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So... Upcoming 3D PZ?

Sergeantbm

By Sergeantbm
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Rathlord

Rathlord

Posted
Posted

Dont expect too much, its 3D while still keeping the "sprite-esc" style :P

Personally I hope we don't get Roam graphics, PZ would loose some of its personality

EDIT:

Its says something about how long its been since I've played a full game when the music in video's like this seem unfamilliar :huh:

That's true PZ has it's charm as is with this sprite look and feel, but 3D I think will solve problems with performance and lightning/shadow and give greater number of "different" looking buildings by using multitexturing.

While going for hi-poly might not look the same - but we'll never know if someone won't try it, there is always an option to leave textures low-res to keep the pixelated style of graphics and have everything looking similar to current art..

Just to be clear, the current art is still going to be used for PZ. The textures after 3D will still look pretty mh exactly the same. The only difference is how the textures are rendered.

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Kurruk

Kurruk

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That's true PZ has it's charm as is with this sprite look and feel, but 3D I think will solve problems with performance and lightning/shadow and give greater number of "different" looking buildings by using multitexturing.

While going for hi-poly might not look the same - but we'll never know if someone won't try it, there is always an option to leave textures low-res to keep the pixelated style of graphics and have everything looking similar to current art..

Just to be clear, the current art is still going to be used for PZ. The textures after 3D will still look pretty mh exactly the same. The only difference is how the textures are rendered.

That's exactly what I figured out from Mondoid.

 

But I'm just throwing out ideas why "simple" move to 3D and textures can improve variety of "different looks", by using multitexturing, where main texture of building can be mixed with couple of shapes to essentially multiply number of possibilities.

 

It can improve up to a point where one (X) texture would have look, the other (Y) crack or what have you, and finally (Z) bump map to show type of material, from wood to metal. In that case it could lead to potentially X * Y * Z possibilities, which could save a lot of memory without sacrificing variety of materials.

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Sieben

Sieben

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And finally dragons will be introduced! ;)

If by "dragons" you mean "ugly women"... then yes - I believe so ;-)

 

 

Of course

 

DSC00136.JPG

 

The real reason of my wish for 3D models is the interaction of light and shadow.

 

Like this:

In the darkest of night, you're striving through the city equipped with your trusty flashlight and baseballbat. Suddenly you hear something moan behind you. You turn around and see four scrambler, lighted by your flashlight, stumbling towards you. You

sights and charge against them... clever?! No! The light can't defeat the darkness!!!

 

LdwGSOd.jpg

 

^^

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ExcentriCreation

ExcentriCreation

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I never said anything against 3D itself, only that part of what makes PZ special is that its reminiscent of classic RPGs like Fallout 2, Diablo 2 & Arcanum:OS&MO.... If TIS were to go with "realistic" texturing, it would still be a good game but, IMO, it would loose what makes it special....

As for modders, tweaking the "graphic quality". I dont want to say much until I know what I have to work with but, its entirely possible that the textures/shaders used in the above video are all thats stopping it from looking like minecraft (for lack of a better analogy) & in order to go for a "realistic" look, the polly count in the models would have to be increased. In a game with the sheer character population of PZ, increasing the pollys in the game characters by 200 could potentially increase your total onscreen pollys by 50-100 thousand

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Sieben

Sieben

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Hehe, my text with the highresolution texture was meant ironically ;) . (A little hint to Skyrim with it bulk of texturepacks)

 

The models in the video are fully adequate: smoother animations but looking alike the current sprites and some lightningeffects on the body if lighted by a lightsource (but looks a bit buggy). There is no really a need for texturemods, but if someone create one, I'll try it ;) .

 

What is shown in the video is what I want... for first ;) .

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Kurruk

Kurruk

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... In a game with the sheer character population of PZ, increasing the pollys in the game characters by 200 could potentially increase your total onscreen pollys by 50-100 thousand

You could take a look here: http://iflash3d.com/performance/unity3d-vs-molehill/

and see the example with 100x 20k polygon in web based unity3d engine, for me it was 58-59 fps.

 

While it is just an example and even graphical benchmarks are operating on fact that there is nothing else going on, except for displaying the scene, but I still wouldn't worry about that. Think Crysis 3 had main character around 15-20k polygons alone.

