Neogaf’s member ‘MaxOfS2D’ (who is currently working on the remastered version of System Shock) has just revealed some new interesting information about it. According to MaxOfS2D, the demo lacked extensive optimizations as it was developed by a small team of 4 core people and one programmer. Moreover, MaxOfS2D claimed that an engine switch to Unreal Engine may actually happen.
As MaxOfS2D said about the performance of the System Shock demo:
“So far the game has been developed with a very small team of 4 core people, and only one programmer, so we did not have the manpower required to do more optimization work. We did however get the biggest perf issues out of the way.”
MaxOfS2D is aware of the performance issues are due to the culling system, something that will be improved and optimized in the final version of the game.
“Yep, most of our performance problems are coming from issues with the culling system (it’s a third-party solution). Our sole programmer has had to fight with it quite a bit, he hasn’t had the time to deliver the K.O. punch yet”
System Shock is currently powered by the Unity Engine, though the team may actually switch to the Unreal Engine in the future. As MaxOfS2D claimed:
“Right now the lack of performance is more due to the very small size of our team (four core people to make the demo), and not tied to our engine choice, but if we end up having to switch engines due to scalability or whatever other reasons, we’ll take the decision that makes the most sense for the project.”
Jason Fader also added:
“Currently we’re using Unity, but we’ve received a lot of feedback from our backers regarding Unreal. Whichever technology we ultimately decide to use, it will be based on the best tool for the job for making a great System Shock game for our backers. That’s really all I can say about it right now, but trust us, we’ll do things that make sense”
Last but not least, MaxOfS2D addressed the pixelated textures that appear in the demo. As you may have expected, this is an artistic choice (for what is worth, we really liked this choice).
“Point-filtering textures is a deliberate art direction choice.” said MaxOfS2D and continued:
“I do believe we can improve it further, the biggest challenge is that the texel scale needs to be more uniform — for example, right now, the first-person models are a lot more high-res than anything else, and they even have a bit of depth of field applied to them, which hides the lack of texture filtering.
A more uniform texel scale will definitely be one of the biggest challenges of this stylistic choice, IMHO.”
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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I don’t know if it was just me, but my i7-4790k was running way hotter than usual while playing this, especially around the smoke.
Yes please! I’d much rather they had gone with UE4 from the beginning, but a switch would be very good indeed. Unity really isn’t optimized for PCs since it targets all sorts of platforms. CryEngine 5 would be an even better choice still, but I realize UE4’s ease of use is more important for smaller teams.
I’ve got like 25 to 60 fps on R9 280X and I7 2600K (4.5Ghz) Unity is realy a crapy engine 🙁
I first tested it with GTX 1080 SLI but it did not work. Then I disabled SLI and got around 50 fps at 4k with a single GTX 1080.
Got same as you but with a 2700K and a 560ti. Go figure.
Yes they should switch to Unreal. Models(UV) & Textures are poorly optimized.I’ve opened asset files to take a sneak peak behind the game. Entire map is using 1 4096*4096 tileset for all textures(WTF), Models are using huge (pointless, they are duplicated) tileset textures, poorly optimized with generic UV mapping. That UV mapping is just scattered(UV islands with no sense) all over the 4096 texture. As a graphic designer & developer i find this awfully made, and totally not professional. They should hire some pro artists, or just spend more time optimizing those things. Its not that hard, you just need to spend more time.
Dear SS developers, you are doing it wrong!
Update, Here are some textures from the game:
This wasn’t a demo in the traditional sense . It was a proof of concept. Why would they optimize this given it may not even exist in the final game? Why would they waste time perfecting a proof of concept that is only meant to deliver the direction they’re going for, delay financing and waste resources in a small team?
Well..that “Proof of concept” turned me from backing the Kickstarter Campaign. And Imho I’m not the only one…And, tbh if they dont change engine, I think that they will continue with this “proof of concept” for future releases and even final product.I will take this remake with a grain of salt
Yes. Frankly every Unity game runs like garbage. I can’t believe how demanding a game like wasteland 2 is.
Republique, Pillars Of Eternity and Broforce run fine. They are the exception to the rule, though.
The less said about how Unity runs on consoles, the better.
More than the engine, they should change the Name.
System Shock was the original, and stealing the name is insulting it’s memory.
Doesn’t matter what’s added, Remake/Reboot/3/modern, whatever they like.
This idea that stealing the name is OK needs to stop, it’s never accepted by gamers
Tomb Raider is the Original
Tomb Raider (2013) is what the name stealer’s called, though I just call it.
Tomb Raider – Name Thief
So System Shock – Name Thief is what this will be called by me as well.
ugh…. all these trolls made them switch from something we saw they were good at to a meme engine………… downgrade incoming. already requested my kick-start to be refunded. thats 250$ these sellouts wont get. if they commit to unity i will reback.
i was testing this at 1440p it ran at 60 at most maybe a few drops to the 50s but only for some seconds