Amnesia: A Machine For Pigs Discussion Topic Part 1

[Statyk]

^ What Hirnwirbel said.

I find it funny when people complain about Amnesia's graphics and mechanics.. I figure, "oh, okay, that's fine. Someone has an opinion, I can respect that."

Then they compare it to UDK, Skyrim, Frostbite, etc....

Spoiler below!

I don't think people understand engine capabilities and budgets. Besides, I think the game looked quite alright.

[GrAVit]

I think Amnesia: The Dark Descent's beauty is blinding.

[Danny Boy]

^ What Hirnwirbel said.

I find it funny when people complain about Amnesia's graphics and mechanics.. I figure, "oh, okay, that's fine. Someone has an opinion, I can respect that."

Then they compare it to UDK, Skyrim, Frostbite, etc....

Spoiler below!

I don't think people understand engine capabilities and budgets. Besides, I think the game looked quite alright.

I know that fell. Tried to advertise Amnesia to a gamer friend and all he said was "The graphics look like shit!" I wanted to smack the face out of him. I am sick of people that prefer graphics over gameplay/ story. Its literally like saying I don't like a book because of its cover... FUCK SAKE YOU MORONS!

Yet I should have predicted his reaction... he after all did like Avatar and thinks Zero Punctuation is an idiot...

[Hardarm]

which is the release date of Amnesia A Machine for pigs? I want to play it!

It's set in January, 2013; so you gotta wait.
And welcome to the forums

[Alex Ros]

...I also could make better textures for Amnesia, because I use real surfaces and no computer-generated textures. And as you can see, the gravels looks like they were real...

I catch up on that. Surely you can make a better diffuse maps. But you will never achieve truly satisfying results with normal maps without baking them from a high-poly models. And those normals that are in the Amnesia are baked (most of them) and that's noticeable. And I do not know how you're going to make textures better than they're in the Amnesia without building high-poly models for your "real surfaces". Not baked normals are truly sucks in comparison with baked. I am not even mentioning height maps, what you gonna do with them to achieve good looking parallax? Anyway, I would love to see how you will make a better textures (diffuse, normal, specular and height maps) than they're now in Amnesia.

No trolling. I am really curious how u are gonna achieve the result u are talkin bout... I think u can't. But maybe I am very very wrong. And I do not mind to be wrong.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Hm... you can take a photo, manipulate it until you've got a somewhat functioning height map, then apply that to a plane in Mudbox/ ZBrush. (Or a whole mesh if you have an unwrapped one on which you made photoprojections.)
Then sculpt that "sketch" until all the bumps are in the right place, depth and direction, which would be hard to achieve with photoshop/crazybump/whatever alone, since real shadows on a photo are never a perfect heightmap.

Then just bake the normal, height and occlusion map again from that highpoly. Of course the plane needs to be perfectly aligned with the borders on the uv layout or you'll get an offset...

But yeah, especially for bigger stuff like bricks or stones, I'd definitely make a highpoly. Gravel etc. can work without maybe, since you'd have to hug the ground to really see any parallax or the like

[Zannibal]

Will there be spiders in the game? Has there been any hints or info about those 8-legged bastards?

As an arachnophobic(or how it is typed) that would be almost deal breaker. I didn't mind spiders in the first one - mostly because I didn't see one But in Penumbra they almost made me quit the game. I know, it's supposed to be scary, but screwing with a phobia is not a good way of being scary.

If they do put spiders in game.. well, I hope there's a way to mod them away..

[Alex Ros]

Hm... you can take a photo, manipulate it until you've got a somewhat functioning height map, then apply that to a plane in Mudbox/ ZBrush. (Or a whole mesh if you have an unwrapped one on which you made photoprojections.)
Then sculpt that "sketch" until all the bumps are in the right place, depth and direction, which would be hard to achieve with photoshop/crazybump/whatever alone, since real shadows on a photo are never a perfect heightmap.

Then just bake the normal, height and occlusion map again from that highpoly. Of course the plane needs to be perfectly aligned with the borders on the uv layout or you'll get an offset...

But yeah, especially for bigger stuff like bricks or stones, I'd definitely make a highpoly. Gravel etc. can work without maybe, since you'd have to hug the ground to really see any parallax or the like

That's exactly what I am talking about. It's incredible to make textures pack (not just fucking diffuse, but whole pack of maps) without baking. "Photoshop/crazybump/whatever alone" would not work, it will be worst than Amnesia original textures. It's easy to say "I can do better", but it's hard to make. REAL hard.

Some years ago I was the same. I've been saying a lot "I can do better". But only until one guy checked up on my words and asked to really "make better". I failed. Not badly. But anyway I failed. And I've learned that lesson.

So there's no aggression at all, I am as friendly as a can. No trolling. No jokes.

[Macgyverthehero]

Will there be spiders in the game? Has there been any hints or info about those 8-legged bastards?

As an arachnophobic(or how it is typed) that would be almost deal breaker. I didn't mind spiders in the first one - mostly because I didn't see one But in Penumbra they almost made me quit the game. I know, it's supposed to be scary, but screwing with a phobia is not a good way of being scary.

If they do put spiders in game.. well, I hope there's a way to mod them away..

I don't think they will have spiders... but if they do it will probably be like a smaller entity, like the mice, and fish creatures in ATTD.

If they do have something that has more than two legs (AKA: something bizarre) then that would make me shit
myself good.

[xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Will there be spiders in the game? Has there been any hints or info about those 8-legged bastards?

As an arachnophobic(or how it is typed) that would be almost deal breaker. I didn't mind spiders in the first one - mostly because I didn't see one
But in Penumbra they almost made me quit the game. I know, it's supposed to be scary, but screwing with a phobia is not a good way of being scary.

If they do put spiders in game.. well, I hope there's a way to mod them away..

Don't worry, I don't think they would fit the setting. If anything they'll probably be the same as in the original Amnesia, that is sitting around somewhere, being all atmospheric.
And I don't think Frictional put them in to screw with people's phobias on purpose I mean there are a ton of phobias... some people are even afraid of feathers or buttons! So they probably just thought they would go well with the abandoned mine setting and make for a good, slightly creepy small enemy.

(Btw, did you know that there was a Skyrim mod that replaced all the spiders with poorly animated bears, specifically for those too freaked out by them? Seems like you're not the only one! )