Ask Beamdog

JuliusBorisov

Now when the weekly livestreams are cancelled, we want to continue developing direct communication between Beamdog and our followers, to keep the community informed on studio news, sales, updates, and upcoming events.

This is why we'll start publishing monthly recaps on our blog about what's happening around Beamdog.

As a part of that blog, we'll have a regular Q&A segment for community questions.

Please ask in this thread everything you want to ask Beamdog (in the similar way as it's been done for the livestreams). We'll try to get answers from Luke Rideout every 2 weeks, and then will directly communicate them back to you. Later, a part of these answers will be included into the appropriate montly recap.

1. January, 2019.
2. February 20, 2019.
3. March 19, 2019.
4. April 18, 2019.
5. May 17, 2019.

deltago

Fine, let’s start this off with a bang.

Hyper Chicken badge. Spill the beans on this monstrosity and don’t dare use NDA as a reason not to, because Our sleuthing deducted that all those NDAs from Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition have expired. Oh I guess this is like Jeopardy and you need it in question form:

What is the story behind the hyper chicken badge and how did all the recipients receive it?

AndreaColombo

Hi,

I've got two questions (which are actually the same question about two different features):

1. Realistically, what are the chances of this [Catmull-Rom Bicubic scaling making a comeback as a graphic option] happening? I'm asking because this feature is very dear to me and I would like to know whether I should keep looking forward to it, or just put the dream to rest.
   
2. My second question is pretty much the same but with regards to this [implementing OpenAL EFX to replace the original games' implementation of Creative EAX.] OpenAL EFX would have the advantage of being software-emulated, thus not requiring dedicated hardware to run; with it, the same environmental audio effects the original BG games had could be recreated 1:1 for everyone to use—and they could be made optional via an "Environmental Audio" toggle in the game's sound options, just like it used to be. It would truly give the Enhanced Editions an audio edge over the originals.
   

For those curious, here's a YouTube video comparing the beginning of BGII with and without EAX.

Casper01

I really just want to know when something UNIQUE and completetly new is being made instead of rehashing the old stuff?

But if you absolutely NEED to rehash old stuff can you please sell your souls and somehow get KoToR1 and KoToR2 and add new content and remaster

Torgrimmer

Would you be willing to look at publishing people work outside of mods, like books to promote your games and business?

Tresset

deltago said:

Fine, let’s start this off with a bang.

Hyper Chicken badge. Spill the beans on this monstrosity and don’t dare use NDA as a reason not to, because Our sleuthing deducted that all those NDAs from Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition have expired. Oh I guess this is like Jeopardy and you need it in question form:

What is the story behind the hyper chicken badge and how did all the recipients receive it?

@deltago It is just given to followers of The Cult of @ajwz...

The real answer: I don't know for sure myself... But I am pretty sure it has something to do with Melicamp's quest. Antichickenator was acting up or something. Regardless: I wouldn't tell even if I knew, because it is just so much fun watching all of you get all worked up about the mystery!

CamDawg

We do not speak of the hyperchicken.

Tresset

CamDawg said:

We do not speak of the hyperchicken.

Which is precisely why I made up a baloney explanation to further confuse matters...

Nevermind!

anastiel

Anyway I'll look forward to the next game, thanks beamdog for the very good games

Match451

Will the Witch's Wake 2 ever be completed? The original had so many fun little details and was so full of mystery.

anastiel

Possible new packages DLC
SteamDB Unknown App 965660 Last Update 3 months ago
SteamDB Unknown App 813060 Last Update 5 months ago
SteamDB Unknown App 746550 Last Update 5 months ago

wildfire

Can Icewind Dale 2 Enhanced edition be made without source code?

thrudd

My Question is Regarding The Infinity Engine. As it has been Stated By Trent and Other's At Beamdog ,it is Highly unlikely That there will be Any New Content( As in Expansions, New Areas, New Game ect…) with the exception Of the Dice,Camera, Action Portrait Pack for The Infinity Engine. To me ,Still a Big fan And Player of the Infinity Engine Games( BG, BG2, IWD) This sucks...… It also makes no sense to Me that a new Infinity Engine Game wouldn't Be Viable for Beamdog to Produce. SOD in effect was a New Infinity Engine Game That was and Expansion or Bridge Between BG and BG2, As far as I Know it did very well in Sales and
including Myself really Enjoyed it, Why cant a IWD, BG,BG2 new Game or Expansion call it whatever you want be A big hit as well ??? The Stories That can be created for the Forgotten realms and made into A New Infinity Engine game are Literally Endless..... So My question to Beamdog is when you Stop Fixing Bugs and Problems with the Infinity Engine Games What's Next??? You Did State that you will Continue Support The Infinity Engine Games into The Future and Us Players WANT new Content For them!!!! Will We Get it?


Thank You

wildfire

I believe the best it is to bring IE features to Unreal. Just for the posterity of releases. Then it would be easier to release games on consoles and mobile.
Therefore, next infinite engine spiritual successor game should be made in unreal. Also faster and easier bug fixing.

Torgrimmer

wildfire said:

Can Icewind Dale 2 Enhanced edition be made without source code?

I second this!

ThacoBell

Tresset said:

deltago said:

Fine, let’s start this off with a bang.

Hyper Chicken badge. Spill the beans on this monstrosity and don’t dare use NDA as a reason not to, because Our sleuthing deducted that all those NDAs from Baldur’s Gate: Enhanced Edition have expired. Oh I guess this is like Jeopardy and you need it in question form:

What is the story behind the hyper chicken badge and how did all the recipients receive it?

