Diomedes and the Alternate Reality

atcDave

Yeah I'm back with another IWD run! I've spent the last few months playing the old Gold Box games. Starting with Pool of Radiance. Really a ton of fun. The old games play fast and stable on DOSBox.

But you know, they really are OLD. It is amazing to me how much game design improved over just the ten years from when Pool of Radiance came out until Baldur's Gate. So I decided I just had to recreate that team, the characters I was playing in the Gold Box games, for an IWD run. IWD not only has the advantages you'd expect as a newer game (Improved graphics and gameplay), but it is a more complete implimentation of AD&D from a character perspective. More classes, weapon proficiencies, kits. Plus using 2E instead of 1E. Its just a far more complete experience.

Its also amazing to me how much the AI renderers have improved in these last few months. When I last posted here I was just starting to supplement DALLE with more SeeDream. Now I've pretty much dumped both of them for GPT Image. Improvements on character consistency, group shots, and even D&D specific critters has been notable.

I suppose I should mention, I am well aware of the complaints with AI art. But this is all just for my own amusement, no living artist lost a dime for renders I never would have paid for. Just a few examples...







For those interested, the whole introductory post is now up at Davesgaming.blog

Mathsorcerer

Everyone should track down the old Gold Box games and play them in DosBOX. If I recall, someone ported Pool of Radiance into the NWN engine, but I would have to track that down. My wife, @notabarbiegirl, would know, if she ever showed up here again.

atcDave

You do need to have the right mindset for it I think, the games are old. Archaic. But the good news is, fast and stable in DOSBox. And available from GoG. It was serious nostalgia for me. But once you get past a little adjustment, just a ton of fun. It surprised me a little how hard some of the fights still were!
Yeah I’ve seen it done for NWN, played much of it several years back. But that is really a very different sort of game.

atcDave

I've taken the team through the Vale of Shadows and Kresselack's Tomb. So moving right along...

The advances in the AI art are just amazing. Especially in the area of character consistency. Vast improvements.









Check out the story of the run at davesgaming.

atcDave

As always, I enjoy Icewind Dale enormously. Its particularly playing this team I already know well. I'd add to that, the pace at which AI renderers are improving is staggering. I can now pretty routinely do renders of a sort I couldn't dream of just a few months ago.







Check out the latest update for this run, or the whole story at davesgaming.

atcDave

I've updated a couple times now in the last few weeks. It is still a learning process! As the AIs get more sophisticated I can do more, but there's always a learning curve with each new trick. And the videos get better. Still only in 5 - 10 second clips, and the audio is problematic. But I wonder how far off until a private user can generate a feature length movie from their own script? This is the sort of thing that was unimaginable to me just a few years ago, now I'm thinking I could live to see it.









The latest update is available on its own, or the whole story is up at davesgaming.blog

atcDave

This run is now officially finished! It was a good time, with a more involved write-up than my last few runs. Included this time a few images drawn from Lava's fun new "War of Bloom and Rot" mod. Highly recommended!






The latest up date is available on its own. Or the whole post can be read here.