The PSO2 Client, PhysX, and Lua

A copy of the PSO2 Alpha Test client recently became available for public download (if you know where to look). Out of curiosity, I went ahead and installed the client and started to dig around.

The PhysX support that had been reported before was made immediately obvious by the presence of a DLL in the top-level binaries folder:



However, there are some more interesting files a few levels deeper in the client folder...



Each of these files contains a script written in Lua that defines graphics and other client settings. PSO2 does makes use of the scripting language in some way; a copy of the Lua license is included elsewhere in the installation.

Of course, those two files might be the extent of the user-configurable scripting allowed in PSO2. Some online games that use Lua allow user-defined macros and even provide APIs (see: World of Warcraft) that allow players to develop add-ons and other content that changes the user experience. I highly doubt that Sega will provide this amount of customization to players. I don't really want to see user-developed add-ons in PSO2 anyway (it would only be a matter of time before you were considered a "noob" if you didn't have the awesome "Add-On A", and I'm not interested in cluttering up my game with useless add-ons.)

When the first PSO2 trailer was released, it contained vague concepts such as "community supported content" and "a new approach to the game client". I guess we'll find out soon enough whether or not the client's scripting capabilities fit into those concepts.