@deltago It is just given to followers of The Cult of @ajwz...

The real answer: I don't know for sure myself... But I am pretty sure it has something to do with Melicamp's quest. Antichickenator was acting up or something. Regardless: I wouldn't tell even if I knew, because it is just so much fun watching all of you get all worked up about the mystery!

Heeheehee, I knows! I knows! (Where's my Hyper Chicken badge Beamdog?)


@JuliusBorisov When will the Soultaker plot point, which was created by Beamdog as an obvious hook, be resolved?

Kamigoroshi

Any chances of seeing all of the EE backgrounds getting their well deserved attention with Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks (ESRGAN) scaling technology? Would be so much easier to the eye, especially in PST:EE's rather pixilated case.

Pic from an Morrowind mod which used this scaling method.

AndreaColombo

Kamigoroshi said:

Any chances of seeing all of the EE backgrounds getting their well deserved attention with Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks (ESRGAN) scaling technology? Would be so much easier to the eye, especially in PST:EE's rather pixilated case.

I would love this too.

Torgrimmer

AndreaColombo said:

Kamigoroshi said:

Any chances of seeing all of the EE backgrounds getting their well deserved attention with Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks (ESRGAN) scaling technology? Would be so much easier to the eye, especially in PST:EE's rather pixilated case.

I would love this too.

Count me in too

Aedan

At present, who are the writers in your team?

anastiel

wildfire said:

Can Icewind Dale 2 Enhanced edition be made without source code?

anastiel

ToEE and IWD2 Rumor Fail

Raduziel

Hi,


1.

When will Beamdog stop giving us things that we didn't ask for (like voice set) and start giving us things we do ask for (like an ending for the Soultaker's plot)?

2.

The super cool and secret announcement that flopped and gave us the Dice, Camera and Action pack was announced? If not, will it ever be? If yes, when?

Thanks.

JuliusBorisov

Keep these questions coming! I'll try to answer those I can, and will pass the rest to the team.

deltago said:

Hyper Chicken badge.

During the beta of BG:EE a user discovered chickens behaved oddly (flickering and twitching constantly) and called that behavior "Hyper". The term sticked, and the badge was issued. All further details are under NDA, but I hope this explanation settles it.

Casper01 said:

when something UNIQUE and completetly new is being made

During the last few streams Trent made it apparent the team is looking at potential projects which would be completely new.

wildfire said:

Can Icewind Dale 2 Enhanced edition be made without source code?

According to several extensive replies by Trent, no, unfortunately.

thrudd said:

My Question is Regarding The Infinity Engine.

Again, during the last few streams Trent mentioned several times he asked the team what excited them the most. And the decision was to move to new exciting stuff. The last time this was addressed was after this petition.

Raduziel said:

stop giving us things that we didn't ask for and start giving us things we do ask for?

How to define whether something is not asked for and by whom.

anastiel

What can we know about the new title? I do not want to break the suspense I just wonder if it's a new IP

Miridor

What are the chances of ever seeing Return to Windspear released in some form? https://forums.beamdog.com/discussion/36114/return-to-windspear#latest

wildfire

anastiel said:

What can we know about the new title? I do not want to break the suspense I just wonder if it's a new IP

I think it's new D&D game and spiritual successor of Baldur's Gate made in Unreal.

Adul

1. Are there plans to fix the major UI issues in BG:EE and BGII:EE? If so, in which patch can we expect to see the major fixes start rolling out?
2. Are there still plans to implement UI design suggestions from the Making It Work forum threads?
3. Are you going to externalize more hardcoded UI functions in the IE:EE engine?
4. What is holding back the 2.6 patch?

BelegCuthalion

Kamigoroshi said:

Any chances of seeing all of the EE backgrounds getting their well deserved attention with Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks (ESRGAN) scaling technology? Would be so much easier to the eye, especially in PST:EE's rather pixilated case.

Pic from an Morrowind mod which used this scaling method.

In addition to this:
are there any chances the IE games will ever really support hiDPI displays (not only work with them, but adjust to the system wide pixel ratio / scaling factor, adjusting UI and font sizes accordingly and – if available through ESRGAN/... – use that extra resolution to display high resolution imaginary and backgrounds.
Current state is that when running on a 3840x2160 4k-screen, the games UI is either extremely small (unscaled) or extremely blown up (scaled). When forcing the game to think it's running on a 1920x1080 display, everything is okay, but this is a system's compatibility setting (not good for the future!) and the additional sharpness of these displays is not made any use of (i.e. pixelated fonts, ...).
When going for AI upscaled artwork, without real support for hiDPI, this will make not very much difference.

AndreaColombo

JuliusBorisov said:

Again, during the last few streams Trent mentioned several times he asked the team what excited them the most. And the decision was to move to new exciting stuff. The last time this was addressed was after this petition.

Hi Julius,

My apologies as I have not been following the streams too closely; does that mean that 2.6 is going to be the last patch for these games?

Skatan

Would it be possible to gather up great mods created by the community, 'enhance' it to a refined, simpler form and put them into Mod Content Pack DLCs to be released for dummies like me who like new content but are too lazy (stupid) to manage mods? These mod packs could then be sold via Steam, GOG etc and owned, governed and controlled by you, though the Author/Creator get good exposure and some gold to boot.

My suggestions is to do this and credit the author and give them XY% of the revenue, thus enabling more content with minimal work from the internal teams. If this is legally possible I mean. I know nothing of content clauses that might exist to block this, but it seem to have worked for NVN right?

Cheers.

And yeah btw, Fallout and Arcanum EEs pleasekkthx;)