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Kingpin: Reloaded - remaster of Kingpin by 3D Realms

Avonaeon

Arcane
Developer
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Sep 20, 2010
Messages
593
Location
Denmark
In the very first before/after example, on the "after" screenshot, the alpha on the store text texture is not properly rendered. Not sure why they chose that example, it stuck out immediately to me. Overall, this doesn't look as bad as the SiN upscaling reveal, but whereas Kingpin's original world geometry detail to texture detail ratio was just right, this just doesn't look as good imo.
 

fizzelopeguss

Arcane
Joined
Oct 1, 2004
Messages
810
Location
Equality Street.
Kingpin had perfect lighting and texture work. I dunno what Xatrix did to the Quake 2 engine but they made it sing.

I still love the character models (I always played a fat fuck in multi).
 

schru

Arcane
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Messages
1,131
It's probably because of Viktor Antonov's involvement as one of the main artists on the game. The games he worked on before, the Redneck Rampage series, also have a very distinctive quality to their texture work and over-all ambience. Then of course there's his work as the lead artist on Half-Life 2 and Dishonored.
 

agentorange

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5,256
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rpghq (cant read codex pms cuz of fag 2fa)
Codex 2012
It's probably because of Viktor Antonov's involvement as one of the main artists on the game. The games he worked on before, the Redneck Rampage series, also have a very distinctive quality to their texture work and over-all ambience. Then of course there's his work as the lead artist on Half-Life 2 and Dishonored.
Didn't realize Viktor Antonov was involved with it but that makes sense. Kingpin's visual designs are underrated, since at an outside glance it looks like a fairly standard modern gangster setting, but then you get the exaggerated art deco and industrial architecture. Can see bits of Dishonored and HL2 in it.
 

fizzelopeguss

Arcane
Joined
Oct 1, 2004
Messages
810
Location
Equality Street.
It's probably because of Viktor Antonov's involvement as one of the main artists on the game. The games he worked on before, the Redneck Rampage series, also have a very distinctive quality to their texture work and over-all ambience. Then of course there's his work as the lead artist on Half-Life 2 and Dishonored.


I had no idea, explains a lot though. Did he work RTCW with gray matter? Because that game had epic texture work as well.
 

schru

Arcane
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
Messages
1,131
It's probably because of Viktor Antonov's involvement as one of the main artists on the game. The games he worked on before, the Redneck Rampage series, also have a very distinctive quality to their texture work and over-all ambience. Then of course there's his work as the lead artist on Half-Life 2 and Dishonored.


I had no idea, explains a lot though. Did he work RTCW with gray matter? Because that game had epic texture work as well.
It doesn't seem like it. The only other game he worked on before Half-Life 2 was the first mission pack for Quake II, The Reckoning. Since moving to Arkane, he's been helping with various big titles published by Bethesda, like Wolfenstein: The New Order, Doom (2016), and Prey (2017).
 

udm

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Messages
2,752
Make the Codex Great Again!
Have many fond memories of Kingpin's singleplayer campaign even though it's one of the most frustrating FPSes I've ever played. I don't know about the "new quest system" but I hope they improve on AI reactivity (e.g. when they turn hostile or get hit by gunfire).
 

Monolith

Prophet
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Mar 7, 2006
Messages
1,290
Location
MĂĽnchen
As winter is coming, this looks like a good way to spend a weekend - climb the ladder of a shitfaced crime organization and kick some fat fucks in the bladder. Again.

Or. Climb the ladder of a crime organization, shitfaced...

Either way, good memories.
 

Boleskine

Arcane
Joined
Sep 12, 2013
Messages
4,045
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1224700/announcements/detail/2917732722272172080

Kingpin: Reloaded Delayed until 2021
But it's for the better

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Hey everyone!

I want to give you all an update on KP Reloaded, and why it's taking so long.
Early this year we revealed the game, with the goal of releasing the game this summer.

However, some major changes have happened during development, which is why we've decided to delay the game.

