October 2023 Q&A
Posted: 2023-10-25 09:00
While waiting for the next updates, everyone on our discord server has been given the chance to ask an unlimited number of questions to the Project Reality Team. Out of around 200 questions, we have answered over 70. Some were fun, some required research and walls of text, others were a simple "yes" or "no", but as you can probably already see, quite some effort was put into this Q&A. No one from the team was forced to participate, all the answers were provided by volunteers and are as honest as possible.
In this Q&A the answers have been provided by:
[R-DEV]Mats391 — Lead developer
[R-DEV]Ason — Mapper, Artist (3D)
[R-DEV]camo — Artist (Cinematics)
[R-DEV]Outlawz7 — Mapper, Artist (3D)
[R-DEV]papadanku — Programmer (Shaders)
[R-DEV]rpoxo — Programmer
[R-DEV]Rusty42 — Mapper
[R-DEV]Suchar — Mapper, Programmer, Artist (UI)
[R-DEV]Tim270 — Artist (3D)
[R-COM]Kalash ismaelassassin — Chilean Forces 1978 Faction Lead
[R-CON]ANW1173 — Artist (3D)
[R-CON]PotatoLord — Artist (3D)
[R-CON]Unicode — Mapper, Composer
[R-COM]PRID PvtNewb — Support technician
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Question 1
agus92
Could you give us an overview of the whole dev team? Who is active, and who is developing what? Which projects are on the pipeline?
I would also be curious to know a bit about you guys, what's your background, what brought you to PR and what brought you to modding.
[R-DEV]Suchar
The list above as well as answers to some other questions talk about the topics you have mentioned, so just keep reading
For more information, check the Credits button in the PR Launcher.
[R-DEV]rpoxo
As for background, everyone has a different story, as for me i got hooked on PR when some dude in co-op jabal landed next to me and asked where to.
As for bf2 modding, i had it prior pr because of living in darkest times when i were kiddo and bf2 mods were available on pirated disks only.
At some point i've got internet, and then spent 300% on traffic(parents were really mad), this led me into modding cause it was cheaper to change things myself than download from internet.
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Question 2
[PRIT] Marco DX®
Will we ever get some MRAPs for US Forces?
[R-CON]ANW1173
I have a WIP model that I'm working on:
Spoiler for pics:
Question 3
Colonel Strelnikov
Will we see maps of Ukraine, Yugoslavia, WW1, WW2(for Red Army) and Chechen(not only Grozny) in PR?
[R-DEV]Ason
I’ve wanted to make a map set in Yugoslavia and Ukraine for a long time, in fact before I created Grozny I originally wanted to make a map of Sarajevo. I’m not sure I will do it but if I make another map it will probably be set in one of those areas.
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Question 4
BubblyNinja
Will 1500m view distance be added to more maps or be removed? I've seen mixed opinions on it being implemented for Burning Sands that diminish both the infantry and asset gameplay as more people are getting engaged from very long range. Understandably this plays into the realism aspect but also affects general gameplay as for example, infantry are often unable to leave the city or enter it or ground assets being bombed or engaged by CAS before even seeing the aircraft "pop-in" to their FOV.
[R-DEV]Ason
It’s up to the mapper to decide the viewdistance. I personally like longer distances, but it also depends on the map itself. If the map is covered with dense forest and buildings the viewdistance might have to be cut for performance reasons. As for the gameplay side of things, I feel like it’s a part of war and each team will have to deal with any threats they face with the tools they have before being able to safely advance to further objectives.
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Question 5
BubblyNinja
What is your current process for determining asset balance/allocation on map changes. Is this agreed upon by a team or is this just one person deciding initially when changes are decided to be made and is changed after feedback? Question mostly stems from some weird balance decisions like when Bijar Canyons (prior to its removal) added Dutch forces and for some reason someone decided Beast vs CV90 was a good idea on a wide open 4k map.
[R-DEV]Ason
In most cases there is one dev per map, that dev decides what changes should be made, but of course everything is up for discussion. We listen to feedback from eachother and the community.
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Question 6
JustMax
I will come with the follow up, why keep the limit of 70 maps? Is it to keep the game lighter on size or is it too much workload?
[R-DEV]Suchar
There is no limit to the number of maps and we will definitely exceed the magic number of 70 maps in PR soon™.
Keep in mind that while there is technically no limit to the number of maps, there is a limited number of developers who are able to keep supporting these maps.
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Question 7
agus92
Could you give us a detailed explanation on player limits per round? This is in order to take informed decisions when deciding playercount per events.
In other words? is 120/150/180/200 players stable? And if not, why not?
