System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition Update & Community Participation

[66ee4f4b3da23ZylonBane]

I thought SS2:EE was going to launch alongside the new remake, which is scheduled for a Summer release. I just thought that maybe you guys had planned to get the new versions of SCP/SHTUP out around that same time.

I can't think of a single thing that would motivate anyone to delay releasing the next SCP and/or SHTUP.

[66ee4f4b3dbd0voodoo47]

ign says SS2EE is planned to be released alongside SSR. would take it with a grain of salt, until NDS confirm it somewhere, that is.

[66ee4f4b3dd6bedx]

They mentioned that's their intention in the January KS Update: "It’s our intention to release both System Shock remake and SS2:EE around the same time." https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/3019900

[66ee4f4b3e003Mr. Death]

ZylonBane
So you guys are planning to release the new versions of SCP/SHTUP before then?

Also, just out of curiosity, will the new release of SCP still be considered a beta? The last version (beta 4) was already so polished and complete feeling. I'm certainly not an expert on game/mod development, so I was just curious if the next version will be labeled as a regular release or will it be beta 5?

[66ee4f4b3e2b7vurt]

Has anyone tried to recreate Body of the Many? It's probably the worst looking level, right? textures that are harshly cut-off etc. its something that would need a rather big update since you can't just change to a better resolution, in fact that will make it look worse since you will even more clearly see how the textures are not aligned..

[66ee4f4b3e3d4voodoo47]

SCP fixes this iirc, but it still doesn't look too great, Dark is just not very good at doing meaty tunnels.

[66ee4f4b3e4c0vurt]

it does? cool. Might cheat myself there to see how it looks.

[66ee4f4b3e5bavoodoo47]

yeah, NewDark has a way of wrapping textures around cylinders seamlessly, that has been applied if memory serves. places where they intersect still don't look great though.

[66ee4f4b3e8acJDoran]

SCP fixes this iirc, but it still doesn't look too great, Dark is just not very good at doing meaty tunnels.

Then again, who actually likes organic levels anyway? They never seem enjoyable in any game, and even if System Shock 2 did them photo-realistically (ugh, don't try to picture that  ) I doubt it would make the environments fun to play through.

[66ee4f4b3ea17Kolya]

Didn't they use one of the dev's colonoscopy footage for the textures? We should ask Ken Levine if he can get us the original video. That could be a great asset for an enhanced version.

[66ee4f4b3ee13Valet2]

Didn't they use one of the dev's colonoscopy footage for the textures? We should ask Ken Levine if he can get us the original video. That could be a great asset for an enhanced version.

That was Josh Randall's video. It was uploaded on his website ages ago, called "inner voyage". It was very low-rez, 3-fps video which didn't really resemble anything. So you have ask to him for a higher-rez rip. He told me when he had to do colonoscopy he asked the doctor if he can take the vhs recording. Then some of the devs watched the video and it gave him an idea for the Many overall style. Never mentioned some footage was used for textures.

You can reach Josh here: https://www.facebook.com/robotkid
When we met I did some video+audio recordings, so maybe (if I didn't turn off the audio recorder) it's somewhere. Will check and respond.

[added]

Listened through the recordings (http://valet2.com/images/blabla/josh_2012_wavs.png). No, the story is not there I'm afraid. But you can write to Josh, he responds.

[66ee4f4b3ef73icemann]

No activity on that page since 2014 by look of it

[66ee4f4b3f1e6unn_atropos]

Yeah! We need that colonoscopy report! 

[66ee4f4b3f4b0vurt]

Then again, who actually likes organic levels anyway? They never seem enjoyable in any game, and even if System Shock 2 did them photo-realistically (ugh, don't try to picture that  ) I doubt it would make the environments fun to play through.

Cool break from the usual design in the game for sure, the idea is that its supposed to be creepy which something at least a little closer to photo realism definitely would add..

[66ee4f4b3f5b9edward]

I don't know, I liked organic levels back in the day, or at least didn't mind it. It didn't age well for sure.

[66ee4f4b3f7baFunkyG]

Hi guys,
 
Just for fun, I did a bit of an up-resing of the Hybrid model to try to get a more consistent look, removing the texture mirroring. Using AI upscaling on the texture. and doing some basic poly modelling to fix some of the weirdness in the original (I'm looking at you ankles and pointy toes)

The image also uses specular and bump maps, but I'll guessing that won't be supported.
Could this type of thing be usable in the enhanced edition?

Cheers,
FunkyG

[66ee4f4b3f8e7voodoo47]

it could be, but making the model not look off the will be tricky - for example, both models on the picture look shorter than they should be, this seems to be a common issue when trying to convert the models from the original format.

[66ee4f4b3fa31Nameless Voice]

If you can import it back into the game, it could be usable as a mod for either edition.

[66ee4f4b3fb21ZylonBane]

It looks like you have a decently trained model for upscaling organic textures. Have you considered applying this model to the Body of the Many object textures?

[66ee4f4b3fc1bFunkyG]

I haven't yet, though what I did for the hybrid was 1 part texture painting, 1 part AI up scale.

Do we know anything about whether the Enhanced Edition will support higher resolution textures.

[66ee4f4b3fd69ZylonBane]

They're currently planning on including SHTUP and 400 as optional mods, so that's probably as much texture boosting as we're getting.

Would be nice to improve the BotM object textures, especially since some of them are applied to models that are huge in-game, but they're the sort of textures that require actual artistic talent to recreate.

[66ee4f4b3febaGodlike]

NightDive if you reverse engineer the engine is it possible you include bump mapping? Also please include high res enhanced object and textures true to originals, nothing fancy that break SS2 artisty. IMHO

[66ee4f4b3ff95voodoo47]

read the first post, would you kindly.

[66ee4f4b400c0voodoo47]

looks like SS2EE has entered the internal testing phase; https://twitter.com/NightdiveStudio/status/1386090332002025472?s=19

that hopefully means the quasi-public betas that have been mentioned last year are now close(r).