We decided earlier this year to change our approach to the Remaster. As you all know, the original source code for Kingpin no longer exists, so our original plan was to "Recreate" the game in a modern engine (The same approach Nightdive uses for their KexEngine games).

However, during this, we quickly realized that in order to get the game to Feel 100% like the original (Including the fantastic path-finding for AI, etc.), a better approach would be to reverse engineer the original game and engine completely, essentially re-creating the missing sources from scratch.

We've been hard at work on this for the majority of 2020, and are finally at a stage where we're almost done.

Alongside the programming side of things, we're also close to being done with re-creating every texture in the game from scratch, in high-resolution. No AI Upscaling here!

In January we're entering the next stage of development - Putting it all together, which is at the point where we'll finally be able to share more videos, gameplay, screenshots, and open up the closed-beta.

Stay tuned everyone! Kingpin is coming!

Sincerely,
The Kingpin: Reloaded Team!
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
Joined
May 29, 2010
Messages
35,653
From Discord they say they asked (Bethesda and id, presumably) to get a license for it but to no avail.

That's weird, surely they could have used the GPL source release without any problems?
 

Jack Of Owls

Arcane
Joined
May 23, 2014
Messages
4,271
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Massachusettes
I have somewhat fond memories of the original Kingpin when it first came out though I played a ripped version with no Cypress Hill soundtrack. It had a weird polygon bug in all its models that reminded me of the PS1's lack of Z-buffer. I remember one part where you were outside a druglord's bar or something and there was this half-insane thug either tweaking or having a psychotic fugue wildly pacing back and forth, loudly muttering unintelligible stuff to himself. I walked up to him wondering what his story was and he pulls out a high-powered handgun and screams, "Take this, motherfucker!" and caps my ass. It's just one of those moments in a game that sticks with you forever and I didn't find anything similar until the first Manhunt (where the WHOLE experience was like that). I'm sure any Kingpin remaster/remake will be significantly worse than the original. You'd probably have to be as insane as that tweaking thug to think otherwise.
 

jebsmoker

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2,578
Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In I helped put crap in Monomyth
I have somewhat fond memories of the original Kingpin when it first came out though I played a ripped version with no Cypress Hill soundtrack. It had a weird polygon bug in all its models that reminded me of the PS1's lack of Z-buffer. I remember one part where you were outside a druglord's bar or something and there was this half-insane thug either tweaking or having a psychotic fugue wildly pacing back and forth, loudly muttering unintelligible stuff to himself. I walked up to him wondering what his story was and he pulls out a high-powered handgun and screams, "Take this, motherfucker!" and caps my ass. It's just one of those moments in a game that sticks with you forever and I didn't find anything similar until the first Manhunt (where the WHOLE experience was like that). I'm sure any Kingpin remaster/remake will be significantly worse than the original. You'd probably have to be as insane as that tweaking thug to think otherwise.

that's not a polygon bug. the quake 2 engine uses a vertex animation system that produces that bizarre visual effect
 

Bad Sector

Arcane
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Messages
2,223
Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
That's weird, surely they could have used the GPL source release without any problems?

The GPL requires that the source code of the complete final work be distributed under the GPL itself which is incompatible with the heavily restricting licenses that console SDKs use (and you have to link against the SDK libraries).

that's not a polygon bug. the quake 2 engine uses a vertex animation system that produces that bizarre visual effect

Specifically, the issue is that Quake 2's model file format uses a single byte per vertex coordinate - ie. 3 bytes per vertex - scaled by a IIRC per-frame scalar to represent a position in 3D space. This was done to save memory, but it doesn't provide enough precision for smooth animations. Quake 3 also uses vertex animation but the frames use two bytes per vertex coordinate - ie. 6 bytes per vertex - which provides enough precision for smooth animations.
 

Jack Of Owls

Arcane
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May 23, 2014
Messages
4,271
Location
Massachusettes
One other thing I remember about Kingpin was that practically every fucking encounter, even with small groups of low-level foes, was like a boss fight. I recall being stuck in a sewer early on and rather than try to clear the area out like I typically did in FPSs, I just tried to get to the exit as fast as could just to survive, so I missed a lot of stuff I'm sure. I don't think I had played a FPS like that up to that time. Man, was that sucker hard.
 