[R-DEV]Suchar
- There is a limited number of networked objects that may be active simultanously. Some maps have more dynamic objects than others. From network point of view, it means for some maps 200 players would be stable, while for others it would be unstable. 100 players is stable and is sufficient for the kind of gameplay we expect.
- Some of our systems are not designed for such a high number of players and the consequences of that are unknown.
- Furthermore, there are still certain chains of player-caused events that always result in a server crash. Naturally, a higher number of players increases the chance of these events occuring.
Question 8
[TULPAR] Timuchin1
Is it possible to add more focused skirmish maps? Would be a great addition for communities to host little events. (And adding the option to host and play gungame or vw via local)
[R-DEV]Suchar
It'is always possible to add more skirmish layers. It is very simple, even a person with no prior experience could do it relatively easily in one evening. Feel free to try.
Gungame will never work in local servers but Vehicle Warfare can be hosted locally.
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Question 9
BLACK GHOST 115
We'll you add rope's as a means of existing a helicopter
[R-DEV]Suchar
We have a half-working proof of concept for fastropes. However, we do not see any real benefits from having them implemented. We further concluded fastropes would only ever be added on one map — Ramiel, which makes the whole project not worth the hassle.
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Question 10
Colonel Strelnikov
Some kits and deployable things don't spawn on training map(when we play offline). Can you fix it?
[R-DEV]Suchar
If you report it — yes. Preferably do it on the forums.
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Question 11
Sphee
Why was Jabal al burj taken off from the game?
[R-DEV]Outlawz7
We were no longer satisfied with how the map played
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Question 12
Fukai
What are the criteria for choosing to remove a map from the more than 70 in the game? Is it an internal vote by the development team?
[R-DEV]Outlawz7
How it plays, how it looks, what it adds to the game. We held votes, discussions, arguments for and against. Opinions varied within the team on what is or isn't an acceptable PR map as they do within the community but the ones removed got the short straw.
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Question 13
Generalpatton
Is it impossible to update Polands rifle magnifier to be tiled aside like irl? Instead of having to either run magnifier+eotech or just eotech alone (I might be wrong cause there’s a chance irl poland using fixed magnifiers)
[R-DEV]Suchar
Well, it is not impossible. Actually, there is a partially working proof of concept which might be added to the game once someone decides to work on it again — video in a spoiler below (this Q&A might finally give someone the motivation to finish it).
Spoiler for video:
Question 14
Pulpo
think you have crossed the limits of the bf2 engines or you think you can still implement new mechanics
[R-CON]Unicode
Not at all, new mechanics can still be implemented but it takes a lot of work and experimenting due to the engine limitations and in some cases we meet a dead end.
[R-DEV]Suchar
It is also worth noting that there is actually relatively little knowledge about Refractor 2 engine. There are still considerable branches of this technology which have never been investigated in detail. Most BF2 modders have been focusing on making maps and adding content but very little effort has actually been put into researching the potential of the engine, especially outside of bigger modding teams like the PR Team or the FH2 team.
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Question 15
E-102 Lt_Alexei
Will we ever see the retired maps like Jabal, Archer or Artic Lion again?
[R-CON]Unicode
Maps which got removed from the game were always either outdated or flawed in a certain way. If there is a mapper who is interested in fixing, updating or remaking a better version of a retired map, we are willing to consider adding it back into the game.
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Question 16
SPTS GuilFe
Is there any chance of rain in the game?
[R-CON]Unicode
It is technically possible but it looks bad
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Question 17
VTRaptor
Why is Kashan still not removed? It is by far the worst PR map.
[R-DEV]Outlawz7
We're looking into it.
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Question 18
E-102 Lt_Alexei
Do you consider adding some kind of inscription to the map gallery for those maps that have special conditions (Night, sandstorm, etc.)?
[R-DEV]Suchar
Yes.
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Question 19
ZASTAVA_YUGO
Would you rather have unlimited bacon, but no more games
Or games, unlimited games- but no games
[R-DEV]Suchar
Bacon
[R-COM]Kalash ismaelassassin
im vegetarian so im fine without bacon
[R-CON]ANW1173
I don't eat bacon so it is a win-win situation for me.
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Question 20
E-102 Lt_Alexei
We found the 3 Easter eggs in Ramiel and in Ghost Train (I think it was on that map). Is the bear even real? Is there any other Easter we should look for that is this kind of "random"? Any particular map we should look on?
[R-DEV]Rusty42
Op Thunder
[R-DEV]Suchar
Karbala
[R-DEV]Ason
I put easter eggs on ascheberg and fields of kassel. There’s also a hidden room on bamyan that used to contain a special kit, however now there’s just the room.
