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Game
Mechanics - Game Engine (Cont)
Jason
Bell, lead programmer at Crystal
Dynamics, considers the "streaming
technology" used in Tomb
Raider Legend as something which
"sets this title apart from previous
Tomb Raider games...
"It
gives us the ability to create a much
more finely detailed world". Bell
says the streaming technology "eliminates
load times by continually rotating
relevant data into and out of the
console's memory as needed...In TRL
we're using streaming technology for
more than just textures, animations,
sounds and logic.
"We've
improved the resource sharing and
added several new types of resources
that can be streamed, including cinematic
data and physics information. This
is important when you consider that
a typical TRL level requires 5-times
more memory than the PS2 console offers".
Bell
further states that "Legend's streaming
technology helped us close the gap
between the original concept of Lara
Croft and how she actually expresses
her personality in the game. And it
allowed us to make each environment
much more detailed, interactive and
realistic."
Graphics
The game has a "softness filter" which
smoothes out angular edges and takes
care of aliasing. Small touches like
dynamic lighting, real-time water
and fire effects, insects buzzing,
birds flying, rainbows, waterfalls,
dirt, cob webs, foliage swaying in
the breeze and ivy scaling the walls
all add to the realism experience
of raiding a tomb.
Riley
Cooper describes these small touches
as bringing the screen to life! While
the Xbox and PS2 versions will look
roughly the same, the Xbox 360 and
PC versions will incorporate a multitude
of next generation graphical techniques
such as normal and specula mapping.
Sound
Troels
Folmann will compose the soundtrack
for Tomb
Raider Legend. A large amount
of research has went into the soundtrack,
with Crystal
Dynamics delving deep into Lara's
past console and movie outings where
they hope to figure out the perfect
score for the game. In this game,
all main characters and destinations
have their own theme with each destination
using an instrument which is signature
for that region.
For
example, Africa may use more of a
base, jungle type beat while Tokyo's
sound may be more modern and up beat.
Tomb
Raider Legend also employs a special
technique of "micro-scoring" where
your actions determine the mood of
the soundtrack.
If
Lara is walking, the music will be
slow, but when she starts to run the
music will pick up pace. A sudden
change in the environment, like stones
or rubble falling, will also cause
a dramatic change in the music.
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