We started to create our backstory for openOutcast some months ago. We already had a baseline from the last few years but this was rather unorganized and chaotic in many ways, so what did we do? We launched a so called story contest, built two groups and told those groups to develop a new story for openOutcast. Either from scratch or based on the old baseline. The only restrictions were:

• Cutter has to be the player character
• Take in some of the old and well-known characters from OC1
• Also take in some of the old regions and give them a new look

The rest was completely freestyle. The two teams started their work in May and worked through the whole June and in the end of June we had our final story decision meeting. The two proposals were REALLY different in the end, which was great. One was completely freestyle and new and the other one was mostly based on the old baseline but evolved and detailed it in a really cool level. I am not going to tell you which one was winning

Alright, so as we had the story decided, we had that huge almost 40-paged-text-monster of storyline with character descriptions, location descriptions and with – of course – the main storyline divided up into 4 acts. Now what to do with that? Just copy & paste it into a list and derive a few quests from it? Na, not really…

First of all we needed to get an overview about WHAT happens WHEN and WHO is doing that. The best way to do this, was to split up the storyline into the smallest pieces possible. We took each important action of the storyline, categorized it (Is it a cutscene, is it an action of Cutter, is it an information, is it an action that is happening without Cutter’s notice etc.) and put it together into first raw main quest lines.

To show you how this worked, please see the example below.
First, the written part of the storyline:

So far not useable as a storyboard for a questline, right? It’s only text and you don’t know what exactly is useable and what is just information for the player. So we needed to split it up a bit more and categorize the elements. This brought us to the following kind of list (which we created with the application XMind by the way):

This is now perfectly useable because here you see the quest itself (the red board), the actions that are happening (the clocks) and the conversations (the two-people-symbols). This helps a lot to get an overview on how many quests there are, how many game-actions are in there and how many conversations we need to write.

In the end, this was done for all of the four acts that we have in the openOutcast storyline. In total, there are over 550 different nodes for the whole story. Quests, conversations, actions and fights…this sounds like a whole lot of stuff to do, right? It gets even more interesting when you take into account, that we aren’t on the highest possible level of detail!

To give you an example: One of the above listed conversations probably consists out of 10 lines of text and 5 different camera views. Maybe this quest above needs 20 lines of script logic and needs two more conversations  to be done. And after such a conversation is written up and developed in textform, it needs to be prepared for localization and converted into “real”  ingame dialogues. For this purpose, we are using a specifically created dialogue editor where we write and setup the dialogues in the engines language. Stuff like “start/end quests”, “if-then-logic”, “cameramodes”, etc.

Okay, now I think I should really move my ass back to work

Best Regards,

Reto Schmid alias madcybi
Lead Gamedesigner oOC

Write me on madcybi@openoutcast.org

Oh, and before I forget! If you’re interested in joining our team, please check our new detailed job listings. We are in need of multiple 3D artist and translators (e.g. french).

In addition to that, we created a profile on Issuu (an online page reader software) and published our artbook there.

It’s quite a long time ago, since we last posted some news here. But don’t worry…we are still there and are currently working on the first in-game region “Okasankaar”. As we are still in the concept phase at the moment, we decided to give you an artistic insight in the form of an “Artbook” on how Okasankaar looks in the minds of our concept artists.

The Artbook features drawings from all our concept artists and shows as well landscapes, flora & fauna and even some talan sketches directly out of Okasankaar. The artists were able to write a short comment to their pictures and in addition, the Artbook is being produced in high-quality to give you the possibility to print it out and enjoy it on real paper also

Use the link below to download the Artbook!

DOWNLOAD ARTBOOK

See you guys in the next news release!

The artists of ooc

Is it possible to transform a merely linear First-Person-Shooter like Crysis Wars into an adventure game that supports this kind of free travelling?

See for yourself:

NOTE: The morph targets for the Cutter model weren’t finished, so his lines aren’t lipsynched. What do you think about his voice? Should it be changed – maybe YOU can do it better?

