Really, those textures look like they just had some filters run over them. I suck at texture manipulation in PS, and even I think that.
And if they're more than that, well, they should look like they're more than that, shouldn't they?
I agree with Unknown Target. To me both look like just filter jobs, no real work to them, and the brick pattern on both just looks horrible as a flat image, I can only imagine how they look in game
As I said before, I would be perfectly willing to redo all the original art in a larger size, from scratch, keeping the same designs so it just gained detail, if someone else is willing to coordinate the work. I imagine I could fix up a texture every day or two (at WORST one a week, but I doubt I'll get that far behind)
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Posted by DaBrain
I'm starting to think that too.
LS you didn't even give a singe constructive advice (And that is the reason I opend this for).
You seem hate work that isn't done by yourself.
And this is not the first time you didn't post anything constructive...
And with your influence (You are somewhat known here), you not only make the people stop giving me positve feedback, but to stop them giving me any real feedback at all.
(Afterwards you steal my ideas and try to copy what I did.)
First you told me that even the idea is bad (without saying anything constructive), then you copied it, but you never admited that it's a good idea. Seems to be rather unfair.
Okay, I think i'd need to clarify myself a bit.
First, I do NOT hate work that isnt done by me (actually, i'm highly sceptical towards my own work too) - its just that i'm
a goddamn perfectionist and lately we've had a lot of stuff done which simply is far from perfect. Now, if you think a while back we had Carl's impact effects, Bobboaus original trails, GE's FS1 shinemaps which were all high-quality jaw-dropping work. Heck, and of course we have Venom who doesnt stop to impress us with his texturing and modelling skills.
However, just running a few filters over an image (and its really NOTICEABLE you did that) is the wrong way to go. I can't give any constructive feedback, since the whole method of simply running it through a few filters will not work. You will not see any good difference in game, and the extra memory space will go away wasted. And it's not like you edited in any details, the armour plates are just as blurry as on the original resized textures - the contrast is even messed up and the whole thing simply looks like a 2 minute 'amateur' PS job. (UT and Shadow put it quite nicely, thats why I quoted their posts)
While I appreciate your efforts, I think they are the wrong way to go for Freespace. I wouldnt want FS2 to end up as a really cheap looking game like X². Freespace 2 is an amazing piece of work, and I have great interest that this will stay true for the future. And you certainly will not reach that level by using some 1 minute filter job.
When did I steal your ideas? As you quoted my post so nicely I stand by what I said, I was
inspired by your explosion stuff, as I already said in your thread, I had expected the performance loss to be greatly stronger of effect, that's why I thought it was a bad idea at first. I still think it can be quite harsh but works fairly well on modern systems. I then noticed there's some things that are not quite to my liking in your release, but that can be changed quickly (like setting the frame rate, removing LODs for normal explosions, too, etc) - so I just stepped up and threw together a quick zip. I could have kept the stuff here (as I made it for myself, and not for the community, actually) but if I have made it anyway, why not share it with you?
Last for this thread here - all I wanted to show with the image I posted is that what you did is nought but a filter job - and don't tell me it isnt because it just keeps screaming 'filterr!!!!' to me. I really do *not* see any difference besides a few brightness, contrast filters and the sharpen along with texturizer.
Summarizing my thoughts I agree 100% with ShadowDrakken - If you want high res textures the only way to go is completely rebuilding the maps. While that might take a while it will actually ADD detail.
Perhaps you don't understand it. If it takes 2 hours to create a map, you will never see more then 10 new maps.
Even if you create a complete new one that won't change. And it's pointless too.
Let's concentrate on something that can really be done. There will be something better all the time, perfectionism won't help.
Edit: Shinemaps are only standard maps, with the dark areas cut out. That can be done without even using one painting tool.
I do perfectly understand it. And two hours is a great underestimation. Working properly you can calculate about 4 hours per texture, at least. Just for your info, I spent at least about 12 hours of work for every TVWP fighter texture I made - and probably more than 30 hours of work on my nebulae and weapon effects. Still, they're there, they're up for download, and seem quite real to me. It's all a matter of patience and time. It CAN be done, and because I know it can be done, I will not endorse any imperfect solution. And your knowledge seems to be lacking quite a few things, as there again is the difference between a slopped together shinemap that just wastes texture space (instead of using the base image as a shine map) and a shinemap that actually adds details and special effects that have a big boost on visual quality. I could post some screenshots if you want.
I hope you understand my point of view now. I have no (none at all) personal problems with you or any other HLP member.