Riskbreaker

Guest
One other thing I remember about Kingpin was that practically every fucking encounter, even with small groups of low-level foes, was like a boss fight. I recall being stuck in a sewer early on and rather than try to clear the area out like I typically did in FPSs, I just tried to get to the exit as fast as could just to survive, so I missed a lot of stuff I'm sure. I don't think I had played a FPS like that up to that time. Man, was that sucker hard.
Aww, the memories of being raped by those GODDAMNED RATS in that section the first time I've played the thing.:love:
 
Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 22, 2020
Messages
2,163
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!


this song is DOPE


Wait a second - so the game is set in some alternate history 1930s and the soundtrack is "yo bitch-ass nigga" hip hop? OK, I guess.

The game kinda passed me by on release, all I remember is watching a pal of mine play the demo of it and thinking it was OK but nothing special. The reviews I read back then were also like "its OK, but Half-Life is better." Seeing what was posted ITT makes me realise I had no clue that the game was actually much deeper than I gave it credit for, so I might actually give it a change now.
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,156
Is there a mod for Kingpin where you play as a cop delivering justice to this bunch of dirty perps, instead of being just another thug?
 

Bad Sector

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Joined
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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Wait a second - so the game is set in some alternate history 1930s and the soundtrack is "yo bitch-ass nigga" hip hop? OK, I guess.

It isn't the 1930s, the game has a slightly art deco style, though even that isn't as pronounced as something like Bioshock. It is an alternative present/near-past (for the late 90s it was made) with a more retro style set in a dystopian world where crimelords rule. But there is also a lot of modern tech.

In any case do not think too much about the game's universe, it is largely style over substance. Though that works fine for it, you're expected to shoot NPCs in the face with the shotgun, not discuss classic literature with them :-P.

Is there a mod for Kingpin where you play as a cop delivering justice to this bunch of dirty perps, instead of being just another thug?

I do not think there is any organized law enforcement in the game, at best you get bodyguards. I think by the time the game is set, any government is either dismantled or completely taken over by the Kingpin. So at best what you could get is some vigilante ala Punisher.
 
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Parsifarka

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Dec 31, 2014
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Potato field
I played through it a couple of years ago for the first time, GOG edition -Kingpin does not need a remaster, it stills look great and in fact is one of the best looking FPS of the period with a very strong art direction which holds to this day. If anything, what it needs is a remake or whatever we call something that goes beyond adding 4k resolutions and screwing up the lightning system for there's a top tier FPS in Kingpin bogged down by some issues probably related to development time constraints; as I recall it:

The challenging start of the game promises stealth mechanics which are forgotten along the way as it turns to be a rather bland shooter; not bad by any means, but certainly not one of the greatest as enemy HP is rather bloated (a Soldier of Fortune level of lethality would have suited it perfectly) and after a compelling war of attrition on the first few levels it burdens you with all the ammo you need and more to just keep firing the Tommy gun (the shotgun soon becomes obsolete as it does not stunt enemies and the effective range is too close) against anything that moves for the whole game. Also, the companion AI operating in some levels is beyond retarded as it can often block your path on narrow skywalks forcing you to reload.

So there are quite some things I'd like to be reviewed and fixed on a re-release, and even expanded such as the quest system which structures the hub with new missions and interactive NPCs.
Of course, this is daydreaming as I don't trust current year 3DRealms to do anything competent so they should just keep their hands off and disband in silence before they break anything.
 
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Bad Sector

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Yeah, Kingpin as an immersive sim "lite" would be nice. It already has the lawless dystopia as a background to excuse all the fuckery going on, there are a bunch of factions, your character going up the crime ladder and taking over, small communities settled in the decaying buildings and abandoned factories, etc. It'd still require some suspension of disbelief about how exactly the world came to be like it is, but from a gameplay and basic setup it could work.

I don't know if 3D Realms owns the rights though, but if Graven works out and they do own the rights, it could be a potential reboot or something.
 

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