Final Gemini Gold 1.02 Complete (June 20, 2007)

ChrisReid

ChrisReid

Super Soaker Collector / Administrator
The final version of Privateer Gemini Gold version 1.02 has been released. This iteration comes after several successful test versions put out over the last few weeks. Windows, Lunix and Mac versions are available here (278 megs). The game's manual has also been refreshed for the new version. Here's John Cordell with some more details.




​
Wingnuts, it's done!

After more than a year of hard work, we are very proud to announce today
the next major release of Privateer Gemini Gold.

While earlier versions were still using low resolution base interiors,
we are bringing to you now Privateer for the first time ever in an SVGA
resolution with 32 bit color depth. Other important improvents are the
recreation of almost all original base computer interfaces and an
overall better game balance.

We hope you will enjoy our latest release without having too much
trouble becoming once again the number one privateer in Gemini.

I want to thank all people who contributed to the project, most notably
the CIC community, Howie (Pioneer), Tolwyn (Saga), Bigmag (STN), Hellcat
(VS) and of course the whole team behind Gemini Gold who spend their
free time, on this visionary goal, to bring an old classic gaming title
back to a new life.

Thanks!
Click to expand...




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Original update published on June 20, 2007
 
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Why haven't they raised the screen resolution to 1024x768? Why haven't they redesigned the base pictures to high-res? Why have they left out the intro? Why can't i quit the program on the base? Why is an ingame-tutorial missing? And so on, and so an, and so on... There are MUCH things left to do! I am not satisfied with this release. There still substantially more could have been taken out. What a bummer. This is the evidence of incapacity.
 
No, it's "evidence" of them not doing things the way you personally want them, not "incapacity".

Considering that the GG team is not a paid company doing it as their job, but a bunch of fans doing this as a labor of love in their spare time and making the results freely available to the public, what they have done (particularly fixing some of the more craptacular parts of the VS engine) is pretty damn spiffy.

But, hey, if you think you can do better, step up to the plate. Don't just bitch about it, ask how you can help, or even start up a project of your own, since you obviously know everything that matters. :rolleyes:
 
I've been asking for a screen resolution of 2560x1600 :p redoing the artwork for high resolutions is going to take time. rendering all the graphics takes ages for the bases and cockpits. Not to mention all the coding for how bases/cockpits work has to be redone. it's not a simple process. They're trying to keep the game as small as possible initially, massive texture sizes and resolution increases may come later but it'll probably blow the game size out to over 2gb.
 
There are different resons why i decided (it was not a team decision) to stick with 800x600.

1. The engine is not capable to scale fonts up. Means the higher the resolution is the smaller the fonts look with the consequence that the text size does not fit with the artwork i.e. mission computer, quine... (even now at 800x600 it is a lot smaller than original Privateer). That problem maybe solved in the future.

2. Most base art is available in High-Res except fixers/people. I don't wanted to have ultra sharp bases with low res people in it, that just looks like crap.

3. Some of the new base interiors need polished textures, it does look good in 800x600 but if you seen them "ultra sharp", textures are sometimes at a low resolution and need work.

Sticking with 800x600 was a decision that doubled the original Privateer resolution, while limiting it to that resolution was nececessary to save the overall look and feel.
 
This is far-fetched, but weren't the talking heads of Wc1, Wc2 and Priv originally hand-made? Arguably it would be possible to re-scan them at high-res someday. :)
 
Death said:
No, it's "evidence" of them not doing things the way you personally want them, not "incapacity".

Considering that the GG team is not a paid company doing it as their job, but a bunch of fans doing this as a labor of love in their spare time and making the results freely available to the public, what they have done (particularly fixing some of the more craptacular parts of the VS engine) is pretty damn spiffy.

