The second largest explosion in Fallout 3 has been revealed to be a classic piece of magic from the developers at Bethesda.
In a Twitter thread, former Bethesda artist Nate Purkeypile, who lent his talents to all of the studio’s Fallout games, as well as Skyrim and star field – described the complex solution to the explosion destroying Calvert Mansion in Fallout 3’s Point Lookout DLC.
Game development is full of hacks and tricks to make things work. Many people know the “train ride that’s actually a helmet” trick, but another one is the mansion explosion at Point Lookout. It’s a total hack and also the most confusing thing there is. (thread) pic.twitter.com/cyy5NrGUTBJune 22, 2022
No matter which way you go in the DLC, the mansion will explode, but Fallout 3 didn’t really have the technology to ensure it would continue to explode after you walked away. Purkeypile explains that “the distant trees and buildings were just a static set”, meaning that Bethesda ran the risk that the supposedly shattered mansion could “suddenly appear as you walk away”.
To help solve that problem, the team turned to the biggest explosion in the game: the infamous detonation of the bomb in Megaton. That distant big bang was “the only remotely similar technology” that Bethesda had access to, showing an explosion far away from the player. But to use that technology, Purkeypile explains that the developers had to turn Calvert Mansion into an explosion.
As Purkeypile says: “the mansion is a ‘distant blast’ and the house slowly shrinks over time and then spawns a new house ‘blast’. That blast needs to keep going or it just goes away, because that [explosion] technology was only designed to make real explosions.” In simpler terms, Calvert Mansion was an illusion of a building that was constantly exploding. After the real explosion occurred, the illusion would turn off, revealing the real Calvert Mansion – little more than a rubble pile
This is far from the only example of Bethesda’s development tricks. Purkeypile himself cites the famous example of the Fallout 3 train being actually an NPC wearing a giant train hat. Recently, we have also heard of the myth of skyrim treasure foxesand the way your the iconic opening scene was almost ruined by a super powerful bee. Purkeypile has now left Bethesda and is now working on a solo project. The Axis Unseen, a heavy metal hunting game which he is doing, in part, while traveling across the US in a caravan.
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