[T3] Independant Viewer / T3TV

A z r a e l
04-17-2003, 15:50
T3TV

I think an excellent way to increase the player base for T3 is to include a built in T3TV module for T3. Many other games have viewers that allow players to watch matches and games. HLTV (Half Life TV) as an example. T2TV is full most of the time which shows it's viability. It should be included in T3.

T3 Viewer

Now let's go one step further. One of the best ways I can think of to attract people to the Tribes 3 franchise and one of the best team games on the market is to allow people who have not purchased the game to view the T3TV module. 100mb + downloads are not uncommon on todays internet. Make it so that people can go to www.tribes3.com (or other mirrors) and download a T3TV viewer. This viewer contains just enough of the Tribes 3 program to view matches (or pubs) without owning the game. NO OTHER GAME ON THE MARKET TODAY DOES THIS!

People will be able to download the viewer. Install it on their PC. Run it. The viewer does a DNS search for all servers running T3TV modules. The viewer connects to a match. The match/audio streams and the person is now viewing a T3 match (without owning the game). With good shoutcasting and good teams, anybody will see be able to see T3 in action. They'll see what a great game it is, their interest will peak and they will have an increased chance of purchasing the game.

Bandwidth of course would be an issue. Allowing the entire internet community to connect to a match can take up a lot of bandwidth. So of course their will have to be space available limitations. I've seen HLTV hold 800+ players at CPL. T2TV also get's it bandwidth from connects that are not attached to the match server. So dedicated T3TV servers will probably be needed.

If the Dev Team can swing this, I think it would be a great idea for promoting T3.

|311|-A z r a e l

Ixiterra
04-17-2003, 16:43
They'll see what a great game it is, their interest will peak be piqued and they will have an increased chance of purchasing the game.


At least you got your theirs right. ;)

Anyways, yeah it's a good idea. I've never used T2TV because I don't play T2, but it definitely sounds like something that would get people into the game without having to commit $50 to it. It could be added as an option for any server to have maybe 1-2 (or more if bandwidth allows) slots for T3TV users. Or maybe there can be an option that when a server is like 6-8 people below max, it'll open up T3TV slots until more players come.

Sir Lucius
04-17-2003, 16:43
The only way to have independent demos (or tv feeds) for people who don't have the game is a video stream.

Otherwise you're basically giving them the games minus the code to play it. It's just not worth it. They'd need the maps, models, skins, textures, and game engine -- that's pretty much your entire game right there. There's no such thing as "just enough."

If they release a playable demo I don't know how easy it is to lock out players from playing new maps, but I'm pretty sure it's hard coded into the exe. I doubt it's something we'll see in tribes3.

Thrax has mentioned something about built in tools to convert recordings to avi files (or whatever file type). That's probably your best way to do it anyways. Going out of the way to stream games for people who don't even own a copy of t3 seems a bit much to me. But that's just my opinion :shrug:

Ixiterra
04-17-2003, 16:45
Otherwise you're basically giving them the games minus the code to play it. It's just not worth it. They'd need the maps, models, skins, textures, and game engine -- that's pretty much your entire game right there. There's no such thing as "just enough."



Tru dat, tru dat.

Trident_RX
04-17-2003, 18:04
You would also strip the client to server netcode out of the game, so it would be impossible to play it anyway even if you did somehow hack it.

All you would need for the client to server is a ping to figure out if you are still connected or not. the rest could easily be removed.

On top of that only have maybe 3 maps for the viewer and only the basic models, and even toned down less poly models, for the viewer that doesnt own the game. This way he can sample what the game would be like without having to give him almost the entire thing.

Kinda like a Demo except you are watching a full game match on select maps.

A z r a e l
04-17-2003, 19:36
It's possible to do it. Computers do anything you tell them. :)

If there is a seperate server that handles T3TV feeds only, then they wouldn't be able to play T3 because they wouldn't be connected to a gaming server. So keeping people from hacking the code to play imo is easily preventable.

Sir Lucius
04-17-2003, 19:47
oh yea, that's true. You do need a cd key to play.

cyclonite
04-22-2003, 03:18
Thats actually a really good idea. Not only for promoting the game, but also for us players.
Maybe just include base maps? Don't let them see custom made maps etc.
If this happens it will be revolutionary.

