FPS essentials

[schru]

SVN Daum also supports pixel shaders, but only for the Direct3D renderer. Not sure if it works with all the popular shaders included with Retroarch.

The pixels in the matrix there seem to be excessively sharp or contrasting, not that a computer C.R.T. shouldn't be sharp, but there's this jarring contrast between the black background and the pixels and between individual pixels themselves. However, I can't view it properly because the resolution is far larger than my monitor's native one. Also, doesn't the mask also make the colours a bit too dull, in a way that can't really be made up for with higher brightness?

320x200, if that's what the second screenshot is showing, should definitely be run with doublescan on, if the DOSBox build allows for it. Otherwise, there's 320x400 that can be used in its place.

It's not easy to find good pictures or footage of older games on C.R.T.s, but the bit towards the end in this video is pretty good, though it's a monitor from 2001:

 

[Nutmeg]

Isn't the spacing of the lines a bit large for computer C.R.T.s

Bottom is what it would have looked like on an 80s EGA monitor (if it could have been displayed on one, or using signal conversion equipment to blank every second line for VGA). Top is what it would have looked like on an early VGA monitor. In both cases an aperture grille monitor (i.e. a Sony).

 

[Morenatsu.]

I have an aperture grille monitor and I think the shader still looks a little weird.

 

[Baron Dupek]

I don't see any topic related to Unreal (and UT) mods, though they were a big deal. Kinda weird seeing the forum grew up with the game yet have no dedicated topic...
anyway I drop it here

 

[schru]

The authors of that modification don't seem to realize that the skies in Unreal are rendered incorrectly on modern systems, to a great stylistic detriment of the game. They use screenshots with the broken skies for comparison with their work in the maps section: https://www.unrealredux.com/, and it seems like they base their visual revisions on that, so project seems rather questionable.

Not the best screenshots, but they demonstrate the difference. The first picture shows how the sky in Dark Arena is supposed to look, it's broken in the second:

Spoiler

In this new teaser the level of brightness also seems rather low, similar to how the game looks in the old DirectX renderer when used on modern systems, which prevents correct gamma settings from being applied; or to how the lightmaps are blended in multitexture mode or multitexture with OneXBlending, depending on the renderer—all of which is wrong. Actually, looking at the comparison screenshots of the original game, it does seem like the brightness is too low.

Apart from this, more detailed vegetation, rocks, and detail on some geometry can be nice, but I don't think that making the lighting, particularly the use of coloured lights, subtler, or trying to rework the rough, imposing brushwork into something more elaborate is good. The way the levels were designed with this kind of ‘unreal’ geometry and vivid colours combined with dark, a bit Quake-like environments is essential to the style of the game. Generally, the redesigned scenes presented in the screenshots appear rather dim and lacking in contrast too.

Just two examples from the 2021 trailer:

Spoiler

 

[NecroLord]

I also recommend Doom 3.

Forget about the faggots who bitch and moan about it not being similar to its predecessors. It's a different take on Doom. Still great though. The Hell level is fucking awesome. If you must play the game, that is reason alone.
Wolf 3D, Doom 1 and 2, Heretic, Hexen, Blood, Shadow Warrior, Duke Nukem 3D, Quake 1 and 2, Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, Unreal. Those are Classics.

 

[Dayyālu]

I also recommend Doom 3.

Shut down all the lights in your house.
Get your pet and drug him up. Failing that, find a stray cat and drug him up.
Dump it in a closet.
Start randomly going around in your house, in the dark. It's essential.
Open the closet and get attacked by a crazed animal.

Here, 95% of the Doom 3 experience.

The only thing salvageable in Doom3 is the top-tier atmosphere. The entire gameplay is a half-baked copy of the Half Life-era shooters with shit-tier encounter designs and embarrassing bosses, and everyone with half a brain at release was completely turned off by it.

In be4re "Doom was always a Horror game!"

The only good thing coming out of Doom 3 was Prey. 2016 with all its problems at least tried something instead of copying badly the zeitgeist of the industry at the times.

 

[Morenatsu.]

But Prey is from 1998, how could it be Doom 3's fault?

 

[Arbiter]

But Prey is from 1998, how could it be Doom 3's fault?

I am sure Dayyālu was referring to Prey 2006.

 

[Morenatsu.]

But Prey is from 1998, how could it be Doom 3's fault?

I am sure Dayyālu was referring to Prey 2006.

That's what I said. MEOW!!!!!!

 

[Victor1234]

I read the OP's list and was left very disappointed. Here is the best shooter missing from your list, that spawned a (dying?) series that continues (barely...) to this day:

 

[Curratum]

Unreal 1 has always been decline, you can't shit up a game that's already bad in a big way.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Unreal 1 has always been decline, you can't shit up a game that's already bad in a big way.

You're shit.

 

[Curratum]

Unreal 1 has always been decline, you can't shit up a game that's already bad in a big way.

