coaxial SPDIF port. I was able to test this working with the classic Windows Sound properties, but I could not get a DTS (decode) signal through my Logitech Z906, it defaulted to 3D sound whenever I played DTS content through Plex or Emby. In addition, this card only supports two channels (stereo) over the speakers. The surround support is limited to the Headphone Amp, so before I get underway, what we have here is a card mostly intended for headphone use, especially with its SPDIF In (Toslink) port where you could connect another device like a console. So what about the highlights of this card? The AE-X is powered by the ESS SABRE DAC (ES9039Q2M), which is capable of a 130 dB dynamic range. In addition, it supports 32-bit/384 kHz playback for deeper detail and clarity. The headphone amplifier delivers up to 350 mW @ 32Ω, which admittedly far surpasses standard onboard audio, offering support for studio-grade headphones. DSD256 and ASIO 2.3 are also supported. What doesn't it have? No support for What-U-Hear, Super X-Fi, or the SmartComms Kit No EMI shielding, but it passed all the FCC emission tests (from the FAQ) I also want to make it clear that I am no audiophile. For me, it's purely subjective and it should just "work" out of the box. First impressions As I said in the introduction, I was a bit sad to see that the AE-X only supports stereo output, meaning it would not be on par with my ALC1220 over my speakers, as I mentioned it seems like this card is marketed toward headphone users. Since I am not an avid gamer that would rule me out as a potential customer, but I can still test its capabilities! The card arrived in a nice-looking box, as shown above. 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    • $80 or 90%, anything else would be financial suicide one way or another.
    • Or... just use Bitwarden. Free, and has on-prem option as well. Works both on desktop and mobile, wherever you are. The age of local password files is over.
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