Atlas Park Revival

[Thirty-Seven]

I heard mutterings of some video of a walk-through of Atlas Park that had been remastered through the use of the Unreal engine...

Anyone know where I could go about finding that?

[Blackstar5]

I haven't seen a vid but I have seen a facebook page of a guy doing a lot of work with UR4 https://www.facebook.com/AtlasParkRevival

[Thirty-Seven]

Awesome!

Just what I was looking for.  Maybe there wasn't a video, maybe it was wishful thinking on my part.

[ScottyB]

The video they posted is actually of Ouroboros in UE4. Their Facebook page should have a few pictures of Atlas Park, though. (Not sure how many pictures were UE3, though.)

[Cobra Man]

I was pretty much unmoved by the UE4 stuff .... until I got to this one.




and then this one ...

[MWRuger]

Chills. I tell you, literal chills!

I would love to see our game like that. (But I'll happily take it as is right now!)

[Microcosm]

That is simply incredible.

[Blackstar5]

Yeah the quality of Unreal 4 is ...well ...unreal.When the game is bought( fingers crossed) It would be awesome to eventually be ported to u4.

[Ironwolf]

There is a video but I can't find it! Maybe they took it down? It was on You Tube.

[Thirty-Seven]

There is a video but I can't find it! Maybe they took it down? It was on You Tube.

Yeah, I looked ALL over their FB page and the only video I found was a teaser of the flag atop City Hall in Atlas.  No sign of the Ouroboros video mentioned above.

Anyone have a link??  Pretty please?

[Just a Hero]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Bg_xIAekCys

[Thirty-Seven]

Nice!  Thanks a lot for that!

[kiario]

No to be pesimistic, but to me porting to U4 has almost zero value. I like what they did with the graphics upgrade of the original engine. But any more would not improve my gaming experience. Its all in the core gameplay for me.

[ag88t88]

See that is gorgeous, but now I have to wonder about the mechanics of this sort of port and how "easy" it is to do.  I'm not a computer artist in any way and while I have a passing understanding of how these things work I don't know a lot about the guys and the internal workings of it.

It looks to me like the geometry is all the same, especially in those floating rocks and the like. So when porting this information to Unreal 4 is it a matter of reskinning and retexturing everything?  Is it a matter of just taking the existing information and changing it into something Unreal 4 recognizes and then doing some touch up?   

Is everything having to be re-made from the ground up? From the geometry up? Is it as simple as the U4 engine just renders what is already there but adds its own lighting and texturing effects; "IE the "glass" bits are textured like this and the "metal" bits are textured like that, to the existing information?

I guess I just want to know how involved this process is, how realistic it would be to think that dozens of zones might conceivably be made over this way.   I mean, if its just redoing some textures, a lot of the textures in game are reused in a lot of places so it wouldn't be that bad, unless a lot of the seemingly reused textures are for some reason custom and what not.

How much of this is the U4 engine doing its thing, and how much of it is the existing assets having to be thoroughly reworked in the U4 engine to llook that good? 

[downix]

From what I've been told, it is the existing geometries and textures imported directly. It looks as good as it does due to UE4.

[ag88t88]

From what I've been told, it is the existing geometries and textures imported directly. It looks as good as it does due to UE4.

So what does it take to import that information to UE4 and make it read it? Is that just as simple as Graphics Engine + Graphics information= Gorgeous Ouroborus? Or is there more to it than that?   

[Thirty-Seven]

Based on the fact that Atlas Park is an ongoing project I would assume there is more to it than that.

It seems like meshes and textures need to be adjusted fairly frequently otherwise mere PIGG diving shoulda been enough to have AP done already.  And based on the FB page, it isn't.

[Codewalker]

I think the process starts with an OpenGL capture, same as the people 3D printing character figures. That dumps the raw geometry of the scene as a whole rather than distinct objects, but gives a starting point that can then be adjusted.

At the very least material properties would have to be added for each surface. UV mapping may be preserved or it might have to be redone.  I think I see some untextured buildings in the background of some of the screenshots.

I'm about 95% sure that's not the original normal map for the Atlas statue or plaque. Some of the other textures look to be higher resolution versions as well.  A lot of the original filler textures are not especially high res, since it would have increased the video RAM requirements to play the game.

From what I've been told, it is the existing geometries and textures imported directly. It looks as good as it does due to UE4.

Good is subjective. The lighting used in the Atlas scene looks harsh an unrealistic to me, as if the sun had been replaced with a nuclear-powered spotlight.  I prefer the original flame effects to the particle system in the Ouroborus video.

I'd also be interested to see the scene with dynamically changing time of day. All of the demo and "beauty shots" I've seen from UE4 use statically baked in lightmaps since the GI feature got pulled. Those make a scene with fixed lighting look good, but mean you can't change the light source significantly without things looking wrong or generating a ton of alternative maps to cycle through (hope you got disk space).

[ag88t88]

See that is some useful in depth information right there, that gives me clearer idea of what "porting" CoH to the UE 4 engine would take.   Still I do like how it looks. 

[MaidMercury]

...oh my.....
you can almost touch it. 

[Zombie Hustler]

Man, listening to the Ouroboros music made me realize how much I really miss this game.

[Thirty-Seven]

Man, listening to the Ouroboros music made me realize how much I really miss this game.

I know, I had that same problem.

