Can graphics be enhanced to the point of somethng like CMI? Or filters be added?

Kroms · Thu 15/03/2007 08:04:46

Hey all. I searched the forums for this, and I looked at the resources, but I didn't find anything. So I thought I might risk being a spammer and ask.

Can someone using AGS enhance the graphics to the point of being like The Curse of Monkey Island? Or at least add a filter to the graphics, so that they look like what they are in SCUMM VM if you use the "Supereagle" filter?

I know it's a big issue but can it be done? It's not something I plan on doing SOON, but I'm testing around with AGS and I thought I might as well ask (I plan to make something like that in the near future).

Thanks

Kroms.

Gilbert · Thu 15/03/2007 08:33:49

Currently AGS supports HQ2X and HQ3X for 32-bit games (appart from the ordinary "burst-up" near-neighbour "filters"). You may try them out and see if they do what you want.

More filters in the future may be possible, however, as CJ pointed out in this old post, one main reason for not incorporating some of the popular filters was because of software licenses.

Personally, I hate these filter stuff (to be honest they're degrading graphics not enhancing them), so I don't care much. They're fine to be there, I'm just not interested.

GarageGothic · Thu 15/03/2007 09:11:59

Quote from: Kroms on Thu 15/03/2007 08:04:46Can someone using AGS enhance the graphics to the point of being like The Curse of Monkey Island?

Developers using AGS can enhance the graphics of their own game to be as good as or better than the ones CoMI, considering that CoMI used 640x480 resolution with 8-bit color, while and AGS supports up to 800x600 with 32-bit color.

Ghost · Thu 15/03/2007 11:45:16

It's really more a question of you being able to produce the graphics in the quality you'd like to achieve. AGS can do everything, including alpha blending. So I think you'd best be studying the graphics and try to adapt to the style. There was a good, a very good guideline on the forums a while ago, called "How to draw monkey the lucas arts way". It's a good read even if you're quite sure how they did their pics.

Edit: "How to draw MonkeyS the lucas arts way", obviously.

Ashen · Thu 15/03/2007 12:20:12

Can I just clear up if this is actually an AGS Technical question, as opposed to a graphics one?

It sounds, as Ghost and GarageGothic have said, like it might be more a case of producing the graphics yourself (non-AGS), than of anything you could do in AGS. What exactly does the "Supereagle" filter in ScummVM do?

Gilbert · Thu 15/03/2007 14:32:31

"Supereagle" is just another filter which interpolates low res raster images to higher just to "enhance" them.

Kroms · Fri 16/03/2007 14:19:45

Quote from: Ashen on Thu 15/03/2007 12:20:12
Can I just clear up if this is actually an AGS Technical question, as opposed to a graphics one?

It sounds, as Ghost and GarageGothic have said, like it might be more a case of producing the graphics yourself (non-AGS), than of anything you could do in AGS. What exactly does the "Supereagle" filter in ScummVM do?

As Gilbot pointed-out, it enhances images. It sort of polishes off pixel edges, if I could put it in layman's terms (and I am a layman).

So I guess I would have to draw the characters outside AGS, import them, and then I would have ... say the same graphical quality.

(I know I don't know much buuut I'm learning. Perfectly willing to learn.)

Ashen · Fri 16/03/2007 14:29:39

Ah, OK.
The only real 'filters' in AGS are the HQ2X and HQ3X ones Gilbot mentioned, or possibly the 'anti-alias scaled sprites' one, which sounds like it might be closer to what you want but isn't perfect (especially on lower-end machines). Run the game's Winsetup.exe or 'Game - Setup game' in the editor to test them.

Ali · Fri 16/03/2007 17:46:13

Quote from: Kroms on Fri 16/03/2007 14:19:45

As Gilbot pointed-out, it enhances images. It sort of polishes off pixel edges, if I could put it in layman's terms (and I am a layman).

So I guess I would have to draw the characters outside AGS, import them, and then I would have ... say the same graphical quality.

Exactly. If you're worried about 'polishing off pixel edges' you can have characters with anti-aliased edges in 32 bit, though at the moment you have to choose between anti-aliasing and smooth scaling.

This recently released hi-res demo shows off how lovely anti-aliased characters can look:
http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=29077.0

And the link in my signature takes you to a hi-res game without anti-aliasing but with smooth scaling. Technically, if not artistically, my game exceeds CMI (640x480 16 bit).