SexPistol
04-22-2003, 09:47
Awesome idea. :bigthumb:

Destiny
04-22-2003, 14:13
i told this to marwaes almost 1.5 yrs ago ... my idea goes a little farther tho. Not only is the player downloadable onto a PC ... but what if you put the playback features into other platforms for the game. for example: xbox , PS2, or gamecube ... They already have a ps2 port of t2 (or something close) along with a Linux port of t2. If all platforms could play the stream back then whalla ... im watching monday night Tribes on my big screen with surround sound thru my cheap 150 buck console with my DSL or cable line. The game developer has to take a leap and put this in their development schedule. But it is doable.

Natural
04-24-2003, 01:01
T3TV

I think an excellent way to increase the player base for T3 is to include a built in T3TV module for T3. Many other games have viewers that allow players to watch matches and games. HLTV (Half Life TV) as an example. T2TV is full most of the time which shows it's viability. It should be included in T3.

T3 Viewer

Now let's go one step further. One of the best ways I can think of to attract people to the Tribes 3 franchise and one of the best team games on the market is to allow people who have not purchased the game to view the T3TV module. 100mb + downloads are not uncommon on todays internet. Make it so that people can go to www.tribes3.com (or other mirrors) and download a T3TV viewer. This viewer contains just enough of the Tribes 3 program to view matches (or pubs) without owning the game. NO OTHER GAME ON THE MARKET TODAY DOES THIS!

People will be able to download the viewer. Install it on their PC. Run it. The viewer does a DNS search for all servers running T3TV modules. The viewer connects to a match. The match/audio streams and the person is now viewing a T3 match (without owning the game). With good shoutcasting and good teams, anybody will see be able to see T3 in action. They'll see what a great game it is, their interest will peak and they will have an increased chance of purchasing the game.

Bandwidth of course would be an issue. Allowing the entire internet community to connect to a match can take up a lot of bandwidth. So of course their will have to be space available limitations. I've seen HLTV hold 800+ players at CPL. T2TV also get's it bandwidth from connects that are not attached to the match server. So dedicated T3TV servers will probably be needed.

If the Dev Team can swing this, I think it would be a great idea for promoting T3.

|311|-A z r a e l


This *MAY* be possible if the viewer were limited to one map of one game mode, limiting the textures and downloads required. Perhaps the current idea of a "Q3test" style beta could factor into this. Beta the game with one map, and in the future allow users to observe the final game on the same map. I'm not sure why people would want to observe rather than play the demo, but who knows.

A z r a e l
04-24-2003, 13:31
Rather than keep it limited, the full force of T3 needs to be shown. They need to be able to hear from the announcer that this a match between 5150 vs Vanguard etc.. If this is the bait for new players and interest, we can't go half assed on it.

JuSTCHiLLiN
04-24-2003, 13:54
Online sports are the wave of the future. T3 should try and lead the way.

dragonReborn
04-24-2003, 15:50
I think the future looks bright for this as epic is supporting a tv studio deal for ut2003 and working with a small group for utv2k3 right now. I don't know a whole lot about the studio deal but it's supposed to be designed for huge lans and television with stuff like multiple feeds to post production suites and other crazy features along those lines. Try seaching on the ut2003 ina forums.

JohnClark
04-24-2003, 17:30
I really enjoyed the t2tv casts with nordramor doing commentary at the same time. TsN has been experienting with nullsoft tv for BOB2, it's pretty cool actually, let's us do screen capture video streaming so any game can be cast with video. If this pans out (still in testing phases) then it might not be an issue.

MasterGnr
04-24-2003, 20:44
T1 - shoutcasting

T2 - T2TV

T3 - TVTV (tribes vengence..)
- Vengence Viewer
- The Nordramor Comedy Hour...all the yelling you can handle!

byteasc
04-25-2003, 06:32
TVTV or whatever you want to call it, Can and will be easily doable with the Unreal Engine.

R@ND0M
04-25-2003, 10:32
Multiplayer demos with Inter-active command screens!

So you can all join a server and watch the same demo in-synch with your teammates. Typing what can be improved, and using a different form of Command Map to help implement new strategies.