I was just cruising through a few different zones in Icon, and was struck by the music and the jumping and flying SFX, it was actually a little depressing.

(But I'll happily take it as is right now!)

You mean closed indefinitely?!   

[ag88t88]

I was just cruising through a few different zones in Icon, and was struck by the music and the jumping and flying SFX, it was actually a little depressing.

I had the same exact reaction, nostalgic with a side of depression.  Amazing how just the few SFX and music beats can affect us huh?

[Thirty-Seven]

I had the same exact reaction, nostalgic with a side of depression.  Amazing how just the few SFX and music beats can affect us huh?

Too true.  Now I know why I haven't messed with Icon too much since the game's closure: the login music makes me remember that I can't play.

[MWRuger]

I turn the music off.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

Good is subjective. The lighting used in the Atlas scene looks harsh an unrealistic to me, as if the sun had been replaced with a nuclear-powered spotlight.  I prefer the original flame effects to the particle system in the Ouroborus video.

It really freaking does. I'm slowly working on making it look a little more "Sun"-like, but it's one of a ton of things on my checklist lol.
...and yeah, I'm aware the crystal and fire look completely awful. I didn't have a very good grasp on UE4s transparancy system, or particle effects at the time of the video. I'd seriously only gotten my hands on the engine a few days earlier lol.

As for a video flythrough of Atlas Park...I haven't done one. I'm sure I will at some point...however, at the moment the "beauty shots" are set up to kind of hide the giant holes of stuff missing from the zone.

CodeWalker's right. A lot of the meshes start out as OpenGL captures. The UV mapping of the objects is totally lost, sadly. So I have to do all of that from scratch.
Some of the meshes are built from scratch, I scratch built more of the meshes early on. Started doing that less to save on time. Occasionally, I end up having to re-build a mesh because for some reason, It's just not working out.


"Not sure how many pictures were UE3, though."
A ton of them, most of the development time has been spent in UE3. All the posts in the last couple months have been Unreal Engine 4, Everything since the Ouroboros video.

"I'd also be interested to see the scene with dynamically changing time of day."
It's partially implemented, Just enough to make sure I knew how to do it in the new engine (It was one of the first things I set up in UE3, Just never really showed it off.). Lightmapping isn't required, and in fact is a process I personally dislike. UE4 does support dynamic lighting, which is what I'm using in Revival.

[Codewalker]

It really freaking does. I'm slowly working on making it look a little more "Sun"-like, but it's one of a ton of things on my checklist lol.

A bit more ambient and diffuse scatter would do the trick I think -- the shadows look way too dark for outdoors. Toning down the bloom a bit if you have the option for it might as well (haven't really done much with unreal 3 or 4 so I'm not real familiar with its lighting options). A lot of newer engines seem to default to ridiculous levels of bloom as if it say, "Hey, we have HDR!" But it's an effect that works much better subtly than in your face.

CodeWalker's right. A lot of the meshes start out as OpenGL captures. The UV mapping of the objects is totally lost, sadly. So I have to do all of that from scratch.

Ugh, that doesn't sound like fun. I was hoping it would capture UV at least. We can extract those from geo files if it would be helpful, but I don't have a good format to dump it into. DXF is mesh only, no UV. And Collada is... well... a pain in the ass to work with and seemingly implemented in subtly incompatible ways everywhere.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

A bit more ambient and diffuse scatter would do the trick I think -- the shadows look way too dark for outdoors. Toning down the bloom a bit if you have the option for it might as well.

I think you're right, It's mainly that I haven't sat down and really worked on it. I tend to try and spend the majority of my time either getting assets in, or trying to learn more stuff that I can use to make Revival more awesome.

Ugh, that doesn't sound like fun. I was hoping it would capture UV at least. We can extract those from geo files if it would be helpful, but I don't have a good format to dump it into.

Yeah...UV Mapping is not exactly my favorite of activities... Basically, only something I do willingly for my love of CoH.
Last I heard (Which was awhile ago, admittedly) the GEO format was still a big locked up mystery, has that changed? o.0

[Codewalker]

Last I heard (Which was awhile ago, admittedly) the GEO format was still a big locked up mystery, has that changed? o.0

You might have missed a few things, the boards have been quite chatty with rampant wild speculation for some time.

Don't have much time to post at the moment, but this should illustrate.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fszg9e8h9cin3ny/geosample.7z

[PsychicKitty]

um that's a lot like what my game looked like at the end.

Ultra settings on maximum with 1920 by 1080 display using reflections and maximum everything.....and he looks like he isn't using shadows or the ugly isometric(fish bowl view)

if your game was foggy or you didn't have it look good most likely you had shadows and the isometric thing turned on...seriously I felt if the developers think that's how the world looks with their foggy and blurry isometric and shadows fogging everything....they need to get some better glasses.

[Cailyn Alaynn]

Oh man. Geodraw is awesome! Very impressive, CW. If only it had an export option, It would make my life easier. lol

Yeah, I'm sure I've missed a lot of stuff going on. I haven't checked the Titan forums anywhere near as often as I should have.

[LadyVamp]

It may not be perfect, but I'd play it.  I dearly miss the game, my toons, the base, and most especially the players.  All the things we did together and against each other.  They were what gave the game the spice.  To let my mice live again, I would gladly endure harsh lighting.

[Nyghtshade]

What I'd love to see would be what an alt or two would look like, imported into the U
nreal engine.