We know we have dynamic snow I always wanted there to be foot tracks existing in a RPG, it just fits. It also helps hunters, may add a few quests to the game. Add other things rather than just "Go there and fight that" or "Go there and save X from Y".

It could be used for lots of things!

* I'm sorry if this has been discussed before, but I didn't find any topic relating to this subject, so...

It's one of those things where every wants it, there's no real reason why they shouldn't do it, but they probably won't.

Best reply ever! right to the point.

You're absolutely right... they probably won't add it, I can rest assure on the fact that they are busy with other important stuff though

I think footprints will be in the game, but probably disappear soon after appearing thus being only of aesthetic importance

Theres not really a need.

I'm guessing that Skyrim will be more 1st person based, as with every other TES game.

Also, if your looking at your feet most of the time, you need to get your priorities straight.



All that aside, I think they'll have it. Its rather minor and wouldn't take to long to program.

you do realize that, besides the main character, there will be other creatures/characters with 'feet'?

Zing!

It did not look like there are foot print in the trailer, when you watch it slow down all you see is little clouds of snow around your feet.

While it would be cool to have footprints. With the though of all the quest that could be usefull with them. Cause we all know there will be many tracking quest. I have yet to find a rpg that does not have me running around looking for people. The real problem with the footprints is the fact that would kill a person ram and cpu. To have the tens of thousands of life forms running around making up footprints. That would cause problems for more pc. Let alone all the outdates console. Why do you think bullet holes disapper in a matter of seconds. Lag city.

if they add in footprints they will disapper in a matter of mins just to keep lag down.

Minor? 1st person based? looking at your feet? ha?

I'd suggest reading the OP again. What I meant to say is that it could open a variety of quests of which you have to follow tracks in the snow/grass etc. and it could help hunters for instance know if there's a prey nearby.

I -don't- look at my feet most of the time in games o.O and I seriously don't know what gave you that kind of impression.

Most chances they won't have it, and it's really not a minor thing to add, as it adds a lot to the game, and they have to do it right with all the dynamic snow system they now have and maybe even implement it in forests and grass etc.

If they make other kinds of tracks, like bent grass and such. It could add a whole other dimension to the game.

I like it. As you say it'd be good for hunting. Even more complicated would be the stealth system, if NPCs can detect you if you're sneaking but leaving footprints in the snow. Very unlikely though.

And that brings us to another topic: Will we be able to see our legs???

Anyways, It's not that we NEED it but it would be good for tracking pepole and beast.. or some skooma deals!

I would like to see tracks as well. I would like to make some muddy tracks in some Inn or see some tracks in the mud / snow and realize there's a big cat or something about.

Like in Uncharted 2?

Id like to be able to follow tracks to hunt down stuff

As nice as this would be, I think it's asking a bit much.

Why follow foottracks when you can follow the green arrow?

What if they're wench tracks that lead to mead?

Foot prints that get covered over time due to snow fall, is a great idea.
Would also like the ability to write your name in wood with a knife or sword, and have it remain throughout the game, that would be awesome and give you a really personalized feel to the game.
This would also let you know where you have been in the game, leaving clues scribed into buildings or trees and such.

While we're talking about dynamic snow do you think that the snow will collect a bit on your character at all when you stand still in it. I wouldnt want heaping piles of snow on my head/shoulders but maybe itd be cool to see just an icy light covering or something that breaks off when you start moving.

This would be so cool. If we get that i want to be able to move chairs outside and sit and get a good frosting

None of the previews mentioned this unfortunately.

And I can conclude that you completely have no idea about how games works.

[some boring nerdy math]
For 10 000 footprints you need 10k quads, 1 texture (with different footprints stored in it), 10k position/rotation/scale properties (which are pretty much optional thing sinse footprints can't be moved, only re-placed at new position) and that's it.
Well, it'll be:
4 verts per quad = 40k verts in buffer
6 indeces per quad = 60k indecies in buffer

That means:
40k * 3 (for X, Y, Z coordinate) * 4 (bytes per coordinate) = 480 KB ram for verts (Haha, right?)
60k * 4 (bytes per index note) = 240 KB ram for indeces (Haha, part 2)
In addition, some UV info:
40k * 2 (u, v) * 4 = 360 KB for texture coordinates.

According to my exp., CPU could handle 2M (2 million) verts for a second, that means it could handle 40k verts at 50 FPS. Buuut you don't need to do it by CPU! GPU could handle verts movement as well, and to be completely honest - you aren't changing ALL 10k footprints all in one frame. You shift 10 of them at max.

Keep going. Footprints placement. Is it any "bottle neck"? No.
Since we know any char's position, rotation (aka Transform) and animation frame, we could just make table at very first game launch (we could even ship game with this information!) - which animation frames place footprints and where (relative to creature's position) - read data from table (which, once again, is TINY!) is really fast operation.
[/some boring nerdy math]

In other words:
There isn't THAT much problems with ram and CPU (unless you're going to have 10 million footprints);
10 000 footprints will eat around 1 MB of your RAM (How much does you have? 2 Gb?)

Mostly it's a problem of time - you just cant make EVERYTHING right, you'll have to cut some corners.




And speaking of snow... I bet that's some kind of shader, based on AO, just like one Crytek used in Crysis to create "snow jungles". Yep, it was done with just 1 shader. Brilliant? Sure. Any other applications? Not really... (I mean, it isn't kind of system, which adds real "snow layer" on every object so you can scribe your name on every single surface)

Lots of other games that have snow on just small parts of the game have had foot prints in snow. I pretty much expect Skyrim to has it, since there's so much focus on the snow. It would have a pretty important value for hunting creatures and tracking NPCs.

Reason to hope:

Can you link the article? I couldn't find it!