Citadel - System Shock Fan Remake

[67429fbbb088dunn_atropos]

(no counts yet)

[67429fbbb0baeMarvin]

A challenger appears? The article is crap, though.

http://www.actiontrip.com/features/theartofpreservingoldgamesnotremasteringthem.phtml

[67429fbbb0d40voodoo47]

yes, you absolutely can't run SS1 on all non-win95 machines, and especially not with dosbox.

crap indeed.

[67429fbbb1178JosiahJack]

It better make that sound effect when you open and close the screens . As in, the one you hear in the original.

  It already does.

yes, you absolutely can't run SS1 on all non-win95 machines, and especially not with dosbox.

crap indeed.

Ahem, considering recent events, he is right unless of course you already downloaded SSP.  The topic of preservation vs remastering is one that is of much interest to me. I think the most important thing for me is to capture the original feel, all those little moments that make System Shock such a great game.

[67429fbbb14acRocketMan]

... and to that end, have you tried the original starfield with only a few stars?  I just want to know what you thought of it.  It may seem like I'm being a hypocrite now since I've been a big advocate of realistic stars in the past for ss2 but in this case, it almost looks like static, though I realize it's hard to tell from that distance.  Maybe it looks more impressive close up.  The sparsity of the original starfield always made space feel empty and alone.  Maybe that's what I liked about it... but I'm not necessarily criticizing this either.

[67429fbbb17b5voodoo47]

Ahem..

pretty sure the cd version can be launched without much trouble on xp and older, and via dosbox on anything newer. nowhere near as comfortable as SSP, but far from impossible.

as far as preservation vs remastering is concerned, I'm leaning to preservation, but with a note that bugs and other obviously bad stuff should be patched out, if possible. SCP and TFix reflect this preference.

[67429fbbb196cJosiahJack]

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

Sorry about the poor video quality.  I spent an hour toying around with settings but still can't seem to get it to not be pixelated.  Any suggestions on an encoding format?  I'm using H.264, 30fps, 1.4Mbs bitrate, OBS software this time.  Seems like there should be a magic solution that doesn't look absolutely horrible, especially in dark corners.  Perhaps I should just pull out my cell phone and video it that way.  The quality would be much better. 

I feel like I'm missing something obvious when it comes to making these videos.  Everyone and their grandmother can upload videos of their desktop to youtube.  I don't know what I'm missing.

[67429fbbb1ac5Denhonator]

So what about a higher bit rate? My Nvidia Shadowplay runs at 40 Mbps

[67429fbbb1c0dicemann]

That looks pretty much identical to the real thing. Shame it's going to only have new models, as that's a spot on match so far.

[67429fbbb1d4dMarvin]

YT recommends 5Mb/s at 720p30fps, your bit rate is almost 4 times lower than that. Here's a guide.
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/1722171?vid=1-635759119637753463-1273032879

I like what I'm seeing., otherwise.

[67429fbbb1ec2JDoran]

Unbelievable! It's fantastic, it really is. Thanks for the video (it doesn't bother me about the video's quality, it gets across how faithful and brilliant your remake is going to be).

[67429fbbb20a8Vegoraptor]

If you are using the standard OBS (as in not OBS Multi Platform), try the following:
Encoding: Disable CBR, set Quality Balance to 10, use Custom Buffer Size of 0 (which means your bitrate is unlimited and can freely adapt to the situation) . Audio should be self explaining.
Advanced: Use Multithreaded Optimizations, x264 CPU Preset superfast, Encoding Profile high, Use CFR, Custom x264 Encoder Settings "crf=16" (without quotes).
If it runs poorly (which it really should not unless your PC is powered by a stirling engine), set Quality Balance to 9-8 and/or crf=18. To further enhance your video, decrease the crf value, as it logarithmically determines how far the output file gets compressed. Do not use 0, though, since these files are hueg (like, 2 Gig per minute) and don't work with most editing software.

[67429fbbb21f2JDoran]

JosiahJack, given how professional the remake is looking, I *really* don't think I have to ask this, but just in case - you will add an "invert Y-Axis" option to the mouse control options, won't you? I've played a few games that I think were made in Unity, and that didn't have an invert the mouse option, and I much prefer inverted mouse control.

I'd have thought that this option would be standard in all modern FPS type games, so much so that any homebrew Unity games would have it automatically, but sadly that doesn't seem to be the case, so please don't forget to add something that a lot of players would probably say was indispensable.

[67429fbbb29a3JosiahJack]

If you are using the standard OBS (as in not OBS Multi Platform), try the following...

Thanks I'll give it a whirl.  I'll also crank the bitrate up to 11.

I *really* don't think I have to ask this, but just in case - you will add an "invert Y-Axis" option to the mouse control options, won't you?

