I don't think sprite graphics and polygon graphics are really comparable the way you want them to be, thezanursic. They are essentially two different mediums, as different as pencil drawings and clay models. You would have to compare it to another sprite based game. However, as far as polygon art goes, I find SC2 really oppressively dark and small. It's hard to see projectiles, so it's hard to know when a players unit is even attacking (mutas chasing something down look like they're just moving, not move attacking). Then an observer will look to something under fog of war to point something out and you can't see anything... In general the game is just a lot less clear about anything that's happening. It would be a huge downgrade for BW to look like that. This is like comparing a great pencil drawing to a really mediocre clay sculpture and saying the clay sculpture is better because it's 3d.
In general, I don't really think an RTS benefits from being 3D. It's an RTS! It's meant to be played top bottom. The novelty of being able to move the camera down only lasts so long.
As far as the actual thread and updating the graphics to be HD... You know, people talk about wanting that for 'BW Gold' for a long time. It's one of those unnecessary but kinda neat things. New tilesets, ladder matchmaking, etc. It's not a new idea, so you should have something to show/some ability to do it if you want it. I honestly thought this thread would be about up scaling videos, which would be more interesting to me for extra special good games, but I'm pretty sure upscaling doesn't work that well... was hoping to read more about it regardless. It wouldn't be better res while playing, but it would be more doable.
It is possible to increase the quality of the sprites, but it would require extensive work (there are limitations hardcoded into the game that would have to be bypassed).
On March 06 2012 13:02 dartoo wrote: I remember seeing a thread where brood war was cast in HD, it looked kinda funny...everything was so small, I thought it lost some appeal. Especially in big fights, you dont have that massive theatre of war feel, because everything gets squished into one screen.
Thats the cast thread...but someone below found an actual mod...
Pretty much this :/. Let's keep BW the same, if anything needs to be changed, i think its the Menu's for the game, but nothing in-game. Making sprites look better might be cool though.
if a enhanced graphics mod ONLY changed the graphics and nothing with the gameplay, zoom level, etc, I would buy it/play the shit out of it. but like people say, changing every damn sprite in the game seems difficult. hopefully one day someone will do it and forever receive free e-cookies.
So if in some parallel universe Blizzard is enhancing BW graphics then I wish they keep the same mature-looking style of BW rather than the 'hey lego-blocks WoW-like childish characters' from SC2.
My only complaint with BW graphics is the probe on certain tilesets contrast that sometimes bothers me and when I play vs brown opponents on jungle/dirty tileset, but this last one is easily half-fixable with shift-tab.
On March 06 2012 20:29 Mooneyes wrote: @Ribbon Im not saying its easy but sprites doesnt = unit size, generally you have a something else then the actual sprite as the space the unit/npc/whatever occupies. Especialy in games that emulates a third dimention with essentialy 2d graphics.
HD sprites = More pixels = Different unit size in pixels, which matters for a 2D game.
On March 06 2012 14:25 Antisocialmunky wrote: You might as well just do SCII:BW if that's what you want. Also, the crappiness of the graphics allows people to figure out what they actually look like in their head.
I like you!
So many people do not appreciate that point.
I suddenly want to remake BW using ASCII graphics.
ZZZ ZMZ ZZZ
Actually, that'd be kinda neat.
On March 07 2012 03:38 Golgotha wrote: if a enhanced graphics mod ONLY changed the graphics and nothing with the gameplay, zoom level, etc, I would buy it/play the shit out of it. but like people say, changing every damn sprite in the game seems difficult. hopefully one day someone will do it and forever receive free e-cookies.
edit: lol corrupter
SC2 Zerg on BW creep is weird looking.
On March 07 2012 03:56 fabiano wrote: I dont like the art direction they took in SC2.
So if in some parallel universe Blizzard is enhancing BW graphics then I wish they keep the same mature-looking style of BW rather than the 'hey lego-blocks WoW-like childish characters' from SC2.
It's really only Terran, and specifically Terran bio, that has that WoW look in SC2. Protoss and especially Zerg are fine, graphic design wise. I actually really love the creep spread mechanic in SC2 for aethestic reasons (and because it adds some needed mechanical stuff), because it's cool-looking and makes it easy to tell what the Zerg's "territory" is just by looking at the minimap, which is neat.
