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Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

engine.study

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Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#21

Post by bombcar »

omneity wrote: post #6

Big AoE fan here. The idea is brilliant and I love the execution. I wish the author did not put every screenshot in a gif, I'd have preferred to be able to look at the results in a less stressful way. 2 seconds to switch to another screenshot, that's way too fast! On a side note, it would be interesting to try to apply the same technique to units and effects (explosions, fire, etc). I didn't see a mention of it by th…

I have a stupid dirty trick for this (works in Safari) - click and start dragging the image, but don't let go. It's like you drag a particular "frame" out and can look at it.

Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#22

Post by bombcar »

kayson wrote: post #10

This is a game that came out in 1999! More than 20 years later there have been two remakes, there's still a huge and healthy community and a thriving pro scene. And now someone is using relatively cutting edge image AI to mod the sprites. It's crazy to me how some of these old games have such staying power (Super Smash Bros Melee is another that comes to mind).

Heroes III has something similar, with major mods being developed along with entirely new "replacement" game engines.

Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#23

Post by fbdab103 »

omneity wrote: post #6

Big AoE fan here. The idea is brilliant and I love the execution. I wish the author did not put every screenshot in a gif, I'd have preferred to be able to look at the results in a less stressful way. 2 seconds to switch to another screenshot, that's way too fast! On a side note, it would be interesting to try to apply the same technique to units and effects (explosions, fire, etc). I didn't see a mention of it by th…

Am I imagining things or once-upon-a-time did Firefox give you the ability to advance GIFs frame by frame?

Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#24

Post by fbdab103 »

eru wrote: post #20
hot_gril wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The even crazier thing is card or board games that are still alive and modernized. Some games are timeless.

Many of the best board games are less than twenty years old. Cardboard based entertainment has made huge strides recently. By and large, good boardgames are not so much timeless as 'fairly new' instead. There have been a few good games earlier, but it's really instructive to have a look at the ranked list of boardgames at https://boardgamegeek.com/browse/boardgame and check the publication dates.

One problem I have with the rankings here is they seem really prone to grade inflation and band-wagoning. Even more-so when the game is expensive.

Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#25

Post by EamonnMR »

kayson wrote: post #10

This is a game that came out in 1999! More than 20 years later there have been two remakes, there's still a huge and healthy community and a thriving pro scene. And now someone is using relatively cutting edge image AI to mod the sprites. It's crazy to me how some of these old games have such staying power (Super Smash Bros Melee is another that comes to mind).

The staying power makes me feel kind of sad, because it represents a lack of vitality... they've cleared the local space, like some sort of planetoid, and newcomers have little chance.

Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#26

Post by keyle »

bombcar wrote: post #21
omneity wrote: post #6

Big AoE fan here. The idea is brilliant and I love the execution. I wish the author did not put every screenshot in a gif, I'd have preferred to be able to look at the results in a less stressful way. 2 seconds to switch to another screenshot, that's way too fast! On a side note, it would be interesting to try to apply the same technique to units and effects (explosions, fire, etc). I didn't see a mention of it by th…

I have a stupid dirty trick for this (works in Safari) - click and start dragging the image, but don't let go. It's like you drag a particular "frame" out and can look at it.

20 years on a mac and I'm still learning stuff, thank you!

Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#27

Post by rzzzt »

fbdab103 wrote: post #23
omneity wrote: post #6

Big AoE fan here. The idea is brilliant and I love the execution. I wish the author did not put every screenshot in a gif, I'd have preferred to be able to look at the results in a less stressful way. 2 seconds to switch to another screenshot, that's way too fast! On a side note, it would be interesting to try to apply the same technique to units and effects (explosions, fire, etc). I didn't see a mention of it by th…

Am I imagining things or once-upon-a-time did Firefox give you the ability to advance GIFs frame by frame?

Pressing Esc did stop the animation, but I'm not sure you could step over it.

Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#28

Post by chii »

totetsu wrote: post #16
b1n wrote: post #8

This is great, can't wait unti this is taken to the next level... (they touch on this at the end of the article) - An RTS without units or buildings by default. - The players enter prompts and creates any unit they can imagine.

I was wondering about how this could affect gameplay. Like disguising your buildings by looking like other buildings.. That example of all the buildings being made of books. How can I tell the difference between a barracks and an archery range.. or just a patch of empty grass? I used to play a text based MUD that had a high level spell that let you create illusion spells that just output text of your choosing onto ot…

it'd be interesting to make a game where the units aren't hardcoded either - and to play against someone, you'd have to "figure out" what their units did and what weakness it would have (i imagine it would work by a point system, where for example, if you put more into health, their attack would be weaker etc).

Re: Modding Age of Empires II with a Sprite-Diffuser

#29

Post by Dalewyn »

EamonnMR wrote: post #25
kayson wrote: post #10

This is a game that came out in 1999! More than 20 years later there have been two remakes, there's still a huge and healthy community and a thriving pro scene. And now someone is using relatively cutting edge image AI to mod the sprites. It's crazy to me how some of these old games have such staying power (Super Smash Bros Melee is another that comes to mind).

The staying power makes me feel kind of sad, because it represents a lack of vitality... they've cleared the local space, like some sort of planetoid, and newcomers have little chance.

The Real Time Strategy (RTS) genre more or less died in the mid 2000s with Age of Empires II, Warcraft 3, and Starcraft being the ones that left a mark.

Since that time: Warcraft 3 died; Starcraft was supplanted by Starcraft 2 and both eventually died outside of the lucrative Korean pro scene. Age of Empires II also died until it saw a resurrection in the pro scene in the early 2010s which has lasted to today.

The RTS genre itself is still very much dead, seeing no new games worthy of note to this day.

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