System Shock 2: Enhanced Edition Update & Community Participation

[67ed4fa7747bfeldrone]

The trailer is looking really nice. but I have a couple of questions:
why even change the colors of windows? the green/ smoky blue ones were already pretty cool. also og 16bit renderer gave much more pronounced blues to the overall lighting.
midwide's eyes look much less horrifying then in the gory original. is this the finished look?

Windows use a new material where the cubemap will use the overall lighting level to set the intensity and reflection level, this will change the color in some places, but overall they are still blue.

As for midwife, it's getting a polish pass, so these things will be addressed.

[67ed4fa7749a8ZylonBane]

Sounds like a new feature in the material system. Making reflective surfaces look correct under varying lighting conditions always was a challenge.

[67ed4fa774c6eeldrone]

Sounds like a new feature in the material system. Making reflective surfaces look correct under varying lighting conditions always was a challenge.

Yeah, might be, can't remember at this point because its essentiellt just a layered cubemap.

But it was a lot of trial and error to get something looking good when it comes to windows.

[67ed4fa774dd9pingu]

much improvement, much wow

[67ed4fa774f01ZylonBane]

That's... very reflective. Reminds me why SHTUP doesn't apply cubemaps to the windows.

[67ed4fa7751f2tiphares4]

why even change the colors of windows? the green/ smoky blue ones were already pretty cool.

I like the new windows much more, the blue tint was always very unrealistic - the new ones seem to be a nice compromise + i really really like those new fully modelled windows seals or whatever it is, very nice detail:

[67ed4fa77553celdrone]

I like the new windows much more, the blue tint was always very unrealistic - the new ones seem to be a nice compromise + i really really like those new fully modelled windows seals or whatever it is, very nice detail:

It was an interesting problem to solve, because all windows use any of like 40 different window models, and these models clip into the worldrep in many different ways.

Which means windowframes were not possible.


So a script will calculate, resize and replace with a new 1x1x1 model.


But it also allows switching back and forth at runtime via a config variable, and I discovered some techniques around manipulating the world and reverting right before saving the game.

So these are actually one of the few things that are easy to disable to have the old look.



This also allows for broken window frames when a window breaks instead of nothing.

[67ed4fa7757eeeldrone]

That's... very reflective. Reminds me why SHTUP doesn't apply cubemaps to the windows.

Yeah there's tradeoffs, the most optimal reflections would be a realtime cubemap solution so it works good in any place, but having it feel a bit more like glass was something I wanted to achieve.

[67ed4fa775a84ZylonBane]

So a script will calculate, resize and replace with a new 1x1x1 model.

I'm getting a migraine just thinking about how much trigonometry this must have required.

And whatever it took to preserve the thickness of windows.

And how this handles the "security" windows with the wire mesh and VB logos.

[67ed4fa775d06eldrone]

I'm getting a migraine just thinking about how much trigonometry this must have required.

And whatever it took to preserve the thickness of windows.

And how this handles the "security" windows with the wire mesh and VB logos.

Oh and the fact that they are either x or y oriented.

And that the collider isn't perfect in every place.

[67ed4fa775e20ZylonBane]

The collider? Do you mean the terrain raycast? I assumed that's what you'd be using.

[67ed4fa77608aeldrone]

ZylonBane
This security window for example, this one seems to have a bugged physics box. But yeah, bunch of tests and measurements.

and yes, decal is on the way.

[67ed4fa77627aLivo]

Good lord that's a lot of trigonometry calculations.

On a different note, will there be any additional or updated sounds for SS2 Enhanced? Like the exotic weapons reloading & changing fire modes sounding more organic & gross, rather than reusing the standard metallic ones for example? Goggles is loading worms from a beaker & doing god knows what to a weird fleshy thing to change fire modes, it should sound a little icky.

[67ed4fa776930bobf5]

On a different note, will there be any additional or updated sounds for SS2 Enhanced? Like the exotic weapons reloading & changing fire modes sounding more organic & gross, rather than reusing the standard metallic ones for example? Goggles is loading worms from a beaker & doing god knows what to a weird fleshy thing to change fire modes, it should sound a little icky.

Would love to see additional sounds specifically as a togglable option.

On that note, most of SS2's original sound sources are listed here: https://www.systemshock.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=cck2s8u6d8tbq290gj2herdnfr&topic=13051

And on top of that, at least four other sound libraries were used as well:
The Works https://drive.google.com/file/d/1RJOGPrH8VPAPWxbN34C_jJDuu3EbvUNH/view?usp=sharing (also used in Star Trek!)
Digiffects https://soundideas.sourceaudio.com/track/41254608 (heard in Prefontaine's final log, would make a good extra sound for the teeth)
Hollywood Edge Animal Trax https://soundideas.sourceaudio.com/track/11508651 (the worms are bears in disguise!)
Hollywood Edge Premiere Edition 1 https://soundideas.sourceaudio.com/track/11473643

Modders, Nightdive, whoever: make good use of this knowledge