When introducing free travelling we also had to think about following issues:

• Will the inventory/questlog of the player be kept when travelling to another level?
• Will modifications performed to the current level be remembered when travelling elsewhere?

Our solution for both of them was the development of a persistence system (check the corresponding feature on ModDB for more). We were pretty much relieved when it worked out the way we imagined, since it wasn’t clear whether the Crysis Wars SDK would permit such sort of modification altogether.

This and the dialogue system (presented in an earlier news post) were features not clear to be doable with the SDK – so we decided to implement them first to make sure we chose the right engine for our project.

Again we were confirmed in our choice … while it is still a long way to go until we’ve finished the programming work (not to mention asset creation) we are at least certain now that the remaining things we want to alter are definetly possible.

You also may have noticed that some custom UI elements for the questlog were added. Under the hood we further created a Lua-driven quest system that fits our needs better than the stock mission system of Crysis Wars.

And finally we added some screenshots of the new marketplace, city walls and the tweaked Cutter model with the incredible Backpack 3000:

The next step in terms of programming will be the implementation of an improved 3rd person camera with support for proper aiming (in combat mode) and collision detection (everyone who tried Oasis surely noticed that navigating in buildings was pretty annoying).

More on that soon…

We are always searching for motivated and talented people who want to help us release open Outcast some day and improve their portfolio along with getting experience working in a team with a professional claim at the same time. Currently we have a considerable shortage of 3D artists (modelers and the like) and besides we could need some tool programmers (C# knowledge required) and community managers (who can translate news postings and “spread the word”).

Take a look at the official job announcement at ModDB to learn how to apply and what the detailed requirements are.

To get a full overview of it’s capabilities (along with testimonials and a list of famous people already using it) make sure to read the fact sheet.

Now seriously again:

In the last weeks we were working on our quest system and custom user interface (adding a journal for example). Tests with saving local data when travelling between levels were positive and we already implemented the basics of our persistence system that will enable free travelling between levels, while your progress and your modifications to each level aren’t lost.

It’s hard to give an exact date but expect some ingame video showing all of this around the middle of May.

So what?

Well, a few weeks ago GOG announced that they are working together with ATARI to re-release some of their classic games as Master of Orion, Master of Magic and, you guessed it – the Master of Them All – Outcast!

Yesterday our favorite game officially made it’s debut on GOG and, as the community over there would say, it was “an instant download”

So, does it work?

I guess the main question on many peoples’ minds is “Is the game still buggy”? Well, from what I’ve seen so far this gotta be the most stable version of OC yet. Installation went smoothly on Windows 7. I had some old save-games so I was able perform a quick bug-check.

• Twan-ha riding? – No problem! OK

• Going through the mud in Shamazaar? – Cutter switches to normal walking speed, just like he should! OK

• Music? – Plays normally! OK

• Getting to the boat light in Cyana? – Couldn’t do it! X

I am not quite sure if the last one is a bug but if a normal jump doesn’t work after fifty attempts there is something wrong. I also recall that I was able to get to the light without cheats the first time I played OC.

Another question that you’re probably asking yourself is “Can I play in high resolution”. Unfortunately, my prayers to “about a thousand different gods” went unheard and the max resolution is still 512×384. HOWEVER …… I tried the famous unofficial 640×480 resolution patch and it friggin works! For the first time I get it to work! I was very skeptical since the folder structure of the GOG release is a bit different. But it did work (after switching Win98 compatibility mode for the oc1/2/3/.exe files to ) and here is a proof

Damn, it’s beautiful to go through Adelpha without that stupid black frame around the game screen! I want to stress though that the resolution patch is still unofficial and there is no guarantee it will work for you! Also the game gets unstable when using it – in my case it crashes every time I try to load from inside the game (loading from the “loader” is OK) as well as when I die.

What you get with the GOG release

• The original  1999 Outcast, as bug-free as it gets and running smoothly on your brand new PC!

