SS2 Unreal Engine 5 port showcase

[674f3ba83f3abPsiElite]

Super buggy, mostly visual SS2 port by "The Informal Synthetic Orchestra.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J50PoYzgd1Y

Quantity over quality? Not really enhanced, except some effects as far as I can tell. Still using original low res textures for the environment. Anything you guys would like for the enhanced edition?

+I like the clean of Dr. Watts at 15:49 but thats about it. A high enough poly model not to be grating but still close to the original. But in a remaster I guess you would want a bit more of a step up in fidelity of the assets.

+Still feels like the same space, it feels like the Von Braun. Compared to some other ports Ive seen.

+-Lighting is really hit or miss.

-Excessive camera motion blur.

[674f3ba83f52fOName]

I don't get why they're using the original low resolution textures. What's the point of having modern effects if you're going to keep the environments old-looking? Creating an uncanny valley effect?

[674f3ba83f6f6voodoo47]

the point is to have SS2 running under the Unreal engine, I reckon.

and yes, SS2 could use a few things, but hdr, motion blur and depth of field aren't among them.

[674f3ba83f83aOName]

Now, I'm not a programmer, but if it's a port, wouldn't it be as much effort to use the low resolution originals as shtup and 400?

[674f3ba83fcb8blizzrizz]

Super buggy, mostly visual SS2 port by "The Informal Synthetic Orchestra.

More that a few things haven't been implemented (or are only half-implemented) than it being buggy. Most of the SS2 scripts are implemented and working fine, including unexpected quirks in the originals.

I like the clean of Dr. Watts at 15:49 but thats about it. A high enough poly model not to be grating but still close to the original.

Thanks - that's just the original Dr Watts mesh but I did hand-animate that scene purely for fun, and to have a visible reference in-game. I haven't touched any of the assets other than a couple of animations.

I don't get why they're using the original low resolution textures

Now, I'm not a programmer, but if it's a port, wouldn't it be as much effort to use the low resolution originals as shtup and 400

I'd just used the original textures as something to use for now. Again, this was just me mucking about in my spare time. SHTUP is also mostly implemented but turned off in a shader switch for now because I wanted to be able to compare it visually to the original game.

Lighting is really hit or miss.

as mentioned in the description, it's just using the emissive textures as a real time light source. I hadn't really done much with lighting. I'd have probably manually placed some lights in rooms to recreatethe look of the original.

the point is to have SS2 running under the Unreal engine, I reckon. and yes, SS2 could use a few things, but hdr, motion blur and depth of field aren't among them.

Exactly this. I left my career as a tools programmer in the games industry about 12 years ago and so do these kinds of things to keep up to date with what's happening with engines such as Unreal. System Shock 2 is one of my all time favourite games, and replicating Dark engine's logic/scripting/etc. seemed like a fun project.

-Excessive camera motion blur.

As mentioned in comments, HDR/motion blur/DOF etc are either Unreal's default settings (motion blur is excessive in UE by default) or just side effects of my reusing my FPS Player Controller/Actor from the last project I worked on. At some point I would probably have written one from scratch to fit SS2 much better.

Anyway, I've taken this video down as it was never really meant to be seen by anyone other than a few subscribers that are interested in what I've been doing nowadays (hence me posting it on my small alt channel). I didn't expect a personal project of mine in my spare time to get seen and critiqued by a wider audience.

[674f3ba83fdd5voodoo47]

whoever does whatever interesting with SS or SS2, chances are we are going to sniff it out. and then say what we think, no sugarcoating.

because we are electronic old men, planning to take over the world.

[674f3ba8409b0PsiElite]

Thanks - that's just the original Dr Watts mesh but I did hand-animate that scene purely for fun, and to have a visible reference in-game. I haven't touched any of the assets other than a couple of animations.

Cool how much better it can look in a new engine, without tweeks.

, it's just using the emissive textures as a real time light source. I hadn't really done much with lighting. I'd have probably manually placed some lights in rooms to recreate the look of the original.

Wow thats interesting. Unreal 5 sure is impressive.

Anyway, I've taken this video down as it was never really meant to be seen by anyone other than a few subscribers that are interested in what I've been doing nowadays (hence me posting it on my small alt channel). I didn't expect a personal project of mine in my spare time to get seen and critiqued by a wider audience.

Hope you don't get discouraged because of some minor criticism. Nice to see more love for an awesome game!

[674f3ba840db1blizzrizz]

Wow thats interesting. Unreal 5 sure is impressive.

That was the thing that actually initially got me interested in porting over System Shock 2 to UE5. I'd spent an afternoon recreating a much less faithful version of the initial cryo tutorial area and was really impressed seeing how Lumen lit the rooms with the flashing green consoles, explosions from outside and the hanging lights, all without needing any kind of lighting import/placement. I was kind of curious how it would look seeing the original Von Braun like that, and before I knew it I was knee deep in recreating SS2 scripts, writing importer tools, building archetype databases and creating PDA interfaces.

whoever does whatever interesting with SS or SS2, chances are we are going to sniff it out. and then say what we think, no sugarcoating.

