Battlefront III Concept Document

## Gameplay

Star Wars Battlefront III is a first-person/third-person shooter that propels players onto the famous battlefields featured in all six Star Wars films, from the epic conflict on Naboo to the Death Star showdown on Endor. This section provides a description of the core gameplay modes and mechanics featured in Battlefront III, starting with the components being introduced in this latest iteration.

### Key Additions to Battlefront III

#### Vertical Battlefield

A feature being included in Battlefront III for the first time is a concept known as the VERTICAL BATTLEFIELD.

The first Star Wars Battlefront release featured ground battles only. Battlefront II added the option to participate in separate space conflicts in addition to the existing ground-based skirmishes. Star Wars Battlefront III makes the logical progression of allowing players to seamlessly travel between battles occurring simultaneously on ground and in space. Battlefront III also takes the series forward by extending this seamless travel to encompass conflicts taking place within the decks of fully realized Capital Ship interiors, or even the Death Star.

During both single player and on-line matches, the VERTICAL BATTLEFIELD concept grants players the option of being able to move seamlessly from ground to space (and vice versa), and from space to the decks of a Capital Ship (and vice-versa). Jumping into an X-Wing (or other class of fighter) allows players to travel between these areas.

A linked series of online games using the Battlefront III VERTICAL BATTLEFIELD concept.
Online, each of the three areas (ground, space and, from the previous image, a Star Destroyer) are home to separate battles. Each battle exists on different servers and, if a player chooses to travel to a different conflict (from ground to space for example), they are migrated between servers seamlessly during play.

#### Fully-Featured Single Player Experience

In Battlefront III the CAMPAIGN mode has been designed to provide a dedicated 12-hour single player experience that includes all of the components essential to any strong, story-based game.

The CAMPAIGN is built upon the story of a single clone trooper, a unit named simply TK-124. This soldier, cloned from a Jedi Master named Dur-Iza, is initially fighting for the Republic against the Trade Federation under the guidance of Jedi Master Ferroda. Following Order 66, TK-124 strikes down his commander. With the Jedi Purge fully underway, TK-124 is sent on a mission to kill another - Master Dur-Iza – his genetic ‘Father’.

Set initially during the Clone War period prior to Episode III, the player assumes control of TK-124 as the narrative unfolds through the following three acts:

**ACT I: Towing the Line**

* A protection mission turns into a rescue mission as Chancellor Palpatine is kidnapped on Coruscant by General Grievous.
* Order 66 is given and the great Jedi purge begins.
* TK-124 is sent to kill his genetic ‘Father’, Jedi Master Dur-Iza.
* Totally outmatched, TK-124 is defeated by Dur-Iza. But the Jedi is merciful – the two men discuss the war, and the Jedi reveals the reality of the Empire’s plans.
* Dur-Iza is assassinated by another clone trooper, TK-129, from the same battalion as TK-124.
* TK-124 escapes and pledges to avenge Dur-Iza’s death.

**ACT II: The Rebellion**

* A newly found hatred of the Empire draws the player into joining the Rebellion.
* His force-sensitive nature makes TK-124 an incredibly versatile and skilled warrior.
* Following successful missions on the Death Star, Yavin IV and Hoth, TK-124 is sent to join the most important battle of all: the final attack against the Empire on Endor.
* With the Empire crushed Luke Skywalker leads the Rebellion into a new era, and looks to rebuild the Jedi council.

**ACT III: Sibling Rivalry**

* Despite the fall of the Empire, remnant forces remain throughout the galaxy. TK-124 leads a squad assigned to find and destroy them.
* Luke rewards TK-124 for his efforts during the Galactic Civil War by appointing him as a Jedi Knight, one of the first under his reign.
* A mission to the planet of Dathomir to recover records from a crashed Jedi Academy ship leads TK-124 to believe the clone who killed his father, TK-129, is still alive.
* TK-124 continues to develop his own Force powers, and is promoted to General of the Imperial Fleet stationed on Kashyyyk.
* TK-124 travels to Kashyyyk to investigate rumours of an abnormal Imperial presence, and finds himself in battle with his former comrade.
* Both now strong with The Force, the two clones fight to the death.

Each act of the CAMPAIGN mode is comprised of a number of conflicts set across many different planets and battlefields. As mission objectives are revealed the player may be required to travel from the surface of a planet to depths of space, and from space into the decks of enormous Capital Ships, all within a single, epic, confrontation.

