Belsirk: Well, TTON (Torment, tides of nume...) its using the engine of PoE right now and the loading and saving times are minimum. Not more of 5 seconds. So, probably is a good signal for PoE2 as is going to use the same engine.
Fenixp: First of all, same engine doesn't really mean much, especially when we're talking an engine as generalized as Unity - both PoE and Torment had to write most of code that's associated with their respective implementation of said engine themselves anyway, including majority of tooling. In other words, using Unity doesn't mean much.
Secondly, does Torment use Unity 4 or 5?
Actually that is a good question.
I have found some references:
- FAQ in PoE2 crowfunding website and PoE2 Update #11: Is not clear, but seem they are optimizing their current implementation of PoE1 for PoE2 (Also PoE2 Update #11 suggest the same)
-TTON Update #11: InXile explain there is going to be some level of synergy between Obsidian and them (because both of them are using Unity). However, at that point it was not clear how much synergy (after all Wasteland 2 was already under development with Unity) .
- TTON Update #28: Bingo! (I missed this update) Relevant text:
...
we announced that we’d be collaborating with Obsidian Entertainment on technology. This primarily meant their conversation editing tools, which provide a very strong foundation for the dialogue reactivity we seek for Torment. We’ve been prototyping conversations with these tools since last summer and have been adapting the technology for Torment’s specific dialogue needs. Meanwhile, we’ve been evaluating other aspects of the Pillars of Eternity technology over the last months and have been impressed with the environments they’ve been able to create with it in Unity. We seek a similar high level of quality for our environments in Torment.
I’m happy to say that we’ve taken things a step further and recently reached an agreement to license Obsidian’s technology for Pillars of Eternity to use in Torment. (In case you haven’t seen it yet, a great Pillars of Eternity teaser came out last month – they are still accepting late pledges for any who missed their Kickstarter.) Torment’s code base will thus include the most relevant components of PE’s technology and Wasteland 2’s. We’re making enhancements to best suit Torment, and some systems will of course be completely new as Torment’s design is its own.
What are the practical implications of our licensing PE technology? It provides us with a stronger starting point for certain game systems and pipelines, including the creation of the 2D pre-rendered environments (we’re working on having something to show you in the coming weeks). This means we will have more resources to invest on other aspects of the game, allowing us to achieve a higher quality overall. (Recall that 100% (and more) of the crowdfunded monies are allocated to development of Torment. So anything that saves effort means that we have more to spend elsewhere on Torment.) This arrangement benefits both games and we continue to push Torment as far as we can in terms of quality.
...
- TTON Update #30: "...
Not long after I completed the high-level design, Jesse used my design document to create blockouts for all the critical path locations. The blockouts are rough layouts in the Unity engine (powered by Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity Technology).... So, how to use Unity is being shared between both projects.
- TTON Update #41 and #46: Torment Unity version was upgraded from 4.5 to 5.0 (yet is not clear if that also benefit Obsidian). This was announced after InXile had completed the Wasteland 2 Director Cut (which also included an upgrade to Unity 5 for the original game)
So, if the synergy between InXile and Obsidian is still there, maybe the upgrade made to the Unity engine is also shared for PoE2. Yet, Obsidian need to clarify this. Still... I want to be a optimistic that in terms of loading times, PoE2 will be between PoE1 and TTON.
