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Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Talon 1024 on October 21, 2007, 02:14:41 pm

Title: Brian Smith has died.
Post by: Talon 1024 on October 21, 2007, 02:14:41 pm

He has unfortunately passed away on October 14, 2007.  He was a fantastic artist who created a plethora of extremely high-detail 3D models for the following games:

- Wing Commander 2
- Wing Commander 3
- Wing Commander 4
- Wing Commander Privateer
- Super Wing Commander
- Longbow

May he be remembered as a god of Wing Commander.  All of his work is available for download at the Wing Commander CIC on his online memorial.

Even if the rendered bitmaps from Wing Commander 2 and Privateer were scaled up 100 times, you still would not see all the details in his models.

Title: Re: Brian Smith has died.
Post by: Flipside on October 22, 2007, 11:05:02 am

Sad news, Wing Commander was the game that created the Space-Opera inside the gaming market, not expanded on from elsewhere, and will always be a special game for it, it is people like this that formed the first line of turning computer media into something more than a game and into a story.

Wing Commander, iirc, was one of the first experimentations in blending Acting and Rendered scenes, so this man was, in many ways, a pioneer.

Title: Re: Brian Smith has died.
Post by: Kosh on October 24, 2007, 11:06:09 am

Wing commander certainly created the 3d space shooter, but to be fair I can think of at least one space opera that predates it. See what you can find about star control 2 (or the win32 ported version called "the ur-quan masters")

Title: Re: Brian Smith has died.
Post by: Desert Tyrant on October 27, 2007, 05:45:28 pm

Quote from: Flipside on October 22, 2007, 11:05:02 am

Sad news, Wing Commander was the game that created the Space-Opera inside the gaming market, not expanded on from elsewhere, and will always be a special game for it, it is people like this that formed the first line of turning computer media into something more than a game and into a story.

Wing Commander, iirc, was one of the first experimentations in blending Acting and Rendered scenes, so this man was, in many ways, a pioneer.

True.  I loved the WC games back then, and I still do (Only have WC3 on PS1 nowadays, as I lost WC1 when I moved out of the **** Shack in 2004, and I lost WC2 when I was 10-ish. :(  Never owned WC4, and I never exactly liked Prophcey a whole lot.  I don't hate, it's pretty good, but I guess.... it's just a bit different from the earlier games.  Although I love the TCS Midway.)

What a shame that the man died.  RIP Brain Smith.

Title: Re: Brian Smith has died.
Post by: Vasudan Commander on November 14, 2007, 08:07:02 am

How old was he and what did he die of?