As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/

The Tex Murphy games.

2

Posts

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Jazz wrote: »
    Pandora Directive was six CDs, wasn't it?

    I would have to check. If so, Overseer had less cds with only 5.

    That sounds right, I recall Overseer having fewer (not counting the DVD). I think it was UaKM 4, TPD 6, Overseer 5.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    I wonder if Overseer is a shorter game or they compressed some of it.

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    If it's shorter it's not by much I don't think. But compression had come on leaps and bounds by then so I'd guess it was more that.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    Tanya Roberts died in January of this year.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    Jazz wrote: »
    Pandora Directive was six CDs, wasn't it?

    Yeah it was 6.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    Jazz wrote: »
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Jazz wrote: »
    Pandora Directive was six CDs, wasn't it?

    I would have to check. If so, Overseer had less cds with only 5.

    That sounds right, I recall Overseer having fewer (not counting the DVD). I think it was UaKM 4, TPD 6, Overseer 5.

    Correct.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tanya Roberts died in January of this year.

    :(

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    I can't believe Overseer was a Win98 game. It was that long ago. No wonder Tesla Effect is way better technically.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    I am always amazed at the actors they manage to get for the Tex Murphy games.

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    And that Chris Jones more than held his own with all of them. He was brilliant.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    Some of the actors are from classic sci fi shows. Allot of the older ones are. I think they get a kick out of being in a sci fi story again.

    Krathoon on
  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    Probably.

    There was a point where a Tex game (Overseer) was the thing I best knew Michael York from. Weird times, in hindsight!

    (Just a shame they didn't get Jenny Agutter in there too, that would've set it off perfectly. Although I will always love her cameo in Red Dwarf.)

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    I played some Under a Killing Moon. That game had a really good engine. There is some flickering with the 3D graphics. I don't know if that is normal or if I should fiddle with the dosbox settings. It seems like it needs vsync. The game doesn't have an option for it. I forgot the electronics shop was in this one.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    I remember running Under a Killing Moon on my Intel 486DX2 66 MHz. My old Acer.

    I am not sure if the rendering corruption is normal for the game. I think the 3D engine was a little flakey back then too. I get a little rendering garbage that quickly disappears.

    Krathoon on
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    Here is a documentary.
    https://youtu.be/tooF40ktbdM

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    Barry Corbin is still alive. John Agar is dead and Kevin McCarthy is dead.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    From the documentary, Overseer is actually a rewrite of Mean Streets. It is kind of it's own thing. The writer really gets annoyed if you call it a remake. He took the thread of the story and built on it.

    Mean Streets is kind of like an adolescent version of the story. I may go back to it just to see what is like.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    There will be a Pandora Directive 25th Anniversary remaster. They are upgrading the video to HD. I don't know if they are upgrading the 3D environments.
    https://bigfinishgames.com/may-2021-update/

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    Oh hell yes.
    Do you long to have your footage interlaced? Interlaced. Within cells, interlaced, within cells, interlaced, within cells.

    Oh hell yes.

  • BigityBigity Lubbock, TXRegistered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    It has already been 6 years since the last game, Tesla Effect.

    I need a sad react button :(

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    They are using AI to upgrade the video to HD. I did read that they are also working on upgrading the 3D environments. They will have to make sure it matches the video cutscenes.

    Really, I am fine if they just upgraded the textures on the 3D environments.

    Krathoon on
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    Bigity wrote: »
    Krathoon wrote: »
    It has already been 6 years since the last game, Tesla Effect.

    I need a sad react button :(

    The technology is at the point where they can fully realize the game. The 3D game engine is more stable and you have HD video. I am wondering if they used Unity or something.

  • skippydumptruckskippydumptruck begin again Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    oops wrong thread

    skippydumptruck on
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    Well, I got the animated textures to work and then they stopped working.

    Edit: It looks like you have to reload the 3D environment for the animated textures to work. The game does not save the setting. If you restart, you lose the setting.

    I guess they never fixed that bug.

    Krathoon on
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    I found a crappy solution for the animated textures. Whenever you first start up the game, go into config settings and enable animated textures. That way, it is enabled before you load up any environments.

    I wonder if this was fixed in version 1.04 of the game. From looking at the readme on the gog version, it looks like they are using version 1.00.

    Edit: Overseer has some problems with it's volume. Some audio clips are louder than the other.

    The game is kind of buggy. Not real bad though. It just has a few annoying things. I heard there is a bug involving a chasm. It sounds like gog fixed it.

    Krathoon on
  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    Wow, I honestly thought Barry Corbin had passed away.

