About future graphical updates

Hammerhead

Hello!

First of all, i LOVE the NWN Enhanced Edition! Plays nice, feels good, runs smooth!
Good job, Beamdog!

Since I am probably one of few people that love old blocky look and feel of the game, will new patches force graphical updates on user, or will the graphical updates be available and optional through Steam Workshop for those who want updated visuals?

Drewbert_ahoy

Think this is the only post I've ever seen not wanting improved visuals of some sort for the game. Certain of the tilesets look ok even today... such as forest. Alot of the creatures leave much to be desired, though, especially when compared to what's available in something like project Q. The problem with relying totally on haks/overrides is that alot of people will never use them.

I assume diamond edition 1.69 will continue to be available on GOG...

FreshLemonBun

To date all of the so-called "graphical remake" content has actually just been tech demos and tests of the graphics pipeline released by Beamdog. They must be downloaded and used optionally.

Whether they change the visuals of any content still remains to be seen as they have expressed that the quantity of art assets in NWN outnumbers a typical game. This was to facilitate varied module creation not limited to only a few assets seen in typical games. If we take the time between their initial tests and extrapolate with the quantity of assets it might take them a couple of decades to give all assets the same treatment. That would seem unfeasible either in time constraints or budget requirements, so first they have to figure out how they can create new assets as quickly and efficiently as possible and then figure out what is reasonable. This is probably why they mentioned they're looking to hire a technical artist in the last stream.

They have said things to the effect that they would like to preserve the game while offering optional HD content. To date their only state commitment that you can find on their development roadmap is for providing optional improved player character models.

You can view the card in the roadmap I'll link below. Keep in mind that "add new tileset" means in addition to the existing tilesets they are working on creating a new tileset, as opposed to replacing the old tilesets. If this is not the case they would have to change the card to "improve tileset models" which is a completely different goal tracked by this input card: https://trello.com/c/4c2OooIX

Cards that have not been moved to the roadmap or have not been created on the roadmap aren't being worked on and haven't been planned for future updates. That's the theory at least.

Here is the official roadmap.

https://trello.com/b/K0C0i8wF/neverwinter-nights-enhanced-edition

Drewbert_ahoy

If we take the time between their initial tests and extrapolate with the quantity of assets it might take them a couple of decades to give all assets the same treatment.

Depends on which assets they are treating. Alot of it is good and needs nothing done, like most of the underdark stuff. If they were to touch up the most glaring assets I would be satisfied with that.

FreshLemonBun

I don't see any reason to think they will touch existing tilesets unless such a card appears on their roadmap board. Then if it does I suppose it's a debate on how much touching up they think is enough. There are actually two examples of touched up tile assets, one was shown in the same stream as the Aribeth model, and the other is the one shown that is available for download. The first test was more of a simple application of bump mapping I believe, while the later test was a full remodel + retexture + normal maps + specular maps.

If they take the first approach then it may be more feasible but the second approach would have much higher requirements. The underdark tileset has roughly 45 tile options not including all of the variations for painted buildings and terrain, so there could be up to 100. Each option is a separate 3D model.

Considering there are 25 official tilesets minus the microset then we could easily be talking about over 2500 models. If the art department is able to crank out 7 fully done 3D models per day then they might have revamped all the tiles in a year. On the other hand if they can only manage 2 a day it will take 3 years to finish the revamp. That is of course in addition to all the other models people want revamped.

If it's something they can revamp with scripting in their 3D tools such as smoothing edges or apply a texture filter then it might take considerably less time but it wont be at the standard of their tech demo.

Hammerhead

I bought NWN Enhanced Edition as soon as it was available on Steam.
I was huge fan of Infinity Engine games in their prime (and I love all of the new EEs), and also I loved original release NWN.

Hammerhead

I am playing games since ZX Spectrum 80 era, and I kind of like the 'early 3d' stylized graphics, where stylization > quasi realism and where player's imagination can fill the blanks and missing pixels.

For example, long term goal on Roadmap is 'Update the player model'.
Does that mean that new player mesh with hi-res textures will be optional Steam Workshop download or forced via auto-updating Steam patch?

What I am curious about is distribution of updates, in terms of forced/automated vs optional/by player's choice.
How they differentiate what is mandatory patch and what is Workshop download?