[R-CON]Unicode
There are easter eggs to find on Road to Damascus as well
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Question 21
bLack_Wi1ka
What was the main reason for cancelling(?) work on Ka-52 heli? Did coaxial-rotor system present some sort of unique challenge? (Ka 29 was implemented well)
[R-DEV]camo
It'll be added eventually.
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Question 22
bLack_Wi1ka
Are you planning on cooperating with other battlefield 2 mod developers more in the future?
[R-DEV]camo
Yep. We cooperate quite regularly with other mod developers and will continue to do so in the future.
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Question 23
[U777] Blaze!
Why is frag rpg rounds unused ? they surely can take place as alt kit for hamas and taliban
[R-DEV]camo
The short answer is yes, we definitely want to add it to the game. Long answer is that frag rounds have somehow ended up being the victim of multiple failures within the team to come to a consensus of how we actually want to add it to the game. Initially part of a now abandoned larger rework of kits, then of another smaller rework, it's become something of a can we kick down the road purely because we can't quite agree. A bit of a silly situation, but we'll get there eventually.
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Question 24
Snook
Are you still planning on implementing gun stabilizer? I saw it teased in devcast 1.7.
[R-DEV]camo
Yes, at some point.
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Question 25
goyan-rasling
will the old models from the original game be remade (T-90A, insurgency cars, etc.)
[R-DEV]Tim270
Yes we hope to replace all those assets eventually, they are of varying levels of priority though.
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Question 26
bLack_Wi1ka
Is it possible to add in fpv drones with improvised explosives? This might be overbearing, but could be an interesting addition to insurgent toolkit.
[R-DEV]camo
The insurgency conflicts depicted in the game are generally taking place before such technology was widespread. If we add a more recent conflict it's certainly something we'll consider.
[R-DEV]Tim270
Other side of the coin is its something quite complicated to implement, while still trying to balance and teamwork considerations. (i.e have to consider just hovering at base exit and blowing up tanks)
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Question 27
KMagnus (quoted by bLack_Wi1ka)
Can some version of admin command be implemented with current pr systems, which allows admin to get 1st person screenshot of certain player? (KMagnus)
[R-DEV]Mats391
no
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Question 28
bLack_Wi1ka
Since the sneek peek of new icons (and commander ui expansion) was teased, i have been wondering if expanding other ui/qol elements would be possible? Specifically, can some modifications be done to replay reviewing process? Currently it is impossible to view 1st person perpective of the player or rewind demo. As such people wanting to make cool videos to promote their game, show their mad skillz or catch cheaters have to tediously reload demo again and again if they miss a second.
[R-DEV]Mats391
no
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Question 29
Fukai
What are the devs favorite movies?
[R-CON]PotatoLord
The Last Emperor (niche choice), Heat (popular choice)
[R-DEV]Suchar
Interstellar
[R-DEV]papadanku
City of Life and Death
[R-COM]PRID PvtNewb
Blackhawk Down and Generation Kill
[R-CON]ANW1173
Breaking bad, Pengkhianatan G30S/PKI
[R-DEV]Tim270
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent of Nicolas Cage
[R-COM]Kalash ismaelassassin
Black hawk down is my default choice. But haven’t chosen a new in a decade, would have to think about it
[R-DEV]Outlawz7
Lock Stock, Snitch, The Raid
[R-DEV]camo
Not sure I have one but Blade Runner and LotR FotR are the two I keep coming back to. Other Films I've enjoyed the most in the last decade would be things like Leviathan, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, Slow West, Spotlight, The Handmaiden, Columbus, House of Hummingbird and Red Rocket.
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Question 30
Rubenz12
Whatever happen to the team trying to break into the "black box"?
[R-DEV]Suchar
There are very few magicians capable of creating huge illusions. Those with whom we have had the pleasure cooperating with throughout the years are still around but unfortunately some of them have suffered from a serious condition called "lack of time".
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Question 31
E-102 Lt_Alexei
How many devs are currently active in the development of the game?
[R-DEV]Suchar
It depends on your definition of being active. Approximately 15 developers, 6 contributors, 4 testers, 2 faction leads, 1 tech support technician
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Question 32
CamuzCado
Why does CAS JET only make a sound when closer to the target (like 1km?). Shouldn't it be way louder?
[R-DEV]Suchar
If jets were to be as loud as in real life, they would significantly affect communication between players and make every other sound in the game practically non-existent. Also, vehicle sounds are only played if the vehicle is within the rendering distance.