    Drez on
    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • Space PickleSpace Pickle Registered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    They are using AI to upgrade the video to HD. I did read that they are also working on upgrading the 3D environments. They will have to make sure it matches the video cutscenes.

    Really, I am fine if they just upgraded the textures on the 3D environments.

    At first I thought "AI upscaling" sounded stupid, but it seems that they have the original tape footage so maybe this will actually look good.

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    They are using AI to upgrade the video to HD. I did read that they are also working on upgrading the 3D environments. They will have to make sure it matches the video cutscenes.

    Really, I am fine if they just upgraded the textures on the 3D environments.

    At first I thought "AI upscaling" sounded stupid, but it seems that they have the original tape footage so maybe this will actually look good.

    Honestly the first time I heard about AI upscaling was when Bioware talked about using it for the textures in Mass Effect Legendary Edition. The results there were outstanding.

    More recently, I was pointed at upgraded textures in a mod for the first Max Payne. They too had been done by AI upscaling, and they are a marked improvement too.

    It's definitely a technique that can yield really good results!

    It's very nice to read that the source assets, especially the taped video footage, for the Tex games (or at least TPD) have been kept safe and sound, given some of the game preservation & archiving disasters that have happened elsewhere.

    Krathoon wrote: »
    Here is a documentary.
    https://youtu.be/tooF40ktbdM

    I watched this last night, really fascinating stuff, and so much archive footage! That was a real delight, thank you for sharing it.

  • DrezDrez Registered User regular
    I just hope it doesn’t lead to Skynet.

    Switch: SW-7690-2320-9238Steam/PSN/Xbox: Drezdar
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    Under a Killing Moon had a really crappy black screen stage it was filmed on. I am surprised it turned out so well.

    Krathoon on
  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Under a Killing Moon had a really crappy black screen stage it was filmed on. I am surprised it turned out so well.

    Yeah, it was basically just an office with black sheets draped over everything. It's really kind of amazing it came out so well.

  • Space PickleSpace Pickle Registered User regular
    Jazz wrote: »
    Krathoon wrote: »
    They are using AI to upgrade the video to HD. I did read that they are also working on upgrading the 3D environments. They will have to make sure it matches the video cutscenes.

    Really, I am fine if they just upgraded the textures on the 3D environments.

    At first I thought "AI upscaling" sounded stupid, but it seems that they have the original tape footage so maybe this will actually look good.

    Honestly the first time I heard about AI upscaling was when Bioware talked about using it for the textures in Mass Effect Legendary Edition. The results there were outstanding.

    More recently, I was pointed at upgraded textures in a mod for the first Max Payne. They too had been done by AI upscaling, and they are a marked improvement too.

    It's definitely a technique that can yield really good results!

    It's very nice to read that the source assets, especially the taped video footage, for the Tex games (or at least TPD) have been kept safe and sound, given some of the game preservation & archiving disasters that have happened elsewhere.

    Krathoon wrote: »
    Here is a documentary.
    https://youtu.be/tooF40ktbdM

    I watched this last night, really fascinating stuff, and so much archive footage! That was a real delight, thank you for sharing it.

    I guess my main experience with "AI upscaling" was the Command and Conquer remaster...the FMVs are an improvement, but it still doesn't look very good.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    Ah. I forgot about that remaster.

  • MegaMan001MegaMan001 CRNA Rochester, MNRegistered User regular
    https://youtu.be/YICPKh7Tl8g

    I've forgotten how insane and all over the place the intro was. You have, God, voiced by James Earl Jones talking to Chris Jones (doing his best Smithers impression) talking about the cult finding something and needing a PI to deal with it.

    Like there's some cosmic importance of the various PIs in our stories.

    I am in the business of saving lives.
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    He talks to God in Tesla Effect too.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    edited July 2021
    I killed Tex on purpose some in Telsa Effect. I didn't know you lose points for that.

    I read a PC Gamer review on the game and apparently the second half is a mess. I will see.

    Krathoon on
  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    Drez wrote: »
    The big thing is to make sure you have the k-lite codec pack is uninstalled. A lot of people have that and it conflicts with Overseer (and possibly UAKM and Pandora).

    There is a setting on the pack that fixes it. I recently installed the pack to get Wing Commander Prophecy to work right with some HD videos.

  • KrathoonKrathoon Registered User regular
    Tesla Effect doesn't save into the cloud which is annoying.

  • JazzJazz Registered User regular
    Krathoon wrote: »
    Tesla Effect doesn't save into the cloud which is annoying.

    You're right, that seems like an odd omission.

Sign In or Register to comment.