#### Campaign Mode Key Aims

* Well-Defined Mission Structure: To maximise player enjoyment each conflict in Battlefront III must have a well-defined structure. Every mission objective should be deeply embedded within the story and must link seamlessly with the next.
* Improved A.I.: In Battlefront III computer-controlled characters will work with the player and also each other to complete objectives. They will have an awareness of each other and look to employ strategy whenever possible.
* A Strong Central Character: In order to strengthen the single player experience and draw the player into the narrative, the campaign mode chronicles the journey of a single character. This character, controlled by the player, lies at the very heart of the story and is central to all events. For the first time in the series the campaign mode will take a departure from its multiplayer origins by allowing the player to choose from a range of equipment for their character rather than the traditional class selection system featured in other modes.
* Every Battle Tells a Story: Being part of a large-scale Star Wars conflict should be an experience that leaves a lasting impression on the player. The films tell stories of wars between factions; stories involving people, purpose, heroism and loss. In Battlefront III every battle should immerse the player within a similar story.
* Sense of Progression: A strong sense of progression is essential in maintaining player interest. In the CAMPAIGN mode of Battlefront III the player’s character progresses as the narrative unfolds. In the early stages of the game the player assumes the role of a powerful force-sensitive human who is taught, through gameplay, skills such as sniping and heavy weapons use. As the narrative progresses further this character becomes a Jedi and is taught both lightsaber techniques and a full range of Force powers. The introduction of new techniques during the course of the CAMPAIGN not only rewards the player but also provides a new aspect to each battle experience.
* Original Content: Battlefront I and II have included representations of all battles featured in the six Star Wars movies. For the CAMPAIGN mode of Battlefront III a key aim is to offer players something they haven’t seen before in the shape of planets that have never featured in the films, and a narrative that extends beyond the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. This will appeal to all types of player, with hard-core Star Wars fans relishing the Extended Universe inclusions, and more casual players benefiting from the fresh, original content.

#### Improved Hero Characters

A popular addition to Battlefront II was the inclusion of playable HERO characters such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. This feature shall be returning for Battlefront III with a number of key improvements.

Firstly lightsaber combat will be greatly enhanced for this sequel. A system more akin to that found in the Star Wars Jedi Knight games will be employed to provide a more skill-based, and subsequently more rewarding, experience for the player. Blades will connect realistically with each other during combat, and special slow-motion effects will be employed to simulate the experience of being a powerful Jedi.

Another area for improvement in Battlefront III is with the Force powers available to HERO characters. Battlefront III will include a range of new Force powers including the ability of certain Sith and Jedi heroes to use the Jedi Mind Trick. During play these heroes will be able to possess enemy characters and use them to infiltrate secure installations or attack unsuspecting rivals.

Battlefront III will also allow HERO characters to participate in space-based conflicts.

#### Revised Space Combat System

Following its introduction in Battlefront II, the space combat system is being fully revised for Battlefront III.

The first of these revisions is with the control scheme. The system in place in Battlefront II didn’t feel intuitive or provide the necessary assists for the player, and so will be fully overhauled for this sequel. A first-person view will also be available when flying a craft in Battlefront III, allowing players to experience conflicts from the fully-realised cockpits of famous fighters such as the X-Wing and TIE Interceptor.

Further areas to be improved in Battlefront III are the immersion of space-based conflicts and the variety of objectives that occur within them. In the films space battles are filled with action and the space arenas of Battlefront III should replicate this. Mission objectives in the single-player CAMPAIGN will also be greatly improved over the previous title, with players required to work with their team to topple the might of powerful Capital Ships.

Another addition to Battlefront III is the ability to pilot space craft at ground level. Using the VERTICAL BATTLEFIELD system and the larger combat arenas offered by next-generation technology, players will be able to assist their troops on the ground using the firepower of craft such as the X-Wing.

#### Detailed Capital Ship Interiors

A natural extension of the Capital Ship interiors featured in Battlefront II, Battlefront III will include fully realised vessels with all internal levels and features intricately recreated. This will allow battles to occur anywhere on the ship, with players able to travel between the bridge, the crew quarters, the weapons room, the prison block and even the trash compactor. Gaining control of the weapons system of Capital Ships will also allow teams to attack ships belonging to rival factions.

### Battlefront III Concept Overview

The underlying concept of the Star Wars Battlefront series is to pit two factions against each other in an epic confrontation. The four factions featured in the game are the Galactic Republic, the Confederacy of Independent Systems (CIS), the Rebel Alliance and the Galactic Empire. Depending upon the chosen game mode and type, players can select any of these factions.

During a battle each faction has a number of REINFORCEMENTS available to them. When a soldier is killed in battle he is able to respawn at any of the COMMAND POSTS currently controlled by his team. However, depending upon the game mode selected, this will deplete the number of available REINFORCEMENTS by one. When a team run out of REINFORCEMENTS, they lose the battle.

Each factions army is devised of a number of different soldier CLASSES, with each class having different weapons, equipment and skills. Some factions contain slightly different CLASSES to others, depending upon their nature. During play certain soldier CLASSES are locked until a designated number of points are amassed by that team. Points are awarded for capturing COMMAND POSTS and killing enemy units.

