Daiky's x-com project

[pmprog]

I got a quick PM from Daiky about thoughts on how to deal with the project. I sent a reply, but not heard anything more yet

[michal]

Maybe you guys could look for some additional ppl to help on project xenocide forum. After all, your project is kinda similar to theirs - you too are making 3d remake.

Of course there are slim chances that you will find anyone there, as px is dead for some time.

[Daiky]

Yeah, the problem is, I got 4 projects atm.
I got the project Xcomufo3D,  which I quit 4 years ago. It's current functionality is very basic, loading a map in X-Com style, with 3D objects on it, pathfinding and shooting stuff.
I got the project which I called XcomufoHD, started this year. It's goal was to end up as close as possible to the original, but with some higher resolution 2D graphics. It is playable with terrain destruction, explosions, fire, smoke, line of sight, spawnpoints, routes and AI,... lots of stuff that is not in the xcomufo3D project yet.
This project has 2 other branches, the one with 3D shadows blended on top of the 2D. But technically this is stuck now.
And another branch with a totally new user interface.

I have quit the Xcomufo3D project, because of the main focus on such a project is the art. I do know it would be great to see all the XCom units and maps in a 3D environment. But in such a project I would like to do all the 3D modelling first and keep the game engine for last.

The only project where I can see a light at the end of the tunnel is the xcomufoHD project with the new user interface. On the other hand it is true that 2D isometric is totally outdated now, no matter how high the resolution of your sprites...

Choices...

[SupSuper]

2D isometric, outdated?!? Blasphemy!

Edit: To be honest I've always imagined OpenXcom becoming some kind of "2D HD X-Com" in the future, once it's all moddable and stuff (so people could choose between original and HD graphics), since it'd look pretty cool. But I'm nowhere near an artist so I'm better off just sticking with the original look for now.

[pmprog]

I still think 3D using the LOF models would be great, but that might just be me

[Daiky]

I'm more with SupSuper in for 2D... open source... moddable...

Unless I can use the team of Blizzard that created the artwork for Starcraft 2 to make me all the models of X-Com UFO.

[Daiky]

A part that I've never made public, was my geoscape. But I find it such a shocking difference how easy a geoscape graphically is done with a 3D engine vs a 2D engine
It took me 10 minutes, just a few lines of code to add a sphere, texture it with Earth.png, add a light and a rotation animator, add a camera et voila.

It's kinda like a fast-food geoscape. While SupSuper's geoscape is the French Cuisine or a piece of art

[SupSuper]

Yeah a 3D geoscape has the advantage of being hardware-accelerated and just a sphere with a texture on (unlike the original which is a huge ton of flattened polygons). You'd still be in a world of fun to give it regions, terrains, markers, etc though.

[Daiky]

I recently got me a wacom tablet/pen, so I can have some creative distraction in between programming episodes.
In between doing my excercises for my drawing lessons, I continue my xcomHD project. XcomHD project is among other things a remake of all graphics in x-com:EU and xcom:TFTD in a way that it looks good on modern resolutions (around 1280x720).
All graphics retain their original look, original colors and most of their original shape. All the shapes are repainted and original highlights, shadows and details are added back in. Here is an example of the remade medikit object.

[SupSuper]

Looks interesting, although it feels overly smooth like you just put it through a filter. Remember the original was drawn for a much smaller scale, so you can't just resize and fix it up or it'll just look "fatter". Higher resolution is supposed to result in sharper more-detailed graphics.

Still you got my artistic skills beat.

[Daiky]

I'm still experimenting and need to fine-tune my process.  I'm now thinking of over-sizing the sprite first (x6), to add in the details, and then scale them back to a smaller format (x3), basically because it easier to draw on a larger sprite, but as a side-effect it may have less of the fatter/smooth look.

But it is important to keep the cartoonish look, which is by definition fatter/smoother, otherwise it looks more like a 3D render, which is a totally different style (and in my opinion does not fit the game at all).

Also I don't want to add additional knobs/buttons/lights/widgets to an object. I just took the elements that make up the medi-kit: the red light, the grey/red ribbon on the right edge, the green screen, the two tubes that go into some kind of connectors. These objects have been re-drawn based on the palette and dimensions of the original sprite.

I do this in photoshop, by having two layers L1: the original sprite, L2: an empty layer I'm drawing on. I choose the element I want to redraw: for example the little red light. I colorpick from the original layer the base red color and draw a red circle over the original element. Then I take a soft pen, color white, very low opacity and draw the highlight. Repeat for every element, et voila.

[michal]

This is videos how some guy remakes sprites from amiga games:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-mkQ4XK4qM&feature=related

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnxXF79ffKk

Of course such technique is probably kinda illegal So such resources couldn't be released as gpl i'm afraid.

[Daiky]

Nice. I'll post a youtube video too when I can.

I doubt that "using a certain technique of drawing" is illegal. Releasing it... maybe, but good luck reading up on the legal concept of releasing derivate work
I know driving 70 with your car where you only can go 50 is illegal.  I don't feel like I'm doing illegal stuff when I'm drawing cartoons at home... not even when posting videos of it I see it as a "fair use" exception.

I'm not aware of anyone ever getting a warning of the original x-com copyright owners? If not, I would very much like to be the first one then So I can reply them: "I'm doing something for the x-com fans, where you have failed to do anything for them in all these years !!".

[SupSuper]

I contacted every copyright owner I could find and never got a reply, so I'll stay on the safe side but as far as I'm concerned everything we're doing is "fair use" since they don't seem to care.

[Daiky]

I was lying ill in bed today, not really in the mood for programming, but drawing went ok. I did a few more conversions. Soon to start the first tileset, to see how that goes.