New Munch's Oddysee HD screenshots and SWHD on the PSvita

[SpAM_CAN]

I can't say that I like the Touch-Gamespeak (though it is what I expected you to do, its the obvious solution to the less buttons on the Vita). Its looking good though guys! The only other thing is that the look sensitivity seems to be really high on Stranger, though that could either be the guy playing or a control option.

Love it, can't wait to get my hands on them both.

[Wil]

In my opinion, from that HD picture Munch's eyes look bad. Like somebody pushed them into head. The hell?

Glitch was constantly worried that Munch's eyeballs were about to fall out of his head, so tda shoved them into his head. He looks more sympathetic now, less of that "Odditude" nonsense.

[Nate]

I'm pretty sure that PC image is stretched horizontally. Probably best not to compare them too closely.

[Varrok]

I wouldn't call him sympathetic now. He creeps me out.

[Manco]

I wouldn't call him sympathetic now. He creeps me out.

How?

The old one looks like he’s being strangled and overinflated simultaneously, while staring at you with wide eyes that are about to fall out of his skull.

[Crashpunk]

Munch looks really improved in my opinion. I like the purple tint you added to him. (unsure if that's just lighting or the actual model) anyway, looks great guys

[Varrok]

How?

The old one looks like he’s being strangled and overinflated simultaneously, while staring at you with wide eyes that are about to fall out of his skull.

I think the old look fits to him being a mix between fish and reptile. Will they change him in rerendered cutscenes too?

EDIT: And now with pushes eyes he's more mudokon-ish equals less unique than before, here I covered the protruding part of his mouth so it's easier to see the similarity:

[xXxrenhoekxXx]

oh god this threads turning into the sonic fan community! (as in nitpicking eyes)
Am I the only one who doesn't see a difference in the eyes? Or care for that matter?

[Varrok]

If this was sonic fanforum here, I'd whine about him being more purple (that whole tint), but I'm perfectly ok with that.
REMOVE IT!!!!! muahahahahaha

[tda]

I'll just drop this one here for you guys, the proportions of the new model are identical to the proportions of the old game model for technical reasons. The model they used for the FMV's has always been different. You'd have to ask the guys who made the models for the original game why they changed the proportions of the in-game model vs. the FMV one. Same goes with the colour too, i used the old ingame texture as a colour palette for the new one. There's also probably also a bit of perspective trickery going on that's making the new one look different, i thought the old stuff had way too high FOV.

As far as actually changing the menus goes, well, the old menu was actually a sequence of 640x480 compressed movies files. We could have left those in, scaled them up and stretched em out to a 16:9 ratio...

Also i think the gamma on that new HD menu image is way off, its too dark, which makes munch look more purple than he actually is

[Varrok]

I was kidding about being not satisfied with more purple color

[SpAM_CAN]

YOU MADE HIS SKIN PURPLEAKGPEKQBPKWEQTBPKAERGLWfhqwagadsfgeojGSOGKSDOKBAvgadfvkapodfkb


Seriously though, it looks good. Don't worry 'bout it :3

[Steamer_KING]

New screens on JAW's Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawltd/

[Sekto Springs]

The water looks nice.
That's about all I can say.

[Varrok]

And I thought I was harsh with my opinion about eyes

[MeechMunchie]

It's a shame about the geometry, really.

[Varrok]

They did the best they could (excluding eyes), the enviroment textures look mostly better. It'd be nice if it was possible to add more shadows, it'd really improve levels like http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawltd/...in/photostream

[DarkHoodness]

I think it looks good considering it's Munch's Oddysee we're talking about here. I don't think there's a lot more they can do to improve it without rebuilding it from scratch.

Good work, JAW.

[STM]

Can we hear the scrab/paramite sounds? ^^

[Wil]

Hmmm, interesting proposal. I'll ask tomorrow.

[Varrok]

The next day JAW posts a video where they're trying to imitate scrab/paramite sounds

[Connell]

Genuinely not trying to be rude, (prepare for rudeness) but this game was an abomination from the start, and the tweaks you've made certainly aren't going to save it from slating reviews, which leads me to ask, what really was the point? Purely for monetary gain for the production of Abe HD? If that is the answer I have no objections to that, but I'm just very curious why.

[SpAM_CAN]

A similar reason as to why Sega includes such 'classics' as Sonic R and Sonic 3D Blast in their anthology collections - its to keep the name out there (and it also highlights the quality of AO/AE and SW...)

Munch isn't a bad game by any stretch of the imagination - it just isn't a good Oddworld game. They tried something new, it didn't work out. At least Stranger was great (excluding voice quality that is worse than an SNES game) and with the release of these titles on the Vita and PS3 you can finally play all four games on a single platform without having to stomach the cramp-inducing controls of the AO and AE PC ports.

It also means that I can finally stop using my PS Vita to prop up my desk and actually play a good game on it that isn't a launch title.

[Paul]

I'd really like to see some more graphical rendering effects added such as bump mapping so things don't look so plain and flat. Those trees are really bugging me due to how much they look like cardboard cut outs

[SpAM_CAN]

Probably limitations of the engine, it isn't the best when it comes to foliage - only recently with Skyrim did Gamebryo actually look decent there.

[Glitch]

I'm no expert, but from what I've heard, it's because natural surfaces like skin and fabric are all made up of multiple layers, each with their own degree of light absorbance and relflectivity. Only really, really swish, ultra-modern software can render all of those layers at once. Most just go for one or two and shove some flat reflection over that.

Again, no expert.

Subsurface scattering.

Most graphics cards in the XXX nvidia series' can do it now. Still very expensive to render though.

[STM]

Well, you've set out do put the game in HD, and you've done that, so immediately you've done what it says on the tin. There are also a few tweaks that have probably come as small respite for old fans of the series. So in that sense, well done JAW.

[Nate]

Genuinely not trying to be rude, (prepare for rudeness) but this game was an abomination from the start, and the tweaks you've made certainly aren't going to save it from slating reviews, which leads me to ask, what really was the point? Purely for monetary gain for the production of Abe HD? If that is the answer I have no objections to that, but I'm just very curious why.

MO got good reviews when it came out. Not great, but good.

It's only fans that really dislike it. There's a certain Zen quality to that fact.

[Michael]

Can we hear the scrab/paramite sounds? ^^

What about the 'boing' sounds? It would be interesting to see (hear) if they have changed! I mentioned before how I think Abe's jump in the video sounds a little less high-pitched, but I could well be wrong having not actually played MO yet

[Glitch]

They did the best they could (excluding eyes), the enviroment textures look mostly better. It'd be nice if it was possible to add more shadows, it'd really improve levels like http://www.flickr.com/photos/jawltd/...in/photostream

Shadows in MO were done using Vertex colours. I can't describe to you how bad it is to look at a simple rectangular room full of shadows, only to realise that every single shadow is a static, manual colouring of addition vertexes that have been cut in simply for said shadows.