Mod Idea: Smooth Daggerfall

[Keeper Raul]

There is a mod for Doom called "Smooth Doom", it takes the original sprites for weapons, enemies, blood, anything that moves, and adds new frames for each animation, making it a more smooth experience. It does not add any HD sprite, texture or whatever. Here is a link for the mod in Doomworld: https://www.doomworld.com/forum/topic/6 ... heme-song/
That video demonstrates it very well, look at the minigun spinning in 0:19, or the shotgun reloading in 0:37.

Maybe it's possible to do something similar for Daggerfall, imagine looking at your (jagged and pixelated) sword while it swings and dances around your screen in smooth animations, or riding on horseback without feeling like its a stick horse. The only problem would be the pre-rendered 3d graphics, they're probably more difficult to animate than the hand-made ones. I would like to help, but the only image editing software I know how to use is MSPaint (and I'm not even that good with it). I love these "Polishing crap" types of mods, and I think this will be a great addition to Daggerfall Unity in the future.

[Biboran]

As far as I know, previously there was more sprites for enemies in daggerfall, but all animations was cuted by half in relise - at least I hear disscution about it somewhere

[Arctus]

As far as I know, previously there was more sprites for enemies in daggerfall, but all animations was cuted by half in relise - at least I hear disscution about it somewhere

Yeah this is true, if anyone has the demo release files the original animations are viewable there with more frames. Unfortunately I don't think those are usable for anything, and all the original data was long ago lost.

[jman0war]

Yes this is exactly what I would like to do.
Re-paint original animated sprites in higher rez and include more animation frames.

Now if I could just find a couple years of free time.

[Biboran]

If I had 100 years of time I probably draw a naked 2d bodies for all humanoid creatures and draw all clothes and armour that they wear in all angles to make them look in game what they actually wear

[Keeper Raul]

Re-paint original animated sprites in higher rez and include more animation frames.

It doesn't need to be high-res, my idea is to just add new anim frames, while keeping the original pixelated sprites (like smooth doom does), this way it takes less time and effort to make the mod, and it will also run on less powerful PCs. If someone makes an HD pack in the future, they can also make an optional file with the retextured frames added by Smooth DF, this way, no matter if you use HD packs or not, you can use Smooth DF, it's a win-win.

[jman0war]

Re-paint original animated sprites in higher rez and include more animation frames.

It doesn't need to be high-res, my idea is to just add new anim frames, while keeping the original pixelated sprites (like smooth doom does), this way it takes less time and effort to make the mod, and it will also run on less powerful PCs. If someone makes an HD pack in the future, they can also make an optional file with the retextured frames added by Smooth DF, this way, no matter if you use HD packs or not, you can use Smooth DF, it's a win-win.

Ah i see.
Yes you are right it would take a lot less time to keep the small size and add more frames.

Insofar as your 2d skills, perhaps you would consider grabbing a copy of GIMP if you want to stay Free/OpenSource, and YouTube.

[LorrMaster42]

I believe the original graphics were made out of 3D models and then converted into 2D sprites instead of drawing the same character at 50 different angles. Maybe there could be a way to do something like that in-engine or just use the same technique to create 2D sprites more quickly.

[Biboran]

If someone had epic 3d skill, it be much faster, yes

But a lot sprites got drawing on original renders, like bat after original render some parts of it was drawed by hand.

[Keeper Raul]

Yes, some of the sprites in Daggerfall are actually pre-rendered 3d (thieves, orcs and other enemies in dungeons), while others are hand made pixel art (people you find in taverns and temples), it lacks consistency. For the pre-rendered sprites, you guys are suggesting that we make our own models and then turn them into sprites, but if we are gonna do that, why not just add the 3d models themselves? Adding 3d models to the game is a good idea, don't take me wrong, but it goes beyond the scope of this mod.

My suggestion is to first work on the Pixel Art sprites, like Weapons, Blacksmiths, Bats, Dragonlings, Werewolfs/boars, Harpies, Imps and Horses. Then, there are some pre-rendered graphics that actually don't appear so hard to animate as I first thought, like Bears, Giants and Lamias. We'll see how it goes.

There is a Daggerfall bestiary in the UESP, it shows *almost* all of the animated sprites in the game: http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall:Bestiary
(Keep in mind that I'm not a modder or a texture artist, so I can't help to make the sprites in any way)
EDIT: sorry if the post got confusing