TresCom Forums

6/3/98
- E3 UPDATE -

- Well, we were anxious to give people a chance to see Trespasser in action, and frankly, we were a bit nervous. As it turned out, there wasn't much reason to be nervous. The response from gamers, press, buyers & the competition was overwhelming. Everyone seemed genuinely blown away by what they were seeing. Here's the breakdown:

What did we show?

We showed pieces of two areas in Trespasser. First, was an area called the Industrial Jungle. The first point was a small gorge surrounded by huge trees, logs, ferns, flowers, and various sized rocks & boulders. Looking up, you could see glimpses of the sky through the towering trees. The next stop was the waterfall. Here people got a chance to see our water model in action (second to the dino's, the water model was everyone's favorite). The player could approach the fall, pickup an object (in this case a flower), toss it in the water and watch our physical water react just as it does in the real world. The next area was all about interacting within the Trespasser world. An opening in the jungle revealed about two dozen varying objects (crates, planks, barrels, trash can, horseshoe, basketball, baseball bat, Mac-10, AK-47, etc) for the player to use at their discretion. The coolest thing here was going to the trash can, removing and throwing the lid, picking up the basketball, and dunking it in the can. For extra credit, we'd pickup the AK-47, shoot the trashcan over, pickup the can, and shake it until the ball came rolling out. Mmmmm fuuunnnn.

The next area was the public’s first view at a moving dinosaur in the Trespasser world. We set a raptor behind some crates and barrels, but he wouldn't charge the player until you bothered him (he was specifically told to be mellow until you messed with him). The player had to go to a nearby shack, push their way in, retrieve the gun inside, and then go after the raptor. Soon as you got close, he charged toward you, knocking his way through the everythink between you and him. If you didn't backpedal and unload on him, he'd make pretty quick work of you. After a few shots to the head however, he'd tumble over backwards and twitch on the ground. Now, here's the fun part,.. the dinosaurs don't disappear when they're dead. You can keep shooting it and watch its' body twitch from the bullet impact. Shoot it in the body and it spasms,.. go for a headshot and the raptors head reacts physically correct from the blast. People were actually disturbed by the realism,.. I thought it was funny.

The next step on the tour was a single raptor standing next to crate, which had a baseball bat and a Colt .45 resting on it. This raptors purpose was to show people how our physical model reacts to the player. Receiving absolutely no AI commands, he stood there waiting for someone to unleash a little pain on him. Approaching the crate, we'd pickup the handgun, fire a couple rounds off into its' head and watch the reaction wave all the way through its' body. For good measure, we'd plug him once in the stomach and watch him struggle to remain standing. Okay, it was time for the mercy kill. One last shot to the head sent the raptor limp (not sprawling,.. still standing, but limp). His head hung nearly touching the ground,.. the tail no longer waging. Drop the gun, get the baseball bat and you could literally nudge him with it, and watch him fall over. Of course, you could once again pickup the gun, shoot him a little more, and just to be cruel, drop the gun on its lifeless head.


The other area was pretty much eye candy. We wanted to give people a sense of how we're drawing an outdoor environment without a thick layer of fog 10 feet in front of the camera. This area was a pined forest that dropped about 200ft straight down. In this area, we showed a Triceratops lumbering around a populated forest. Just like a real herbivore, he wasn't too interested in the player, so you could walk along side him and see how his skin stretches around his stomach and hind legs. People couldn't believe that there was not one single bit of animation in the dinosaurs. The next stop in the forest was the Geothermal Plant. Since this is a critical area in the game,.. I'm not going to give much away here. We only showed the Geo Plant when people wanted to see how well we rendered indoor / industrial environments. All in all, show-goer's came away with a real sense of the scale in Trespasser and what a friggin' battle they're going to have on their hands when this game hits the shelves.