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Question 33
CaioSFela
Is possible add a dynamic weather in PR? like, the match starts with the sun up and ends at night?
[R-DEV]Mats391
PR rounds are too short for any noticeable weather changes to happen.
[R-DEV]Suchar
Strictly from a technical point of view, manipulating the weather is possible to some extent.
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Question 34
Leoneldfx
Exist a posibilty to reduce the fog when fliying CAS?
[R-DEV]Suchar
Yes. Someone might investigate it in the future.
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Question 35
Harkanen
Aye Guys.... What if I make 3d models, with textures and give it to you. I am thinking of introducing new factions.
I would love to see an Indian one. Maybe I can make any new models for any new weapon types that you might want to add?
[R-CON]PotatoLord
Yeah you can do that and the devs will be very helpful to you should you have any questions as well, that's what I did to get my contributor role, if you want to collaborate to potentially make a new faction I may be down
[R-DEV]papadanku
You are free to introduce new factions and models, though make sure that the work is original
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Question 36
FOGMAN
Will the official PR website be redesigned to have a more attractive design?
[R-DEV]Suchar
If a volunteer appears, we would certainly be interested. Currently, however, we lack the necessary manpower to undertake that task.
[R-DEV]papadanku
We do plan on a sort of redesign in the future. However, that would be in the far-future
We are thinking of moving a lot of things outside the forum. For example, moving modding documentation from forum posts to actual documentation platforms like ReadTheDocs or GitBook.
We do plan on getting PR into more modern platforms, such as Instagram to showcase stuff from our community and developers
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Question 37
FOGMAN
Would you like your game to appear on Steam? And if so, why don't you change the game to comply with copyright rules?
[R-DEV]Suchar
It is not up to us.
[R-DEV]papadanku
Ideally, we would want to have Project Reality available in more places. However, this is still a modification at the end and that requires a lot of bureaucracy
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Question 38
FlyingR
What was the biggest coding/programming challenge when it came to updating PR?
[R-DEV]Mats391
- Staying sane
- The stuff not implemented yet
- FCS calculations
- LAA RendDx9 for fixing memory crashes
Rewriting the game's shaders. Project Reality is the only mod released at the moment with full support for Shader Model 3.0 shaders.
The original Battlefield had a lot of code optimized to satisfy various vendors and API versions.
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Question 39
riffy
PR influences a lot of games. Does other games influence you while developing this game if so which games and to what extend?
[R-DEV]Mats391
Yes, we take inspiration of other games for things to try (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTxqfaL-IXQ). We also take just as much inspiration of things to avoid, but wont shame any game here
[R-DEV]papadanku
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Anomaly was a major inspiration, since LVutner was and I meme sometimes
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Question 40
FlyingR
What is the most common hobby amongst the dev team?
[R-CON]ANW1173
Well, of course for me, 3D art is my hobby. But aside from the game development, I enjoy working out and playing sports, particularly football and badminton. This has been my hobby since my childhood and it continues to be so.
[R-COM]Kalash ismaelassassin
Playing PR
[R-DEV]papadanku
Taking photos, cycling, learning music theory, and sometimes basketball
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Question 41
Deviro
Any news on mixing PR with Nvidia Remix?
[R-DEV]Mats391
Remix probably wont happen any time soon. Vulkan support might be closer
[R-DEV]papadanku
No, but we have plans in further improving Project Reality's lighting at the shader-level
[R-COM]PRID PvtNewb
It's sort of possible, I guess, but since the only hardware that I got only has two ray accelerators (yes, flippin' 2) it's very slow and compiling the SPIRV pipeline took forever since it only has dual cores.
I'd like to wait for another dev or contributor that has a beefier GPU to investigate but currently most of them are swamped with other work.
UI elements are broken and loading to any map will get stuck at 15% even though the CPU is barely used, seems to be some sort of issue with how Remix Bridge handles RPC/IPC timeouts but idk how to progress from here.
I've tested the same build on Oblivion and it seems to be working, albeit very slow even after overclocking the GPU to nearly 3GHz
Spoiler for pics:
Question 42
Daniel
Are you planning to implement any road maps outside of the devblogs or it's more about passion moves & less about the planning
[R-CON]Unicode
It's a non-profit project and developer activity is fluctuating, there is no way to ensure that specific tasks are completed within a specific timeframe. There is no clear roadmap as team members usually work on what they want to see in game individually.
[R-DEV]Outlawz7
I concur with the above statement.
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Question 43
Rubenz12
Anything ever come from trying too move the game to a new engine?