#### Character Classes

The available soldier CLASSES in Battlefront III are:

* Basic Infantry Class
* Heavy Weapons Class
* Sniper Class
* Engineer Class
* Commander Class
* Pilot Class
* Marine Class

#### Heroes

A further character class available to each faction in Battlefront III is the HERO class. During battles if certain conditions are met (such as a designated number of points being achieved), players will be given the opportunity to play as powerful HERO characters. Each faction has a range of familiar heroes that can be used by a team to potentially reverse the fortunes of a battle. Heroes include Jedi characters such as Luke and Yoda, and Sith characters such as Darth Vader and Count Dooku.

Playing as a Jedi or Sith allows players to use a range of special force powers including:

* Force Push
* Force Pull
* Force Choke
* Force Lightning
* Mind Trick (Possession)
* Fast Running Speed
* Higher Jumps

Unless playing in special HERO battles, only one HERO character for each faction can exist on the battlefield at any given time.

#### Vehicles

Each map in Battlefront III contains a range of vehicles that can be piloted during the battle. Each faction has their own set of vehicles and these, which range from Tauntauns to AT-AT walkers, can be broken into the following classes depending upon their purpose:

* Scout Vehicles
* Medium Assault Vehicles
* Heavy Assault Vehicles
* Heavy Assault Transport
* Multi-Purpose StarFighters
* Scout Fighters
* Bombers
* Attack Transport Flyers

### Game Types

Star Wars Battlefront III features epic action on an incredible scale through a multitude of different game types:

#### Conquest

The central play mechanic this mode revolves around the capturing of enemy or neutral COMMAND POSTS. These COMMAND POSTS, represented by markers that are coloured depending upon which team controls them, are positioned throughout the battlefield.

To capture an enemy or neutral COMMAND POST players must stand within its capture radius while the colour changes to the colour of their team. The period of time required to take control of a post increases or decreases with the presence of enemy or friendly units respectively. Once a team gains control of a COMMAND POST, that team can spawn units from that position.

If a team controls all COMMAND POSTS, or depletes the enemy reinforcements to zero, they win the match.

#### 1-Flag Capture the Flag

A single flag exists within the battlefield. The aim of this mode is for either team to collect this flag and carry it to the single command post controlled by the enemy. A point is scored each time this is achieved. The first team to score a predetermined number of points, or the team with the highest score at the end of the match, is deemed victorious.

#### 2-Flag Capture the Flag

Each team has a flag stored at their base. The aim of this game mode is for a team to capture the enemy flag and return it to their base, scoring a point in the process. The first team to score a predetermined number of points, or the team with the highest score at the end of the match, is deemed victorious.

#### Hunt

The hunting team attempts to eliminate the entire hunted team within a time limit. If any members of the hunted team survive, that team is deemed victorious.

#### Assault

In ASSAULT mode points are awarded for destroying enemy units and objects. If a predetermined number of points are scored by the attacking team within a time limit, they are deemed victorious.

### Game Modes

#### Campaign

The story-based CAMPAIGN mode was detailed in section 1.1.2.

#### Galactic Conquest

In the GALACTIC CONQUEST mode players must use strategy in a fight to dominate the galaxy.

When starting a new GALACTIC CONQUEST game the player must choose an era for the conflict from either the Galactic Civil War or the Clone Wars. Once the player selects which faction they wish to represent a galactic configuration is displayed based upon the events of the chosen era.

The GALACTIC CONQUEST game is turn-based, with each turn broken into the following stages:

1. **Acquisition**: Any points gained from controlling planets can be spend on buying new fleets, new unit classes, or other bonuses such as energy boosts and HERO units.
2. **Movement**: Fleets can be moved to any nearby planets.  If a planet, or the space above that planet, is occupied by enemy forces, stage 3 is entered.  Otherwise stage 4 is presented to the player and their turn is over.
3. **Combat**: The only way to control a planet is to win it from the enemy in battle.  The VERTICAL BATTLEFIELD system, introduced for Battlefront III, allows these conflicts to span seamlessly from ground to space, and from space to the decks of Capital Ships.
4. **Summary**: The current status of the galaxy is displayed.

If a faction gains control of all enemy bases, or destroys every enemy fleet, they are deemed victorious.

The GALACTIC CONQUEST mode is playable off-line in single player against A.I., split-screen by two players either head-to-head or cooperatively, over a LAN or, for the first time in the Battlefront series, online against other players from around the world.

#### Instant Action

The INSTANT ACTION mode allows players to participate in the battle of their choice. Choose from any map and customise all options including the game type, the number of A.I. characters and which factions are involved in the battle. Unlike previous Battlefront games certain maps have the capacity to support battles involving any faction against any other (so the armies of the Republic could be pitted against the Rebellion for example).

INSTANT ACTION games are playable off-line in single player against A.I., split-screen by two players either head-to-head or cooperatively, over a LAN or online against over a hundred players.

#### Challenges

A series of varied story-based challenges against the clock. Can the player kill 50 Gungans in less than a minute, or find 20 Ewoks hidden within the forests of Endor in less then two minutes?

CHALLENGES are playable off-line in single player against A.I.

