New Hl2 Ns.wad
ssjyoda
Join Date: 2002-03-05 Member: 274Members, Squad Five Blue
Join Date: 2002-03-05 Member: 274Members, Squad Five Blue
Comments
~ DarkATi
..huh? WAD files don't store textures as (lossy-compressed) JPGs, they store them in an 8-bit paletted format, don't they?
I believe they said they made them at the resolutions they are currently at... hope I heard wrong...
~ DarkATi
Nope, your correct, they were made at their current res.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Doug Lombardi est tout fier quand il raconte que porter Half-Life et compagnie vers le Source Engine n'a pris que trois semaines, et qu'ils ont des outils pour automatiser ça. Il promet que ces outils seront mis à disposition des moddeurs pour Half-Life, afin de faciliter leur transition vers Half-Life 2.<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Rough translation: Doug is so proud to announce that porting Half-Life & stuff to the source engine only took them about 3 weeks, <b>and that they have tools to automate the process</b>. He promise that those tools will be made availaible to mod authors, to simplify the port to HL². (I know my english suxx, kthx <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo--> )
Hard to believe heh ?
/back on topic
Nevertheless, we gonna need new textures, at least <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.natural-selection.org/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->
As mentioned, it will probably be TGA's. And yea, i would love to see a newly created texture-pack ready to rock for an HL² map, but unfortunately im wweeerywery bad at making textures.
I'm pretty sure Cory painted at true res, if so then the textures'll be the same size they are in the .wads, which will suck for obvious reasons <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<a href='http://www.ausns.org' target='_blank'>http://www.ausns.org</a> <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->
I've never heard of WAD textures being converted to JPG when being stored, so I think you're mistaken. Not to mention I've compared the textures in my custom WADs with the source BMPs and there is no difference, the two are always identical to the pixel level.
I work in true color, and almost always get some color loss when I convert to a 256 color pallete. Though I never work with .bmp, always .psd or .tga
WADs are essentialy bit maps, in that thier color information is stored pixel for pixel, exept they cant exeed 256 colrs.
ANyways, thank god we wont have to deal with the WAD format anymore!
Yep, and they go up to a an extreme 2048x2048.
1) An NS: Source project. (Assuming that the developers aren't doing it themselves/don't want it outsourced.)
2) Actually carrying this respect of it out.
The advantage of improving the resolution on the current textures is that they could be converted also into detail textures for the current release of ns, knocking out two birds with one stone
The advantage of improving the resolution on the current textures is that they could be converted also into detail textures for the current release of ns, knocking out two birds with one stone <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Would normal maps, displacement maps and the like be tackled too?
I'm not certain if this applies to the bitdepth as well, but I'd assume that it's possible. It would, after all, give him more control over the final product.
Even if they were created at low-res 24-bit, it's irrelevant. All media (models/textures) are going to have to be redone if there is to be a HL2 port.
That said, an initial port will hopefully use all the old models and textures, for speed's sake. I'm hoping the NS team ports all the maps, models, and textures DIRECTLY, with no or little changes, and gets the game working on Source (HL2) exactly as it is now. Once that's done, release a version 1 (or beta 1, or alpha 1) of this working version with the old media. And then begin accepting submissions from the community for updated HL2 quality media. I bet it wouldn't take too long with the entire community pumping out new content.
The maps would be a notable exception, as they wouldn't need to be remade entirely, like models and textures. Instead, maps would need to be updated. Since the HL2/source version of Hammer can load HL1 maps (Indeed, that seems to be how conversions are done), you can simply take the HL1 maps, and begin adding more details. It's much faster than a full remake.
The advantage of improving the resolution on the current textures is that they could be converted also into detail textures for the current release of ns, knocking out two birds with one stone <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Would normal maps, displacement maps and the like be tackled too? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I doubt it. Half-Life has no support for bump/normal mapping, and detailed textures, if they are being used to simulate high-res textures (I assume moultano is referring to HLTex), can't also be used to simulate bumpmapping.
Even then, detailed textures are a poor simulation of bumpmapping, heck, they can barely even be considered as such.
He's right though, this is something I didn't think of before. If all the media is remade at a higher resolution, that provides high-res sources to back-port to NS.
Of course, using those new textures, as they'd need different low-res versions, would require updating all of NS's built-in maps. My original idea of using high-res versions of the NS textures were that it was an add-on that required no change to the existing game.
1) An NS: Source project. (Assuming that the developers aren't doing it themselves/don't want it outsourced.)
2) Actually carrying this respect of it out. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think everybody here is just talking pure speculation at this point; IE, no point getting permission for something that is only being theoretically discussed.
There's not much point doing any work on any of this until the HL2 SDK is released; I assume that's about when Flayra would make his announcement over the future of NS1 (IE, going to be ported officially, going to be ported with community help, not going to be ported at all).