• PDF manual

• A making-of video

• The soundtrack on MP3

• The “outtakes” videos

• Artworks in high resolution

I wish you a lot of fun on Adelpha!

Here is what the front page on GOG.com looks now. It will change in the near future so I decided to keep it for the coming generations.

Crysis Wars has a feature rich Dialogue System including support for all kinds of facial expressions and generating lipsync pretty much automatically.
The trouble starts though as soon as you try to make dialogues nonlinear: the integrated system only allows Dialogues which run straight from top to bottom.

Since interactive dialogues will play an important part in open Outcast we had to find a better solution. Together with our Game Designers we set up following feature list for our own implementation:

• Dialogue flow is nonlinear (influenced by chosen options and logic / Lua scripts)
• Dialogues are defined in XML files
• Translation support
• Different camera modes that are configured over a config file
• Triggering actions that can be defined using the Flow Graph System of Crysis
• Starting sequences and optionally resuming the Dialogue again after they finished
• Support for Lipsync and facial expressions
• Providing simple Flow Nodes so Leveldesigners can integrate Dialogues easily
• Skipping lines of the dialogue

Now all of these features have been implemented, see for yourself:

If you are interested in the technical details or ask yourself how your mod could benefit from our system, read along in the corresponding feature on ModDB.

Successfully adding a modification of this magnitude to Crysis Wars confirmed us that we chose the right platform for our project.

A Highlight of the system are the camera modes you can see in the video below.

The next challenge is the extension of the Quest system and support for persistence – you heard right – that would enable travelling between different regions (levels) freely without losing quest progress!

More on this to come after we implemented it.

Hey everybody!

We’ve just setup a newsletter. This (along with our RSS feed) is probably the best way to stay up to date with our progress, blogposts etc. without having to frequently visit our website and forum. To sign up just click on the link below and enter your name and email address in the fields.

Join our newsletter!

Besides if you’re browsing with Firefox you can now get our open Outcast “Personas”. Personas are easy-to-install, easy-to-use themes that change the look of your Firefox web browser. To learn more about them and get the needed plug-in visit the Personas website.

Get our oOC personas here:

• OpenOutcast Moons
• OpenOutcast Logo

We also added a new wallpaper to the gallery:

But I digress.

Outcast was buggy, there is no doubt about it and changes in hardware and software made matters even worse. At some point certain version of OC would simply delete itself after installation. Several patches were released that fixed the installation problems but some gameplay issues remained and after the bankruptcy of Appeal there was no one to fix them.

Don’t worry though, since the release of Outcast I have personally installed and ran it on most Windows versions (at least on Win98, Win2000, WinXP and Win7) and I am here to tell you that it’s absolutely possible. In addition the problems have actually decreased on the newest OS versions (like XP and win7) – installing shouldn’t be a problem anymore and even if it is the patches will take care of that. The main problem that seem to remain are two bugs:  twonha riding and extreme slowdown when going through the mud in Shamazaar.

OK, enough babbling. Here is what you have to do.

Installation

As I said I haven’t had problems with installation since WinXP. If you do experience such problems you need Patch 1. This patch is used to install the game. If the Outcast CD1 is in your drive, first remove it, then start up the patch application and finally put the CD back in.

Patch 2
I’ve never needed Patch 2 to be honest. I even think it’s obsolete since Patch 3 seems to fix the same problems and some more. I am including it here just in case.

Patch 3
I highly recommend applying Patch 3 because it fixes some common bugs and is essential if you want to use the “Best Solution” to the “twonha” and the “mud” bugs described below. This patch is applied after installation.

Important note:  This patch is multi-language. When you fire it up you’ll be presented with language choice menu. Make sure you choose the language of your Outcast-version! There are slight differences between versions and if you pick the wrong language the patch won’t be applied correctly and the game won’t run!

DVD Patch
If you own the DVD version of OC you should get the DVD-Patch. I don’t have DVD version myself so I can’t say much about how to use it…and the instructions are in French According to the translation by google thought, you should apply the patch after installation.

