Reused CAM Files
So I've noticed that a few screens in AO seem to share the same background.
Here we have a secret from the Stockyards and Zulag 4 with the same background. In fact I think one of the screens in Stockyards is just mirrored with an added smiley face. http://i47.tinypic.com/333x4ck.png http://i50.tinypic.com/2hdryol.png http://i48.tinypic.com/2lmqxwm.png The next I found was Zulag 2 and Zulag 3 sharing the same background. The difference being the colors and the flame animation missing from Zulag 2 that is seen in Zulag 3. You can even see in the Zulag 2 screenshots where the flame would have been. Again, some screens appear to have been simply mirrored. http://i48.tinypic.com/k543l.png http://i48.tinypic.com/hwij4p.png http://i47.tinypic.com/rvbqep.png http://i50.tinypic.com/2ily3vr.png http://i48.tinypic.com/5l0v39.png http://i46.tinypic.com/2d8feab.png So do you guys agree with me on this? Can you find any other examples? |
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...th/same1-1.jpg
http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...irth/same2.jpg http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...irth/same3.jpg http://i281.photobucket.com/albums/k...th/same4-1.jpg Sometimes, the BG's just at a slightly different angle. |
I can't believe I forgot the one with Bring us to the birds. Argh, I always thought that screen and the one with the spirit rings used the same CAM.
I must disagree with you though on the Scrabanian Temple, if you look, the only similarity seems to be the diagram in the background. |
The one in Scrabanian temple is the same, look carefully.
But yeah, most players would only notice this if they looked carefully. Most other games of the era re-used backgrounds and settings a LOT more than AO did... Nothing wrong with speeding up the production a little by doing this. |
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I edited with the third. (mixed) Take a look at Bonewerkz too, my entire mod is based on this. ^^ |
The second has a different bit at the far left, but other than that they're identical.
I feel disillusioned. |
What if the backgrounds were just really really huge and Abe was just tiny and seeing them from different angles? Sort of like the ants in the anthill and the boy with the magnifying glass.
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Aren't there 2 different paths there, though?
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I'm sure it's the same level, because the well shoots you to where the handstone is.
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Oh, I misunderstood. I thought the 3rd image was a separate CAM.
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I too had noticed some of these similar cameras through my playing experiences. It always used to irritate me as it really took away my sense of immersion in the game world.
I also always hated those big backgrounds mostly found in secret areas that were just shaded one colour and contained very large pipes (e.g the green one at the top of this thread.) It always made the game seem small and really didn't have as much detail as the other backgrounds (e.g some backgrounds in scarabania or Zulag 1 of Rupture Farms) the later Zulags also contained these backgrounds and I really wasn't a fan of them. |
I feel that they got away with it much easier in AE than AO. AO had a much smaller set of locations, and you get quite intimate with them, so you notice the repeating background. In AE you don't spend much time in each location, so repeating backgrounds aren't quite as obvious because you don't know the locations.
At the end of the day, game developers are CONSTANTLY re-using stuff. Valve is one of my favorites for this - Did you know that the 'zombies are coming' scream sound in Left 4 Dead was actually in Half-Life, but went unused? Nearly all of the materials used in Portal are slightly-edited from Half-Life 2, and one of the new maps in Counter Strike GO is nearly entirely made up of copied Left 4 Dead 2 geometry... yeah, they are lazy. But then again, why waste the effort when the average consumer won't notice? Also, kinda side note here, but I like how in AE they cut off the bottom and the top of the screen. Not only does it make it look more cinematic, it probably reduced rendering time for all of those cams :3 |
Yes. Whats the point in wasting time on something you wont notice unless you're looking for it? They're just being resourceful.
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I actually found the reused CAM for Zulag 4 and the Stockyards secret without purposely looking for it, it was just something I noticed, then I purposely went out to find more reused CAMs.
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I didn't notice any of them when I first finished it at 10 or 11 years old, but noticed them all (there are some in the boardroom too) when replayed it 10 years later.
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I only noticed the secret area ones, and only when I extracted them. I don't think I noticed any during my play through.
