WC4 Remake

[Wedge009]

...the most recent Blender branches (2.8X – 2.9A)... use more realistic light bouncing than was considered top of the line in 1996. I actually had to revert to a previous version of Blender (2.79) in order to make full use of Blender’s internal render engine to try [to] recapture that same SGI look and feel.

I don't dispute this but I'm curious to see an illustration of what difference this makes. For someone like me who has an idea of light sources and scattering/bouncing in the real world but doesn't necessarily know how they apply or are emulated in the 3D rendering world.

 

[DefianceIndustries]

@Wedge009 I'll post some renders pre-upscale in a bit.

 

[Pedro]

Here's a bit of a side update; detailing all the Wing Commander 3 work we've inadvertently found ourselves doing whilst working on the Wing Commander 4 Remaster

Aren’t you on the wrong ship? - Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - Remastered

Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - Remastered

wcrespace.com

 

[Whiplash]

This looks amazing! I am very excited about this project.

 

[Vidmaster]

Indeed, it looks amazing.

... explored the possibility of integrating those either into a remake or the original.

Yes, please do. The obvious one is the Hobbes' Explanation but all story-related scenes and news are obviously a contender.

 

[Pedro]

Yes, please do. The obvious one is the Hobbes' Explanation but all story-related scenes and news are obviously a contender.

I'm almost positive it can be done entirely on the data side. If someone were to encode the mve (or add support for the PSX videos ODVS made) I would do that; it'd have to be done for any potential remake anyway.

 

[Bitterman]

if this means a "updated" source port for WC3

i see a lot of people everywhere drooling to play this once its out

 

[Pedro]

if this means a "updated" source port for WC3

i see a lot of people everywhere drooling to play this once its out

More of a new engine that supports the old formats.
The pros being it could support any or all of the games in the long term (wc3 and 4 already use the same executable, I could easily see a future where you could select any of the games). The main con is it’s slow long term work, don’t expect any releases in the near future. Without extra help it’s going to take a lot of weekends.

 

[ODVS]

Hi all,

I've just posted a new article on the WCRespace site, all about the process of remastering the rooms, sprites and other graphical elements that take up your screen during your time on the Lexington and Intrepid.

These are first-pass runs at remastering the visuals, so there will be quality improvements over time, but this should give some insight into the process for anyone who's interested

 

[Dorjé]

Hi, if I can help I would love to try some improvements by hand with some bg and sprite image editing software. Could you send me the files (PNG? BC7?) (sorry for my english, i'm french)

 

[Pedro]

Hi, if I can help I would love to try some improvements by hand with some bg and sprite image editing software. Could you send me the files (PNG? BC7?) (sorry for my english, i'm french)

Sure that'd be great. Here's a few issues we are seeing:

A shadow for your shuttle extends beyond the bounds in an obvious fashion. There is floor beneath vagabonds table covering the CG door.

It's only worth adjusting the source images at this point, not the AI upscaled ones as those are still first pass (particularly for Wing Commander 3)

The zip is too large to put here, I'll PM you.

 

[Pedro]

I've quickly taken some footage of the gameflow, you can see the AI upscaled images and the new mouse cursors in action.
We've definitely broken the back of these room files but I've hidden a fair amount that isn't working

 

[Vidmaster]

I've just posted a new article on the WCRespace site...

Read the article and I am curious:

We have tons of different individual frames for the characters in e.g. the bar of the Lexington. So its individual images. However, I doubt you are talking about tons of photographs, aka still shots of people, instead I suspect that the actor was recorded doing the motion and the individual frames of that "movie"-shot were encoded as images? If so, that would mean all the blur and motion one gets from a camera is part of the image and in that case, would it not be wiser to actually combine the images back into a "movie" and upscale that one instead of working on the static images?

No critique intended, this is really just a question.

 

[ODVS]

Read the article and I am curious:

We have tons of different individual frames for the characters in e.g. the bar of the Lexington. So its individual images. However, I doubt you are talking about tons of photographs, aka still shots of people, instead I suspect that the actor was recorded doing the motion and the individual frames of that "movie"-shot were encoded as images? If so, that would mean all the blur and motion one gets from a camera is part of the image and in that case, would it not be wiser to actually combine the images back into a "movie" and upscale that one instead of working on the static images?

No critique intended, this is really just a question.

Yep, I did actually try that - and it did a terrible job of it. They just looked awful. On top of that, while the Wing4 sprites are composed of solid rectangles that incorporate part of the actual set, the Wing3 sprites were shot on greenscreen and have alpha/transparency as part of the original images. Using Topaz Video Enhance AI, there's no way to maintain that transparency, so all the sprite animations end up on solid black backgrounds which we would then be unable to incorporate back into gameplay.

 

[Panther1.0]

Guys, can the new video's work now in WC3 ? will we be able to patch them into the game ?

 

[ODVS]

Guys, can the new video's work now in WC3 ? will we be able to patch them into the game ?

Afraid not, @Panther1.0 - those are captures of @Pedro running remastered WC3 assets in the new engine/runtime he's developing for WC4

 

[Pedro]

Afraid not, @Panther1.0 - those are captures of @Pedro running remastered WC3 assets in the new engine/runtime he's developing for WC4

Yeah, to be clear what we're doing is a data port. We're not modding the original game so nothing we do can be transferred over to the GoG release. We are looking at the data files and then piecing things back together.

 

[Panther1.0]

I just wanted to know if we will be able to utilize upscaled video in WC3.

I don't have any problem with what you are doing, GOG release ? haha

 

[Pedro]

I just wanted to know if we will be able to utilize upscaled video in WC3.

I don't have any problem with what you are doing, GOG release ? haha

And that’s what I intended to answer nothing we post here can be used in the original game without additional work from another modder

 

[Panther1.0]

thank you Pedro, the "TO BE CLEAR ! " part of ur senstence put me off ; )