Like most productions, features and assets are trimmed back in the final stages before the game’s released to increase performance. The sequel to “The Suffering” was no exception. The majority of exteriors had to be layered in fog to hide the short draw distances needed for the game perform smoothly.
Thankfully, fog fit the spook factor of the game. We also built the levels with short-sight distances in mind, but they still had to come in further for its release.
The average PC in 2012 has a lot more processor power available than during the original release in 2005. So, I recently reopened the editor and played around with some core performance settings. By pushing the fog out, more of the city and surrounding buildings can be seen! I also removed a large billboard that blocked your first view of the Theater where you meet Killjoy.
The left side is the original version. The right side are the modified versions. Be sure to have YouTube’s annotations turned on for notes.
For the full version of Chapter 5 with these changes, watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htpWwbpnnvc
To find that sweet Swizzle Stick weapon on Torque’s back, watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1HUS48rpMQ