### Additional Multiplayer Features

#### Squad Support

To aid in nurturing a team-based approach to online play, during games players will be able to form squads with other members of their team. Any player can create a squad, with that player able to send out invitations for others to join. Squads can elect a leader to act as a mobile spawn point while they work together to battle the enemy.

## Art Style

The aim is to use next generation art techniques to create photorealistic scenes with the visual impact of the movies, without compromising performance. Normal mapping will be extensively used for high detail surfaces, parallax mapping to further simulate surface displacement. The environments will be heavy on atmosphere and will reflect the diverse range of environments found in the movies, making full use of screen filters to control palettes and dynamically alter the atmosphere of the scene for big events, for example the dust cloud which sweeps over the battle field on Geonosis in Episode II.

Detailing will be accurate and correct for all space craft and vehicles, which will be reproduced faithfully. All flyable ships will have fully modelled interiors, to heighten the immersion of the flying experience. The larger ships such as the star destroyer will have detailed interiors allowing foot access to parts seen in the movies. For example, the player will be able to land in the docking bay and fight on foot all the way to the bridge.

Environments will feature vast playable areas with terrain sculpted in the terrain editor. These will be dressed with unique models and textures, with scenery extending beyond the playable area to convey the illusion of a complete world. Wherever possible, recognisable landmarks will be faithfully reproduced and integrated into the battlefield. For instance, every corridor and detention centre seen in the movie Death Star in will appear in the game’s Death Star level. Landmarks will be appropriately aged if the world is to appear at a time other than the movies.

Characters will be photorealistic with normal and specular maps, and full facial animation (for those without helmets). Part-switching can be done on characters to allow removable sections (shooting off armour for example), and changeable heads can increase the variety in characters whilst keeping memory overhead low. Level-of-details for both geometry and skeletons are done automatically, enabling lower running costs and high detail up close.

The Animation team has a wide range of experience animating human characters as well as many different creatures and robots. Most come from a television and or film background which pushes the animation more towards the quality of films.

### Art Tools

including characters, environments, vehicles and weapons. Maya’s texture baking functionality is used for surface sampling normal maps, also baking light maps and occlusion maps to enhance texturing.

Environmental light rigs are also setup in Maya, for use with our proprietary light mapping software. Characters are rigged, skinned, and animated with Maya, and motion capture can also be integrated into the pipeline. The rig incorporates motion capture and provides the ability to animate over the top of raw data on different layers. It is also set up to switch from FK to IK in any animation, motion captured or key frame.

Adobe Photoshop is used for texture generation, concept art, and digital mattes.

Corel Painter is used as an alternative to Photoshop, mainly for generating concept art.

Pixelogic Z-brush 2 is used for the high level organic detailing required in character generation. This detail is used to generate normal maps for the lower polygon in-game character models.

ATI normal mapper is an alternative way to generate surface sampled normal maps. This is useful because it can export in a variety of formats, in particular 16 bit per channel normal maps for very smooth highly reflective surfaces.

HDRshop is used for production of high dynamic range skyboxes.

## Technology

#### Technical Design Strategy

The Engine is written in highly optimised C and is designed to be completely stand-alone. The Framework is a set of C++ classes that allow a game to be written more easily. On top of the Framework is the C++ Game-specific Code. The Framework and Game classes use a component-based system.

The use of C++ allows all the benefits of Object Oriented development, such as clarifying design, modelling real-world problems, and reducing the costs of maintenance. The concepts and language features of OO also make it easier to reuse objects in more than one part of the game, allowing lower development costs, faster cycle times, and better software quality.

#### Requirements

* SCALABLE OUTDOOR TERRAIN - Units can travel on foot, vehicles and flying craft so needs to be able to render up close and at high distances without loss of frame-rate.
* HIGH NUMBER OF UNITS - Need to simulate packed battlefield with lots of action on the ground and above.
* INDOOR AREAS - Ability to render detailed interiors
* SEAMLESS TRANSITION - Craft will pass from ground to space through a cloud layer during which geometry and textures will be streamed in. Troops can also enter large-scale interiors such as capital ships through air-locked hangar doors, between which the geometry and textures will be streamed.
* NEXT GENERATION DETAIL – Advanced pixel shaders and effects will be required

#### Terrain

A playing area of 4096m x 4096m should be sufficient for large battles. The visible area will extend beyond this to the horizon but be stored as a more generic tileable chunk of terrain, as the player won’t get close to it.

The geometry data for the terrain will be held in memory for the current slice (so completely streamed in when descending through the cloud layer), as will the lowest resolution texture for the entire landscape.

The landscape will be uniquely textured. High resolution textures will be streamed in based on distance, and detail maps will be blended with the highest resolution textures. Anisotropic filtering will be used to blend between textures at different resolutions.

There are 2 candidate level-of-detail algorithms that could be used.

