As part of the graphics effects for Doomdark’s Revenge, Jure and I implemented a haze effect to the landscaping. The mechanic is simple if a little processor hungry. The landscaping technique draws from back to front using seven definitive distance layers, z axis if you like. So what we do in DDR is after every layer has been drawn, we apply a haze alpha mask to modify the pixels drawn. The layer at the back will get modified by every haze layer and thus thicken up the haze fogginess in the distance. You can see the affect on the image here – click to get a bigger view. This is an example of the amount of extra processing taking place in the DDR frontend. What I would like to see is the system moved to using 3d hardware, this would allow effects like this to be done using pixel shaders. This combined with hardware drawing in general would make the DDR frontend function with little graphic overhead.
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Retro Blogging
Lords of Midnight
Just picked up on a Lords of Midnight Article that indirectly talks a little about the atmosphere of Midnight.
However, despite its strong sense of location, there was little impetus to idly explore the countryside. While the land of Midnight has a stark beauty, the limited range of elements leaves little room for any surprises. If you’ve seen one mountain you’ve literally seen them all, so the few times the game does surprise, the impact is all the more for it. One of the more spellbinding moments came late into the game, when I felt like I was further north than any other man had ever been, and I saw ahead of me distant tower. Except that it nestled safely behind the frozen wastes. Having become accustomed to the frozen waste’s role as the implacable edge of the game, this seems like a mirage. Or a bug. Any thought about the campaign at hand was put to one side as I explored this anomaly. And so it was: in one corner of the world it was possible pick a path through the wastes into a little oasis of land. It’s a small, unremarkable thing, but when I was there, surrounded by the claw-like peaks of the frozen wastes, it felt like a real discovery.
I gave it a little thought and wondered what it is about the game that has drawn me to it for 20 years. I think that the beauty of Midnight is in the atmosphere of the imagination. For some reason that game landscape just allowed the imagination to run free. Once I started playing the game I would just get lost in the story of it. I still do. Which is one of the reasons whyI set up the wiki to try an realise all the information that we know about, and create so much more that we don’t. I want the place to be real, I want the place to live. Yes, the story is full of typical fantasy cliches but there are so many oppurtunities to iron them out and create a very interesting place that more people could inhabit. I am closer to the characters of Midnight, than probably any book that I have ever read. Would I rather have Midnight or Lord of the Rings? Midnight every time!
Wayne Britcliffe caught the mood just about right in my Retro Gamer Article..
Even when actually playing the games your imagination takes you beyond, especially in the case of the original’s 8-bit limitations, what you are actually presented with. Swords clash, men scream, the plains fill with marauding enemy armies and smoke rises in the distance as snow begins to fall. Lord Blood dies surrounded by those he has slain in the gatehouse of his overrun Keep – a valiant defence against impossible odds. Shimeril escapes by the skin of his teeth only to have to turn and fight before his Citadels walls.
The Lords of midnight, Lord of the Rings, Mike Singleton, Retro GamerRelated Posts:
Lords of Midnight
Dehumanizer has written a small write up of Lords of Midnight over on his site; Games of My Life.
He discusses the merits of the game when you consider it as a Lord of the Rings inspired epic.
See Also: Similarties to other Fantasy Stoires…
The Lords of Midnight, Games of My Life, Lord of the Rings
Lord of the RingsRelated Posts:
DVD Mastering
I had to travel to Slough to visit out DVD mastering company yesterday. We had a few technical problems with issuing the master on a DLT VS1 tape. Anyhow, it’s the first time I’ve been in a mastering plant, and I’ve been producing CD’s for 11 years now… and the end of every project involves cutting a disk to send to MASTER.
The place is space age! The whole place is a clean room, and I had to wear white overalls, shoes covers, hair net, and face mask while I was there. All very odd. But it was fascinating watching the whole process. Actually seeing a glass master for the first time was amazing.
DVD, DVD Mastering DVD