Curious

KenS1 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 27, 2019 1:58 pm

Hi all Is anybody thinking about converting Obduction to URU. I think it would really be great if it can be done.

lspace · **Joined:** Sun Aug 06, 2017 4:11 pm **Posts:** 43

What do you mean by converting? Making it an online game? Adding it on Moula as another age?

KenS1 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 27, 2019 10:15 pm

What I would like to see is lots of people walking around a large age. If it could be made to be converted
using drizzle, all the different shards could add it to there shard. Then you could explore with friends, not have to be alone.

Sirius · **Joined:** Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:41 am **Posts:** 69

This is rather unlikely. There are too many technical differences between Obduction's game engine and Uru's. This would be a lot of work and the result would be extremely ugly (probably rather laggy too). And on top of that, Cyan might not take it kindly because it's still a very recent game.

But I get what you mean, it would be fun to explore or just chill in those locations with other people...

Jamie Marchant · **Posted:** Tue Apr 09, 2019 6:20 pm

Yes, Cyan does not even like people converting Myst V to URU.(afaik) I believe Myst V, URU offline, Crowthistle, Hex Isle and MagiQuest and MOULa use the same engine, so levels are somewhat compatible with each other. Any other games are not.

Karkadann · **Posted:** Sat Apr 20, 2019 6:59 pm

I might be wrong but I think the main idea behind dropping the old game engine for a new one is so there new software will NOT be easily converted. Hacking for your own personal entertainment is one thing its when those hacks get distributed they becomes problem. In this case the old game engine was so well known by so many outside of the company anything Cyan made with it ran the risk of being hacked and converted for Uru CC

It seemed to have become a money pit on some level

Mac_Fife · **Posted:** Sun Apr 21, 2019 10:40 am

I think the reason for adopting a new engine was more likely that it was "off-the-shelf" and didn't require Cyan to expend resources developing and supporting it, it was easier to hire in staff that knew how the engine worked, and was widely supported across operating systems and hardware.

Sirius · **Joined:** Sun Jan 18, 2015 10:41 am **Posts:** 69

Karkadann wrote:

I might be wrong but I think the main idea behind dropping the old game engine for a new one is so there new software will NOT be easily converted.

Nah, the old engine is/was really dated. The main reason to switch to the new engine (Unreal Engine) is that it's a thousand times more powerful, and also a lot easier to work with for artists. Not being limited by your tools is important when making games, just like having AAA graphics is important to selling it.
The "extra" level of protection is a nice perk but definitely doesn't sound like a deciding factor when it comes to changing the game engine.

Also, converting MystV/Crowthistle &co to Complete Chronicles doesn't hurt Cyan financially - on the other hand, it's a good reason to have people buy the games despite how old they are, because the tools are designed in a way that makes them unusable if you don't own the games. It doesn't mean that Cyan officially endorses it, but so far they are willing to tolerate it as long as it remains respectful.
(Not that Cyan doesn't want us to have fun, but protecting their IP is important to protect themselves - otherwise people would be freely redistributing their games or hacking their server, which would make them lose money on top of hurting their image.)

Bringing Obduction Ages to Uru is another matter though. Whether it would be acceptable/respectful is another debate (what with Obduction being more recent, on another engine, and not related to Myst). However, we can safely say this: converting Obduction to Uru would be a tremendous amount of effort for very little gain (especially given how bad it would look), so it's not likely to be done anytime soon. Let's just focus on improving Uru with custom Ages and engine improvements first...

FreddyD · **Joined:** Fri Jan 12, 2018 12:16 am **Posts:** 22

Technical issues and costs aside, I have a hard time seeing how the worlds of Uru and Obduction have anything to do with each other. Their themes and backstories are entirely different. Too, the essence of the Obduction experience is that the player is a solitary explorer in an apparently abandoned world: encountering multiple players from all over present-day Earth would be counter-intuitive to the experience and contradictory to "how we get there."

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