[R-CON]Unicode
Moving the game to a new engine is not an easy task, years of full-time work of a complete development team would be needed to accomplish that.
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Question 44
Prekto
Do you plan any substanstial changes to the game? Any big "holly **** it's a brand new game now!" updates that you have ideas for?
[R-CON]Unicode
Dynamic DoD.
[R-DEV]papadanku
- Rework on bfeditor's shaders, allowing us for more artistic changes
- Gamma corrected lighting
- Parallax occlusion mapping
- Smooth dynamic shadows
- Better lighting shaders past Blinn-Phong
- Refactoring of existing Python code
- Official PR modding documentation
- Manual rework
Question 45
Rutek
What were your thoughts when Wicca closed PRTA?
[R-CON]Unicode
[R-DEV]Suchar
I held the position of Lead Administrator at PRTA at the time of its closure, having been an integral part of the PRTA community for numerous years. PRTA wielded a substantial influence within the Project Reality community, a fact evident by simply perusing the PR Event News section, where the lion's share of activities was orchestrated by PRTA. Furthermore, several individuals within PRTA displayed exceptional prowess in swiftly identifying and apprehending hackers, achieving a success rate that has remained unparalleled by any other entity.
Collaborating with these dedicated individuals for the betterment of the community was a privilege, and it is my sincere hope that our collective efforts resulted in superior services and a more enriching environment. May our legacy serve as an inspiration for future communities.
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Question 46
MathySJ_ArG
Could you make an optimization patch and thus make some maps improve their FPS?
[R-COM]PRID PvtNewb
I'm not an R-dev but I'll share my little side project, and I guess this will answer some questions (obv not all) about optimizations.
I am working on some driver-side optimization patches right now but it's AMD-specific, and specifically needs at least a Polaris GPU or newer (ideally Vega or RDNA) since it uses the new Next-Gen Geometry (NGG)/primitive shader pipeline via Vulkan (DXVK) instead of DX9
This is not a performance gain across the board, you'll gain more if
You're on a newer GPU architecture (RDNA2 and 3) since they have a hardware fastpath for NGG
You're not too bottlenecked by the CPU, with some headroom left on the GPU
All in all, this results in 25% better peak fps (36 -> 45fps) in Musa Qala on a Radeon 610M iGPU @1.9GHz. After overclocking to 2.82GHz, it will reach 53-55fps, meaning that with NGG, PR can still go even faster.
Spoiler for pics:
Spoiler for results:
As [R-COM]PRID PvtNewb said, we are currently trying to get Project Reality to run through DXVK
However, we had some technical hurdles, such as the half-pixel offset that happens with D3D9. This is prevelant when you use the optics shader when play fullscreen PR with DXVK
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Question 47
Ryanwilliams2465
Is it possible to add extra kits as well as more kit variants rather than just standard and alternative?
[R-DEV]Tim270
Yes but they are intended fulfil a gameplay function in the game, not just for the sake content.
[R-CON]Unicode
Wouldn't be realistic then
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Question 48
M.MCC
Do you have any future plans for the PLA faction in the game, including vehicles or firearms? After all, many things in this faction are too old.
[R-DEV]camo
Yep there is stuff in the pipeline, some of which are nearly ready.
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Question 49
Alu
When reflecting on the game's development, do the developers have anything specific that they believe greatly improved the game upon its implementation?
[R-DEV]camo
Main one for me would be deviation. By implementing it I believe it slowed the game down, forced a bit of teamwork and allowed for mechanics such as logistics to function
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Question 50
For context: https://www.realitymod.com/forum/blog.php?b=444
Blackburn
are the new animations still planning? I heard about the development of new sprint animation long ago
[R-DEV]camo
Those sprint animations you mention are no longer being worked on as the animator (KaB) moved onto other things. Other animations for new weapons however are still being worked on.
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Question 51
[PRIT] Marco DX®
Is it possible to make the reload animations to not pull the charging handle when the weapon has a chambered round?
[R-DEV]camo
Yes
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Question 52
_salfetka
Should we expect new factions?
[R-DEV]camo
Yes
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Question 53
Nick0
how are the flares implemented? I never got to sort that out and it seems to be super inconsistent ( in the jet/heli favour most of the time )
[R-DEV]Suchar
While a missile is tracking a target, it may undergo redirection based on the following calculations:
(1 - directionBonus) * distance + angle * 500 * directionBonus
The variables 'angle' and 'directionBonus' are specific to each missile type. A 'directionBonus' value close to 0 prompts the missile to adjust its course toward the nearest target, while a value near 1 causes it to redirect towards the farthest target. For anti-aircraft missiles, the 'directionBonus' is typically set at 0.96.