1) Clipmapping is a process that caches terrain geometry in a set of nested regular grids around the camera position, each grid at a lower resolution the further from the camera. which are incrementally shifted as the camera moves. This algorithm does not require expensive changes to vertex and index buffers so is well-suited for modern GPUs. In fact, this grid structure allows us to perform nearly all the computations on the GPU where vertex texturing is supported (currently PS3, Xbox 360, and Nvidia GeForce 6+ cards).

2) Progressive buffers are a sequence of static buffers at different LODs for the different clusters of polygons that make up the mesh, blended between in the vertex shader. Again the use of static buffers results in fast performance, but this approach does not require vertex texturing support.

Areas marked appropriately generate foliage procedurally, automatically adding more detail closer to the camera. This allows the player to wade through dense undergrowth without damaging performance.

#### Editor

The main functionality of the in-house editor is a placement, manipulation and visual scripting device. This tool is built on top of the engine and framework layers, allowing a WYSIWYG view of game setup.

The editor will be used to manipulate the terrain geometry. There will be a set of materials provided by artists with which to paint the terrain, which a detailed unique texture will be created from interactively. Areas of foliage and water can be marked, as can areas for AI to navigate through or avoid.

The editor is the main tool of the designers, allowing them to setup prop situations, objectives, AI, control points and visual scripting in a manner that can be quickly tested. There is no need to exit the editor to test a section of a level, which allows designers to iteratively improve the gameplay in a short time, and this itself encourages experimentation.

Different types of gameplay can be concurrently constructed on one particular level by flagging objects, control points and objectives to be specific or unspecific to various game types, speeding up the design process further.

#### Visibility

All objects have 2 – 3 level-of-details, with the lower polygon meshes generated automatically by tools or where this is inappropriate manually by artists. Textures are automatically mipmapped. The high detail mesh and textures will only be used close to the camera to increase performance.

Indoor areas will be split into sectors / rooms (the terrain will be a single sector). Portals show visibility between sectors. Frustum checking will disregard objects and terrain chunks not in front of the camera.

Occluders can be placed inside high terrain to block other terrain chunks. Occluder polygons can be placed manually, or generated automatically where the terrain changes height dramatically. When the view is near the ground, this will prevent having to render expensive parts of the background, and when the view is higher, coarser detail will be used, keeping the frame rate high.

#### Lighting

For all static geometry, light maps are generated offline with the in-house photon-mapping tool. This is an artist-run tool which allows lighting to be baked onto the background from lights placed in the background scene. This process can be distributed across a number of machines, vastly speed up the render time of light maps. Light map UVs are calculated within Maya, allowing alterations to be made without necessitating a light map build. Monte Carlo integration is chosen as it allows settings to be balanced with render time and visual quality.

Dynamic geometry has direct and indirect lighting calculated in different ways. For each dynamic object, direct lighting is calculated from up-to 3 light sources. Outside, the sun is generally one of these light sources. Other light sources are placed by artists or created inside particle effects (e.g. explosions). Indirect lighting is calculated from spherical harmonic data (generated offline in the light mapper tool).

Shadow maps are generated every frame for dynamic objects from the closest light, and projected onto geometry as a separate render pass. Objects are also self-shadowing with this technique.

#### Next-gen Effects

Diffuse and specular textures are compressed 24-bit textures. 2-channel 8-bit normal maps are used where appropriate for more detailed lighting per pixel. Parallax maps are similar but simulate different depths per pixel, so at an angle give the impression of much higher poly meshes.

Cubic environment maps are used for shiny objects (e.g. Vehicles, droids). Static cube maps can be specified by artists, either for a whole level (hence often similar to the sky box), or attached to particular objects / buildings (i.e. location-specific).

Dynamic cube mapping are used for objects close to the camera. Here, the scene is rendered from an object’s point-of-view six times every frame for accurate reflections. This is sped-up by using lower detail geometry and textures for the cube map renders, and from time-slicing the renders. These cube maps can also be bi-linearly filtered down to single pixels, and the results used to approximate illumination.

Skyboxes and lightmaps are stored in a high dynamic range format (RGBE). The scene is rendered to a 16-bit floating point buffer. Afterwards, tone-mapping is applied to simulate eye’s reaction to changes in light, and bloom is applied to bright areas of the screen, to give next-generation HDR.

The ability to fly between ground and space will require volumetric clouds in the cloud layer. An atmospheric layer of these become dense as the player reaches the mid-point of the cloud layer. Data specific to the ground or space will be streamed at this point.

#### Physics

The AGEIA PhysX SDK is used to handle most physics objects and collisions. Ideally, the vehicle and flying physics are simulated using this. However, in some cases (e.g. speeder bikes) in order to achieve specific handling that benefits gameplay, custom physics code may be written.

In comparison to other physics solutions, the AGEIA physics engine has proved to be fast and reliable, and is written to take advantage of hardware accelerator cards to be released for PC. It is also multi-threading, and Sony are writing a PS3 version that fully utilizes the Cell’s SPUs.

