What's in a name?

Another of the small but important upcoming changes for the next release is.... well, look at the picture, and see if you can work out which one's Bill and which one's Ben.


In best WoW style, characters have names over their heads in the director's view. It's a feature that's been on the to-do list for - literally - years, but only just made it to the do-it-now list. Largely, I suspect, because in the words of our revered Chief Architect of the Moviestorm Universe, "you have no bloody idea how hard that was to get right". (It's true, I have no idea, and don't really want to know. He started to explain, but then I found myself coming over all light-headed and had to go and lie down in a dark room until I felt better. Anyway, it's done now, that's all I care about. Programmers are supposed to do complicated stuff and make it look easy. They don't need sleep, sunlight, or green vegetables. How else do they maintain their elitist aura of mystique and techno-smugness?)

For such a small change, it makes life so much easier, it's unbelievable. It's now completely obvious who the active character is, and you can find them on the set almost instantly. There's no more messing around with the character list trying to remember which of the extras is "passerby 1" and which is "passerby 2".

The good stuff just keeps on a-coming, don't it?