kamyk on 11/2/2006 at 21:28
Quote Posted by Vigil
No it wasn't. Wing Commander
1 was CG-rendered sprite spaceships combined with hand-drawn everything else. Schatten's point was that "ah yes, but such and such is getting closer and closer to reality" has been said about almost every graphical technique throughout gaming development history, and it still doesn't mean we're 5 minutes away from photorealistic believability.
But I for one am looking forward to when the bubble bursts, developers and gamers stop treating photoreal as the
ne plus ultra, and actually consider stylistic and expressive rendering as a standard approach rather than a charming novelty. Cel-shading is a great start, but there's precious few other styles being experimented with.
Never saw WC1, just 2 (or was it 3? - Whichever one had Mark Hamill in it). I assumed the first one was done the same way. A lot of the above is entirely true. I certainly don't mean to give the impression that I am one of the people who thinks that graphics are the be all and end all of gaming. Gameplay is. Better graphics are just a nice side benefit. I still play Adventure and Haunted House for Atari 2600 once in a blue moon...
Really, my point is that the closer we get to photorealism, the sooner that gamemakers will have to refocus on gameplay rather than pretty visuals.
Actually, I kind of prefer artistic expression to photo-realism. I made some custom stuff for Sims2, and hand drew it on PaintShopPro, rather than take the approach a lot of others were taking, and slapping photos on the models. Just looked better to me that way, so I totally understand your point of view on photorealism.
Ominous cowl on 11/2/2006 at 23:20
Quote Posted by kamyk
I made some custom stuff
Speaking of textures, Kamyk, do you still offer some? I am still working on a Dark MOD based project, although it is not UC. That project died, but the thread did not.
Gingerbread Man on 12/2/2006 at 00:05
You really don't think you should wait until there's a Dark Mod before working on "Dark Mod-based projects" do you?
Ominous cowl on 12/2/2006 at 00:15
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
You really don't think you should wait until there's a Dark Mod before working on "Dark Mod-based projects" do you?
No, absolutely not. Everyone who eagerly awaits the Dark Mod release can already create all the necessary assets, and that consumes much time. I'm speaking of creating the storyline, maps, models, textures, animations, cinematics and sound effects. Variety matters in order to create unique missions.
Gestalt on 12/2/2006 at 00:22
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
What do you mean "when"? This is already happening. Surely all the cell-shaded games haven't escaped your notice.
Yeah, it's happening. I should have specified that I'm interested in what will happen when that level of rendering power is available for other purposes.
Renzatic on 12/2/2006 at 06:37
I thought about this for awhile, and I've realised that recent engines have come to the point where you can do almost-but-not-quite photorealistic quality. Like You couldn't do a realtime scene in UE3 and fool people into think you're posting photos of the forest behind your house, but you could the next best thing...something almost Jim Hensonish like Laybrinth or The Dark Crystal.
It came to me when I was thinking of different artistic styles you could use in lieu of the bog standard photorealism, you can compare a shot in (
http://www.planetunreal.com/images.asp?/envy/ingame15.jpg) UT2k7 to something out of (
http://lavender.fortunecity.com/tomatoes/168/darkcrys/gallery/photos/Jen-Kira-med.jpg) The Dark Crystal and see that they'd both be a pretty good fit. It could even do claymation convincingly, it isn't a stretch of the imagination to think of UE3 or Cryengine2 cranking out a realtime Nightmare Before Christmas.
kamyk on 12/2/2006 at 09:29
Quote Posted by Ominous cowl
Speaking of textures, Kamyk, do you still offer some? I am still working on a Dark MOD based project, although it is not UC. That project died, but the thread did not.
Depends on what you want, and how much time I have. My life is pretty hectic right now (lotsa CRAZY shit going on, including a forced move on short notice). I am also fiddling with learning Bump Mapping now, and still trying to put in time on my FM in progress. I was hand drawing a grass texture for you. I couldn't find anything decent on my HD that was mine, and enlargable enough, and it's winter here, so I coudn't take any decent photos...
sparhawk on 12/2/2006 at 12:15
Quote Posted by Gingerbread Man
You really don't think you should wait until there's a Dark Mod before working on "Dark Mod-based projects" do you?
There is already a "Dark Mod", so there is no need to wait. People should be aware though that things may change in more recent builds, so they may need to redo some work. We try to limit this, but it happens sometimes. As long as somebody can accept this, you can already start working. And of course it's not as if everything is lost if we have to do this. Currently we had reorganized the models, so a lot of them ar eno longer in the same path as before and mappers will have to adjust this. This is annoying, but in the end it will be more clear afterwards. The rest remains working though. And also the map geometry itself is a lot of work but it will not change, so this is a big part of such a project anyway, which can be assumed to be solid over releases.
Springheel on 12/2/2006 at 13:52
Quote:
I am still working on a Dark MOD based project
If you're going to claim to be working on a TDM project (even though no one on the team actually has access to it), can you at least SPELL it properly?
