Used in like 3 games and never again, feels like a waste
>Used in like 3 games and never againBGBG:TotSCPS:TIWDIWD:HoWBG2ToBIWD2The infinity engine was outdated even in the late 90s and everything was moving to 3D. I am guessing that you were not alive then but have watched a lot of youtube videos about it, though
>>4004200tbf, you named 5, expansions don't count imo, its still one game>in like 3 gamesnot a huge difference unless you want to be pedantic.at the time, yeah, it was outdated, but that was only because everyone was pushing for 3D so hard. over time and as the industry peaked graphically, we've seen that it doesn't actually matter what the game looks like, so in hindsight, it wasn't really outdated, the market just shifted. All of these games have a lot of charm with their painted backgrounds.
>>4004205>tbf, you named 5, expansions don't count imo, its still one gameFair. But the same engine being used for five games is still quite a success.>so in hindsight, it wasn't really outdated, the market just shifted. All of these games have a lot of charm with their painted backgrounds.The graphics are still fine today, and late 2d art aged a lot better than early 3d did of course, but the engine was still outdated and clunky for its time. The pathfinding was always garbage back in the day even with the nodes cranked up to 400,000 or whatever. The game was locked to 30 FPS. The interface always felt janky and floaty, like with exploits to abuse "blue circle" neutral NPCs and clicking on them to speak but then cancelling into combat while they just stand there, etc.Remember, BG1 came out after Half-Life did. It was showing its age even when it was brand new.
>>4004199Because pre-rendered backgrounds were a huge hassle. Remember, we went from reusable tilesets to those. Also full 3D was on the horizon for better or worse.
>>4004236people today forget how badly nwn1 got blasted for looking the way it does. everyone thought it was a step down from prerendered backgrounds.
>>4004236>>4004242That's an 800x600 screenshot with all the graphical options set to as low as possible, probably from someone with a shit-tier computer. NWN is what it is, but it didn't look THAT bad. Here is a fresh vanilla install of NWN Diamond, with a contemporaneous resolution, at the same scene.
>>4004263based fact checker
>>4004199AFAIK you can use the engine to your liking. Not even the worst engine.
>>4004263>an 800x600 screenshot with all the graphical options set to as low as possible, probably from someone with a shit-tier computeraka the average experience in 2002also, >>4004236 looks better than >>4004263
>>4004263This looks uglier than the Infinity Engine games.
>>4004411>aka the average experience in 2002I had a good PC in 2002, and so did everyone I knew who played games. That screenshot looks like it's from some Brazilian's hand-me-down laptop or something.>also, >>4004236 looks better than >>4004263 (You)Now this is just contrarian. Look how fucking shitty and pixelated those textures look. You can disagree with someone's conclusions or opinions without lying, anon.
>>4004412>This looks uglier than the Infinity Engine games.Here's what you saw the first time you fired up Baldur's Gate. The interfaces takes up a third of the screen by area. The hand-painted backgrounds are of course beautiful and have aged much better than early 3D, but the spritework was primitive even by 90s standards (IIRC they were actually animated 3d models that were then rendered as 2d sprites), and what a static screenshot doesn't show is how BG is fixed to run at 30 FPS with crude animations, while NWN felt much more dynamic and smoother.
>>4004412>>4004422Here's what you saw the first time you booted up Planescape. Looks like a mid-90s point and click adventure.Fundamentally, they aren't comparable. The IE games relied heavily on gorgeous hand-painted backgrounds because they were designed for bespoke single player experiences produced by teams of professional artists, while NWN was designed to be heavily modular with interchangeable tilesets to facilitate multiplayer worlds and custom campaign creation by random users.
>>4004422>>4004423Yeah, this looks more eye-pleasing.Aside from that, Temple of Elemental Evil from 2003 looks better than Neverwinter Nights as well.
>>4004432>Aside from that, Temple of Elemental Evil from 2003 looks better than Neverwinter Nights as well.Disagree. For reference, here's a fresh vanilla install with the graphics options maxed out. I love ToEE, but it never looked good. Lacks the soul and charm of the infinity engine games' hand-painted backgrounds, and just always looked kinda lumpy and blobby. Like Arcanum (pretty sure its engine is derived from the Arcanum engine)
>>4004200Whatever garbage engine they made for NWN was objectively a downgrade.
