Hacx 2.0 -- Hacxmas Alpha!

[Sodaholic]

Alright, here's the final version of the enhanced Reznator sprites, in the attached WAD.



Cage, is this not a major improvement?

[NeuralStunner]

Well... I like it.

You should distribute art as PNG though. Wads are a little inconvenent.

[Gez]

It's for using in a game; not for printing and framing on a wall. I'd say it's more convenient to have it in the game format already. Wanna see how it looks? There were pictures in the previous posts.

[NeuralStunner]

It has to go through DeuTex compilation, meaning it has to be exported from the wad first. (It has to be converted too, but BMP usually isn't feasible for online sharing.)

[Sodaholic]

It has to go through DeuTex compilation, meaning it has to be exported from the wad first. (It has to be converted too, but BMP usually isn't feasible for online sharing.)

DeuTex? BMP? We're not in the 90's anymore. If you want PNG versions, just use Slade 3's Export to PNG option.

I'd say it's more convenient to have it in the game format already.

This is the exact reason I had it in the game format, so that it could easily be added to the game without Xaser needing to bother converting and aligning it. Speaking of alignment, it's identical to the original frame's alignment, in case anybody cares.

[NeuralStunner]

DeuTex? BMP? We're not in the 90's anymore.

The Hacx IWad is compiled with a DeuTex script. (And an updated version of DeuTex.) Write something better and Xaser might use it.

just

Gah...

This is the exact reason I had it in the game format, so that it could easily be added to the game without Xaser needing to bother converting and aligning it.

Like I said. "Easily added to the game" does not apply the same way to this case. As a testing vehicle yes, it'll work "out of the box". But for inclusion it'll still need to go through additional backwards steps.

As it is, please don't act like I was making a huge deal out of it.

[leileilol]

Redistributing Hacx in a convenient 'official' standalone version carries a lot of responsibility. Reject any and all democratically proposed additions and respect the original purity.

No jumping
No "improved" graphics
Just Hacx
Separate all this improvement bullshit into an optional pwad

[Enjay]

Redistributing Hacx in a convenient 'official' standalone version carries a lot of responsibility. Reject any and all democratically proposed additions and respect the original purity.

No jumping
No "improved" graphics
Just Hacx
Separate all this improvement bullshit into an optional pwad

One person's "original purity" is another person's "it wasn't that good back then but I suppose that's the best they could do". Without some of the improvements that you reject, I would probably consider the project hardly worth the effort or the download. However, what I've seen so far, I like. I think the improvements are fitting and genuinely improve the game. You are right that there is a certain responsibility to this project but I trust the team to take an appropriate and measured approach and to make good, sensible, reasoned decisions.

[Sodaholic]

I'm going to agree with leilei, but only on jumping. Honestly, the game wasn't designed with jumping in mind, and I think this aspect of the original game should be kept.

If one wants just regular Hacx, they should play 1.2.

The Hacx IWad is compiled with a DeuTex script. (And an updated version of DeuTex.) Write something better and Xaser might use it.

Ah, I didn't know this. I'm curious, though, what are the advantages of compiling a WAD versus editing it directly? Xaser's the only one maintaining the IWAD itself, isn't he?

Like I said. "Easily added to the game" does not apply the same way to this case. As a testing vehicle yes, it'll work "out of the box". But for inclusion it'll still need to go through additional backwards steps.

It's possible to extract the Doom format images into the directory that it compiles from and compile that into it, isn't it? Or does it need a different image format? If so, how does it keep alignment?

As it is, please don't act like I was making a huge deal out of it.

I wasn't.

[NeuralStunner]

DeuTex scripts handle the alignments for sprites. It also only takes bitmaps at this point, as far as I know. It's an old as hell program but it's still the most featured wad compiler.

DH-wad is a good wad compiler, but can't (and won't) do any conversions.

[Xaser]

Redistributing Hacx in a convenient 'official' standalone version carries a lot of responsibility. Reject any and all democratically proposed additions and respect the original purity.

No jumping
No "improved" graphics
Just Hacx
Separate all this improvement bullshit into an optional pwad

Hacx 1.2 is just that. Original Hacx as an IWAD with full co-op support and no BS. Fraggle was kind enough to support it in Chocolate Doom, too, so it's 'pure' enough in that standpoint.

[Sodaholic]

Well, if DeuTex only uses BMPs, here's some BMP versions, they're 8-bit, and use cyan as the background.

Xaser, what do you think of the new sprites?

[Xaser]

It definitely looks better in some regards -- the reflections are much improved, for one -- though it's a bit too "noisy" to work in-game. I did a 50% blend with it and the original sprites, though, and with some post-editing by hand, it looks rather nice IMO:



Think I'll go ahead and add these in. Thanks Soda & Blox.

[Blox]

Oh snap, the ones without a hand look a bit meh!

[Cage]

Cage, is this not a major improvement?

Slapping an overlay over it wasn't, tweaking the shading definately is, but it still needs some editing to retain the "pixelyness" of the original.

Didn't mean to sound like a nazi, or whatever, earlier but I think there's still a lot of stuff that need ACTUAL work on it, like, for example, making the uzi visually consistent.



In fact started working on that one

Oh and BTW - I think the weird green colours on the weapon sprites are an actual palette conversion error, and I'll be graying out those on my edits. The added overlay to the Reznator makes the green patch look like mold for example which is ridiculous

Redistributing Hacx in a convenient 'official' standalone version carries a lot of responsibility. Reject any and all democratically proposed additions and respect the original purity.

No jumping
No "improved" graphics
Just Hacx
Separate all this improvement bullshit into an optional pwad

That's what version 1.2 does - keeps the original, but fixes bugs/compatibility etc. I agree on no jumping but the graphics are something that should be improved but not "improved" - that's why I'm trying to be as strict as possible in the terms of quality of edited/new GFX and leave as much of the original as possible.