#### AI

The AI planning system, given a set of inputs about the game world and some understanding on how these inputs can be manipulated, creates a multiple stage plan which tries to achieve a goal with the lowest cost.

This, combined with props having a broadcast mechanism which can “shout out” into the game world, allows interesting and complex systems to be created quickly. By further combining the planner with squad constraints, it is possible for co-operation to be observed. This allows AI to respond dynamically and not in a pre-scripted manner. Situations that the designers hadn’t even envisaged are dealt with intelligently.

Navigation meshes show the areas traversable on foot. These meshes are grouped by navigation volumes, which are used for quick path finding. Navigation volumes also represent drivable areas for flying vehicles indoors. For exterior sections, there are obstacle volumes which flying AI avoids.

#### Scripting

The propriety custom scripting language (VM) has been used in previous shipped titles hence is reliable and bug-free. This is used to drive events, objectives and object behaviour. The custom nature of the language means the feature set can be expanded based on the requirements of the game and engine, a notable point being the networking of game information. It is a typed C-style language, hence easier to catch compilation errors than a type-less language such as LUA. Commands can also be executed from within the in-game command-line console.

A separate scripting language is used to control the destruction of objects and backgrounds.

#### Animation

Animations are blended via a directed acyclic graph (DAG), where each node within the graph can use parameters determined by the game. This allows a common set of code to be used in many ways. Use of 2-chain IK on top of the final output allows correction for final display.

Animations are to be stored using B-Spline curves, allowing good compression while still retaining the quality of output.

#### Particles

A Maya-plugin allows artists to create particle effects in Maya which are exported for use in game. An addition to the in-house editor is also planned for creating and editing particles using the exact renderer as used ingame, as this allows particle effects to be tweaked efficiently, and also differently for particular levels or graphical filters. Events set up in the editor will be able to trigger any particle effect, giving designers complete control over particle scripting.

Specific shaders are written for particles to allow effects such as heat-haze and refraction, and the system features a range of built-in emitter properties and particle behaviours (for example, custom laser effects, rocket trails, and volumetric explosions). The particles are integrated with the physics systems to allow effects such from sparks ricocheting off characters and background geometry, to suitably sized splashes when objects hit water.

The weather system populates areas within the camera frustum with weather particles that are affected by wind for efficient yet realistic results.

#### GUI

The front-end and in-game menus are completely designed with the in-house GUI editor. GUI widgets such as text-boxes, menu options, bitmaps, and icons can be moved around the screen interactively and displayed how it appears in the game itself. The style of the interface itself can be changed independently, allowing artists to change the look and feel at any point in development without needing any code to be re-written.

UTF-8 encoding is used for the language files. This allows UNICODE text to be represented with a fraction of the space required for the common ASCII characters. The text is stored in Excel-loadable spreadsheets, which eases the localisation process.

#### Sound

The most commonly used method of decaying the sound in games is a simple geometric distance test. However in the editor, interconnected sound volumes can be placed throughout the level. The volumes are combined to model a flow of sound through the level; this combined with the ability to tag volumes with additional data will allow us to create more realistic sound design.

#### Network

It is proposed that a high number of units participate in each vertical slice of the battlefield, with each player having the freedom to change to other slices seamlessly by flying to it. Empty slots are filled by AI units, so whatever the player wants to do, the game world is always heavily populated. Each vertical slice is a different server, passing information between themselves so that actions in one slice have an affect on the others.

The networking layer will utilise a client/server style architecture, as this allows the lowest data throughput over the network infrastructure. Server migration will allow players to leave the game without causing interruptions for other players.

The necessity of game state being distributed around all clients dictates that most of the state data will be contained within the scripting language. The custom nature of the scripting language provides a good understanding and control over the data being transferred automatically.

#### Split-screen play

A second player will be able to join on PS3 and Xbox360 versions co-operatively or versus the main player. The rendering will scale back with lower levels of detail on both geometry and textures to cope with two separate scenes without damaging performance. However, the data required for two simultaneous vertical slices far exceeds the memory capabilities of next-gen hardware, so the guest player will always be pulled into the same vertical slice as the main player.

#### Memory Allocation

The memory management API has been designed to use both heaps and fixed-size allocating. The choice of method is dependent on the nature of use, with the preference of the fixed allocator being used for quick allocations commonly required in game code. Different heaps are used so that the resources dedicated to each subsystem are easily trackable.

#### Tools

The engine features several visual debugging aids, including an in-game profiler which measures time in functions and branches of the hierarchy as the game is played. Performance stats can be displayed such as polygons, textures, and shader batches rendered.

A custom Maya exporter outputs a scene file in XML format, which allows the viewing and extraction of large scenes using off-the-shelf components as appropriate. The exporter supports animations, props and backgrounds.

The Converter takes in the bulky XML data for backgrounds and props and exports it into a streamlined format applicable for use by the appropriate hardware. There is also the ImageConverter tool which converts the image formats used by the artists into custom formats targeted to the hardware. Likewise, the AnimConverter tool exports animations in a format that can be loaded into the game engine without further time-consuming processing.