Edit: This is why I also think its a good idea to make a bunch of 3d assets for new cameras, that way you could throw together the majority of a new level quite quickly. |
The horrible 'coloured pipes' backgrounds are pretty awful, even if they were only to show up once. I just wish they weren't used several times (I've noticed them in the background of some of RuptureFarms Zulag 1 too)
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So you essentially hate all of Rupturefarms then.
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No - in Zulag 1 they were used with other background elements and I had to look very hard to spot them. I'm talking about the secret areas where they seemed to get a bit lazy and decided to just use the same background but tinted a different colour, with no other background elements. It just strikes me as hideously lazy (I know they've re-used assets elsewhere, but they didn't just copy the screens wholesale)
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http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs71/i/20...an-d3g59va.jpg
In case you didn't notice. Thats Chell and Zoey (from l4d). Exactly the same model. Its not lazy, its resourceful. |
HOLY S**T I NEVER KNEW THAT!
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They aren't the same model if you actually look at the wireframe. The face structure is near identical, but that is because they use the same person as a base for the texture. Also, note how there are extra details, the entire thing is totally reskinned and there are several extra jigglebones.
Reuse of a face does not justify the reuse of an entire scene several times over without modification besides moving the Hue slider. As I said before, reusing assets is just fine, but there is a point where it becomes lazy. Copying and pasting things verbatim is lazy, and it pisses me off when huge developers with huge budgets (not really talking about OWI anymore...) copy and paste things over and over while I, a one man team, have spent hours working on things inch by inch - and when I DO use prefabricated entities, I modify them in some way. It honestly wouldn't have took much - adding a few background props like barrels, or a wall, would have at least differentiated somewhat rather than what we had. |
I can see this turning into a thread of finding places where developers have reused things, these are some I happen to know.
The Toyota Stadium Truck in DiRT2 http://www.igcd.net/images/026/505.jpg In DiRT3, they brought it back, however it was unlicensed and simply called "Truck" http://www.igcd.net/images/038/303.jpg In DiRT Showdown it was brought back again, this time with a slightly modified front, lowered suspension and called "Jackson Adventurer" http://www.igcd.net/images/044/999.jpg The exact same story happened with a buggy that was in DiRT2. The Scott Schwalbe Super Buggy, I can't find a screenshot for it, they brought it back in DiRT3, unlicensed and called "Buggy" http://www.igcd.net/images/038/304.jpg They brought it back in DiRT Showdown this time with a metal bar attached to the front and called "Burton Beachcomber" http://www.rallygamer.site11.com/dir..._bombshell.jpg In GRID, a made up car was used called "Jupiter Eagleray MK5" the exact same car was brought back in DiRT Showdown this time called "Jupiter San Marino" Jupiter Eagleray MK5 http://i.ytimg.com/vi/wFMf_Jg_wkw/0.jpg Jupiter San Marino http://www.igcd.net/images/045/998.jpg There was also another "Jupiter" in DiRT Showdown called the Jupiter Del Rio, which has a resemblance to the Eagleray MK5/San Marino http://www.igcd.net/images/042/611.jpg |
Now that is lazy. Reusing things is perfectly fine - but not flat out duplication
EDIT: that site has hotlink protection BTW. |
I can see the hotlinks fine.
To be honest, there's more to it than being lazy, cost a lot less to produce as they saved money on licenses. Though the Jupiters were never real cars to begin with. It was no great loss either as the Landrush events in DiRT2 and DiRT3 sucked! |
You're talking about OW's reuse of backgrounds though. And thats fine! Because the majority of people aren't looking for stuff like that, so it goes unnoticed, theres no need to be angry about that stuff.
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You can see them because they are already in your cache :3
But really, I see those backgrounds as looking pretty awful as it is, so why did they reuse it so many times? They had loads of backgrounds to reuse, but they didn't, they stuck with the hideous looking pipes |
I thought all the backgrounds in AO looked brilliant.
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I've only seen two that look poor - the very first screen of the Stockyards, and these copy-paste-huechange areas
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I think I'm correct in saying that the first screen in the stockyards didn't have a background in the same way that the others did.
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