Thoughts on Grim Fandango Remastered?

Discussions regarding the development of the mod "Grim Fandango Deluxe"

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theraineydaze
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:46 pm

Thoughts on Grim Fandango Remastered?

Post by theraineydaze »

Like most of you I am currently enjoying Grim Fandango Remastered and I think it did alot of the goals we were trying to accomplish with the Deluxe project. The shadows are nice, the textures look sharp, and the controls are great. I can't however think that it could've been better.

I only helped with player textures so I'm not sure how possible this is but would continuing this project by modding the new remastered be an option? This would solve the resolution issue that the project has been having along with a host of other things and (again if possible) give us a chance to transfer our, in my opinion, superior 3D models over. Any maybe continue the expansion of the 2D boarders to 16:9. By transferring to a mod of the remaster I think it would make the deluxe project certainly smaller but also infinitely more manageable.

So those are some of my thoughts, feel free to share your opinions on them and I look forward to what you have to say!
JenniBee
Posts: 95
Joined: Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:22 am

Re: Thoughts on Grim Fandango Remastered?

Post by JenniBee »

theraineydaze wrote:Like most of you I am currently enjoying Grim Fandango Remastered and I think it did alot of the goals we were trying to accomplish with the Deluxe project. The shadows are nice, the textures look sharp, and the controls are great. I can't however think that it could've been better.

I only helped with player textures so I'm not sure how possible this is but would continuing this project by modding the new remastered be an option? This would solve the resolution issue that the project has been having along with a host of other things and (again if possible) give us a chance to transfer our, in my opinion, superior 3D models over. Any maybe continue the expansion of the 2D boarders to 16:9. By transferring to a mod of the remaster I think it would make the deluxe project certainly smaller but also infinitely more manageable.

So those are some of my thoughts, feel free to share your opinions on them and I look forward to what you have to say!
I like the remaster a lot. It's improvements are well worth the asking price, even though I agree that it could have went further. As for basing future Deluxe assets on the remaster, I agree, it would be good to continue from the remaster, since there's so much improvements there already it wouldn't make sense to start the work over, plus Double Fine did such a great job with it, I feel any fan project from this point should be pointing fans over towards Grim Fandango Remastered to buy to support the studio.

The good news about that though is that at least most of the container formats are the same as the originals from what I've seen of them, so it should be possible to get Grim Fandango Remastered working in ResidualVM at some point. ResidualVM has an on-the-fly patcher for game scripts, which the Deluxe project would probably need in order to modify hotspots and such if it decided to expand backgrounds to a full 16:9. Work can certainly be done from the Remastered executable for now though, since 16:9 backgrounds are definitely going to be tricky and I'm sure will come at the tail end of the Deluxe project.
theraineydaze
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:46 pm

Re: Thoughts on Grim Fandango Remastered?

Post by theraineydaze »

This is great news! I do agree the widescreen would be tail end, running the remaster in ResidualVM would go a long way to getting the very nice 3d models from deluxe into the remaster.

Also I'm not bashing on the remaster in anyway I agree I'm in love with it.
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JohnnyWalker2001
Posts: 405
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Location: London, UK

Re: Thoughts on Grim Fandango Remastered?

Post by JohnnyWalker2001 »

I'm loving GF Remastered, too. I think part of the reason they didn't change the models was budgetary but also aesthetics: With higher resolution the differences between the animated versions is already incredibly apparent. I can see why they'd worry that the clashes would be even bigger if the models changed, too. But I also wonder if Tim wanted to keep the same look that everyone had gotten used to.

I don't know if anyone else has noticed this yet, but there's also the issue that some of the textures have been thrown together very poorly -- literally run through a filter at times. The big key to the firebeaver dam looks terrible, for example, if you ask me. I think we could do a much better job on some of the objects.

I'd also like to see some of the lighting choices questioned -- a cigarette that glows like a candle -- but a "glowing" chunk of coral that doesn't glow at all...? Manny not having a strong shadow, when everything else in the scene does? I don't know if we have the ability to change such things, though, but it would be great if we did.

As for 16:9, that was never part of the original Deluxe project, as none of the ResidualVM guys could figure out a way to make it viable, plus we already had too much on our plate. Some good news however: The remastered version appears to have the ability to change the border images on the sides whenever it wants (they change each year, incase anyone hadn't noticed yet). If we could change them with every *scene* instead, we might be able to quickly (well, relatively quickly -- there's 150 to do) add proper 16:9 support... switching back to the normal borders during videos. If we could do it well enough, that would be a great achievement, IMO.

As for the models themselves, forgive me for saying that I've actually I've grown to liking the direction DF took by staying so close to the originals. I still think the characters need 3D fingers, but otherwise I've come to see the characters as iconic... All except for the elemental beasts (like Glottis and the server tech). Those guys should definitely be rounder in my opinion -- and Blacksad's model would look great with the new lighting.

Did anyone notice that the graphics in the land of the living looked a little messed up (more than normal, I mean)?
theraineydaze
Posts: 34
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2012 11:46 pm

Re: Thoughts on Grim Fandango Remastered?

Post by theraineydaze »

I thought widescreen was in the docket of things to do because of this video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cigf0ZT9pu0

Sorry! I wouldn't have brought it up otherwise.

I think that if we could find a way to import the models we have into the remaster it would be a nice option for those who want it Since a good amount has already been made. With the clear textures in-game and the muddy ones in the cutscene the consistency is already broken, in my opinion so why not go all the way.

I think that the remaster too ALOT off the projects plate and a re-evaluation of what the project can do would go along way to making the Deluxe way better than it ever could've been building off the original game.

Edit: Just finally saw the widescreen video was done in post, but maybe the new remaster engine will open up some new possibilities!
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