The Stage is the main preview tool used by all departments during game development. It provides a simple way to visualize an art asset, both for checking construction conformance and shader setup. It helps assess performance implications in a more controlled setting. Artists can preview their art in this tool from a single button within Maya. Textures can be changed dynamically from within Maya or Photoshop and will automatically update in the stage, allowing instant appraisal of changes.

## Appendix A: Brand and Gameplay Filters

### Star Wars Brand Filters

#### Human Struggle

At the heart of the Battlefront concept is the external struggle between factions on the battlefield. The CAMPAIGN mode builds upon this foundation by chronicling the story of an internal struggle within a single clone trooper as he battles to deal with the events of Order 66. After initially fighting against the Rebellion, the assassination of his clone father leads the trooper to join the Rebels in an attempt to exact revenge on the evil Empire and find his father’s killer.

The story of the Battlefront III CAMPAIGN mode charts the complex struggle between the notion that “one person can make a difference” and the argument that “we must obey for the greater good”. It examines the challenge of understanding the difference between arrogance and self-belief. Furthermore, pitting two brothers against each other over the death of their father is naturally rich with emotion.

#### Exceptional Story

The narrative told through the CAMPAIGN mode of Battlefront III is built upon many themes that together constitute an exceptional story. Firstly it tells of a single characters journey from a simple soldier of the Republic army to a powerful Jedi Knight working under Luke Skywalker. Within this story all characters are given a great depth, in particular the central character who is struggling to accept the newly formed reign of the Empire, and the loss of his clone father so soon after finding him.

By their nature the Battlefront series are built upon a series of big themes in the form of large-scale conflicts. The CAMPAIGN mode of Battlefront III continues this tradition but expands upon it by giving characters persistent personalities. In war many soldiers die, but it’s the death of those that are known which causes the greatest loss.

Finally the CAMPAIGN mode of Battlefront III tells a story that is epic in scope. Beginning during the Clone Wars just prior to the events of Episode III, the narrative spans a period of roughly 30 years to encapsulate all key moments from Episode III and the original trilogy before finally offering a teasing glimpse of what lies beyond the conclusion of Episode VI. Thematically, the narrative covers issues relative to all people across the world in one form or another: friendship, remorse, guilt, and fulfilling our destiny.

#### Relatable Characters

In the modern world there are times when we can all feel like we pale into obscurity – surrounded by people, all told to step in the same direction. Yet, somewhere inside us, we have a nagging feeling that we are meant for something better – something more important. We long for the rush of breaking out, the brisk wind of individuality on our faces. The CAMPAIGN mode of Battlefront III delivers that sensation.

In addition, in the CAMPAIGN mode the player’s character is surrounded by a cast of original supporting characters. These characters are diverse in nature, have their own stories to tell, and also persistent throughout the duration of the narrative.

#### Innovation

New technical standards are facilitated by new technology – particularly in terms of visual quality and the new VERTICAL BATTLEFIELD system. More than that, the integration of a genuinely involving story will be a fantastic innovation for the Battlefront series.

#### Key Star Wars Symbols and Icons

Being set primarily within the films themselves, Battlefront III will feature all the favourite elements including Jedi, lightsabers, X-Wings, and famous battles such as Hoth and the Death Star assault.

### LucasArts Game Filters

#### Sense of Freedom

One of the design aims with Star Wars Battlefront III is to immerse the player fully into the experience. To do this it is essential that there are no artificial barriers preventing players doing what they feel should be possible.

By nature the Battlefront concept presents players with a great deal of freedom. Depending upon the game mode and the number of points amassed during a battle, players are free to choose how they approach a conflict through their choice of character class and also which COMMAND POSTS they opt to attack or defend. Each faction also has a range of vehicles that the player can use freely providing one is available.

Battlefront III aims to expand on the freedom of previous iterations by including the VERTICAL BATTLEFIELD system. This grants the player the ability to, at any time during a battle, jump into a fighter and fly from a planets surface into the depths of space, and from space to the decks of a Capital Ship (providing the shields have been disabled). Battlefields are also larger in Battlefront III than in previous titles, providing the player with additional freedom and larger areas to pilot vehicles. In the story-based CAMPAIGN mode certain missions will present the player with a range of objectives, and allow those objectives to be approached and completed in any order.

#### Series of Interesting Decisions

Battlefront III continually provides the player with interesting choices. During conflicts, every time the player spawns they must decide on a weapons load out and which COMMAND POST to spawn at, based upon the current standing of their faction in that battle. If an Armoured Tank Droid is attacking one of the players COMMAND POSTS, that player could choose to be a Heavy Weapons soldier and spawn at the post, ready to attack, or avoid that confrontation entirely by spawning at a distant post.

