System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition Update & Community Participation

[674166dab1d58voodoo47]

https://twitter.com/pripyatbeast/status/1606008741710934017?t=XfSReUoW0hwE2bK54dWOww&s=19

they are redoing the cutscenes. that takes care of that request, I guess.
[FkmwcCPaAAA7hS4.jpg expired]

[674166dab1fa8icemann]

Looks good

[674166dab21ceZylonBane]

Come on guys, at least get the TriOp logo right.

Redoing the shots of crew walking around inside the levels should be easy enough, but for all the exterior shots they'd need 3D models of the Von Braun and the Rickenbacker, and access to someone talented enough to animate them to the same level of the original videos. Could easily end up looking worse if they're not careful. Like one of those "I remade the battle of Wolf 359 in Blender for a class!" videos.

[674166dab2348Pacmikey]

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[674166dab2710RocketMan]

I'm sure they have the skill.  It's probably just another detail that they didn't pay particular attention to.  Among all the things they have to work on, this is just a chamfered triangle with some lines in it to them.  I'd be up their ass about other changes before I started harping on this.

[674166dab28a9diego]

What irks me a little about it is the fact textures appear to be bit out of alignment, which wasn't an issue even in the original. Wouldn't be much of an issue if it was an in engine cutscene because it would be possible to fix it later, but since we know in all likelihood it is going to be a video file, they really should fix that before release.

Other than that, it looks better than the original either way.

[674166dab29d8ZylonBane]

I just noticed that most objects are missing from the remade cutscene screenshot (doors, plant beds).

[674166dab2adbPacmikey]

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[674166dab2c49voodoo47]

yes, as already mentioned, they will have to go through the pain of editing the motions if they want the new models to look AND work good.

[674166dab2d4cPacmikey]

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[674166dab2e9ddiego]

I realize an overhaul would be too much work but couldn't they at least improve it a little? Fixing the worst offenders would be enough.

It wouldn't look quite as bad if NPC hands didn't curve inwards for example. You know small things like that.

[674166dab3021ZylonBane]

Dark Engine humanoid AIs don't have finger joints or motions, so their hands have to be slightly cupped so they can "hold" objects.

However, the hands in the remade cutscene screenshot appear to be manually posed. The figure in the foreground has his fingers curled in much more than the background characters.

[674166dab314ediego]

Sorry, when I said hands, I basically meant their wrists. New NPC models they made already have cupped hands, so their wrists don't need to curve inward.

[674166dab337dZylonBane]

New article on the upgraded models: https://www.pcgamer.com/system-shock-2-enhanced-edition-shows-off-a-major-visual-upgrade-in-new-screens-all-cinematics-textures-characters-and-weapon-models-have-been-updated/

Mostly stuff we've seen before, but a few new shots. Unfortunately what I assume is supposed to be an "enlarge" button in the upper-right of each image isn't working, so the shots are mostly pretty low-res. They fixed it.

Mostly looking good. My main complaints would be that the hybrid eyes still look too "NES Punch-Out coach", and the shotgun hybrid's body looks, well... as much as I hate the word "swole", it's the best choice here. The hybrids are supposed to be gaunt, not puffy.

[674166dab3596Chandlermaki]

I'm glad the organic weapons are getting proper models but uh... let's just say that's not AT ALL how I would have interpreted that worm launcher texture.

[674166dab3d37sarge945]

Time to review these new images....

1. Pipe and Shotgun Hybrids

The hybrids look kinda wonky. As ZB pointed out, the shotgun hybrid is way too chunky and big, and I feel that extends to the pipe hybrid as well. It reminds me of Rebirth (in a bad way), and I feel like the organic creatures in the Vanilla game largely benefited from being somewhat vague, as it allowed your imagination to run wild, especially in the dark. I have always imagined hybrids to be scrawny, shallow husks of their former selves. Going in the buff/swole direction was, IMO, the opposite of what was intended originally.

2. Shotgun Model

I actually like this, although I wish they had added an arm.

3. Psi Amp

I still prefer Eldron's Psi Amp, but this is quite a faithful recreation, good job on the model overall. I can see why others would like this more, because it's more vanilla friendly, but I still prefer the other one. Also, genuinely surprised that it's a modern remake and yet they are still using the 3.5mm jack and aren't using bluetooth on this - how are we supposed to stay waterproof (or whatever the reasoning is now)?