The 'distance' is evaluated in relation to 'ObjectTemplate.seek.maxDistLock' and is dependent on view distance. Meanwhile, 'angle' is compared to 'ObjectTemplate.seek.maxAngleLock.'
We are currently conducting experiments with the relative spawn position of flares to improve missile targeting results. Nevertheless, it's essential to note that these modifications are likely temporary, as we are concurrently developing our own target acquisition and missile physics system.
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Question 54
Deviro
If you could take any feature from PR's successors what would it be?
[R-DEV]Suchar
Additional tools for SL to be able to draw shapes on the minimap for his squad. Such tools enhance the clarity of orders and improve squad cohesion.
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Question 55
Deviro
What is number one thing we need to make the game better/more popular now and in the future? What is lacking that the community could help with?
[R-DEV]Suchar
The PR Team consists pretty much exclusively of active or former PR players. Naturally, we are always looking for people to join our ranks and the main source of new developers has always been the PR community. Everyone is welcome to contribute to the game development. We have a dedicated thread with a list of things (mainly art and modelling related) the community could help us deliver in the future updates https://www.realitymod.com/forum/showth ... p?t=142929
However, I consider it unlikely for new content to noticeably influence the popularity of PR. Only a significant change in PR's graphics could achieve that effect. Given that shaders in PR are open-source, there is plenty of space for improving the game's look. Everyone willing to help with that task is encouraged to message [R-DEV]papadanku and join him in his mission of improving PR shaders.
Aside from that, from a player perspective, I believe the most important factor the community directly influences is the quality of public games. Experienced Squad Leaders are the backbone of the community and they are crucial to preserving the gameplay we enjoy. However, we can't expect them to play the game indefinitely. Training new Squad Leaders should be among the top priority tasks for the community.
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Question 56
Rubenz12
Is work still being done on the aircraft carriers being a moving vehicle on the map?
[R-DEV]Suchar
No
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Question 57
Chz
Will additional seats be added to the logistics truck?
[R-DEV]Suchar
Having just 2 seats guarantee it cannot be used as a transport vehicle for a whole squad. Adding additional seats could result in logistic trucks being used as transport vehicles which is not their purpose. Currently, there are no plans to add additional seats.
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Question 58
Sandro
Will the ability to use an enemy KIT without screen blackout and death ever appear? Because now there is a clownish possibility to just juggle them but still use it, which is unavailable only to newbies due to lack of experience. The ability to use KITs on either side will also encourage you to play more coordinated, since giving AA to insurgents can have a big impact on map control, etc like irl.
[R-DEV]Suchar
We have been discussing that issue recently but as of now, we have nothing to share on that topic.
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Question 59
huddy <3
will you guys add bigger outlines to the new 32 bit icons in the next or next next update? lines like how big it is now or maybe a bit smaller but with the new icons
[R-DEV]Suchar
Yes
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Question 60
Fukai
In the Brazilian community there is a great discussion about the use of helicopter weapons with even griffon cas being contested at some point and it would be interesting to have an opinion from the devs
[R-DEV]Suchar
It has a CAS icon and CAS in its name. Ultimately it is up to the players how they want to use it though.
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Question 61
SirHecksAlot
Have any devs wanted to kill another one for a stupid decision/idea?
[R-DEV]Suchar
We have developed a culture of healthy debate. Sometimes we spend more time debating a solution to an issue than implementing the solution itself. However, it ensures the final results are as good as possible. No one has been killed in the process so far.
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Question 62
Deviro
What is the biggest imminent threat to PR's existence other than low numbers and the developer team dissolving?
[R-DEV]Outlawz7
Lack of motivation.
[R-COM]Kalash ismaelassassin
The developers being banned or dying in conflicts.
[R-DEV]Suchar
Neither is there a risk of the development team dissolving nor servers being empty in the near future. For many years now the number of players has been stable, although there seems to be a trend of replacing EU and NA players by SA players. We are yet to see an influx of SA developers though.
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Question 63
Sparky
What were the biggest hardships you faced during the years and what motivates you to push on?
[R-DEV]Ason
Finishing the last bits of Assault on Grozny. Also making all the fields and roads on Fields of Kassel and Ascheberg. What motivated me was my will to see the maps ingame and being played by the community.
[R-DEV]papadanku
Interpersonal issues and and a yearn to make this game beautiful
[R-COM]PRID PvtNewb
Getting PR to run nicely on APUs motivates me to not off myself
[R-DEV]Suchar
Despite previously having no plans for retirement, a certain recent incident killed my motivation for good. I had enough motivation to finish a few WIP projects and add one more important feature. I am temporarily still around to support other developers and contributors with my knowledge but in general, I am in the process of retiring from the dev team. I have also significantly decreased the amount of time I spend playing PR.