Throughout the CAMPAIGN mode scenarios will be designed with often multiple solutions in mind. This in turn requires the player to make interesting decisions during play: Do they destroy a Capital Ship by gaining access to the guns onboard another, or by flying down to the planet’s surface and using a Rebel Ion Cannon?
Such decisions also extend to the online multiplayer experience. In addition, using the VERTICAL BATTLEFIELD system, players will be able to asses how their faction is doing in each of the three battles occurring around a planet, and move between games accordingly.

#### Allow the Player to have an Impact on the Game World

The power of the Next-Generation machines allows for far greater background interactivity than ever before. Subsequently the battlefields of Battlefront III will be littered with destructible scenery and physics-based objects that allow players to really tear up the environment. For the first time in the series battles will really take their toll on the game world.

#### Provide Payoff for Everything the Player Does

In terms of gameplay the player is always rewarded for their positive actions in Battlefront III. Killing an enemy unit or destroying an enemy vehicle provides the player with a set number of points. These points are used to unlock additional character classes during play including special HERO characters. Capturing enemy COMMAND POSTS not only provides the player with points, but also rewards the team with a new spawn location.
The CAMPAIGN mode of Battlefront III has been designed from the ground up to provide the player with a great sense of character progression. The central character starts as a clone soldier within the Republic and, through early missions, learns skills such as sniping and repairing machinery. As the story progresses the character will learns the ways of the Force before ultimately becoming a Jedi. With the rank of Jedi comes incredible powers and also the ability to wield a lightsaber.

In the GALACTIC CONQUEST mode the player is awarded points for winning that can be used to buy power-ups and additional fleets to help the war effort.

#### Create Emotional Investment

By their very nature the Star Wars Battlefront games contain numerous elements that players around the world are instantly emotionally invested in. For some it may be the ability to pilot an X-Wing, for others the ability to wield a lightsaber. Some players become emotionally invested in a certain class of character over others, or a particular faction such as the Empire or CIS.

Battlefront III also aims to create a sense of emotion through the narrative and central characters of the CAMPAIGN mode. Players will become emotionally attached to their character as he struggles to deal with the assassination of his newly discovered father, before seeking revenge on his killer.

#### Be Judged as Fun by Others

Star Wars Battlefront III will be evaluated continually by internal staff during development to ensure it meets the high standards of quality and design set by Free Radical. It’s essential feedback is also received on a regular basis from sources outside the developer to guarantee the game is both understandable (the interfaces and mission objectives are clear), and most importantly of all, is incredibly fun to play.

## Single Page Feature Summary

Star Wars Battlefront III will take the highly successful franchise on to the next generation platforms for the very first time. Battlefront III will add innovative gameplay elements to the franchise as well as refine and improve many of the established gameplay elements expected in the Star Wars Battlefront series.

For the first time ever, the player will be able to experience the complete battle happening simultaneously on the planet surface and in space. This Vertical Battlefront will allow the player to experience the battle any way they want on a planet’s surface, flying starfighters in space or aboard a capital ship and seamlessly move from one experience to another as the battle rages on. The player’s decision to engage a certain area of the battlefront will directly affect the battle in other areas. This large, complete Vertical Battlefront will give the player the absolute freedom to live out the Classic Star Wars battles any way they want.

Star Wars Battlefront III will also deliver on an exciting story driven campaign mode spanning all six Star Wars films through the eyes of a soldier cloned from a Jedi Master. You begin your journey fighting for the Grand Army of the Republic in the Clone Wars. After learning of the true evil of the Emperor, reject your past and fight against the Empire with the Rebel Alliance. In the end, battle against an evil clone of yourself and his sinister army. Only then will you fulfill your destiny and become a Jedi.

This new story also helps deliver new game play elements to the Battlefront series. First, it will enable players to use force powers in tandem with their conventional weapons. Combining these things together allows the player to do enhanced actions on the Battlefront such as sniping from long distances or sensing an incoming missile before it hits them. Secondly, the player will be able to have access to melee combat while playing any class. No longer tied to just lightsabers, players can now use weapons such as an electrostaff or even the butt of their blaster to take out an enemy at close range..

Along with these new features, Battlefront III will be drastically improving many of its core game play elements. The game will use a character-driven AI system that will allow all units in the game to act intelligently both as single entities and as a team using battle tactics that are appropriate for the situation on the battlefront. Galactic Conquest will be enhanced to blend together the best aspects of both Battlefront I & II plus additional new elements to deliver an exciting gameplay experience.

Online, Battlefront III will be a highly refined and balanced experience that will have players excited to play the battles over and over again. Battlefront III will incorporate the Vertical Battlefront into the heart of the online experience to deliver some truly epic online battles. It will also be focused on delivering fewer online maps in order to deliver a well defined, vibrant and high quality over quantity online experience. Battlefront III will readily support and plan for downloadable content that will be available at launch that will be used to both keep Battlefront III fresh but also gain it access to additional revenue streams post-release.

## References

* Battlefront III Concept.doc (22/03/2006)