Texture updates for Uru

sarpedon2 · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:17 pm

IMO alot textures in Uru rly need to be change. Just a well-thought hi-res texture change can improve the quality of any games graphics. But i was wondering whether it can actually be done with uru.

D'Lanor · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:24 pm

Sure, it improves the graphics. Unfortunately there won't be any graphics to enjoy because it will also make the game come to a grinding halt pretty fast. :wink:

ThedStranger · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:46 pm

Nice idea. I thought they already used to do it, not sure it was hi-res though.

sarpedon2 · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:56 pm

Quote:

Nice idea. I thought they already used to do it, not sure it was hi-res though.

Not sure if they use to do it, didn't rly see any improvements in Texture from Uru to MOUL.

Quote:

Sure, it improves the graphics. Unfortunately there won't be any graphics to enjoy because it will also make the game come to a grinding halt pretty fast.

I'm pretty sure an average computer could handle an update in graphics. Also my idea to improve Uru is to simply create a new version of it on the Source Engine. While Plasma is a good engine, and I enjoy the look it gives to the game, Source is open-sourced and offers plenty of other stuff, better lighting, HDR, great textures, rag-doll physics, and Garry's Mod which could be a great testing ground for physic-based puzzles before they were implemented into Uru. You can also implement parallax mapping, which with the right textures, could look amazing for Uru, specially the rock textures.

ThedStranger · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2010 10:16 pm

Talking about the writers, not Cyan Worlds

.

AdamJohnso · **Posted:** Sun Jan 31, 2010 11:39 pm

Despite popular belief, the Source Engine is not OSS (it's not released under an OS license). You'll also notice if you grab the source from the SDK, there are gaping holes.

Also, Source FAILs for running multiple maps at once, which is something any online Uru needs to be able to do. It could certainly be hacked in using an external server app that launches new SrcDSes, but SrcDS is a rather expensive server (resource wise).

BTW Uru has normal mapping. It's seldom used however.

aloys · **Posted:** Mon Feb 01, 2010 1:04 pm

Uru's textures looks really good, and they are of a very decent resolution, even by todays standards.
Of course there are always things that can be enhanced, but textures are not one of them.
Normal maps on the other hand could be a welcome addition. It's doable, as Uru supports normal maps, but it'd be a ton of work: there are litterally hundreds of textures in each Age... And even if not all of them would need normal maps it's still a fair amount of work.

But if there's one thing that should be changed to change to improve Uru's graphics, it's the lighting system(s).
The static lighting is ok for the most part, but it's not great either and starts to look dated (vertex lighting can only get you so far). The dynamic lighting is far from being great (especially by today's standards) and would definitely need to be changed. But that's not something that can be done with Plasma.. Better shadows for both static and dynamic objects would go a long way to make Uru look better.

As for switching to a different engine.. well.. It can be done, but only if you have a professionnal team of 10 people working on it 40 hours a week.

(it's a huge amount of work). But in order to do that you would need agreement from Cyan. And it is not likely that Uru's content is gonna be open sourced. The engine, yes, but not the content.

ThedStranger · **Posted:** Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:17 pm

I believe a graphical update can do magic on a game. My biggest Uru dream (

) is to see it on an updated plasma engine/new engine, so it will look far more realistic. Maybe photorealistic, one day

.

sarpedon2 · **Posted:** Mon Feb 01, 2010 6:44 pm

I'd be happy if some of the models were updated, as well as some of the textures e.g. the library courtyard. Still Uru, despite its slightly aged graphics, still is one of my favorite looking games, alongside Half Life 2. Still wish we could get the plasma engine and make a Plasma 4 or just use Plasma 3. Still the time it would take would be pretty long, since alot of us cant get together in the same place to work on it.

Nalates · **Posted:** Mon Feb 01, 2010 7:40 pm

I don't think we even know which Plasma they are going to open source.

I forget but without looking it up I think Plasma 2.5... was used for the MOUL version... Cyan may give us that version or the latest and greatest they are using with MQO.

Will they think that giving us the version MOUL was made with get us up and going faster? May be.

Is the latest Plasma legacy compatible? I am pretty sure we don't know.

Without a license for use of the Cyan content we can't know what we can do in regard to changing engines. In another thread it is pointed out that Cyan once said the intention was to limit use of their content to a Plasma engine. While I can see reasons for that at the time they said it, that raises a whole bunch of questionsin my mind.

If we can change engines, why not move Uru to Team Fortress or Second Life, other than its a ton of work?

Deledrius · **Posted:** Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:26 am

Nalates wrote:

If we can change engines, why not move Uru to Team Fortress or Second Life, other than its a ton of work?

Because neither of those engines are designed around nor optimized for the same type of gameplay as Uru, and as such would either incur quite a lot of work changing them to fit (if at all possible; as mentioned Source is not open), or they would change Uru to be something it wasn't. I'm sure you'd love Uru to become more like Second Life, but as for myself if I wanted Second Life I'd just play Second Life.

AdamJohnso · **Posted:** Wed Feb 03, 2010 2:34 am

Deledrius wrote:

as for myself if I wanted Second Life I'd just play Second Life.

This would be an excellent thing for many people to learn.

Nalates · **Posted:** Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:36 pm

You two remind me of the blonds walking down the street. They walked into dress shop. You would think one of them would have seen it and stopped… :lol:

Let’s try the question another way… :roll:

If Cyan allows one to change engines, why not use a drastically different engine other than Plasma/PhysX/DriectX? (notice that I did write the exception; other than it’s a lot of work, which I’m also implying here.)

If it is permitted to ‘drastically’ change engines for various reasons then what will limit where the content can be used :?:

AdamJohnso · **Posted:** Wed Feb 03, 2010 7:40 pm

DirectX is not an engine.

We need to reevaluate who we think of as technical experts on this forum, I think.

Mekeretrig · **Posted:** Wed Feb 03, 2010 8:03 pm

Gamembryo works pretty well. It would take some tweaking but you could use Fallout 3 to 'imitate' Uru-like gameplay. Its very modder friendly, and the GECK (Garden of Eden Construction Kit i.e level builder) can be used to make areas fairly easily, depending on how familiar you are with it (practice makes perfect).

I was planning on doing something like this before, but I became disinterested and it fell out

For those unfamiliar with Fallout 3, here is an official video which shows some gameplay (watch it from 1:30)

Texture updates for Uru

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