News: MindArk Signs Deal for Unreal Engine 5 - PRNewswire

Hi everyone!

We have read all your responses in this thread, but many of the questions cannot be answered yet. We intend to share a lot more information in the beginning of Q4 this year that should give you all a much better understanding of the project.

As many of you have guessed, the engine switch brings much more than just improved graphics. Improved tools, better workflows and support will help us at Mindark focus on content game systems to deliver a better Entropia, instead of constantly having to update our own engine.

We also have the ambition to keep the requirements on a level where most players can still play with your current setup in one way or another.

We are really hyped and excited about this next step for Entropia Universe, and we hope you are too!
I am not a techie person so I want to know what "most players can still play with your current setup in one way or another" means ?? I know already that I ask many dumb questions with new "Updates" and it sounds like it is just going to get worst if I even want or am able to play anymore.
 
I am not a techie person so I want to know what "most players can still play with your current setup in one way or another" means ?? I know already that I ask many dumb questions with new "Updates" and it sounds like it is just going to get worst if I even want or am able to play anymore.
Dude just relax. Q4 u wil get much more info
 
Hi everyone!

We have read all your responses in this thread, but many of the questions cannot be answered yet. We intend to share a lot more information in the beginning of Q4 this year that should give you all a much better understanding of the project.

As many of you have guessed, the engine switch brings much more than just improved graphics. Improved tools, better workflows and support will help us at Mindark focus on content game systems to deliver a better Entropia, instead of constantly having to update our own engine.

We also have the ambition to keep the requirements on a level where most players can still play with your current setup in one way or another.

We are really hyped and excited about this next step for Entropia Universe, and we hope you are too!

I and probably the vast majority of the players are super excited about this news and cannot wait to see some progress. I understand how important this is for the game for the long term.

I believe I speak for the vast majority when saying that I really hope you allocate enough dev resources to give us closure, as soon as possible, in this matter: https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forum/index.php?threads/yog-pet-buff-issue.272776/ - many could argue that it is of equal importance as the graphics update...
 
Hi everyone!

We have read all your responses in this thread, but many of the questions cannot be answered yet. We intend to share a lot more information in the beginning of Q4 this year that should give you all a much better understanding of the project.

As many of you have guessed, the engine switch brings much more than just improved graphics. Improved tools, better workflows and support will help us at Mindark focus on content game systems to deliver a better Entropia, instead of constantly having to update our own engine.

We also have the ambition to keep the requirements on a level where most players can still play with your current setup in one way or another.

We are really hyped and excited about this next step for Entropia Universe, and we hope you are too!
I would be really hyped for more information in general.
Just take a look at the UI change and what input you got from the participants.
From time to time even a small tidbit that you are going to change a texture would be welcome.
Hell...even something that someone will be going away for maternity leave.
Really just more information.

I personally really do not need a roadmap , but some may have to plan to save up a few hundreds bucks for a new computer which could take them quite a few months.

So please. more infos what you are doing, as long as you are allowed to share :D
 
I am not a techie person so I want to know what "most players can still play with your current setup in one way or another" means ?? I know already that I ask many dumb questions with new "Updates" and it sounds like it is just going to get worst if I even want or am able to play anymore.
There are no dumb questions...but in general computers were never ment to last decades. After 4-5 years they start to degrade, especially if they are are rebooted and shut down often. Might be tidbits in the beginning, some freezes here and there, longer bootup times, sudden shutdowns. Does not mean something is broken, could be some fluffs on the fans or intakes that throttle the hardware. OR some remnants of old programs hogging up the software side.
If you are not tech savy, you can have someone have a look at it, if you have no tech savy friends you do that 3-4 times and you could have bought a new computer.
Depending on your living conditions (as a smoker I have to clean the fans twice a year) and usage condtion there is maintenance required.
Won't help against the aging of the components, just prolong the end. A high end computer 5 years ago is just medium now and will sureley not last another 5 years. If you need advice, simply ask in the forum, you will get quite some different views, but really do not cling to old stuff.
...and make backups of what is precious...lots of them... a computer can fail at anytime without prior notice...
No backup, no pity! if you have things you want to keep forever, better have it in several places like several USB sticks and USB Harddrives.
 
Having worked a bit with CryEngine 2 years ago, you guys are all worried about the wrong thing. Unreal Engine 5 probably has better performance out of the box without any optimizations.

