The more those distortions are cleaned up, the less interesting the viewmodels start to look. Texture filtering also makes them look more bland, and so would smoother lighting.
I agree. All the more reason to trade them in for something more detailed.
No. The solution is rather to make small corrections to the parts that look a little awkward at higher resolutions. And when playing with texture filtering on or modified lighting in source ports, they'd also need somewhat higher-resolution textures.
I have no issue with any of the visual aspects of the vanilla game...except everything related to the off-putting toy weapons which are made to a lower technical standard than the rest of the art.
The weapons definitely do look a lot better at super lower resolutions, but that comes with numerous tradeoffs and it's not worth it.
They have simple geometry, but they don't look like toys in the game. The double-barrelled shotgun and the nailguns could gain more polygons without losing their iconic look, but the angular look on the shotgun, grenade launcher, and rocket launcher is part of their appeal. Even the axe looks kind of nice the way it is and I certainly prefer it to the replacement used in AD and 1.5.
At any rate, what I've been saying is that the weapon designs are irreplaceable because they're cool and iconic and fit great with the game world's rough, crude geometry. Their hunk-of-metal-like appearance with some wooden grips is what makes the designs special. Those in Quake 1.5 aren't incompetent or such, they're fine on their own and would fit in some retro indie shooter, but they don't match original game's æsthetics.
Oh, and here, proof of objective technical disparity between weapons and enemies animation:
Code:
===========================================
DEMON
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$frame leap1 leap2 leap3 leap4 leap5 leap6 leap7 leap8 leap9 leap10
$frame leap11 leap12
$frame attacka1 attacka2 attacka3 attacka4 attacka5 attacka6 attacka7 attacka8
$frame attacka9 attacka10 attacka11 attacka12 attacka13 attacka14 attacka15
Demon gets 12-15 animation frames (jump attack, melee attack), player gets 2 to 6 per attack..and weapon models also don't have any kind of other animation whatsoever except a universal position interpolation bob when running. Significantly less detail.
the vanilla weapons are trash visually, always were, and purists in this regard are goddamn posers.
I didn't doubt you the first time, but it doesn't detract from how the weapons feel, as the difference in the number of frames isn't that apparent. Additional frames could be added to them, it's not something that warrants replacing the original designs. I'm also not sure if in case of the nailgun making the animation smoother wouldn't be detrimental, as the low-frame look gives it a look vaguely similar to intermittent illumination when discharging an automatic weapon in darkness. The problem I had in mind regarding it is that the animation is rather simplistic because of the way the piece going horizontally across the barrels moves a bit strangely in relation to them; at higher resolutions it does just look like an aggregate of cubic solids jiggling together, I'll give you that. There's also the actual problem with the nails being fired from above the gun rather than the barrels.
I wouldn't add any idle animations or such. The minimal approach with just the running bob feels appropriate.
Anyway, low-frame animation doesn't equate to ‘trash’ visuals. All these things amount to technicalities or the need to polish things up for rendering settings the game wasn't originally designed in mind with. When I said that the weapons cannot be improved upon, I meant that their audio-visual designs and feel are irreplaceable.
And just because you can't conceive that someone may look at things this way doesn't mean he's pretending. I started out with the attitude ‘I'd rather wait for a source port’ and thought it'd be nice to have higher-resolution assets in older games, but gradually, as I saw how these things tend to turn out, I changed my mind to a DOSBox/wrapper-only stance (of course this doesn't apply to more expansive map packs and mods designed for source ports with new features). And again, one you get bored of the original game, it's fine to play around with whatever mods and conversions you like. I just object to suggestions that the original game with its presentation can be supplanted at some point.
Shall we talk about the shitty vanilla balance too and how once you obtain the full arsenal there is effectively only 3 worthwhile weapons in the entire game (SSG, SNG, RL) because the others are made redundant by these three, or are redundant all by themselves (Axe, lightning gun is good but you barely get to use it in vanilla campaign).
‘Shitty’ balance, the iconic weapons are an ‘eyesore’. But then you get cross with someone for saying that a work-in-progress compilation mod looks terrible because it tinkers with much more than just the weapons.
Those early Id games had small weapon selections, but the way they stand out from basically all shooters ever made shows that having a wider selection rarely amounts to a more cohesive and fulfilling gameplay, and at the very least that it's very difficult to balance and create good uses for many weapons in a shooter.
It'd be nice to have two or three interesting guns more, provided the campaign were also longer. I don't think the enemy roster is that lacking either; it's quite satisfactory for the base game. What is disappointing is that Id wasn't able to live up to that standard of game design ever since.
The shotgun retains its utility when it comes to weaker enemies at range when the player is short on ammo; in earlier maps it still makes sense to fall back on it rather than waste nails or grenades on weaker enemies. You're probably right about the difference between the nailgun and supernailgun being too small, though: the rate of fire is not that different to warrant falling back on the weaker weapon to save ammo and they're generally found close together, in terms of levels. The grenade launcher is very fun to use and I think it might be the best one out of all shooters, but there's definitely less motivation to keep using it once you acquire the rocket launcher. Yet, lobbing grenades around corners and such is a very different function.
I think there are enough opportunities to use the Thunderbolt as a special, extra-powerful weapon. I find that I don't use it that much not because of the lack of ammunition or limited number of levels it's in, but simply because I tend to save it for the more demanding encounters. The axe is a weapon of last resort and while that kind of thing isn't very interesting in itself, it makes sense in that type of shooter. It shouldn't be a viable regular weapon, just like the fist in Doom. It could be interesting to experiment with giving it an ability to deal extra damage in some particular conditions or when blows are landed very skilfully, though, like how the berserker pack in Doom makes the first powerful, but it's easy to miss and the player makes himself particularly vulnerable.
There's potential for modifications to the weapons balance and mechanics, and note that I didn't object to what you said regarding the other gameplay mods. Still, I'd rather keep Doom and Quake simple, the way they are, as their combat systems have outstanding rhythm and cohesion.
When it comes to classic shooters with more weapons, the balance in them too often comes down to a few core weapons being universally serviceable, while the rest hang on as awkward additions that lack proper use and place in the game. It's the case in Unreal (I know, your mod), Sin, Half-Life, and even Blood, which has very imaginative and fun weapons, leaves something to be desired in terms of game design to make the later special weapons fit in. Shadow Warrior is rather underappreciated for how its monsters with special variants create a more diverse flow in terms of the range of weapons that feels appropriate in different situations. Serious Sams do a very good job of making almost every weapon useful and the composition of the hordes requiring different approaches, but it doesn't have that many weapons. It also feels like the weapons and AI from Unreal Tournament had great potential for a singleplayer game, if similarly effective non-humanoid enemies were added to it.
Also:
Muh perfect vanilla weapons lol. You're just pretending for the KKK (Kodex Kool Kredits) right?
I think Half-Life 2 and the Episodes are fun games (but not continuing the original's formula is a shame), I found Thief II disappointing and somewhat dull, I don't like Baldur's Gate II at all, and I think Invisible War is enjoyable for what it is. I think that should preclude me from pandering to the Codex's tastes.
