And another thing!
We’re feeling generous, so here’s a re-shoot of the Prison Island walkthrough that was posted before. We tried to capture video from a newer build, but none of the results worked properly, so this video is from the same build as the last video was, so it lacks the newer features that we’ve completed since Mysterium. Still, it’s a much smoother demonstration of what was done at that point – and it has sound, which I think really adds to the experience.
As with before, this is very much a work in progress, particularly the sky, water, and firemarble dome.
Enjoy!
November 19th, 2011 at 11:05 pm
Awesome! This looks really neat.
A little nit-picky side note:
When the elevator goes down, it starts a little too abruptly, which makes it seem too high tech and advanced ;). This is just a little thing, though. Overall, really great! I especially love how you’ve slowed down the clouds. It’s very realistic looking.
November 20th, 2011 at 9:12 am
Wow, that’s awesome, I didn’t know your work was moving forward so fast. I recommend to everyone to watch this video in HD mode, it really makes you badly want to play it. Riven lovers will be very pleased.
November 21st, 2011 at 4:24 pm
Very nice as well. One question, is the circle the final cursor version? I don’t know if I can stand it without that tiny brown hand! 🙂
November 30th, 2011 at 7:34 am
You’ll be able to choose between the original hand, the higher resolution hand (a la Myst V and realMyst), and the Uru cursor. Chances are slim that we’ll be able to implement the Revelation-style 3D hand, but if there’s enough demand (*cough* and support *cough cough*) specifically for that feature, we’ll definitely put some effort into getting it to work, too.
November 21st, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Simply Awesome!!!
November 22nd, 2011 at 3:38 am
This is amazing! I wish the water had a little more ebb and flow like ocean waves, but I also liked how I could see things through the water, so I would rather see things through the water if I had to choose.
November 23rd, 2011 at 2:24 am
Perhaps the water should move a bit slowly because of the microorganisms.
November 22nd, 2011 at 10:51 am
Totally love this! Will there be extra touches like dust floating around and when the elevator moves, the handle should be swinging since it’s suspended in mid-air.
November 22nd, 2011 at 11:52 pm
Yes. Yes and yes.
November 23rd, 2011 at 12:15 am
Yes!
November 23rd, 2011 at 4:55 am
Love it!!! I’m back in 1997 all over again!
November 30th, 2011 at 10:48 pm
Wow, that’s fantastic!
One little nitpick is the gold shader on the dome doesn’t look very shiny.
November 30th, 2011 at 11:17 pm
this is truly a wonderful idea. I hope you guys get this finnished
December 4th, 2011 at 12:29 am
Hey, this is amazing stuff! I agree with the water needing a bit more ebb and flow. I believe that that type of water would be better for the village pond, or other small sources of water that are not the ocean in the game. I would think the waves in the ocean of Riven should be more like (but not as rough as) the waves in RealMyst.
Also, I didn’t get a chance to see it, but did you put a camera above the elevator? The one you can use to view the cell from Survey Island?
Also, where can I donate? Maybe not now, since I am a new college student without a job, but hopefully soon I would LOVE to support this project
December 4th, 2011 at 12:34 am
I just saw where the donate section was xD
December 4th, 2011 at 8:57 am
I’ve just found out about this project … the level of detail you’ve reached here is incredible. When someone had told me that a group of students wants to recreate Riven in a 3D engine I would’ve laughed at them. Seeing this makes me really happy and looking forward to seeing Riven in all its glory again.
I hope for you that Cyan endorses the project.
December 7th, 2011 at 5:56 pm
Since the prison age IS pretty much completely built, would it take a lot of effort to put out a demonstration of it at night? Not only will it look incredible, but I’m curious as to how the lighting will be managed in order to fully see the world without the sun. I’ve always assumed that those were lights that surrounded the marble dome, but I didn’t see many lights elsewhere in the game.
Again, it looks amazing! Shame on me for not having the talent to be able to offer any assistance!
December 7th, 2011 at 5:59 pm
I suppose “prison age” is a bit of a misnomer, given that it’s part of Age 5 just like everything except Tay and Age 233. Given its seclusion though, I imagine it will be coded as if it’s its own location 😉
December 8th, 2011 at 10:23 am
Work is currently underway to replace the systems controlling the sky, including the sun and the moon. It’s actually pretty close to being ready – when it is, you’ll definitely get to take a look at Prison Island at night.
And to answer your curiosity: at least on Prison Island, there are small lights all over the place – around the firemarble dome, embedded in the railings on the walkway, in the elevator, on the walls, etc. For more natural areas, we may either add our own lights, or we may make the assumption that the moon is particularly bright – but I think you’ll find that there are either lamps or bioluminescent plants/water/etc practically everywhere you look in Riven. Either way, the goal is to be able to play the game just as well at nighttime as you can in the day.
December 8th, 2011 at 2:41 pm
Awesome! Can’t wait to see it!
December 9th, 2011 at 6:52 pm
Also, it would be really cool to see a fly-by comparison as depicted in the linking book – it would be really fun to see yours alongside the original game’s. Though i’d understand if you want to wait until all the components are finalized (clouds and water especially) before you commit to that 😉
December 17th, 2011 at 5:29 am
Just watch the prison island walk through. It’s a perfect match to the original! Riven is one of the all time greatest games and it’s good to see you guys are really really getting it right! Will there be any secrets in your version?
December 25th, 2011 at 12:24 pm
OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG 😀
January 31st, 2012 at 3:59 am
You’re the Great! Original sounds and 3D graphics looks very good! I’m very happy to see this and hope you’ll complete this work!
Few notes:
1) I think that clouds must have a higher resoulution and/or other type.
2) Hope that you’ll add bumpmapping for all things and some details like small pits and rocks on the mountain.
3) The lighting should be “more daylight”. I mean temperature and contrast.
4) Ocean water must be a little slow.
5) Horizon must be more cloudy for “far distanse emulation”.
Thank you for your job! I’ll wait release and ready to buy it!
July 14th, 2012 at 5:39 am
You should tune in to our Mysterium presentation on August 3 via LiveStream.
March 4th, 2012 at 2:30 pm
I weeped.
May 3rd, 2012 at 12:38 pm
Extra Areas? Peaches?
May 21st, 2012 at 1:25 am
Personally, I think the water, when near the camera, looked fine in the video, and in the distance, the reflections actually made it seem slightly more real. The bigger question was the sky. I once saw the same sky used in Riven in an magazine ad for something unrelated, so I doubt it’ll be impossible to obtain the real deal.
July 14th, 2012 at 5:35 am
The sky is just a static photograph, perhaps taken in New Mexico on Cyan’s trip to Santa Fe. If you look closely you can see that the Riven sky is actually a cropped version of Uru’s sky for The Cleft. So, if we wanted, we could just use that. However, we’ve also been working on our own sky shader, so hopefully our sky will be much more special. 🙂
June 30th, 2012 at 4:54 am
Any chance you can get tessellation to work? With the environments as huge and dense as they are, it’d probably make things a lot better.
July 14th, 2012 at 5:30 am
We’ve considered tessellation; Unity uses tessellation for its built-in terrain system, and we hope to use that for at least parts of the terrain. As for using it for water and whatnot, unfortunately nobody on the team really knows enough about it to know how to implement it, at this time. :-/
July 10th, 2013 at 6:54 am
What do you plan to do about the human characters? At this point in the game (spoilers) catherine appears and takes over for a moment. If you can get the original footage you will be very limited by camera angles. If you can’t get the footage – what is your plan?