It looks pretty good. The only issue I see is that the shadows are no longer filtered (which doesn't look so good at that shadow resolution).

It looks pretty good. The only issue I see is that the shadows are no longer filtered (which doesn't look so good at that shadow resolution).

Yeaaa, I have got to code more fallbacks.

I'm thinking for the shadows I'll have 5 different methods the user can choose from -

- 4x4 PCF shadow maps (heaaaavy pixel shader).
- Basic box filter shadow maps.
- Unfiltered shadow maps (shown in screenshots).
- Seperate shadow maps (updated 3-4 times a second) w/projected shadows for dynamic objects such as vehicles/actors/objects. This will have the problem of shadowed objects "adding" to eachother, though games like Half-Life2 suffer from this problem so it'll be fine for my 3rd level fallback.
- Simple "blob" shadows under vehicles + actors w/no real-time shadowing on buildings.

- Dan

What about "Real Streets: <City>" or "Streets of <City>" or "<City> Life" or "Life on the Streets: <City>" or something.

This way for sequels and expansions you can just change the name of the city.

"Real Streets 1: Hollywood"

"Real Streets 2: Motor City" <- that'd be Chicago area

"Real Streets 3: Big Apple"

etc

How about : Urban Empires: Gang City ?

I like your suggestion, I just don't like the word 'Real'. It reminds me of the 'Real World' on MTV. *shudders* Also I'm trying to stray away from a 'ghetto' 'real' kind of name, I'd rather go for a 'simulation' 'gangster' 'empire' kind of feel to put a focus on the strategic aspects of running an organized crime 'gang'...verses the modern 'ghetto gangster' image which took over in the '90s. There are also latino/italian gangsters in the game, the ghetto gangsters are just 1/3 of it...and in future games I'd love to have the 'Gang Type' count at 10+ types of gangs (Irish mob, Russian mafia, the angry gang of school girls), the possibilities are endless so I would like to stay open to a name that can be easily franchised.

I dunno...I do really like the Urban Empires bit, but some people at my publisher don't like it...so I don't think I can go forward with it :-/

Urban Empires: Gang City is now my current favorite :-D

If I can't go forward with Urban Empires, I'll probably just stick with Gang War. Unless we can come up with a perfect name :-D Thanks for your suggestions.

Oh yea...and wouldn't Motor City be Detroit not Chicago? That's a good idea though.

Yes about the Detroit. I swear I don't even know how I made the mistake because I know very well Detroit is the Motor City.

I'm surprised you like the word "gang" considering you don't want the exclusive urban/ghetto gang reference to dominate things. Today most people think just that when they hear "gangs" just like mob and mafia make people think of Italian based organized crime.

I'm not a fan of the word "simulator" for non traditional sims like pilot/driving/God games and the word itself seems to scream "hardcore niche game with limited appeal." Whereas your game wants to use "sim" in the sense that the environment and AI will make the whole city operate as a real city.

Real streats as you noticed has a double meaning. It can mean "real" in the urban lingo sense as well as referring to the simulation aspect and you dont really alienate anyone who's browsing titles on the shelves at EB with the name.

So whatever you pick, id definetly be leary of anything with "simulator" and "gang" "mob" or any inherently negative word in the title. Makes it harder to market a product when the name alone makes it sound like you're trying to sell a "vice" product like cigarrettes.. the title ends up having to be downplayed, hidden, etc in certain markets.

Incidentally, I realize "Grand Theft Auto" and particularly with teh "Vice City" tagged contradicts all this, but I believe their game originally used shock appeal to get noticed but I suspect in some countries they probably use a different name for the product(assuming its not banned their altogether).