You're shit.

As stated before, every time you make a furry angry, you must be doing something right.

 

[V17]

Tbh I also don't exactly understand the huge popularity of Unreal in certain circles. It looks and sounds fucking amazing, the multiplayer is great and the engine was very influential, but the issue of old hardware not being able to handle more than a couple monsters at a time which is probably what probably led to all the enemies being boring bullet sponges killed the actual gameplay for me. Still finished it, but won't be going back.

 

[Victor1234]

One additional point that illustrates how FPS game design was different in the past, some modders have ported the campaign of the first game into the ArmA 3 engine, link below. I remember beating the campaign in OFP, but playing it again on the ArmA 3 engine brings home how much harder games were back in the day. You have a single AT rocket and if you miss that BMP, watch a gratuitous death cam of your stupid corpse, underlined by a pithy quote about how you should've stayed off the road if you wanted to grow old...

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2521552640

 

[Morenatsu.]

Nobody plays Unreal for gameplay. They play it because it's so fuckin kewl. Having a thousand enemies in every level is for DEGENERATE TRANNY DOOM MODDERS and not REAL MEN who are BASED.

 

[Curratum]

Nobody plays Unreal for gameplay. They play it because it's so fuckin kewl. Having a thousand enemies in every level is for DEGENERATE TRANNY DOOM MODDERS and not REAL MEN who are BASED.

Imagine calling anyone a tranny while you're a furry. But overall, yes, I'd agree that slaughter wads are trannyism and autism on the whole.

 

[Morenatsu.]

Nobody plays Unreal for gameplay. They play it because it's so fuckin kewl. Having a thousand enemies in every level is for DEGENERATE TRANNY DOOM MODDERS and not REAL MEN who are BASED.

Imagine calling anyone a tranny while you're a furry. But overall, yes, I'd agree that slaughter wads are trannyism and autism on the whole.

put me back on the ignore list pls

 

[Lemming42]

The reason to play Unreal is for "Shared Dig" playing in the mines, "Surfacing" playing on the boat ride through the canyon, and "Sunspire" playing in... Sunspire.

Anyone who doesn't like Unreal probably played it with the game audio muted and some lame podcast on in the background. They have revealed themselves as SUCKERS.

 

[NecroLord]

The reason to play Unreal is for "Shared Dig" playing in the mines, "Surfacing" playing on the boat ride through the canyon, and "Sunspire" playing in... Sunspire.

Anyone who doesn't like Unreal probably played it with the game audio muted and some lame podcast on in the background. They have revealed themselves as SUCKERS.

Don't forget that awesome soundtrack.

 

[Eisen]

Everything in Unreal is good except gameplay, that's why i didn't beat it. Why they made the gameplay so shitty?

 

[Morenatsu.]

Everything in Unreal is good except gameplay, that's why i didn't beat it. Why they made the gameplay so shitty?

You're face is shitty!

 

[schru]

The reason to play Unreal is for "Shared Dig" playing in the mines, "Surfacing" playing on the boat ride through the canyon, and "Sunspire" playing in... Sunspire.

Anyone who doesn't like Unreal probably played it with the game audio muted and some lame podcast on in the background. They have revealed themselves as SUCKERS.

Actually, that's ‘Dig’ (‘Shared’ was dropped in the official sound track), ‘Wargate’ in the canyon, and the third segment of ‘Hub 3’ in the Sunspire. ‘Surfacing’ is played in Gateway to Na Pali, the level after Sunspire.

 

[Lemming42]

Everything in Unreal is good except gameplay, that's why i didn't beat it. Why they made the gameplay so shitty?

To mount a semi-defence of the gunplay: I think the point is that it's strange and unfamiliar, like everything else in the game. In any other game, the Stinger would be a hitscan minigun, but in Unreal it fires relatively slow moving projectiles and has an alt-attack that's basically a shotgun. In any other game, the rocket launcher would be the high-damage weapon with relatively scarce ammo that you keep for dangerous encounters, but in Unreal it's your go-to weapon for dealing with regular enemies around the mid-game.

Then there's shit like the Flak Cannon, the Ripper (or Razorjack, i forget what it's called in Unreal vs UT), and the sludge gun (forget it's name, BioCannon or whatever) that are just odd and don't have any obvious equivalents in other FPS games. The guns feel like they're trying to wrongfoot you by being incomprehensible and alien in the same way that Na Pali as a whole is.

Not that that excuses the spongey enemies or the fact that some of the weapons are just really shit, but I think a lot of people get turned off by the strange weapons and the unusual gunplay when that's the whole point IMO.

There's also the fact that, since most enemies uses slow-ish projectiles, you're meant to charge in and then start leaping around to dodge enemy attacks. Again it's kind of weird and not standard FPS gameplay which I think alienates people, but it becomes more enjoyable when you start to get more skilled at it.