/vr/ - Retro Games

>>9238610
>Unreal remaster
I'm still mad about how OldUnreal patch screws the overlaid detail texturing which is a feature I always liked about Unreal Engine. In original it goes up to 16+ layers, in the patch it's just 2.

While you don't really notice any above 3 layers normally without cheats to get closer to the surface, they didn't limit it at 3, but at 2 for some weird reason.

And since I bet remaster is gonna be based on OldUnreal patch version, they gonna fuck it up too

>>7253554
>>7253548
>>7253532
I love how in Unreal, the detail textures blend in new layers when you get closer so it never gets blurry.
And detail texture is not just noise, it is different depending on material, one each for stone, granite, steel, glass, marble, wood (looks like fiber, really cool) and so on.
Why do modern games don't use it?

>>6295854
It's an adventure across an alien world with weird, but beautiful environments, with weird aliens and weird guns.
Rushing/binging it is a mistake - play it 1-2 levels at a time, otherwise it gets tiresome.
Also it runs out of steam past 2/3 of the game.

>>6298242
Against Skaarj use hitscan guns like AMSD, minigun or rifle, or make them dodge where you want then shoot where they gonna be.
Also rocketlauncher has a lock-on system. Start pumping rockets with both fire modes at once, hold crosshair on target - it changes to red circle, release and the roeckets will home in on dodging skaarj.
GES can act like mine layer.

Also HD textures are incompatible with Unreal's brand of precedurally generated detailtexturring (with individual algorithms for each surface material), and IMO they I'd rather have those if I have to chose.

>>5764102
There was just the same (if not more) hype for Unreal 2. And then it came out the way it did... It could've been redeemed if Epic promised a proper single player game that is closer to the original than that travesty, but they online market was booming and they focused on Tournament series.
It could have become much more influencial and have a legacy, if not for neglect from its own creators, that were content with simply selling the engine tech to everyone who wanted it (and it was a good tech).

There were rumors about next SP Unreal after UT4 comes out of beta, but then Fortnite happened and UT4 got abandoned midway, so the whole franchise is on ice. And with how things going in and around Epic, there's little to no hope of it ever returning to stage, unless DooM series manage to maintain its popularity to the point where Epic decides to ride that train as well and reboot SP Unreal.

>>5764996
Really shitty. Unreal is famous for large levels that would have to be severely cut down (or chopped into parts) for them to work.

>>5765008
Curiously, Unreal has its own funky brand of interlaced-bilinear filter for software renderer.
It is quite literally impossible to run it unfiltered out of the box. However it also used multi-layered material based detail textures to cover up most of the surfaces so even filtered, it looked much better than anything else on the market. For instance Wood surfaces would get fiber strings, rock would get roughness texture, metal gets uneven bumps etc.
I don't know why more modern games do not use such feature (detail textures they use today are single layerand most often crap)

>>5752987
In Software mode unreal uses its own weird brand of "interlace" filtering that is like linear filter, but for software, where pixels of each texture are split into lines and interweave with each other.
It looks funky and unique and to my knowledge no other game engine did something like that.
Anyway, even if you do manage to get "chunky pixels" in there by disabling filters in hardware mode, it's not how the game was supposed to look under any circumstances.

Make sure to use "Texture Details" option - unlike many other engines where it just adds some noise to the texture (serious sam) or uses same bumpmap for everything, Unreal uses different detail textures for every type of material - leather, metal, concrete, wood, stone etc.
Not only that, but it also uses multi-layering, adding more layers of detailed texture if you step too close, so at no point you will actually see a "pixelated" or blurry texture.It continues on even if you look closer than the game allows you via console comands.
Wood texture is especially exceptional as it gives you an illusion of seeing individual fibers of the wood.

Why no modern game engine does the same is beyond me, as it would have improved graphics considerably on some of them (like Skyrim's Creation Engine and idTech 6 having notoriously blurry textures when looking up close)

Here's an example in picrelated (Wheel of Time) - it's not Unreal Gold, but it uses same engine and feature is the same. Wheel of Time also uses this technique for its grass to a really great effect, making it look like you can really see individual blades of grass.

>>5362917
Unfortunately, Severance is of 2001, so it's not retro, or I would've said it prior :P
While not particularilytechnically impressive on the graphic front (aside from portal techniques that would later be used in Source Engine for Portal and Stanley Parable), it truly excells in visual design, with one of thebetter combinations of colored lighting and texturework for the time, lacking only in polycount.

Also multilayered detail textures.
Ironically modern HD texture packs are incompatible with them, which makes them to look worse when up-close than original textures.

I wonder why the hell nobody does this these days.
Fractal layering detail textures were introduced to UE in '99, yet to this day we see games with textures that turn into a blurry mess up close.
Is it really that hard to implement?

>>4478315
IIRC serious sam just added a bunch of random black dot noise and called it a day.
Unreal Engine games often added numerous detail textures for different materials like wood, metal, stone, grass, concrete etc.

>>4479498
UE can do however much layers you specify. If left iunspecified it keeps adding layers as you go - you can see that if you use Ghost mode to get much closer to a wall than a game would allow you to - you would be able to see as it adds like 4 or 5 more layers.

>>4479762
Either because they are faggots that don't care, or there is some sort of technical limitation related to cantsoles since every game must be a multiplat now. Maaybe they don't do so well in the multitexturing department IDK.
I imagine games like Skyrim and FO3/4 would lok much better if proper DTs were applied to materials.

As far as I know, no other game engine does Detail Texturing to the same degre as UE1 does. Never seen anything like this in any other games.

>>3377679
For me, Unreal is the best combo of old and new. Just enough abstract mapping to make things interesting and give mappers freedom, while at the same time just realistic enough so you could make out what each location supposed to be.

Enemies feel much less bulletspongy once you get to know how to dispose of them and expand your arsenal enough.

Also visuals are consistantly gorgeous throughout the game. HL may have more detailed environments, but Unreal just had much better visual design.

Also dont ever use HD textures. I dunno how they managed it, but it makes everything look uglier. HD textures and low-polu environments just dont mix I guess. Oh and it ruins detail texturing, so it ends up being less detailed up close (picrelated is how it works in Unreal gold by default)

>>3150858
>playing singleplayer Unreal
>always

>>3150781
Unreal has one of the best visual designs i've ever seen. When the rest of the industry fawned over "muh realism", Epic understood that it is not achievable on modern systems and went "Fuck being realistic, we gonna be FABULOUS!".
Does fire made of flying dots looks real? Hell no.
Does it still looks beautiful to watch? Hell yeah.
Whater looks like a surface of a crystal, and it's awesome. Color balance and design in most areas is perfect.
Mod music is top notch.

Yes, the game has some shortcomings, but it is still amazing.
Not to mention great weapons and some graphic effects not commonly seen even in modern titles (like multilayered detail exturing on picrelated)

Some shit Unreal engine can do.

It allows to define multi-layered detail textures for any type of material, usually wood, stone,metal, skin, etc. and apply it to all the textures. The closer you get to the surface, the more layers are added, and the surface remains fairly detailed even under extreme magnification, that can not be done by conventional means in the regular gameplay process.

Not present in the original release of Unreal, this feature was introduced via patch a year later.
This technique exists for over 17 years now, yet In many high-profile “modern” games (Like Fallout 4, COD and even some UnrealEngine 3 games not released by Epic) I still see the soapy blur when I get close to a wall. What is it if not lazyness?

Do you know any other games that did same thing? I mean not just detail textures, but multi-layering them so that you wont get a blurry mess, no matter how close you are?