Fixing the Twonha riding and Mud-slowdown bugs

Those two bugs are the main complaint that people seem to have these days – Twonha doesn’t move when you mount it and Cutter walks veeeery slowly through the mud in Shamazaar. There are three ways to fix these as far as I know.

The Best Solution
Hopefully you won’t need to try the other two solutions below. This one is the best solution, hands down.
You need to have Outcast installed (it shouldn’t matter whether you used Patch 1 or not. I didn’t.) and patched with Patch 3.
Next you’ll apply an unofficial Patch – get it here, then start it up and locate the OC3.exe file (should be in your …outcast/oc folder) and let the patch do its work. Again, you need to have applied Patch 3 before using the unofficial patch or you’ll get an error!
Once the patch have been successfully applied you’re done – twonha and mud should now behave normally.
NOTE: The unofficial patch was created by “terence_13“. He appeared unexpectedly on the planet-adelpha forums and later on the open outcast boards and said that the release of the Openoutcast-Demo Oasis has inspired him to sit down and try to find the cause of these two bug. And find them he did. If you experience any problems with the patch you should read this thread on the planet-adelpha forum.

Slowing down your system
(Note: You do not need this or any of the ideas further down if the “Best Solution” has worked for you!)

This is a solution that has been available for quite some time now. Basically the two bugs are somehow connected  with the speed of newer CPUs or more precisely with the higher frame-rate they produce. Don’t ask me how and why – I have no idea, but some smart people figured out that if you slow down your system these bugs would disappear. There are different ways to achieve this kind of artificial slowdown (e.g. starting several heavy applications) but the most “elegant” way seems to be using a CPU slowdown application like CPU Grabber, CPU Killer etc. I had better results with the former but I recommend you try both or even something else and see which works best for you. (I suspect that CPU Killer isn’t free BTW…)

Until a couple of years ago this used to be a fairly simple solution – you just had to start up the slowdown application, tell it how much load to put on your CPU and then start Outcast. If the bugs were still there you go back to your desktop (alt+tab) and slow down your system some more, then return to Outcast and test again. If the bugs are gone but the game is getting too slow you try a slightly lower value for the slowdown app and so on. Through some trial and error you should be able to find the right value.

However with multicore CPUs nowadays it’s a bit trickier. You have to do it as explained in this article

-start your slowdown app (e.g. CPU Grabber) as administrator – right-click on it and choose “Run as administrator”
-open up Task Manager (ctrl+shift+esc), under Processes find the slowdown application, right-click on it and choose “Set Affinity…”. Then set the affinity for that process to just one CPU core. It doesn’t matter which one but remember it since it will be important in the next step
-start Outcast as administrator. Once the actual game is running go back to Task Manager(alt+tab), find the process called OC3.exe and again set its affinity to the same CPU core you chose in the previous step.
-return to game and see if the bugs are gone. Do some trial and error as described above until you get good game-speed with no bugs.

-have fun

Run a screen capturing software and set FPS to 30
That’s a weird and not very practical solution but I decided to include it because of a funny coincidence. Just as I was writing this I stumbled upon a youtube video of a guy making a “speedrun” on Outcast (a speedrun is the art of going through a game as quickly as possible without cheating by planing your route, using glitches and bugs to your advantage, skipping all “unessential” quests, movie sequences etc.). In the comments to that video the same guy explains that recording with FRAPS at 30 frames has solved the slowdown issues.

EDIT: seems like FPS would depend on your version of Outcast. For more info read the very first comment by AWE just below this blog post.

I hope this article has been helpful. One last tip in case you still have some problems is playing around with the compitabiliy mode of  the executable files, especially OC1.exe, OC2.exe and OC3.exe. Persoanally that never helped me much but a lot of people recommend it so I guess it’s worth a try.

Resources:
Patch1 Patch2 Patch3 DVD-Patch

Unofficial Patch

More info about the unofficial patch

CPU Grabber

Another article on running Outcast