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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

#31

Post by trh0awayman »

The first example looks pretty unique for an art style. I'd love to see this done on the fly, so that each building is unique during game play.

Also, I think the buildings would look better if you give it some context of the ground surrounding the buildings.

This certainly solves a lot of issues for tile-based games where you have to handle at least 3 cases in both graphics + programming (in a 2d, single-layer tile game, you need corner pieces, middle pieces, and edge pieces). Think two houses built next to each other in AoE - now they could mesh and form a completely new style of row house, without any effort

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

#32

Post by alternatetwo »

Dalewyn wrote: post #3
drekipus wrote: post #2

That is sick, I'd love to play some wackier AOE environments, or do "space station vs jumping castle" battles. Units would be hard because there's a sprite for each direction which you'll have to keep consistent, but it would be great to see if it's possible to do, maybe as a sprite sheet

Funny you mention space stations, because the Genie engine that powers the Age of Empires line of games was also used for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_Engine#Games_using_the_G...

And even more interesting, before Age of Empires was Age of Empires, but was called "Tribe", there used to be a space age version developed alongside called "Stratos". Here are some demo/concept screenshots: http://aoe.heavengames.com/cgi-bin/forums/display.cgi?action...

I swear, there used to be more, but I keep misplacing them. Maybe they are in an album on there which I can't find.

The concept art was by Ralph McQuarrie, who notably did the concept art for Star Wars.

A very, very old exe version called "ptribe" still has some STRATOS function names, and a cmdline argument seeminly specifying which game is being started.

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

#33

Post by r0uv3n »

Dalewyn wrote: post #29
EamonnMR wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 RT…

There is the free and open source Beyond All Reason (BAR) inspired by Total Annihilation, which is very polished and a lot of fun. It's got features I've not seen anywhere else yet (in terms of possibilities for commands and customisation) and also has a growing competitive scene. It's worth checking out

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

#34

Post by 9dev »

Dalewyn wrote: post #3
drekipus wrote: post #2

That is sick, I'd love to play some wackier AOE environments, or do "space station vs jumping castle" battles. Units would be hard because there's a sprite for each direction which you'll have to keep consistent, but it would be great to see if it's possible to do, maybe as a sprite sheet

Funny you mention space stations, because the Genie engine that powers the Age of Empires line of games was also used for Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. Further reading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_Engine#Games_using_the_G...

I didn’t know that! Just googled and was slightly disappointed - that looks just like AoE with the sprites swapped out, down to the same trees. Well. Still interesting to know this happened!

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

#35

Post by JSavageOne »

Dalewyn wrote: post #29
EamonnMR wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 RT…

Which is a damn shame because RTS games are my favorite genre, with Age of Empires 2 and Warcraft 3 being my favorite games of all time.

It's really a shame to me that the most popular multiplayer games these days seem to be FPS games, or games where you just control a single character. Don't get me wrong those games can still be fun, but they entail a fraction of the strategy as RTS games.

I hope one day we'll see a resurgence of the RTS genre.

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

#36

Post by rasz »

Dalewyn wrote: post #29
EamonnMR wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 RT…

'Beyond All Reason' regularly ranks second place behind SC2 on Twitch.

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

#38

Post by eru »

fbdab103 wrote: post #24
eru wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Yes. And they are also just aggregates of what people think. They aren't God given absolute quality judgements.

Yet, even with all the caveats, it's still remarkable how much better boardgames have gotten.

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

#39

Post by stOneskull »

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.

wow, i had no idea there were so many boardgames.. i looked to see where my old favorite Talisman was and it's ranked #1764! jeez..

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

#40

Post by spaceman_2020 »

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 crazy part is that some of the players who dominated the multiplayer scene in 2000 are still playing…and dominating.

TheViper regularly streams his matches. Surreal watching them cause I remember playing against him (and losing) 20+ years ago.

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