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Author Topic: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod  (Read 132839 times)
dczanik
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Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« on: September 25, 2010, 09:29:44 am »

I admit it. The lure of Frungy money caused me to work on this.

In addition to working on Project 6014, I'm also working on a dream project of mine on the side.  To create an Ur-Quan Masters HD mod. Taking the existing game, and creating a modern version of the game with high definition graphics.

The original pic:


And my pic (click to go to the deviant art page, you can download a larger size):
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- Damon
Ur-Quan Masters HD Project leader/artist. Project 6014 Artist.  Like my art? Please check out some of my other artwork
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2010, 02:42:25 am »

Truly amazing work! Kudos! Your artwork leaves much desired for a new HD rendition of the game. I definitely would like to get this ported over to my droid x when complete so that I can take it easily on the road with me. Always have a phone on me... not always having a laptop on me. Smiley
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dczanik
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2010, 04:10:53 am »

Thanks! Yes. I want the game on as many platforms as possible. Some may not like having an HD version, but to those people, I think the existing UQM fits their needs perfectly.  For new players, or those wanting something that doesn't look 18 years old (damn. that makes me feel old), then I think this mod would be for them. For those wanting something new, well, there's project 6014.  Grin
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- Damon
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meep-eep
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #3 on: September 26, 2010, 11:48:08 am »

A graphical update would bring in new players who are deterred by the aged graphics.
An add-on pack with updated graphics is high on my wishlist for UQM.
And this certainly looks good.
Don't underestimate the amount of work involved though.
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dczanik
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #4 on: September 26, 2010, 02:55:01 pm »

Oh no. I have a firm grasp just how big this project is.  UQM has 16,000 png files. Now imagine if there was a magical 'auto size' button in Photoshop that raise the resolution and added tons of detail. That's still a button I have to press 16,000 times. If each pic takes an hour. That's 16,000 hours. Or 667 days of continuous work. Most of the pictures are not bad though. Just simply a resize of another pic.

Melée Ships consist of 16 angles for the ship at 3 different levels. That's 48 images. But you need weapons firing at 16 angles to, at 3 different zoom angles. Add a secondary weapon fire and you have  144 pics. 3D modeling and rendering as a 2D sprite seems like my best option. Sounds impossible, right? No. I've created a ship in 1 night and put it into the game the next day .

But there's Melee captain's animation, and icon images too. What kills me is stuff you don't think about. UI graphics, Bio-Critters, mineral graphics, etc. It's a ton of work.  But I think I can do it. By myself though, this is a 3 year project. If anybody can help out message me.

Right now. I'm just focused on the comm screens. I've done 2 which I've shown, and 2 which I'm still not happy with. Still, a lot more to go.

I can understand being skeptical. I've seen too many promising projects die on here. I've already have a lot of experience with the engine working on the 6014 mod. Best case scenario it takes 2 years to make.   I'm making it or die trying Wink
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- Damon
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #5 on: September 26, 2010, 03:59:23 pm »

Actually, if it was just a button, you could probably write a script to do it for you.
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Angelfish
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #6 on: September 26, 2010, 06:40:43 pm »

Making it HD could be done with a shortcut, perhaps. Erol Otus maybe still has most of the SC2 artwork paintings still lying around somewhere? Probably we could ask him for the material?
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dczanik
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #7 on: September 26, 2010, 08:15:42 pm »

I'd love that. Any idea on how to get ahold of Erol? His website doesn't say much.
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- Damon
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #8 on: September 26, 2010, 09:45:32 pm »

Actually, if it was just a button, you could probably write a script to do it for you.

You don't have to, Photoshop has great support for batch processing of files, If you want to enlarge all pictures in the UQM folder and subfolders by 197%, want to improve the result by running a "sharpen"filter, and want to rotate each one by an certain amount, you would only need a few mouseclicks (and a lot of processor time) to have it happen.  Basicly -anything- you can do in photoshop can be automated so you can quickly process large numbers of files. I could not imagine life without this function.

More info at this link:

http://www.creativemac.com/2002/04_apr/tutorials/psbatch.htm

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dczanik
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #9 on: September 26, 2010, 10:02:09 pm »

Thanks for the link. I was just talking about a hypothetical magical button that turned a 320x200 picture, into a fully rendered picture to illustrate how much work is involved. Upscaling works, but frankly, looks like crap when dealing with such low resolutions. UQM uses different upscaling techniques too.  But, there's no detail. Just fuzzed pixels. Not to discount the great work they've done... but it's never going to replace quality original artwork.  Though, I can't imagine not using them as temporary placeholders.
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- Damon
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #10 on: September 26, 2010, 10:12:19 pm »

Melée Ships consist of 16 angles for the ship at 3 different levels. That's 48 images. But you need weapons firing at 16 angles to, at 3 different zoom angles. Add a secondary weapon fire and you have  144 pics. 3D modeling and rendering as a 2D sprite seems like my best option. Sounds impossible, right? No. I've created a ship in 1 night and put it into the game the next day .

The Timewarp project did manage to redo all of the SC1 and SC2 ships and make a nice collection of planets, there's a nice RAR of them on the PNF somewhere.

EDIT: link: http://star-control.com/fan/resources.php
« Last Edit: September 26, 2010, 10:14:41 pm by oldlaptop » Logged

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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #11 on: September 27, 2010, 12:28:57 am »

Wwe dont need to upgrade the graphics until the resolution is higher, and dont need higher resolution until we have graphics. We might as well resize them and plug them in as placeholders, and add in important graphics as they are redone.
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Admiral Zeratul
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #12 on: September 27, 2010, 01:06:30 am »

This is beyond wonderful! I especially like how you did the Fot (the shy brown one in the middle)!

Now I have a question. Have you made the Thraddash yet?  Cheesy
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dczanik
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #13 on: September 27, 2010, 01:53:45 am »

No. I haven't!  Right now, I'm thinking about starting with the enemies/friends you encounter first.  The Ur-Quan + Dynarri, Commander Hayes, Fwiffo, and Ilwrath.  I really doubt Hayes was scanned artwork.  And I feel anything I do on him, might look awesome.  But my artistic take on him, might ruffle some fan's feathers since It wouldn't look like pixel art.  We'll see.
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- Damon
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Re: Ur-Quan Masters HD Mod
« Reply #14 on: September 27, 2010, 02:19:40 am »

Well, my pixel art wasn't the thing, so maybe moving away from it will be met well by community.
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