>>4004420none of my middle-class american friends or family in 2002 had a 1600x1200 monitor, it was always 800x600 or 1024x768. >Now this is just contrarian.no, i'm completely serious. excessively HD textures in early 3D games always looks bad>>4004422>>4004423>The interfaces takes up a third of the screen by areagood.>they were actually animated 3d models that were then rendered as 2d spritesgood.>Looks like a mid-90s point and click adventuregood.>NWN was designed to be heavily modular with interchangeable tilesets to facilitate multiplayer worlds and custom campaign creation by random usersone of the many reasons why it turned out worse than the infinity engine games
>>4004775>no, i'm completely serious. excessively HD textures in early 3D games always looks badLook at picrel and tell me with a straight face that you sincerely think the left looks better than the right.>none of my middle-class american friends or family in 2002 had a 1600x1200 monitor, it was always 800x600 or 1024x768.Everyone I knew with gaming computers at that time had CRTs that could display whatever resolution you fed it. Early LCDs were expensive and shitty and wouldn't become superior for years (aside from not weighing 50 pounds)
>>4004833>CRTs that could display whatever resolution you fed itwut
>>4004833Those CRTs were optimized and advertised for specific resolutions though, they looked like shit if you tried to go higher. Plus a random prebuilt PC from Best Buy wasn't going to run brand new games at 1200p without chugging anyway.
>>4004199Nobody needs to make "CRPG with enough Diablo and RTS not to scare off 75 IQ children immediately" anymore
>>4004199The engine used in Fallout Tactics was the absolute pinnacle of isometric grid- based games and it was used in only fucking 1, one, game.
>>4004850rtwp games have literally nothing to do with diablo other than the isometric camera
>>4004882They were the other popular thing that RTwP was trying to emulate at the time it was relevant
>>4004619Aurora? It's blocky alright.>>4004775>3d to 2dWhats that process called?
>>4004883actually, rtwp games were emulating a tabletop game called dungeons & dragons. i don't blame you for not knowing this obscure trivia though!
>>4004850I was actually wondering if RTwP or turn based were more demanding on the player. Turn based mostly is comfy because most systems provide no real depth, i.e. d&d 3.5 aside from picking the right feats. RTwP can be stressful when making decisions for several people simultaneously including their positioning. But then again, they say RTwP is more accessible.
>>4004990>RTwP can be stressful when making decisionsAnd/or plain cumbersome. That's why I love DA: Origin's AI programming feature that cut down tedious micromanagement.
>>4004263People in those days didn't usually even have a GPU, anon. Your screenshot is *not* accurate to the experience of the era. You're the one spreading misinformation.
>>4004422The backgrounds were not painted, by the way. They were pre-rendered from 3D scenes. The loss of all those assets is a major reason why the Enhanced Edition versions couldn't go back to tweak any of the original maps, and it's why the new maps are very clearly new.
>>4004990RTwP being stressful is something RTwP apologists have made up in their heads. The actual issue is that every pause instantly makes the game easier and easier every time you do it, but the games are not designed to be played without pausing because that would ruin the turn based style of gameplay where you can have an infinitely deep interface with as many moves and skills and items as they care to implement and which obviously cannot be used in a RTS manner unless you devolve the game to kiting or some other silly RTS action mechanic. This will of course summon the RTwP cope that "I never pause" and similar horseshit, so fuck you lying cunts
>>4004422>spritework was primitive even by 90s standards (IIRC they were actually animated 3d models that were then rendered as 2d sprites),Funny how he realizes this, but (supposedly) thinks this:>>4004422>hand-painted backgrounds>>4004423>hand-painted backgrounds>>4004459>hand-painted backgrounds
>>4005000Such a bizarre complaint. Of course RTwP players pause. That's the whole intended gameplay experience. You pause when you feel like you need to. No one is forcing you to pause or not pause any more often than YOU personally decide to do so.
>>4005003Real RTWP chads learn hotkeys and have higher APM than korean starcraft players
>>4005000>kitingsee, there is some positional strategy aside from spamming the best spell in turn based.The stressful part is that you have to micromanage each party member (6) simultaneously. Also, no enemy is waiting for them to finish their turn before they act.
After Pillars of Eternity I began to truly desire the death of RTwP in rpgs.