Hope you don't get discouraged because of some minor criticism. Nice to see more love for an awesome game!

Not discouraged at all - the project has been amazing fun and I'm enjoying getting things in and working (health, radiation/radrooms, oxygen, comestibles, health etc. implemented this evening). I'm more kicking myself a little for my naiveté of posting it online so early without thinking it through. I've probably only collectively spent 4 or 5 days working on this and most of the critique has been about things I hadn't even thought about yet, let alone started, so in hindsight I'd have not posted until I'd implemented a few more things if I'd realised actual SS2 fans would be seeing it.

[674f3ba840eb0PsiElite]

Im curious, what about the pistol is from the original ss2?  model? sound? animation?

[674f3ba840fe1blizzrizz]

Just the model and the sound. The logic that powers the movement sway/lag and the firing animation are from a previous project of mine - I just rigged the pistol to my generic weapon skeleton and popped that in so that there was something in-game.

[674f3ba841124hemebond]

Looks great. I hope you'll share more progress in the future.

[674f3ba84126bicemann]

Even if it's buggy and doesn't have a lot of the functionality in there, it's great to a see a remake that goes beyond the medsci level.

[674f3ba841989blizzrizz]

I'd say it's not particularly buggy - most of the issues encountered are from various things not yet being implemented rather than things not working (for example, I know at the time of the video, one of the Qvar trap scripts was not implemented which could result in a mission not flagging as complete).

So far I'd based everything on vanilla missions/scripts (and A/B testing with the original game, not modded) so keep in mind that some things may have been fixed in SCP etc. At some point I'd probably start putting in fixes and changes. Also this video really wasn't made for wide public consumption so things were turned off, skipped, not implemented, placeholder, temporarily broken that night, etc. at the time of recording it. As mentioned before (because it still amazes me most, I think) I haven't imported or added any lighting data. This is all real-time Lumen lighting the world purely based on emissive textures. This is also all blackbox on my part when it comes to the scripts, so I was best-guessing how they work (and correcting as I discovered quirks or unexpected things - probably still a few unexpected things in there).

I'd also say that there's quite a lot of functionality there. For example, so far I have:

• An automated import toolset that takes original SS2 format data and requires almost no intervention. Imports raw .mis/.cow files into Unreal Editor, converts archetypes, schemes, string files, textures etc. into Unreal formats (data tables, audio, meshes) utilized by gameplay, brings 3D models into popular 3D editing software for easy (one click) import/export
• A relatively faithful replica of how Dark Engine handles objects, properties, rooms, collision and scripting. PDA template system with many of them implemented (hack, maintain, research, upgrade, logs/emails/quests). Archetype/schema data all imported and organized and utilised
• With the exception of animations and music, all art assets (sounds, speech, levels, textures, meshes, models) integrated and in-game
• All the main traps, triggers, routers, elevators, rules, etc. implemented that allow gameplay from the training missions to the Rickenbacker (could go further, that's just as far as I got before implementing new things that broke my save sessions). Also many SS2 osm scripts implemented now (buttons, objects, health, ammo, food, energy chargers, etc.)
• Travel between airlocks with object/container/etc. states saved
• Almost all of the tweq logic for animations, emitters, explosions, etc.
• Level and mission tracking and persistency (quest variables - including complex checks and watches - and save games)
• Doors (sliding and rotating), locks, keycards
• Limited implementation of AI (mostly aiwatchobj type things to enable basic bits of animation-less cutscene to play out)
• Levelling of stats (except Psi - hadn't stared on any Psi stuff yet) that complies with world requirements (tech/etc. skill)
• Collectables, inventory and inventory management (with transferring, stacking, buff slots, charging, armour scaling and weapon arming). It actually has more functionality that is disabled by default (putting things back in chests, moving them around there, etc.)
• All audio, logs, notes, etc. imported, implemented, listenable and readable
• PDA for reading and listening to logs emails and tracking notes/quests
• PDA for Hacking (functionality and PDA) and repairing with consequences for critical fail/success
• Security cameras (destroyable) and systems (that can be triggered or hacked to bypass/deactivate) - this was turned off when I recorded the video as it was annoying to speed run with them on
• PDA and systems for full research system for organs that require the chemicals at the right points (in the last video I posted it was sped up purely for testing)
• Since that video, radiation and vacuums (both rooms causing/clearing it, hypos healing it, etc.)
• Elevator-able objects for when you travel between areas with dropped bits and bobs
• Fully working vending machines (PDA to buy, hackable for alt prices)
• The training scripts to pick class/base skills (as well as a lot of the back end for character progression)

Probably quite a few other things I've forgotten about as a lot of the systems you take for granted as working, and I've not had time to work on this much the past couple of weeks.

Obviously still lots to do (I didn't start psi yet as it's such a big thing to do by itself and I've just started on weapons/upgrades/maintenance today) but does have a lot of functionality.

[674f3ba841f5dMirrorman95]

blizzrizz If released to the public, could this toolset be useful in porting other Dark Engine games, like Thief Gold and Thief II: The Metal Age?

[674f3ba842225New Horizon]

Mirrorman95
I was wondering about that too.