Quest for Glory I 2.5D

[AGP]

I was going to have a Spielburg demo ready by now, but I'm really just waiting on my artists to complete the sheriff and the centaur, not to mention one final background. Anyhow, this gives you a good idea. I'm programming it from scratch, and I have most of the work done (like the room-change algorithms and the file systems). 3D engine is jPCT, which is a fantastic Java-based engine. God bless Egon Olsen (who writes it).

Old link removed. Scroll down for a (slightly) better lit shot.

[Solarkid]

WOW! i love it man!

It's so good to see that the qfg community is still alive.

Dave

[AGP]

Thanks a lot. Hope to have a lot more in the near future.

[Arcane]

background looks really cool, but i can't help myself. but hero looks like made in MS paint, he has a lot of pixel, try to make him better like that background

[AGP]

I don't know what you mean by that. The hero's 3D. Maybe I could light him better, or anti-alias him, or both, but to claim he looks like he was made in Paint?

[gargin]

Wow, great to see someone is working on such a cool project. I can't wait to see how this develops!

I think what Arcane is trying to say is that you have these incredibly detailed backgrounds (they look great by the way) and then you have the hero who looks very bland and undetailed. Now I am not an artist but I would venture to guess the reason is that he has very flat colors. examples of things you could do would be to add shadows, wrinkles in his clothing etc. I would look at some old Sierra character sprites for example and talk to some of the more graphically oriented people around here.
Also, and I am not trying to nitpick but it looks like the heroes perspective is a bit off in that background, if you compare him to the porch you will notice that he is kinda tilting back and to the right which I think makes him look a little off in the background.

Don't let that get you down though, looking great so far!

Gargin

[AGP]

Thanks for the observations, I will work on the lighting next (too many little things have to be done). As for the perspective, that's a tough one. I would have to come up with some kind of formula for tilting the camera as the hero walks in order for him to always look right against the background. But if you look at the original game, there are times when the scale and the angles aren't perfect either.

[gamecreator]

Background looks great. I'm glad you decided to work in a resolution higher than 320x200.

I agree with others that the characters could use a lot more detail. What's desperately missing is textures. Will you be texturing the hero? It looks like the goon already has some on him but it looks preliminary (needs to be detailed).

But great start. Would love to see more.

[AGP]

I'm a programmer, not an artist, but I assure you I can do better than this second attempt. But until then, here's an overexposed shot of the hero from the front. I won't be focusing so very much on the lighting for quite some time, but I assure everyone that the hero's face looks better than it appears to look in this shot.

[Solarkid]

That's looking so much better, i can imagine still shots on an engine like that would look a bit weird perspective wise. Im sure that when the game is actually being played the hero's movement and perspective look fine.

Aw man i love how sharp the textures are. Any idea when ur releasing this demo? Does the game have a website or something?

Dave

[MusicallyInspired]

Little bit too much overexposure on the lighting of the hero there. The perspective is funky too, as solarkid said. But still, a pre-alpha graphic demo is nothing to critique just yet.

[TimoVihola]

Looks good already! The original game wasn't perfect with perspective but one thing you can do is to align the character with the biggest element of the scene (which is the perspective line) and in best scenario it can look very convincing.

Being a programmer your're probably familiar with plane normals in 3d. If you draw a plane below the character's feet that plane's normal is pointing in slightly wrong direction at the moment. The buildings here are painted with 2 point perspective.. meaning everything has vanishing points to left and right but not up/down. (their vertical walls are perfectly straight so it doesn't have perspective in that direction) Thus the plane on the character's feet should also have normal pointing up. You might have to adjust it scene by scene depending on the background art. Another thing that you may need to adjust scene by scene is light direction.

Color saturation of the hero clothes could be decreased by over 30-40%, so it blends better to the background. It's good to never use pure white (red255, green255, blue255) or pure black (red0, green0, blue0). Another thing that could help integrate the character better to the background is shadow, even a dark blob like in Mario 64 will help a lot.

This image hopefully explains it all better:

[AGP]

Thanks everyone for the comment. No web site, solar kid. It's really just me doing it as a hobby and waiting on my very uninterested artists.

Timo, in point of fact each "room" has its own invisible plane (how I do the collision-detection for walking). Shadows would be trivial to do. Most of what you said I got, but if you would be nice enough, could you draw me the hero looking in the direction that my hero is looking, with his normal pointing straight up? Also, although my planes are perfectly aligned with the hero (in 3dsmax), the problem is making my game's camera exactly the same as 3dsmax's. This has been as close as I have been able to do it, although admittedly I don't have a whole lot of patience for these little details.

[Arcane]

yeah iam not really good in english. i meant to use more antialiasing and more light and shadows. last picture look great- but hero is still different then other characters

[gogogoff]

dang that looks cool

[Lady Pyro]

Except for your perspective being off, it does look kind of cool but I have to ask: Why?
The VGA remake of QFG1 was pretty awesome as it is, so why another remake?

[1234567890]

That's a good quetions[sp]. I do love the screens, did you make them?

[AGP]

Lady Pyro, why? Really? It's fun for me and my version intends to look much better than the VGA remake. But it being fun for me is enough of a reason, isn't it?

[Lady Pyro]

Lady Pyro, why? Really? It's fun for me and my version intends to look much better than the VGA remake. But it being fun for me is enough of a reason, isn't it?

I didn't mean it as an insult, I was just curious. Fun and a graphics update are a fine reason, I just would have thought it would make more sense to tackle a game that hasn't already been done.

[1234567890]

I do like the look of it. I am still wondering though, is this a 1:1 remake, or are you adding/changing anything?

[AGP]

1:1. I wouldn't know what to add to begin with. I mean, if I were remaking 5 I would definately want to add the ability to open all the doors in Silmaria, but there's no such annoyances in QG1.

[Muadeeb]

Barracks?
Mystery shop next to Bar??
Sheriff's office???
Baker????
Barber?????

[1234567890]

Another Questions, is this gonna be interface of KQ5-6/QfG1VGA? I love that point and click, and it shouldn't be changed.

[AGP]

Muadeeb, you make good points. I suppose I could add those, but it would have to be in a way that didn't take away from the feeling of the game.

And it's going to use the original (VGA) interface, but the toolbar was obviously redrawn.

[Kotskoets]

Id say make it full 3D in order to make a worthwhile remake. Good luck, because to be blunt it doesnt look too great at the moment but I guess thats cause your artists havent done anything yet.

The background is ok but the 3D stuff looks ridiculous.