Darwinia Vista version released

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Chris
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Darwinia Vista version released

Postby Chris » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:07 pm

We're delighted to announce that after many months of hard work a Vista version of Darwinia has been released.

Its been a fantastic opportunity, not only because we believe that Darwinia is a perfect addition to the Vista game package but also because it represents a major stepping stone for Introversion to work with one of the major players in the industry. Hopefully this will enable us to work with Microsoft again in the future.

The Vista version of Darwinia is available from the MSN Vista games page, which is really great news since it's such a popular site, and is sure to bring lots of new people to our game. Also getting Darwinia on that page on Vista's launch day is really good news for us.

Vista users will now be able to see the following enhancements to Darwinia:

- Porting of the Darwinia graphics system from OpenGL to DirectX has enabled new and enhanced visual effects, for example, screen warping explosion effects, reflective water, and Darwinian soul 'auras'. We've really gone to town with pixel shader effects and the end result is the best looking version of Darwinia we've ever made.

- Support of the Xbox 360 controller. If you own a 360 controller just plug it into your PC's USB port and Darwinia will pick it up automatically.
- Support of the new Vista parental control system
- Three new Darwinia levels designed by Gary Chambers (Icepick) : Jailbreak, Stronghold and Doomsday
- Availability on both games explorer menu and Vista media centre
- Rich saved games option allowing you to launch Darwinia by double clicking the save game from windows explorer

Work began in June 2006, with Johnny and Gary working to bring the project together. Along the way we also hired Stepan Hrbek to write the advanced DirectX pixel shader effects for this release. It's been a bit of a crazy project with some seriously tight deadlines, but here we are with Vista Darwinia released on Vista's launch day.

Now that this special Vista version is finished, we plan to make a Darwinia patch available to everyone that encorporates all the new features and enhancements we've written. We've got some cool new stuff planned for Darwinia in the future and this is just the beginning.
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Postby Montyphy » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:09 pm

W00t!
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Postby Rkiver » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:10 pm

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Xocrates
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Postby Xocrates » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:12 pm

woohoo!

I was wondering when we would get news about this.
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Postby Darksun » Wed Jan 31, 2007 5:17 pm

Now that the porting has been sorted, and a gamepad control scheme devised, how much work would be required to get the game running on the X-Box/X-Box 360. And will we see this anytime soon?

Or is that all too hush hush for mortal ears? :P
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Postby Varsity » Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:40 pm

DX10?
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Postby sirvoks » Wed Jan 31, 2007 7:57 pm

horray! CONGRATULATIONS :) - Hope it'll bring a ton of nice people her ^^
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Postby Testrie » Wed Jan 31, 2007 9:51 pm

does that mean... err... i can't say it. hope you understand what my question is :P

and btw, is this patch compatible with the beta version? I... misplaced my normal one.

elyea
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Postby KingAl » Thu Feb 01, 2007 7:53 am

Excellent! Hopefully it'll become something of a 'staple game' for the new OS. I second Tesrie's ambiguous first question. I note that the site states "New levels exclusive the Windows Vista version". Is this just typical marketing hyperbole, or will Icepick's levels be unavailable to those who haven't bought it through MS?
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Postby Testrie » Thu Feb 01, 2007 8:10 am

KingAl wrote:Excellent! Hopefully it'll become something of a 'staple game' for the new OS. I second Tesrie's ambiguous first question. I note that the site states "New levels exclusive the Windows Vista version". Is this just typical marketing hyperbole, or will Icepick's levels be unavailable to those who haven't bought it through MS?


How do you know what my first question is? because it probably isnt whatever you think it is. Please PM me your guess :P

Chris wrote:Now that this special Vista version is finished, we plan to make a Darwinia patch available to everyone that encorporates all the new features and enhancements we've written. We've got some cool new stuff planned for Darwinia in the future and this is just the beginning.

I guess the levels is part of "all the new features."

Elyea

oh no! the capitalization monster is here! hurry and catch it before we start to see "Xander"s around here...
Last edited by Testrie on Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:43 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby Wasgood » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:26 am

I'm amazed at how you update. You stay with the later games instead of concentrating on one game. Nice work.
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Re: Darwinia Vista version released

Postby ScareyedHawk » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:20 am

This sounds great, but, uh...

Chris wrote:- Support of the new Vista parental control system


... What?
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Re: Darwinia Vista version released

Postby KingAl » Thu Feb 01, 2007 10:32 am

ScareyedHawk wrote:This sounds great, but, uh...

Chris wrote:- Support of the new Vista parental control system


... What?


I'd guess this support may merely involve restricting permission to running the game - unless Darwinians burning to death will scar kids for life. However, if this is the case, I don't entirely understand why it needs internal support.
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Postby martin » Thu Feb 01, 2007 11:46 am

Varsity wrote:DX10?


I doubt it, since the beta worked on my computer.... and I'm still XP which dosen't have DirectX10 -> in fact since no one could have tested directX 10 it would have been a bit risky.

also...

....

had to happen some time...

MULTIWINIA! please? :P
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Re: Darwinia Vista version released

Postby frenchfrog » Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:15 pm

Chris wrote:- Support of the new Vista parental control system


This is most likely a prerequisite from Microsoft to be in the Vista deal. What is the point of advertising the new features of your new OS if you don't even apply those features to your _own_ products?
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