Texture Resolutions (solved)

[sinewav]

Ever since this this guy teased us with a movie-true texture replacement I've wanted one. He never dropped the files on us. Later, another guy came up with a nice looking set, but it wasn't nearly as close (and the link to the textures is dead now too).

Well, I've been giving it a shot, but I can't seem to get the textures to not look like complete ass. The rim wall I have is 256 x 12800, 50 times wider than tall. No matter what I do, it always looks the same -- bad.

Anyone have a suggestion so I can finish this damn thing and finally share it?

[Z-Man]

x 12800

It is likely that this is too much for your graphics card. It will get scaled down to 4096 pixels if you're lucky (don't have the code at hand, it may go down to 3200 instead, or lower if your GPU only supports smaller textures) and take down the vertical resolution as well. If you want extra large textures, you need to use the moviepack file format where you have four wall textures.

[delinquent]

In addition to the above:
You'll unlikely get the same quality of texture because the walls in the film were actual models made of fabric afaik. In the game, the walls are rendered smoothly but there is a certain degree of motion blur, plus the fact that rendering realistic backdrops is better done by the game itself, rather than using a jpeg or similar image to just slap them on top of a placement marker, but afaik the film is meant to be fantasy/scifi and not as believable.

In order to render a realistic backdrop, you would have to modify the game to create it's own texture, and allow it a certain degree of motion (think about perspective when changing relative angles of view at objects in fore and aft positions). This, combined with the constant rendering of a moving tail, plus camera movement and other cycles would most likely be difficult, if not impossible, in pure SDL.
One way around this would be to create a backdrop rendering add-on for the client in another language, with wrapper to integrate it. As far as this goes, I'm stumped.

[Z-Man]

models made of fabric

What? They are certainly true 3D models.

but afaik the film is meant to be fantasy/scifi and not as believable.

Nowai. It's a documentary.

In order to render a realistic backdrop, you would have to modify the game to create it's own texture, and allow it a certain degree of motion (think about perspective when changing relative angles of view at objects in fore and aft positions). This, combined with the constant rendering of a moving tail, plus camera movement and other cycles would most likely be difficult, if not impossible, in pure SDL.
One way around this would be to create a backdrop rendering add-on for the client in another language, with wrapper to integrate it. As far as this goes, I'm stumped.

Or just make them true 3D models and render them as such.

And dammit, the motion blur comment vanished before I could be snarky about that, too!

[delinquent]

I thought they were literally physical models irl? The purple bits are felt I think.
Can you render true 3d from scratch in SDL? Also, wouldn't it be impossible to play on all but the best of machines?

[Z-Man]

I thought they were literally physical models irl? The purple bits are felt I think.

Not in the Lightcycle scenes. A lot of things were faked to look computer-y (lots of traditional matte paintings, rotoscoping), but not that.

Can you render true 3d from scratch in SDL? Also, wouldn't it be impossible to play on all but the best of machines?

SDL, no, but we're using OpenGL for the graphics. And by "True 3D" I mean polygon models, not some fancy voxel tech. Surely that is feasible.

[Word]

I thought they were literally physical models irl? The purple bits are felt I think.

What Z-Man said, just quoted it again because this is film history. If anything was groundbreaking about TRON from a technical and artistic perspective, it's the fraction that was actual 3d animation. The actors were put in the virtual world using handcolored black-and-white film, which is still remarkable.

[Concord]

unrelated to the graphics but something I noticed, the vanishing point in the film in that screenshot is above the level of the floor. In your screenshot, which I presume to be from incam, the vanishing point is at floor level. Using a incam-like custom camera, with adjustments made to raise it a bit, might make the floor and the overall perspective even that tiny bit more accurate.

[sinewav]

unrelated to the graphics but something I noticed, the vanishing point in the film in that screenshot is above the level of the floor.

Yeah, yeah, yeah... it's a work in progress. I'm still trying to get the textures right! I'll try breaking it up into 4 parts and make it a moviepack (instead of replacement textures). Hopefully that will work. Man I need a better computer...

[sinewav]

If you want extra large textures, you need to use the moviepack file format where you have four wall textures.

...Aaaaaaaand it works. Thanks Z.

X-Post to the finished product.