Any of us are capable of this using the .CAM tool.

Some appear to have background objects missing, so this would be new to us.

Except doesn't the .CAM tool only work with Abe's Oddysee?

You can realy do this with the cam tool? I thought the platforms and wells were part of the cam image.

Ah, good point.

Yes, it is only AO. What I forgot to elaborate is that the person may have devised a similar tool for AE, as it isn't impossible.

Xavier crushed this theorem...

Oh, good point. I'd forgotten that. I retract my last post.

I have such a huge urge to play AE now... Nice screens! For some reason, I think some of the prototype screens looked nicer than the finals...

we should beg alf to send us a copy of the beta,that guy had connection with lorne,or begged alf to death for a copy

Considering we haven't seen Alf since January 2005, I have a sneaking suspicion that might be just about as resultful as sticking our thumbs up our arses. Only less fun.

Yes, he was a fictional creation of his.

mabe we could beg lorne to give us a beta version of the game.... well he doesnt need it quite....

It's probably archived somewhere and I don't think Lorne is likely to go and try to find the beta back in the mess that must be the software archives.

who knows,if hes in a good mood mabe XD
really would like to have oddworld betas,it would be really odd playing it :D

and special, as they are unique.

yep.... would love to get my hands on any beta,even a demo beta,anything thats different :D need more oddworld XD

need lots of oddworld.
to be honest my life is oddworld.
i mean, not my whole life obviously, i dont have nothing better to do or nothin, i mean i love it.... never mind.

yeah me too :) i was crushed when i read a fake thread about owi shut down completly,i felt somekind of emptyness and i started crying,till i read its only renamed to oddmob and that its still alive

Oh, those attitudes will change soon enough. Or maybe not. I came to this forum with the same sort of attitude and it faded away. I'm not sure whether that's because I got older and stopped becoming obsessed with it or because there wasn't any Oddworld news during that time.

I rather have Lorne spending his time on making new stuff than digging up old stuff...

agreed

These images were definitely not made with the CAM tools, however something is wrong with them. While they look too good to be fan made, some level designs make no sense:
-The 3rd image - Not only is there no challenge in this level design, the meat grinder is there, yet lacks its blade. It could mean, however, that the bombs and blade were simply not programmed into the level yet.
-The last image - It's just like the same as the 3rd image. It is impossible to get to the lever. But again, it could just mean the rest of the elements were not programmed yet.

From a programmer and game creator point of view, I can't see any reason why would they only implement Mudokons in these levels. They should be just as easy or hard to implement as any other object. From a first look it really seems like a photo-montage of the CAM file, and original level (to restore some of the objects), and some other CAM file; however, some really complex backgrounds were restored or drawn in these images, so I'm really doubtful they're manipulated.

I really hope these are real, and I'd love to put my hand on any beta Oddworld game. :)

On the same topic, here are some screenshots from the Oddworld Gallery that are different from the final version. If anyone could comment on their source it would be helpful. :)

http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0015.jpg1
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0008.jpg1 - Red eyed muds?
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0025.jpg1 - The sign looks different
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0011.jpg1 - Different font
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0017.jpg1 - Slig in a different position, and different font. Muds are red eyed.
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0019.jpg1 - The gates are opening instead of closing.
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0087.jpg3 - There should be Sligs here
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0116.jpg4 - These type of security orbs are present only in Abe's Oddysee
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0181.jpg6 - Leading Zeros
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0184.jpg7 - How did he get there?

I didn't check all the images, and these are only from AE, but there are probably more. Some of the beta images (Like this one: http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...=SSAE0017.jpg1) seem to have really high quality compared to the release PC version. How can this be explained? (Unfortunately, it's impossible to get this quality in the final version :( )

Edit: These high quality graphics possibly in the Oddbox version of the games? I'd sure love it!

the leading zeroes thingy,did that with a glitch :D its yet to be released i think in oddbox,lorne was mentioning a bit of graphic fix

And?

No he wasn't.

That's clearly a development screenshot from a build before sprites were made lower-res.

I meant that it's possible for the Oddbox releases to have these graphics. If Lorne said something about graphical improvements, that's even likelier! :)

Edit:
I'm not entirely sure. Developing in one resolution and releasing in a different one seems like a lot of hassle for no profit. It's likely to lead to bugs, mainly when the original res is 640x480 and the final is 640x240 with a TV-style scaling algorithm. It could be screenshots from the PS version, which might run on 640x480. I'd need to test it someday...

i heard that from ign i think,picturing these muds and say that lorne will include graphical fixes to both old pc games and transfered

I'd love it if the Oddbox version of AE used the higher res models. Don't see it happening though...

