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Q3:
Can you give us some examples of how Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3:
Raven Shield takes advantage of those features?
A3:
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| Projected Textures: Characters Shadows,
Blood Spots, and Bullet Holes. |
TruForm™: Our characters use
ATI's TruForm™ for optimal display
results |
CubeMapping: Reflection in windows. |
Q4: What feature of the Radeon Radeon® 8500
do you like the most? And why?
A4: TruForm™:
That's the kind of feature that developers love.
There is almost nothing to do in our code and
the effect is awesome. More features like that
are welcome. Those features can be implemented
in less than a day in an existing project, so
developers are really willing to implement them.
Q5: If you could ask for only one new 3D
feature, what would that be? And how would
you use that in your games?
A5: It would be great to have a per-pixel
normal buffer: while rendering the object, you
output the per-pixel normals in that buffer,
and then after, instead of rendering the object
again for another pass, you could only render
a quad covering the object in screen space and
use the stored normals to do lighting and other
stuff.
Q6: If you could sum up how much the Radeon
Radeon® 8500 improves Tom Clancy's Rainbow
Six 3: Raven Shield in one sentence, what would
you say?
A6: Radeon Radeon® 8500 is great
in both performance and graphic quality. A player
could set his character level at Low Quality,
which frees CPU power, and the TruForm™ will
make his character as good looking as High Quality
on cards without TruForm™.
Q7: If you could sum up your view on ATI's
future in 3D, what would that be?
A7: With high quality products, drivers
and support, ATI will be a leader in 3D. Innovation
is good, but innovation that can be easily integrated
into a "in-progress" project is the key point.
This allows developers to include those innovations
in a near-to-be-released game.
About Ubi Soft:
Q1: Gives us a brief history of Ubi Soft.
A1: Ubi Soft Entertainment produces and
publishes interactive games worldwide. The group
is a leader in its field, and offers a diversified
product range that is constantly growing. Ubi
Soft develops its own products, and also works
with famous developers. The group's ambition
is to supply the public with games of excellent
quality that allow the sharing of thrilling experiences.
Set up in 1986, Ubi Soft has a presence in 20
countries, including the United States, Canada,
Germany and China. The group distributes its
own products and those of other publishers in
more than 50 countries. In the 2000-2001 financial
year, its sales reached 260 million euros, an
increase of 39.4% over the previous year, with
net earnings of 4.6 million euros. www.ubi.com
Q2: What do you think is Ubi Soft's 1 key
advantage above other developers?
A2: Experienced development studios,
all around the world, that share ideas and work
techniques.
Q3: Tell us a bit about the people who developed
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield.
A3: Nearly all of the team members are
hardcore Rainbow Six fans. So it was pretty much
building on what we know and what has already
been done. The Core team consists of: Lead Game
Designer Michael McCoy jr , Lead Programmer Eric
Begin, Lead Artist and Artistic Director Carol
Bertrand, Lead Level Designer Carl Lavoie, and
Lead Animator Josef Sy. And not to mention the
rest of the team who did excellent work on this
title.
Q4: How do you go about creating a game
as a team?
A4: Constructive meetings, one focused
vision of what the game should be, and day in
day out collaboration from all.
Q5: How long did the development take for
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield?
A5: In all, it lasted 26 months.
Q6: Tell us about Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six
3: Raven Shield and how it came about. homepage.
A6: After acquiring the Tom Clancy license
through Red Storm, we knew that a huge fan base
was waiting for another Rainbow Six title. So
we sat down and came up with a couple of ideas
on how it could be made, what engine we were
to use, etc., and started with a conception of
what will be the next Rainbow Six. Rainbow Six
3: Raven Shield advances both the technology
and gameplay of the franchise without sacrificing
its overall appearance and feeling. Set in the
first decade of the 21st Century the world is
not unlike the present day.
Players lead an elite, international anti-terrorist
unit code named "Rainbow". The player assumes
the role of mission commander, before and after
each mission and plan out every detail of their
missions from the operatives and their gear to
their exact paths and actions. During missions
players jump into the action by controlling any
one of eight Rainbow operatives as they engage
terrorists and save the world.
Unlike most first person shooters, Raven Shield
presents a detailed and convincingly realistic
story line. To keep in step with the story, both
the world and the equipment within it are also
based on reality. Combat in the real world is
a scary thing where a single well placed bullet
can kill anyone. Combine all this within 15 fast
paced Single Player missions over 12 unique maps
and 6 unique Multi-Player maps and you get Raven
Shield!
Q7: What new ideas / features did you bring
to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield?
- A7: Here is a quick list:
- User friendly mission planning: We've simplified
the planning in a way that anyone would be
able to plan out there missions, and have
fun doing it.
- Simple "Heads-Up Display" displays all
in-game information: The HUD has been completely
revamped.
- "Quick Order Interface" button, quick ordering
system to issue real time orders to your
team: By pressing spacebar you will be able
to give order to your team in real time.
- Prone character postures: The prone has
been added, in order to be less of a target,
but of course your mobility is lessened as
well.
- Intelligent teammate, enemy, and hostage
AI: The AI, which is the main part of the
game, has been improved for the Rainbow team,
Terrorists and hostages. Now you really feel
like you are part of the Elite team that
is Rainbow. But the terrorists as well have
a whole new attitude, so you will have to
be extra careful.
- Fluid Peek & Crouch feature allowing the
player to position his body in almost any
position: While holding the CTRL button and
moving your mouse, you will be able to peek
in the tiniest cracks and holes to keep an
eye on your target and neutralize him.
- Realistic death animations generated by
Karma's physic system making every death
animation unique: No death animations are
used in the game. All of them are controlled
by Karma.
- Arsenal of 57 real world weapons including
pistols, sub machineguns, assault rifles,
shotguns, sniper rifles, and light machineguns.
- First and third person representations
of all weapons.
- Weapon attachments including 3.5x mini-scopes,
thermal scope (sniper only), sound suppressor,
and high capacity magazines. Terrorists have
access to grenades.
- Other useful equipment such as thermal
sensors, CS "Tear Gas" grenades, smoke grenades,
and 3-D heart beat sensors.
Q8: What were the best and worst moments
during that time?
A8: The worst was when we had many changes
in the team. Resource changes during the project
were one of the worst moments, as we needed to
continue at the same pace with the updated team.
The best moment was when we got the first fully playable version. That was
a thrill for the whole team to play Rainbow Six 3 and relive the unique experience
that only this game brings to the player.
Q9: How do you decide which graphic features
to support in a title given the development
time of your titles?
A9: We study what is available on the
market in terms of graphic features and find
ways we can learn and improve on it. The result:
An amazing looking game called Rainbow Six 3
:-)
Q10: How closely have you been working with
ATI and how do you see that continuing going
forward?
A10: ATI has been providing us support
in our development needs, both by providing us
with the required hardware, and helping us resolve
technical issues we may encounter. If all goes
well, ATI and Ubi Soft will surely be dealing
together for the next titles to come.
Q11: What is next for Ubi Soft and Rainbow
Six 3: Raven Shield?
A11: Other high quality, fun products.
As for Rainbow Six, you will have to wait and
see.
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