by jonny_eh on 9/26/25, 3:45 AM with 177 comments
by TapamN on 9/26/25, 5:37 AM
The collision shape used for a character in DX is a single cylinder. The game looks at where on the cylinder the collision point of the shot is, and tries to figure out if it's a head, body, or leg shot. It does this by checking how high the collision point is, with the lower X% being legs, top Y% being the head, and the middle being the body.
If a shot hits the head section, it runs some additional checks, and can sometimes still count as a body hit. There was some weird code that, after you stared at it long enough, looks like it ended up splitting the head area into compass aligned 1/8ths (so north, north-east, east, etc) and hits to the N-E-S-W octants would count as a head shot, and a hit to the NE-NW-SE-SW octants would count as body shots. (I couldn't tell if the angles rotate with the character, or are absolute relative to the world.) I think there was also a check for hits on the top cap of the cylinder, so that the hit would have to be close to the center of the cylinder to count as head hit, and near the outer rim would count as a body hit.
Hm, I should just make a diagram. Here: https://imgur.com/a/KG6MF1k
I guess what they were trying to do was make the actual head hitbox a smaller section of the head level, so that a shot that should go over the shoulder and miss would just count as a body shot and not a true headshot. And if you made a test map, with the player and a static test enemy placed in a line, this could work reliably from a fixed position. But when you actually play DX, and approach enemies from various angles, headshots inexplicably fail.
by jsheard on 9/26/25, 9:58 AM
by qmr on 9/26/25, 6:22 AM
This is what Warren Spector made while Romero was busy pissing money away and constantly rewriting Daikatana.
The one worthwhile thing to come out of Ion Storm.
Lots of emergent gameplay. Almost always more than one way to solve each puzzle. Stealth, brute strength melee, long range combat, explosives, computer hacking ...
Branching story with multiple endings.
A must play.
by Areibman on 9/26/25, 5:19 AM
However, fans of the game are calling it "Demastered".
by laidoffamazon on 9/26/25, 4:11 AM
by Tade0 on 9/26/25, 9:51 AM
by noident on 9/26/25, 4:59 AM
by jl6 on 9/26/25, 6:49 AM
“You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands.”
by shoo on 9/26/25, 9:21 AM
Warren's 6+2+1 questions before starting a game project; Team 1 & Team A (no one wanted to be Team B or Team 2); the day we hit pre alpha and realised the game was not fun; LAM wall climbing & problem solving with explosive barrels; origin of the name JC Denton
by everyone on 9/26/25, 3:37 PM
Prey 2017 was fantastic.. but in terms of ambition it was a step back, it's basically an improvement on system shock 2.
I do think there is an ultimate game out there that has not been made yet.. We could do it now though, combine a totally open simulation like minecraft with on-the-fly story / dialogue / characters by an LLM.
by donkdonk on 9/26/25, 9:52 AM
by TulliusCicero on 9/26/25, 8:33 AM
Said demo has actually aged very well imo.
by foldr on 9/26/25, 9:00 AM
(The real pros can do it all in a single jump.)
by shmerl on 9/26/25, 4:44 AM
by carabiner on 9/26/25, 4:34 AM
by kapilkaisare on 9/26/25, 5:02 PM
by michalion on 9/26/25, 4:11 AM
by XorNot on 9/26/25, 5:29 AM
And the DuClare Chateau level remains one of my favorite plot beats in gaming.
by fennec-posix on 9/26/25, 5:27 AM
by rpodraza on 9/26/25, 8:53 AM
by klipklop on 9/26/25, 4:54 AM
by faichai on 9/26/25, 6:48 AM
by gspetr on 9/27/25, 7:06 AM