>>4005004eyeroll emoji
>>4005006PoE was the perfect implementation of RTwP though. It even has a speed rate modifier that you can adjust which kicks in automatically for combat. The action economy is perfectly balanced and highly polished for RTwP gameplay. That's literally one of the specific things that is absolutely perfect about the game. What the FUCK are you even on about, anon? Do you have some kind of neurological problem where you can't process visual information in real time or something?
>>4005006Pillars is a solid game honestly it's easily the best of that whole wave of kickstarter CRPG revivals, and rtwp is one of its strengths over the turn-based ones which always feel too slow
>>4005001It's futile. I had that argument before and simply couldn't convince the guy. Some dudes must have never seen a painting before or maybe it's some kind of visual impairment.
>>4004841What do you not understand zoomie
>>4005009>>4005013Sorry, it sucks. Just like you in the public bathroom.
>>4004997>People in those days didn't usually even have a GPU, anon. Your screenshot is *not* accurate to the experience of the era. You're the one spreading misinformation.OH NO NO NO the “misinformation” schizo is a LARPing zoomer? This is anon’s total lack of surprise.One, NWN did indeed require a 3d card (or video card, or graphics card, or 3d accelerator if you please, but the term GPU was not in common use at the time). Minimum system requirement was a TNT2 with 16MB VRAM.Two, anyone playing games in the era did have a video card, shit-tier integrated graphics wouldn’t become a thing for another decade give or take, and discrete video cards became commonplace by the mid to late 90s, and were absolutely required for anything 3d by the early 2000s.Some milestones in consumer grade cards:>3dfx Voodoo (1996)>ATI Rage (1996)>Matrox Mystique (1997, perfect for a clown like you)>3dfx Voodoo 2 (1998)>Nvidia RIVA TNT (1998)>Nvidia RIVA TNT2 (1999, min for NWN)>Nvidia GeForce 256 (1999)>Nvidia GeForce 2 (2000)>ATI Radeon 9700 Pro (2002, fucking loved this card)
>>4004199>IE games>goodIWD2 is the only slightly passable one, and that one's a 5/10 at best.
>>4004459That looks fine, not great, because it's a simple random encounter area, not one of the main areas.>infinity engine games' hand-painted backgroundsThe IE games were 3D levels that were captured as 2D images and then received a paint-over pass to make them look even better. Obsidian talked about this process in one of their Eternity Kickstarter updates.
>>4005005Could one implement actual turn based with the ie editor? Ai seems capable to do so. I never set up a local one, as I fell for the mobile gpu. Didn't realize they are castrated.
>>4004459>Lacks the soul and charm of the infinity engine games' hand-painted backgrounds, and just always looked kinda lumpy and blobby.It looks blobby because it probably received some amount of paint-over. BG1 and BG2, in contrast, look pixel sharp because they were pure renders. You guys are getting it exactly wrong.
>>4005340>It looks blobby because it probably received some amount of paint-over. BG1 and BG2, in contrast, look pixel sharp because they were pure renders.The IE games also got some amount of paint-over. If they looked pixel sharp it’s because they were older games than ToEE that were running at lower resolutions at the time (IIRC without looking in the launcher, BG1 defaulted to 640x480 while BG2 defaulted to 800x600 with the option to unlock higher “unsupported” resolutions with a checkbox)
>>4004459>resolution way too high for toee's assets>absolutely too high>random screenshot of a random encounter on a random fucking roadI will drag your unconscious body to the crone of the great temple and throw condoms at her until she wakes up, then lock the door behind me.
>>4004263NWN starts resembling a good looking game only in well designed modules with custom tilesets. The vanilla game is beyond ugly.
>>4005458>>resolution way too high for toee's assetsThat screeshot is rendered at 1280x720, with all the graphics settings maxed out.>>random screenshot of a random encounter on a random fucking roadThat's the opening vignette of a lawful good party, what one may see immediately following character creation, in order to be consistent with taking a screenshot of BG1 immediately following character creation, and a screenshot of PS:T immediately following character creation.>>4005459>NWN starts resembling a good looking game only in well designed modules with custom tilesets. The vanilla game is beyond ugly.Never said NWN looked great, just objected to the anon depicting it with a resolution that was low even for the time, on a shit-tier computer with every graphics setting turned as low as possible. Look at the fucking jaggies, man.