 

The reason why graphic cards are good at 3d is fact that they were design for that and they have few tricks up their sleeves that allow them to lay back and not do anything if they don't have to. In that case even if the cone of view gathered a million (10^6) polygons that are "in view" it doesn't mean all of them will be drawn.

 

While I know that there are a lot of ppl with some older or integrated GPUs in the community, if I'll have an option to allow for some improved visuals, I will definitely turn them on up to a point where each bulb and candle will be a separate light source casting nice long shadows making night walks even creepier without an ambient light.

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ExcentriCreation

ExcentriCreation

Posted
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Hehe, my text with the highresolution texture was meant ironically ;) . (A little hint to Skyrim with it bulk of texturepacks)

 

The models in the video are fully adequate: smoother animations but looking alike the current sprites and some lightningeffects on the body if lighted by a lightsource (but looks a bit buggy). There is no really a need for texturemods, but if someone create one, I'll try it ;) .

 

What is shown in the video is what I want... for first ;) .

 

Yeah, sorry, Its amazing how easy it is to miss stuff like that in text conversations, I got the reference to Bethesda games though :P

 

There's no easy way to replace textures in PZ atm anyways & the community's attempts to extract/re-pack PZ textures is running into problems. There is this program but its still having issues with the characters pack....

 

I'm.... I'm lost :huh:.... I have no idea how we managed to get this far from the topic based on me pointing out the intended "graphical quality" of the planned 3D system

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TheCenturion

TheCenturion

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For crying out loud peeps, there's not going to be any major switch to an entirely new graphical style. The idea with the 3D was to improve the CURRENT style, not completely change the way the game is viewed/played. I'm pretty sure the 3D is designed to replicate the 2D look, but obviously with a few extra tweaks such as basic lighting and better performance. 

Don't get too crazy. ;)

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Kurruk

Kurruk

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For crying out loud peeps, there's not going to be any major switch to an entirely new graphical style. The idea with the 3D was to improve the CURRENT style, not completely change the way the game is viewed/played. I'm pretty sure the 3D is designed to replicate the 2D look, but obviously with a few extra tweaks such as basic lighting and better performance. 

Don't get too crazy. ;)

Don't cry Centurion, don't cry ... it's all going to be OK ;-)

 

As for the graphics, no-one can tell what the future will bring, as the dev themselves haven't considered 3D at all in the beginning of the project... one can still dream... right?

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Vantus

Vantus

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The devs are *never* going to drop the isometrics, guys. 3d rendering engine is just because modern graphics cards are crap at 2d rendering. ;)

 

That's all I care about really! I love the fixed-camera isometric style. :)

I've seen some people mention ROAM as a desired end result but that would be a travesty in my opinion!

 

I enjoy not having to nanny my camera angle while staving off hordes of Zombies with my butterknife. 

 

That aside, skinning is one of my favourite hobbies so I am very much looking forward to the possibilities that come with the 3D modeling!

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Vantus

Vantus

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That aside, skinning is one of my favourite hobbies so I am very much looking forward to the possibilities that come with the 3D modeling!

 

Oh man.

You, alone in a room with a large sack of freshly-dug potatoes and a peeler must be like heaven!

 

 

Who says it's vegetables that I skin....

 

Muhahahaaaa! 

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Sieben

Sieben

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For crying out loud peeps, there's not going to be any major switch to an entirely new graphical style. The idea with the 3D was to improve the CURRENT style, not completely change the way the game is viewed/played. I'm pretty sure the 3D is designed to replicate the 2D look, but obviously with a few extra tweaks such as basic lighting and better performance. 

Don't get too crazy. ;)

 

 

The devs are *never* going to drop the isometrics, guys. 3d rendering engine is just because modern graphics cards are crap at 2d rendering. ;)

 

I never claimed something else ;) . If I write "3D" then I mean polygons not changes of viewstyle (I call for example Diablo 3 also a 3D-Game). Polygonmodels needs textures. If the exchange of these textures is easy, so you can pimp them up -> new graphicquality ;) . That is what I meant.

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harakka

harakka

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I like isometric perspective more, it reminds me of Ultima Online.

Damn, I still love that game...

...oOoOoOooooo?

 

Could be worse, reminds me of System 3's Last Ninja / Vendetta. O_o

 

Thanks, you just gave me flashbacks of having to wait an hour for Vendetta to load from tape.

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