Thanks! And of course  .  There will be quite a bit more customization than the original ever had to offer, especially for controls and much more.

Unbelievable! It's fantastic, it really is. Thanks for the video (it doesn't bother me about the video's quality, it gets across how faithful and brilliant your remake is going to be).

Great! Thank you.  That is what I am going for. Let's hope you all like the combat whenever it gets to the point where it is good enough to show you.

[67429fbbb2dfbJDoran]

Thanks! And of course  .  There will be quite a bit more customization than the original ever had to offer, especially for controls and much more.

Brilliant!

In a few years time, we could be playing Citadel with virtual reality googles - now that about eight different multi-billion dollar companies are working on some form of these, then it's possible that one system might actually prove to be both usable and cheap enough for most gamers to buy.

Thanks I'll give it a whirl.  I'll also crank the bitrate up to 11.

Is that a reference to Spinal Tap? 

[67429fbbb31a9JosiahJack]

...we could be playing Citadel with virtual reality googles...

Is that a reference to Spinal Tap? 

Yes and Yes.

You know, the original game had support for VR.  Wouldn't want to be anything less than original now would we. SS1 VR on VFX-1

Pretty cool

[67429fbbb32d1RocketMan]

Given that it never really worked properly, now's your chance to fix all the mistakes they made implementing the technology.

[67429fbbb34a5JosiahJack]

Speaking of mistakes, I just finished correcting a lot of mine.  Being new to Unity (and javascript and C# for that matter), I copy-pasted bits of code from different scripts online like an artist splattering a hodgepodge of random colors. As such the code was a cobbled-together mess with half of the scripts in javascript and the other half in C#.  Then I sludged into the inevitable where a C# script needed to reference a javascript which I hacked around, then I needed to reference the other way and I hacked it in too, then again and again and...

Coming to my senses... after a few hours, I converted all my dozen or so javascripts to C#, tested, and was successful.  For someone who has very little javascript or Unity experience, I'm feeling pretty boss.   

So then, now that my own code isn't rearing its ugly head head at me and laughing, maybe I can get some real work done around here.

[67429fbbb3669Kaucukovnik]

I remember reading about problems with modding Unity games using the free version, at least it was the case with Might & Magic X: Legacy. What's the situation with Citadel?

I was going to update you about the progress on inventory item icons, and what the hell, why not post them out here?

Edit: Image removed, new one below.

I'm replacing the faint H's and O's in the chemicals with tiny faux text paragraphs. Having different combinations of oxygen and hydrogen make up all the hi-tech substances felt wrong.

I have last played SS1 very long time ago (sadly SSP doesn't work in Linux), so I welcome anyone pointing out what I got wrong.

[67429fbbb378fJosiahJack]

Great!  Thanks for the update.  I've been adding them to the item icon arrays.

[67429fbbb3af8JosiahJack]

I remember reading about problems with modding Unity games using the free version, at least it was the case with Might & Magic X: Legacy. What's the situation with Citadel?

  No major problems really. Unity 5 provides almost everything AFAIK for free now so the hindrances to modders are gone. In any case, Citadel is being made from (almost) scratch in Unity 5 so any problems I have have so far been self inflicted.

[67429fbbb3effRocketMan]

I remember reading about problems with modding Unity games using the free version, at least it was the case with Might & Magic X: Legacy. What's the situation with Citadel?

I was going to update you about the progress on inventory item icons, and what the hell, why not post them out here?

They are scaled down for the sake of bandwidth. The overlay of pixellated originals is there just to see the unifinished ones.
And some glow will be added when the sheet is complete.

I'm replacing the faint H's and O's in the chemicals with tiny faux text paragraphs. Having different combinations of oxygen and hydrogen make up all the hi-tech substances felt wrong.

I have last played SS1 very long time ago (sadly SSP doesn't work in Linux), so I welcome anyone pointing out what I got wrong.

Don't forget that those chemical structures could be benzene rings, which are single/double bonded carbon rings.  You could create some other groups to tack on but organic molecules make sense when it comes to pharmaceuticals anyway.

[67429fbbb410fKaucukovnik]

That did not occur to me. I remember next to nothing about chemistry, so the easiest way for me to avoid eye-poking (to someone) mistakes was to make things vague. If there are no strong objections, I'd keep them that way.

Anyway, it took shorter than I expected. All item icons are finished, and I also tried an experiment:

All of them, both variants:

Full size image

I'd probably keep any altered icons as an option and not the default.
Again, suggestions are welcome.

Edit: Eh, the new green is toxic. I'll work on the colors some more.

[67429fbbb4242Marvin]

Nice, I like the normal version better. So, are you collaborating with Josiah or where did this come from? You can put the O's and H's back, though. They do belong there.