I said it comes the closest, not that it comes close. The difference is that "closest" is comparing it to other scenes, while "close" would be an absolute statement. It's like saying the oldest person ever is the closest that humans have come to immortality - doesn't mean it's close.
Ok my bad. Language misunderstanding here! I try to improve as much as I can... but I might misunderstand some tiny things like that from time to time.
Yeah, almost all of the scenes I've played are completely unplayable and a waste of time. The rest are barely playable, maybe worth a quick look. In general, I can enjoy VAM better by loading some environment, adding some cycle force animation and a few spotlights, it literally takes 15 minutes to do. The same is unfortunately true for 2069, it didn't get me excited at all in the way that VAM scenes should. But you're right, I haven't posted scene reviews before... it just hasn't been worth it. The fact that I felt it worth it to post a review for 2069 is really saying something.
So other scenes would be 1/5 on average, and in comparison the 3/5 for 2069 is pretty good. Most of the scenes around here get great reviews from other people - but I don't think most reviewers are even trying to be objective or to think critically. Maybe people have low standards in this community - back when sapuzex was hailed as the best scene creator, all of his scenes had much more issues than 2069, they never worked correctly when I loaded them and they were extremely boring. And all of them got 5 star reviews on the vamresources site.
Or maybe the only people who review free stuff are people who really like the stuff they review - it's not like anyone's going to post a negative review due to feeling ripped off, since they didn't pay anything.
Ok that's cool. And yeap you're right... I think that most of the 5* reviews are dropped by respect especially for free content. I do have this exact behavior, but I'm giving an advanced review to compensate.
This is an issue of the rating system in the community : if a content gets no review, or bad review, it is considered ( at first sight ) like "not worth the time" by most of the community. If everyone was actually reviewing, giving feedback : it would be a problem. But since the percentage of reviews is under 0.1%, getting an honest, structured and interesting review does not show it as "potentially interesting to check" if it gets a bad star rating... but well, no one reads :]
I'm the guy who says that notes / ratings (even on video games, movies, whatever), should disappear for actual real feedback.
I agree with sapuzex content, I did have issues all the time... but the fact that I am an actual creator and understand all the mechanics behind it makes me a bit more "soft" on how I rate the scene based on the amount of work and issues he/she could have faced during the creation.
I didn't say it should be interactable. It just grabbed my attention, and I decided to see what happens if I do interact with it. The only thing wrong with that interaction was that it broke the animation and hence broke the immersion which is not great for a VR experience. Simply setting the atom as not-grabbable would've prevented that. Things like this should be tested thoroughly before release. However, the best thing would've been that the attention-grabbing rotating cube wouldn't have been there at all in the non-Launch version, since it doesn't do anything and doesn't have any role in the scene.
Yup. Mistake on my part.
But I do not agree on the "shouldn't be here" for the non-launch version. I love cosmetic stuffs in game creation. Interaction bug aside, I'm gonna keep doing that kind of stuff... seeing cool rotating things in VR... is cool :]
Well, I have two questions.
Do you think addressing most of the points I made would've made it an AAA quality scene?
Would it have been possible to address those points while keeping the scope of the game smaller (half the animation length, for instance; things like that), and end up with roughly the same amount of work to finish it?
No and no.
"AAA" was hyperbole... I think you might understand what I' trying to say by that.
I think that's the exact same problem when gamers says "just update that easy thing", "just do this"... they have actually no clue of the amount of work to fix something or to improve something in reality. Something that might be perceived as easy to fix, may not be that easy to fix.
For instance, having an actual behavior for characters or having them react to you... is not something that is remotely close to feasible in VAM without spending months to make it at least kinda cool. And I'm not sure that, based on how the game/engine works, that it would be actually possible.
For instance, the fact that you say that you spend 15 minutes slapping a cycle force is revealing. Have you ever replaced that cycle force by a Timeline for instance ? That is more than 20secs long ?
Well, I don't agree it's nitpicking to bring up any issue with immersion, even if it's a minor issue, when explaining why I didn't give five stars. It's a VR scene, immersion is everything. But, I agree it's probably least important of the issues I encountered.
Yeap I agree. But it is as fixable as someone saying that Dreams sculpt on PS4 looks too much "voxely". I understand the report... but it is beyond my reach, it is an engine limitation : )
Ok... It wasn't obvious that I was the black guy, since I had just opened the door and walked into the room. I mean, how can open a door if I'm lying dead on the floor?
What do you mean "when you wake up"? Where does that happen in the scene, cos I don't think I had that. Hmm.
Talking about no one reads earlier.
It is the card at the beginning... this is not animated
I don't really understand why you think I want it to be a full fledged game or huge. My criticisms focused on the quality, not the quantity. I'd much prefer to have a tiny piece of a game that just works nicely, is immersive, doesn't have obvious issues, and is enjoyable for the short duration that it lasts. I'd much prefer a 2 minute scene that's high quality and impressive, than a 15 minute scene that's boring and flat. 2069 was somewhere in the middle, hence the score. The amount of game I got didn't impact the review at all.
This was my interpretation of your feedback. I may have misunderstood. The fact that you talk about characters not reacting, not being able to interact... makes me think that it's what you want ? Am I mistaken ?
Half of the things I mentioned would be easy to fix, the rest are just a matter of skillful scene design and using the tools already in VAM, and putting in the effort.
Nope. ( besides fixing an interactable rotating square

) I don't know what is the biggest thing you did in VaM... but definitely not. For instance : did you know that animation patterns have a huge influence on the perfs of a scene ? Don't ask me why... we just noticed that with spacedog. The speed at which the scene loads, the amount of memory... AP have an impact that I don't understand.
If you start to build a scene that is rather complex, the engine starts to show its limitations pretty quickly. Again, don't ask me why... I don't know why. And 2069 is just complex because of simple text fades, a simple button to open a door or enviro animations.
I've fixed that by building a set of tool for me (and the community), I kinda hope that it is going to compensate this issue in my next scene.
I guess when I wrote the review, I didn't feel the need to go into any detail about the good stuffs because I figured it was already clear from other more positive reviews. If I'd been the first to review this, I would probably have posted a more detailed review.
Yeah I understand that. But this is a syndrom that exists on the internet (most of the time), taking the time to review what we don't like or we'd improve, not spending time on things we did like.
I do get now, discussing together, that your intentions are good. Your feedback is important. But highlighting the good stuff is also what motivates people to continue improving. As I was saying, In my line of work... I'm used to "useless reviews" and dealing with those... you know the basic "this is shit". I'm just saying that for creators around here that may not have the same resilience as me... pointing out things they did great is always welcome
Thank you everlaster, I may consider contacting you for beta testing if that's something that interests you.