Same Graphipcs or not?

[MannyRap]

Anyone else think that if graphics are improved for the GF2 game, it'll be ruined? I think that they should stick to the same graphics. I don't know why, but I feel the game would be ruined with better graphics.I was hoping for some opinions.

[JofaGuht]

Tim Schafer was talking about how everybody hate 3D at lucasarts (grimfandango was the first 3D lucasart game) because it looked like nylon stretched over boxes. That's one of the reasons he thought it would be such a great idea to use day of the dea figures because that's kind of what they looked like. So this is what I mean by that:

 

It would be hard to update the graphics because they would look the same. If you could, it wouldn't look that much different.

 

But I'm on the anti-gf2 side anyway.

[Dawidos]

Only in 3D. But the same system requirements.

[chrisbailey]

Well I think the style works so well and the 3D effect is fantastic because it adds edge and realism to the fantasy world.

 

However, I think some things could easily be improved with modern methods. Glottis, for example, looks far too blocky - he should be fat and curvy and yet has jagged edges and sharp triangular points. This should be fixed if the game is ever rereleased.

[Thrik]

I'm not sure. With graphics progressing as quickly as they are (click here for an ingame shot of the next Unreal Engine) I wouldn't be surprised if the prerendered backgrounds of Grim Fandango could be created in full 3D without any detail loss at all, in a few years of development. I'm not saying that this would mean that the camera should be fully movable like in an FPS or something, but it could pan beautifully around (ala Broken Sword 3).

 

The character models themselves though could definitely use improvement. Whilst the overall style is great, the polygon number is noticably low to allow for the game to run on all systems in 1998. If the arms and such were smoothed off well to suit a modern audience then it'd look fine. Assuming that the 3D artists with the same vision were creating them, they could pull it off well.

[chrisbailey]

Thank you for linking to that screen shot from Unreal - it really is incredibly impressive that things like that can be done nowadays. I remember reading an article from an old gaming magazine from around the time of the Commodore64 style systems and an 'expert' said something along the lines of, "This is as close to reality as we'll get. There's no way the user will ever be able to explore a 3D world".

 

But yes, I'd love to see the graphics redone to be smoother and even more vivid. The game is fantastic because it (even today) looks so stunning in regards to visuals.