Like... seriously you would NOT believe how awkward CE2 is internally.

Can't say I'm excited yet, but I'll keep an eye on more news about this.
 
I hope u start advertising The game now. Now there is NO excuse. We need players. Planets are empty.
We have learned that the game has a limit of users it can handle, anything above that number causes various kinds of lag. Let's say there are twice as many players, the next complaint is that moving around in (over)crowded places is cumbersome and the spawn sizes and respawning rates need to be increased. Some more load on the servers...

So while it's easy to find a spot without any green dot around on any planet, there are well-defined excuses and limits that have to be targeted first.
 
EU getting an upgrade to the new engine means that the game is getting money put back into it which surely should be a good thing all round. Yes there will be bugs and things but there always are. It's good for them to announce it at the start of development too, to allow anyone who wishes to upgrade the time to do so.

I'm excited to see what new features they can add to the game by having a superior and up to date game engine like UE5.

(EU on UE, bet that's going to cause a few typos over the coming years)
 
Having worked with both Cryengine 2 and Unreal Engine 5, I would say Unreal Engine is definitely the much more scaleable option.
Meaning, if Mindark play their cards right, they could offer graphics settings that easily run on PCs that can currently run EU.

What worries me more is, that during the switch between the GameBryo engine to CryEngine the game lost a lot of its "soul" IMHO.
While they've managed to bring some of it back with time and added cool new stuff. I worry that the UE5 switch will take a lot of it away again.
I mean at least the coding part of the game's development would have to be done almost from scratch for UE5..
 
I wonder how much of the existing software can be integrated into the new engine. Wasn't that long ago MA changed hit boxes and controllers and that created months to debug it all.

It's a brave move if most of the game needs redesigning considering the size of current player base. What are talking 2- 4k players on tracker (worldwide)?

I still remember being at Had.... the day the game was shut down for 9 months to a year for the move to cryengine. We lost 80% of the players on that transition.

The "art project" continues at any cost I guess. I've learnt not to get excited about anything in this game until we can physically see it and interact with it.

Anyway for the fan boys enjoy, get your credit cards to the ready this is going to be costly.

Rick.
 
Im really happy to see this announcement! Unreal is the clear cut best game engine right now and the amount of resources available in the ecosystem are massive, as well as the talent pool.
This is alot of work, but the user experience will be nothing like last time. Should be alot smoother this time around. If your playing entropia now, more than likely youll be good to go in unreal.

Ive been building a game myself in unreal and its a very powerful, complex yet well managed environment. It is very approachable yet offers all the deeper technical abilities you could want.

And if somehow, entropia gets notice from the epic playerbase....
 
...
I still remember being at Had.... the day the game was shut down for 9 months to a year for the move to cryengine. We lost 80% of the players on that transition.


Really do not remember the game being shut down for months, was two days ?
But have to admit, we lost quite many because of the change, most of them because they did not have the hardware or were unwilling to upgrade.
 
But have to admit, we lost quite many because of the change, most of them because they did not have the hardware or were unwilling to upgrade.

The good news? It probably won't be like that this time. Even if UE5 is more demanding, it won't be nearly as big the the difference between Gamebryo and CE2.
 
I still remember being at Had.... the day the game was shut down for 9 months to a year for the move to cryengine. We lost 80% of the players on that transition.

To clarify:
The game had no hard shut down for months.
It was just unplayable for months due to too many bugs.

Bugs manifested in various ways, some costly, others just pesky.
Lost loots were costly, constant crashes to desktop just annoying.

Player's experiences may vary due to varying tolarance for suffering.
 
Last edited:
You are welcome!

 
TBH concerns over engine switch this time as regards as to if people can still play on older hardware.... I suspect they won't be as bad as last time. CE2 was the birth of the "but can it run crysis?" meme and you pretty much needed to buy the highest end graphics card to get a decent frame rate at full quality (geforce 8800). I can play UE4 games (or at least some of them) on my old rig fine. Ultimately it isn't so much the game engine but the content within it. i.e. if you include very high res textures or overly detailed models (as MA have done before in some places, but generally don't - I know of folks who've [with permission I understand] ripped them to make 3d printed models and had the occasional confused moment at the unusually high poly count on one or two things) then you will need enough RAM on your computer or graphics card and enough processing power to cope with them. UE5 has this nanite thing which may help, but ultimately a version update is rarely a re-write and more just a point where there are enough new features or changes to constitute a repackage/re-release with a new number. It probably helps with sales and support too to occasionally draw a line under a feature set/tool set and move on.

