Daggerfall Workshop Forums

Will test it out

My next step for this mod is remastering the class NPCs: Knights, Thieves, Mages, etc. I had a question about categorization, though. Should I pack the Guards in a dfmod with the remastered villagers or with the remastered classes?

Preview of Remastered Classes:

Man the xbrz upscaling u use is so bad, why u do it? The color gradients are just awful. Why dont u change it to something better? I dont understand it... seems like a loss of time and efforts. I cant be silent on that Im not hating, Im just completely baffled with it. What u want to axhieve?

Well, I strongly prefer the posterized color gradients -- that's actually the reason I made this mod. Smooth color gradients just don't look good when you're starting from low-res pixel art, IMO. But of course it's a matter of personal perspective. Everybody's free to use the sprites they like best.

Alright, in deference to KoW I quickly mocked up a comparison of a purely AI upscale recipe vs the XBR / AI hybrid recipe:

Pure AI: XBR / AI hybrid: While I see the merits of each approach, personally, I prefer the hybrid recipe. The pure AI sprite seems like it's trying too hard to achieve something it can never achieve -- photorealism -- which makes it seem more artificial. In particular I don't think it well suits Daggerfall's general aesthetic. The hybrid recipe appears more stylized, as if it were hand-painted, and therefore more true to the original pixel art. But I'm interested in hearing what other folks think -- not just KoW and I. At this point I've written a series of scripts that can batch produce either of these with fairly minimal effort on my part. Which button should I press?

Ok I just made a direct comparison to the xBRZ + gigapixel you provided in the thread and the AI + gigapixel I use in DREAM.

Consider that your xBRZ are 4x the size than the AI and than compare the detail of the smaller AI to the larger xBRZ.

If thats the artistic style, so be it and nothing against it!

I just wanted you to be fully aware of the technique you are using. I know that tech very well, I used it almost 3 years ago, created ALL mobs using it, and than for a reason I moved to AI...

Now I see you doing what I did 3 years back, so naturally I chime in to warn you, because I already walked that path. Not sure its a welcomed advice tho, so this may be my last input on that topic Good luck!

Hey, I definitely welcome your advice -- you're the master of this! And besides, we both love this game and want it to look its best.

As I said, I see the merits in both approaches. The AI thief gives particularly good results. The guard, less so -- the AI gets the material wrong, thinking that it's liquid instead of metal. It also tries to invent detail that isn't there, to somewhat unpleasant results.

This is a face:


This is the stuff of nightmares:


The xBRZ approach certainly sacrifices smooth color gradients, but it more faithfully conveys materials and pixel art details. I also think the color gradients fit in better with Daggerfall's overall art style -- particularly the gorgeous D.R.E.A.M. NPC flats. Which approach is better overall, of course, is a matter of personal preference. My goal with this isn't to replace D.R.E.A.M., just to create an option for mobile sprites more aligned with my own preferences.

Thanks ,) Both faces are from nightmare, just different chapter gets much better when animated tho.. Also, u can switch the faces.. I did that on harpy, daedra seducer, nymph etc.. agreed that AI faces are bad tho.

Anyway, good luck with the project.

King of Worms wrote: ↑Sat May 01, 2021 3:01 pm Both faces are from nightmare, just different chapter

Hahaha that's a very fair characterization. Well, I'll keep working on it and try to push it further. One thing that looked pretty good was applying the Oilify filter in GIMP. Skyrim Oilified is one of the most popular graphics mods even though Skyrim graphics are vastly more advanced than Daggerfall's... In the end I'll likely make different versions for different tastes... As we say here in Nicaragua, para gustos hay colores!

I think this is how an orc should look...