I feel like if we took the "12-limit control group" "no automine", "no smartcasting", and "no MBS" from SC2BW and applied it to SC2 vanilla, the game would actually look better, because units wouldn't be in perfect sync and wouldn't clump as much. How a game looks is based on many factors, not just the sprites.
From what I remember from experimenting with BWAPI, positions in the game engine are actually specified in terms of pixels--the same pixels as are shown on the screen. That means if you're trying to, for example, double the resolution of the graphics without changing what the game engine is doing, then you're trying to do something the game fundamentally wasn't designed to do. Possible? Probably, but maybe also hard.
Hmmm, I think it might be interesting to look at this when considering BW HD:
The first build of SC2 that they showed in that video is rather rough, but it is very much reminiscent of BW in terms of graphics despite mainly being a primitive mock-up.
And it's funny to see really shitty 3D models of Protoss and Zerg stuff that they used as temporary placeholders, though those models are surprisingly accurate to their BW counterparts.
Well, theoretically, one would only need to hijack the graphics system of the game, with 1280x960 resolution, the game engine could remain unchanged, only the drawing coordinates would need to be multiplied by 2. (Omg, this would lead sprites moving by a minimum of 2 pixels, but I don't think that would ruin the animation.) (And redrawing thousands of bitmaps....as I guess automatic rescaling of the bitmaps wouldnt really look good.) (No to mention the missing 3d Studio models used for unit and building bitmaps.)
Guys what you're asking for is not possible without getting the source code from Blizzard. Modern computers can display millions of colors however because of the 1990s technology they had available, Starcraft could only display up to 256 colors at once. Basically you need to rewrite the code to make it be able to utilize new formats such as using .bmp pictures for high quality models instead of the old .pcx and use .avi for videos like unit portraits instead of .smk format. Then you need to redesign the pictures and such for it to look good at a higher resolution.
On April 01 2012 14:50 xboi209 wrote: Guys what you're asking for is not possible without getting the source code from Blizzard. Modern computers can display millions of colors however because of the 1990s technology they had available, Starcraft could only display up to 256 colors at once. Basically you need to rewrite the code to make it be able to utilize new formats such as using .bmp pictures for high quality models instead of the old .pcx and use .avi for videos like unit portraits instead of .smk format. Then you need to redesign the pictures and such for it to look good at a higher resolution.
one day I hope blizzard will make a gfx update for BW. keep everything the same but just make the sprites look cleaner. but i am dreaming.
If you really wanted to improve the graphics, play BW as a sc2 mod - the current sc2bw maps, most of them aren't the best but it's completely possible to make the game exactly like bw, which would automaticly improve the observer UI etc. aswell
On April 01 2012 15:09 Cinim wrote: If you really wanted to improve the graphics, play BW as a sc2 mod - the current sc2bw maps, most of them aren't the best but it's completely possible to make the game exactly like bw, which would automaticly improve the observer UI etc. aswell
no this isnt just about gfx. sc2bw mod changes the gameplay and the quirks of bw waaaay too much. definitely not the same game.
On March 07 2012 11:36 Xeln4g4 wrote: wow this video will become a masterpiece of SC2 history in 15 years when SC2 will be as old as BW!
Assuming people still play SC2 in 15 years.
Legacy of the Void will probably be in beta by then.
And there will still be no word of Half Life 2: Episode 3.
yeah, about that..
where the fuck is that game ?!?!?! -.-
also - I really prefer a mature 2D look of the game instead of shiny lazersssinurface 3D engines (some of them are actually beautiful but most of them.. definitely too shiny)
The first build of SC2 that they showed in that video is rather rough, but it is very much reminiscent of BW in terms of graphics despite mainly being a primitive mock-up.
And it's funny to see really shitty 3D models of Protoss and Zerg stuff that they used as temporary placeholders, though those models are surprisingly accurate to their BW counterparts.
Just food for thought.
eh, this actually looks pretty good. if only, if only...
EPT![[image loading]](http://i.imgur.com/TCIC3.jpg)
lol corrupter