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Question 64
mike
Can you describe a time when you had to come up with an weird solution to a problem during the game development (since the game engine is very old) and what were the results.
[R-DEV]Mats391
Mines are actually vehicles. In order to implement the destructable mines, we had to make the actual mine invisible and spawn a vehicle in its place that can be destroyed.
[R-DEV]papadanku
Logarithmic depth buffering. The skybox is the only object in the game that does not use logarithmic depth because someone had a driver issue with it
[R-DEV]Suchar
A few years ago I tried to make DOD visible on the minimap. In the process of testing it turned out it's only actually possible to show the DOD of one team on the minimap at once using vBF2 Combat Area rendering system. So I implemented it for 3 coop layers as a test (for context: some COOP layers tend to have huge DOD zones). One was Jabal lrg (no longer with us), the other two were both Outpost layers. You can still see it working on Outpost in the current game version (v1.7.4.5).
Spoiler for pics:
Question 65
Deviro
After all these years and all the success Project Reality has had, what are you guys most proud of? Any fond memories of working on it? Perhaps playing it?
[R-DEV]Suchar
Playing as a dev squad was fun. It's been quite a while ago though.
https://youtu.be/FYsisX--fUQ?si=J35HKt1ni-tvPUrh
https://youtu.be/W_YB2YBRnH8?si=8RnoTCv4Xw2PVi5w
https://youtu.be/Boqt8MIywy0?si=9RWsN2-StO7bVaIQ
A few months ago I was reviving mary_wiza who had a heart attack after realizing he was being revived by a PR developer. I hope I didn't accidentally cause mary_wiza to become dead-dead IRL by performing a revive in-game.
Apart from playing, development is also fun
https://youtu.be/erKkD9g5wc0?si=lHActAfnR_RBi1_L
https://youtu.be/6a6DWF_u5ag?si=cvN1vU2pCb4lPxTi
https://youtu.be/ZlOdbgD-Nj4?si=Cqe40BMg7b-7IWj1
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Question 66
BubblyNinja
What is your current process for determining asset balance/allocation on map changes. Is this agreed upon by a team or is this just one person deciding initially when changes are decided to be made and is changed after feedback? Question mostly stems from some weird balance decisions like when Bijar Canyons (prior to its removal) added Dutch forces and for some reason someone decided Beast vs CV90 was a good idea on a wide open 4k map.
[R-DEV]Ason
In most cases there is one dev per map, that dev decides what changes should be made, but of course everything is up for discussion. We listen to feedback from eachother and the community.
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Question 67
Rutek
Why there is no official pr server?
[R-DEV]papadanku
Not enough manpower
[R-DEV]Suchar
The majority of the team is primarily interested in game development, not in server administration.
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Question 68
osaslol13
are the devs just doing personal ideas and stuff they want to see in game or are u guys working together towards set goals ?
[R-CON]Unicode
Both combined
[R-DEV]papadanku
Both, but when it comes near release, we have to work together to make sure everything's in-place
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Question 69
Rutek
Has pr helped you in your “real life” - Have you changed your profession or got a new job bcoz of the experience with modding?
[R-DEV]papadanku
Project Reality has supplemented my life and career, which is outside of technology and game development.
One gains interpersonal experience in this stuff. Knowing how to handle conflicts, negotiation, accepting critique. It has helped me expressed my passion to my real-life circles
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Question 70
Oatmealz
What are the PR devs opinions on the new Squad infantry Combat update?
[R-DEV]papadanku
I think their shader effects are pretty cool. Makes me wish the Refractor engine did deferred rendering.
[R-DEV]Suchar
In my personal opinion, ICO changes are relatively limited as they directly influence just one aspect of the game — shooting. Although it indirectly affects other core elements of the game as well, it is only one of many game mechanics that define gameplay.
Unless squad cohesion is enforced by game mechanics, a considerable part of the players will always end up lone wolfing, simply because it's the default type of gameplay players are used to. It might be partially circumvented by the pressure from the community, especially Squad Leaders, but ever since Squad became more popular, the community pressure decreased.
One of the things that heavily discourage from spreading out and lone wolfing is the uniqueness of kits. In Squad, every player can revive everyone else, and anyone can destroy enemy FOBs. If only medics were able to revive and only 1 kit was able to destroy FOBs, squad cohesion would already become significantly more important.