But, hey, if you think you can do better, step up to the plate. Don't just bitch about it, ask how you can help, or even start up a project of your own, since you obviously know everything that matters. :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

But if they love their work they are extremly motivated to take care of making more quality. You can manage your time to do it more professionally. I can wait so long until it is really finish. I am not eager to get it within the next months. The today's technology must be more exausted. I spend much money for a fast computer with modern technology (although it is allready obsolete since the start of vista ;)) and then i see graphic with the visible age of 10 years.:mad: The half of the game looks like a simple technical conversion with some smoothing. But that doen't even improve the picture quality at several places: For instance, the scanner analysis of the artifact is VERY HARDLY readable. If it hadn't contained importand data for the continuation of the story i had decided not to read it on:mad:. That MUST be improved, that's NOT good for your eyes! They seem only to be adapted. If you only want to make an old game running under a new os, then it is ok for me, but if you want to improve it, you have to do it with the hole game and not only with specific elements. For instance, the "animation sequences" are no sequences any more, but only freeze images with read out text. Is that a new retro style or is it technical impossible to adapt the sequences of privateer to the windows world? I have awaited rerendered sequences (probably with ingame-graphic?). That could have been much more spiffy.

But, in spite of everything, privateer is still a great game and it still makes me much fun to play it like it was in the old times. And if it were to be payed i haven't even downloaded it. But i hope that they would make upgrades with such improvements like these later. I only want to make us love the game more than in the old times. But if private users have not the equipment to make it really professionally, it is okay for me. I just cann't belief that this is all what they can do. But i can be mistaken also. In any case i still love privateer and i play it with much fun.
 
Shere Khan said:
nope, it's high quality pixel art.
Click to expand...

The backgrounds in Privateer were rendered in 3DS and then included in the game as static bitmaps.

We've given Gemini Gold access to as many of those original 3D models as are still available.
 
LOAF, I meant the talking heads Delance mentioned. they were made pixel by pixel in wc1, wc2, Priv1, RF and Strike Commander, not scanned or rendered. so were little animations of bar patrons in Privateer. now, 15 years later, it's still impossible to do such things in lo-res (on GBA and DS, for example) without major pixel pushing.

but the situation is far from desperate: in higher resolutions, like 800x600 that Gemini Gold uses now, and higher, you _don't_ have to stick to pixel art. to remake the heads and animations, they can either be pre-rendered in 3D, or hand-painted in high enough resolution (several megapixels) and then downscaled to the game resolution of choice.

any able painters around, willing to sacrifice some time? or maybe 3D artists adept at creating realistic people?
 
maltinator said:
But if they love their work they are extremly motivated to take care of making more quality. You can manage your time to do it more professionally. The today's technology must be more exausted. I spend much money for a fast computer with modern technology (although it is allready obsolete since the start of vista ;)) and then i see graphic with the visible age of 10 years.:mad: The half of the game looks like a simple technical conversion with some smoothing. But that doen't even improve the picture quality at several places:
Click to expand...

maltinator said:
And so on, and so an, and so on... There are MUCH things left to do! I am not satisfied with this release. There still substantially more could have been taken out. What a bummer. This is the evidence of incapacity.
Click to expand...

You're coming across as a big whiner here. It doesn't seem to fit with the time and care that John and others have put into this project so far. Your couple of lines at the end about how the game's still fun ring pretty hollow after so much complaining in the same post.
 
ChrisReid said:
You're coming across as a big whiner here. It doesn't seem to fit with the time and care that John and others have put into this project so far. Your couple of lines at the end about how the game's still fun ring pretty hollow after so much complaining in the same post.
Click to expand...

i just want to help the makers doing it better.;) is that forbidden?
 
Yes, John Cordell already posted in this very thread about the resolution.

He's not lying - I have the same 3D models and they *don't* transition to higher resolutions easily.They'll have to rebuild and retexturize everything.
 
These statements you're making are quite disingenuous. You're either very ignorant of the amount of effort it takes to do things like this, or you're just trying to screw with us here.
 
I also guess this guy is just a troll who tries to upset the people here.
No one can really be so arrogant, ignorant and stupid when it comes the extremely amount of work, that would have to be done and already had been done - for free!

Sure, there are still many glitches and things that could be and probably will be optimized, and this project is not finished but considering the facts it is still amazing.

Good work guys!
 
Maltinator is kinda like Pedro... He just pops up to complain about something random every now and then.
 
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