Anyhow point being that UE5 is just UE4 with extra bits most likely and therefore it will come down to the detail of models/textures etc that MA put into it that will determine in the large if people can run it. The issues some people might hit though are when new CPU instructions are being utilised that are not there on the older processors, or reliance on a new OS like win 10.
 
Yup from what I hear from folks who worked on CE2 to CE3/Crysis2 internally, CE2 was somewhat un-optimised. Comedically, there was even something of a weird backlash from the community when Crysis2 ran better on people's computer's than Crysis had,... and looked better (due to new features). I think ultimately this drive to optimise the engine to CE3 was about getting the engine to be console capable. The PC market simply wasn't enough to solely remain in.
 
Improve ded animation :3

index.php


There are very few things more annoying than the mob collision to me, but not the dead animation. I agree it should be fixed tho.
But mob collision bugs are making me stop playing sometimes...

Please fix this crap.
Very respectfully.


index.php
 
I am super hyped for the engine and UI update. For EU being what it is it has had a decent amount of content in the past few years.
also for the people complaining about not being able to play because they play on old systems gtf out of here xD, the game almost 20 years old and so must your PC be if you are having to play on safe mode so maybe put your hand in your pockets and get a new one or pick another hobby.
 
I am super hyped for the engine and UI update. For EU being what it is it has had a decent amount of content in the past few years.
also for the people complaining about not being able to play because they play on old systems gtf out of here xD, the game almost 20 years old and so must your PC be if you are having to play on safe mode so maybe put your hand in your pockets and get a new one or pick another hobby.

As soon as you pay for my skills, I will change my hobby, and until then, you better not tell me what to prefer.
 
Some years ago... someone organised a demotivational poster competition here. This one seems relevant again :D

index.php


(although... tbf, I do have some CryTopia pics that, while not AS good by a fair way, are not a milion miles off)
 
There are very few things more annoying than the mob collision to me, but not the dead animation. I agree it should be fixed tho.
But mob collision bugs are making me stop playing sometimes...

Please fix this crap.
Very respectfully.


index.php
Is that how they mate? Pheromone levels at ATH.
 
i see 3 easy-to.-solve fears
1. computational power. it is a non-issue as long as there is scaling in GFX options available, sooner or later a better HW will come for everyone, i have a 760 and can play, no one need a 3080.... i prefer to buy ammo than to buy a more powerful cpu to kill puny :)
2. Migration problems.... the solution is TEST SERVER, that replicate player base, you log in (of course TT will give free ammo) and can test everything. nothing come into the production of what is done on test. as the engine is ready, the switch is painless
3. loss of "game experience", well i will not miss the being stuck in water when the coast is too steep, to pass through stones and wall, to have "unreachable" mosnter that have too bad AI to turn around a tree to become targetable, or pets that give undue benefits in mayehm

I see this as a real opportunity to attract new players, and to rework in many places a system that is overcomlicated (we dont need 50 differetn ores, and 50 different enmatters as an example), crafting is useless apart some armatrix models and amps and so on (tes those command component crafting too)

Epic Games playerbase will flow in and?
new players will soon discover that after 20 minutes (or maybe 2 hours) the only "free" activity is sweating (it is not free, its paid by other players) and leave and maybe 1% remain.

so welcome Unreal Engine, but need much more to attract new players and to make them spend 30 usd a month (or 3.000) to keep the servers running
 
Any release date for the new engine in EU?
Judging by what I have seen in the last 10 years or so I would hazard a guess that UE will be on itteration 8 by the time EU is upgraded to UE 5. However they have changed engines twice before which required a lot of changes to the base game. The first switch only took a year or so looking a wikipedia :p

So they do at least have experience in moving this game to another engine. Most companies that change engines just release new versions of a game.

To be constructive, it would be nice to see a road map and dev blog based on the transition to UE5 to keep us updated with development like most game companies do.

Give us something good to look forward too even if its going to be a long haul journey ?
 
Last edited:
I hope u start advertising The game now. Now there is NO excuse. We need players. Planets are empty.

Servers can't handle current playerbase. New engine and major infrastructure updates and then advertise - will not happen though, planets will stay empty, everything will be same for next 15 years with more bugs, than we have today :)
 
Back
Top