It was never said that the graphics will be redone, unless you know of an article we don't.

In which case, link or it didn't happen.

I browsed the gallery a bit more and not only did I find more high quality screenshots, I also found more images that are probably from the same beta as the screenshots previously posted! They look like the final levels, but lack some elements like meat grinders, the mine car etc while containing living creatures - Mudokons and Scrabs.

Could anyone explain how did so many beta and high quality images get into the gallery? The official Oddworld website only contain about 60 low res screenshots for each game, and only about 5 of them are beta ones.

http://media.giantbomb.com/uploads/0...0024_super.jpg this guy bought the game on steam,and this is how it looks,i gave him a pm and he tells me that the graphics are same from the pic....

He's full of it. The graphics run at 640X480, just like they always did. See the attachment for what I mean.

In any case, that's not relevant because they were talking about theoretical graphical improvements coming with the Oddbox, not what the game is like now. That said, I personally doubt that they're working on improving the graphics. Other than the crappy compression in the FMVs, it's just not needed.

the graphics are low released so that any computer can run them,today computers could run games that look like real life,the computers in 1996 didnt had that power....

AO and AE are only virtually 640x480. They're actually 640x240 being scaled up.
Compare your screenshot to these ones:
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...E/SSAE0007.jpg
http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...E/SSAE0017.jpg
Compare the sleeping Slig and the Mudokon sprites. The quality of the background art. It all looks much better, and not only in terms of resolution. (i.e. even if you take both images and scale them down to 320x240 you'll still notice the quality difference)
Playing Oddworld games at this quality of graphics would be awesome, and assuming these screenshots were at some point real in-game screenshots it's possible they include them in the Oddbox version.

It is technically possible if they still have complete and unrestricted access to and familiary with the entire archive of developmental everything, plus a whole bunch of time to implement it.

The code was already implemented before, which is why these screenshots exist. It really depends of how was the original code kept. If it was overwritten with the lower quality graphics - too bad. If they were smart enough to code the lower quality graphics as a pre-compile option - it should be as easy as pressing a button. If they kept it in any other form, it should be possible without that much work and time, at most one week, and it'll be worth it. :)

Edit:
I've come to the conclusion these images are not screenshots. This is how they were made:
1. Oddworld took the 3D source of the CAM files and rendered it at 640x480 (With slightly different lighting)
2. They did the same for the sprites.
3. Someone quite unprofessionally combined these all together.
These resulted in a few problems:
- The muds are much taller than usual
- Some objects (Like the wheel in the attached example) are mis-positioned and mis-scaled.
- Some objects (Like the meat grinder blade in some other example) are missing.
- The font for the LCD is different
- The laughing gas looks very different from the game.
http://www.oddworldforums.net/attach...1&d=1279467678

The bottom line - there's no high quality version of AO and AE, and there will never be. :(
This does not apply for all beta images though! Only images with high quality graphics are "fake".

i have saw how they made oddworld,using 3d programs to make 3d models and animate them,afther that taking shots and making sprites



EDIT: i found something http://www.psu.com/features/8354

How does that have any relevance to the quality of the original game in relation to the re-release?

I seem to recall in the instuction manual for AE a screenshot of the SoulStorm door from FeeCo., where the greeter is, yeah? In-game you have to pass through the electric walls, but in this abe had rolled over the top and appeared by the door, with the electric walls there. Can someone confirm/make me look like a fool please?

Edit:
http://i.neoseeker.com/p/Games/Plays...ofilethumb.jpg
Also, that's different from ingame.

http://oddworldlibrary.net/archives/...E/SSAE0166.jpg
If I remember correctly the final version had the "rolling-path-thing" leading to that "information-spot-thing". (We need really names for these! :P)

yes it did

The thing about Feeco Depot is that the level foregrounds were built using a set of templates that could be dragged, dropped and shifted around. That meant that they could experiment a bit more with the level design, which is why we see more variation in Feeco levels than others.

yes, for example, check out my video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVUMeIWTOCA there is a unseen feeco level, youve probably seen it before anyway :)