4. Wrench and Laserpistol

These both look decent, I like the "chunkiness" of the wrench. It's probably the only model that hasn't been made exceptionally curvy. I like the laser pistol itself, but it mostly just looks the same as tacticool?

5. Assassin

Looks WAY better than whatever that horrible robot thing in Rebirth is, but I can't really make it out clearly enough to really any details. This is the enemy model I am the most excited for because the Assassins are absolutely the worst model in rebirth.

6. Monkey

Monkey just looks strange, I hate this model. I think I would rather have the vanilla model (return to monke, so to speak).

7. Protocol Droid and MP Droid

I'm largely indifferent to the protocol droid. While it's definitely higher detailed than the original, it looks very strange when upscaled. For instance, I find it very strange that a protocol droid (designed to be essentially a servant etc) would have no face. On the vanilla model this was less of an issue because the model was so low res you could largely imagine what they were supposed to look like, but this one just looks like a bucket head. The rest of the model looks fine, but not so much better than the original that I would consider making the switch

The MP bot, though, looks amazing. I feel like the "walker" bots were some of the crustiest enemy models and left little to the imagination for details, they just looked bad and low-poly. The new model is fantastic.

8. Rumbler (aka Rice Crispy)

This looks mostly the same as the Rebirth model. I think the Rumbler is one of the better, more faithful Rebirth models, so I don't mind this. It isn't jarring like the Hybrids are, I'm just mostly indifferent to it.

9. SFG

Looks good. Definitely an improvement over the original. IIRC there aren't really any good SFG model replacements for regular SS2, so this is a welcome addition.

10. Worm Launcher

Also looks good, although I still prefer the modded one.

Overall, if I could pick and choose, I would love to keep the new Robot models (except the protocol droid), some if not all of the weapon models (either psi amp is fine), and leave the rest.

I am especially interested in seeing if they added a new Laser Rapier model (and, more importantly, if it can be colorised)

[674166dab42a5ZylonBane]

I still prefer Eldron's Psi Amp

Pssst... they're both Eldron's psi amp.

[674166dab4482voodoo47]

also, see that doubled decal under the Xerxes screen? that tells us they are using some ancient version of SHTUP. lets hope for their sake they are not working with decade old versions of mods there - a scenario where you have to start your work all over again just because you have used an old and broken resource by mistake is best avoided.

in case someone from NDS is still reading this topic - it's really, really not a shame to ask for help here if you want to avoid rookie mistakes. no need to reinvent the wheel, especially if your schedule is (fairly) tight.

[674166dab470esarge945]

Pssst... they're both Eldron's psi amp.

Wait...is that a retexture or something?

[674166dab4a24eldrone]

Wait...is that a retexture or something?

Made both!

The new one absolutely needed to look more like the original, so I made a new one from scratch instead of using the old one that predates my entire professional career. I also made a fully posable hand model to go with it and used it to update all the other weapons where you see the hand.

[674166dab4ce1Xkilljoy98]

New trailer and news
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1598858095/system-shock/posts/3813638

https://youtu.be/s6mb44nDWj0

[674166dab5049RoSoDude]

That gameplay footage is NOT ready for primetime, yeesh.

Lighting all messed up (see the dim grenade explosion FX in particular), no muzzle flash on the shotgun, ugly floating particle hit FX on every creature (even when a blood hit spang is already present), cryokinesis projectile is a gray blob instead of the blue projectile with a spinning axis as in the original game.

Compare original (GOG promotional screenshot):

EE trailer:

[674166dab5291ZylonBane]

Uhh... that is definitely neither Square721 nor Microgramma. Does the person who put together this video not know what the single most used font family in SS2 is?

And what's up with the smoothed-out upscaled-looking SHODAN at the beginning of the video? Did they not know that the original high-res render of this shot is available?

I'm also really not a fan of the cat-eyes SHODAN they stuck at the beginning and end. That's some cyber-furry nightmare fuel.

[674166dab5474icemann]

Linked above already, but putting it in a proper clickable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6mb44nDWj0

Looks great to me. Nothing really changed from the original version, just updated to better models and improved resolution. The new hybrid models look wayyyyyyyyyyyyyy better than the cyberblutch ones. Those I would actually use in a normal play through.