Yeah, that's true?

I think the main problem with this is, as said before, the lack of atmosphere. The shading of the sky is the thing that put me off this photo the most, it just lacks that feel the original Scrabania had. There's fans on this forum who have produced better Beta work by themselves for nothing.. and despite JAW being a relatively small company at the moment, surely they'd be able to conjure up something more promising to wet the fans apatites with. I'm all for the transition of Oddysee into 3D, but they'd better make sure they do it right! No one likes a forum full of angry fans!

Scrabtrapman, I was taught recently (currently learning Maya on my animation course :D) that NURBS cannot be used in game engines in the same way that polygon models can.

The difference between polygons and NURBS is like the difference between bitmap and vector graphics, respectively. Instead of having a defined shape, NURBS are more a series of nodes, which are connected as smoothly as possible with curves. They can be used for 3D obviously, but really only for animations. They worked for AO/AE because the characters became sprites- it wasn't NURBS running real-time in the game engine.

So unfortunately, any models rendered in the game engine have to be polygon models, which will be less detailed. Hope this helps :)

P.S if any of the above is in fact wrong, sorry! only just started to learn about it! :p I think its right

The one only thing I'm going to say here is that I'm deeply disappointed, no matter if it's pre-production test or not. :(

You can't say this level of... detail ... is the maximum for whatever engine they're using. The number of polys/textures' resolutions indicate like this is from about 2004-2005.

PS: Seems like I said more than only one thing. Call me a liar, I don't care :)

The colours, textures, lighting, perspective, general polishing etc don't bother me at all, that they will improve is a given. What I don't like is the models themselves. They're too stylised, cartoony.

But these are pre-production tests. Ie, this is a test build of an iconic structure that isn't even part of the actual production. What you can take away from this screenshot is "yes, this is happening, and to prove it, here's a 3D model of something that only ever appeared in Abe's Oddysee".

What JAW might take from us is "Shit! We'd better not show them anything that's not completely finished ever again".

Pretty much this, if it was 2D then a polygon is the same as drawing a line from 2,2 to 4,4 for example. NURBS would draw a curve between these points computed mathematically which would be perfectly smooth no matter how closer or far away you get.

I agree that it could look better, but for what it is I think it looks all right. I'm just saying something on par with HD renderings isn't going to happen :/

I think it will be smart if they combine 3D characters and pre-rendered HD 2D environment. For example such a technique was implemented in Alone In The Dark 4. It's an old game but the graphics were quite impressive back then. Anyway such a technique allows for much more detailed backgrounds than today's average "full-3D" engine.

With a real-time rendering you don't expect full-3D Feeco depot with the same quality and scene depth as seen in AE. Furthermore Abe's Oddysee is not a highly-anticipated blockbuster and I highly doubt they've licenced some superior game engine that is capable of dynamic AO-level backgrounds.

Is that kinda like the old Resident evils?

I've never played Resedent Evil itself but read that the basic concept of AiTD4's engine is the same (3D models on pre-rendered backgrounds). Besides 3D models in AiTD4 cast dynamic shadows on those backgrounds (It uses rather interesting illumination technique).

Oh right cool. I always felt the actual 3d models let the backgrounds down on games like that lol (apart from Resident evil zero and the Resident evil one remake on Gamecube). But yeah I see your point.

There is no reason for a 2D side scroller to have a background that is rendered by the engine. Just like in the original games they can be premade artwork, which gives a lot more depth and atmosphere than any 3D scene ever could.

I hope so. And I really hope the aformentioned renders are just to show people that something is being done. These pictures are nothing near the quality and detalisation of the original backgrounds. In my opinion there's no sence in showing these low-quality pictures because normally the goal of such pre-prod screens is to amaze people and to arouse interest in the upcoming project. And these pics just leave people confused and disappointed.

Besides JAW could have given up the "screen" conception and gone with "continuous" scrolling scheme. So Abe HD can really have real-time 3D backgrounds.

My quick attempt to do LP version of Scrabanian Temple building.

http://www.oddworldforums.net/attach...1&d=1303321526

Created in Maya (building) and Sculptris (Rock). Model isn't finished. It's just sketch of basic silhouette.

3346 Tris (1516 - building and 1830 for rock). Note - building is based on 48 side cylinder, what increasy drastically polycount. It's not optimized either - faces inside rock aren't deleted, etc. Model was planned to be good enought to use in my personal project and look good enough from close distance. So it can be optimized to work better on slower configurations of systems.

75% time(or more) i spent on it was fighting with errors (based on my stupidity - Maya, and lack of basic knowledge about software - sculptris). Note: My first attept to make something in sculptris which wasn't mindless sculpting for fun.

That looks pretty good so far. But since your making this model, Why not make a new thread?

@crashpunk

Well... i planned to create every thread for each big location and this is just that single model made because this thread, lets say, provoked me to do it.

and small update:

http://www.oddworldforums.net/attach...1&d=1303323823

2950 tris for Rock and 4418 for whole thing.

I'm not at all impressed, but I'll hang tight for something less toony.

Alcar...

good job so far fartuess :)

Keep the fan art to Fan Corner, please. This isn't a competition thread.

Looks like OWI took it personally...

Ha, Ench this was fantastic!

How dare someone make shit up within the hallowed halls of Oddworld Discussion. What a disgrace.

Yup, only mods have that privilege!

Like when Max made that Quintology game up?

I can't seem to find any posts relating to that, actually.

Either you're talking about Nod, in which case he still swears that's true. Or you're getting confused with me.

The last two posts have piqued my curiosity.

I'm talking about Nod. Knowing the name has produced search results.

From here.