In PR, even being hit once usually means you need to have a medic to heal you. Stopping the bleeding is much more difficult than just spending 5 seconds bandaging yourself. Usually, bandages merely buy you some extra time to find a medic. Going into combat without a medic means you will most likely end up dead after the first mistake you make — it is basically a suicide mission. Not to mention the visual bleeding effect is much more punishing in PR. While Squad attempts to balance the lack of visual impairment with lowered weapon accuracy in ICO (since it is based on stamina and stamina regenerates slower with lower HP), I am not certain whether it has a significant effect in CQB where weapon accuracy is not as important as the visual ability to spot the threat in time.
Squad has its gameplay designed in such a way to allow respawning straight into the fight. Enemy respawn points are relatively difficult to disable just by mere presence near them. Squad leaders have (literally) no room for maneuver after respawning, because they may immediately run into the enemy.
Easily deactivated spawn points have a profound impact on gameplay. When the nearest respawn is far away (it has to be if enemy is close enough to kill you), not dying becomes essential - and once you die, not giving up is crucial as well - because a player would waste a lot of time running to his squad from a far away spawn point. With individual performance on the battlefield being relatively limited (which ICO undoubtedly achieved to some extent), the player has a hard time trying to reach his squad, so staying with your squad becomes a priority, not merely a suggestion.
With that being said, ICO did significantly influence gameplay. Slower movement speed, lowered accuracy and longer firefights allow coordination to develop. If firefights last no longer than half a minute, people run around fast, coordination even within one squad feels more like an obstacle since it takes time, resources, distracts everyone around and its effects are mediocre at best. What is the point of reporting an enemy behind a wall if by the time my voice makes its way to my squad members through the VOIP and its delay, the enemy could have already jumped above the wall, ran away 50 meters and approach from a different angle? Intel becomes outdated pretty quickly and just confuses everyone involved. ICO improved the situation by slowing the gameplay down.
Another factor is weapons being very accurate at all times. it discourages from having people physically close to you. If one guy can instantly kill a group of 4 people with a rifle, there is no point grouping up in the first place. Short time to kill and lowered situational awareness in games favour such scenarios. ICO actually managed to turn the situation around and reward close cooperation in a firefight between squad members. With individual performance being impaired, having someone close by to support you in a firefight at any moment became an important factor.
ICO touched one of many core aspects of the game in an attempt to put more emphasis on coordination. While there are still fundamental differences between PR and Squad in how they approach the construction of teamwork, Squad is now probably more in line with the gameplay design of PR than it has ever been in its life.
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Question 71
The question was originally asked directly to [R-DEV]Mats391, the lead developer. However, we decided to treat it as a more general "How did you get into the PR Team" question to all team members as well.
Deviro
How did you get into developing PR and what was the process like of taking the lead position?
[R-DEV]Mats391
I got into by fixing stuff that annoyed me and adding stuff I wanted. The lead position then just happened as other developers retired. There is also not that much to the lead position. All decisions regarding the direction of mod are done as a team and lead is mostly about making sure bills are paid.
[R-DEV]papadanku
I started by assessing what parts of PR are missing and what my skillset was. Project Reality was running on outdated shaders, while I was learning HLSL to learn how to make shaders.
So I started posting on feedback on things regarding Project Reality's shaders, and became [R-CON], doing small stuff. Became [R-DEV] a few features later.
[R-DEV]rpoxo
The PR is built on hate.
I hated devs at that point and got an infraction because irrespectable posts demanding to fix flarebug via my workaround.
Then i decided to actively hate devs inside PR team and applied as tester. Spending a lot of time developing and standartising new flight physics for jets too a lot of hate, but gave me rcon position, and then i started to see if there's anything else i can hate in PR strong enough to improve, with more things improved became R-DEV later.
[R-CON]Unicode
The path of every developer or contributor is pretty much the same. You fix or make something and share it with the dev team. It could be anything - coding, models, animations, textures, sounds, maps. Make some more and sooner or later you end up being one of them.
[R-DEV]Suchar
I found a security hole allowing me to download updates after they were ready to publish but not actually released yet. I downloaded v1.5.0.0 around 2 days before it released. I reported the exploit to [R-DEV]Ddeo, Polish Faction Lead (with whom I had been working on updating the polish game localization) and then I proceeded to send a dozen of bug reports to him as well. Some time later I was invited to join the Project Reality Team as a tester. I began learning the engine, fixing things I hated, adding things I wanted, gradually becoming a contributor and later on a developer.
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That is the end, we hope your curiosity has been satisfied. Thank you for all your interesting questions and stay tuned for the future updates!
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