Jungle Island In-Game
The team is finally home, back in the land of stable internet connections. While we do not yet have access to the footage of our actual presentation, we’ve gone ahead and recorded a walkthrough of the area we demonstrated on Saturday, so you all can get a nice, high-resolution view of what was shown there until the actual presentation can be posted.
Also important to note is the fact that this area is still a work in progress. Many textures and objects are placeholders, or missing altogether. That said, work has progressed since Saturday, and there’s actually one or two assets that have been added to the area since then!
Enjoy:
We’ll post the official video of our presentation as soon as we get access to it. Until then, you can watch a capture of the justin.tv stream here!
August 6th, 2014 at 7:58 pm
You guys are my heroes. You are making accessible again the best game ever made. Spectacular job.
August 6th, 2014 at 9:14 pm
I can’t wait to see how people respond to this game after getting bored from the multitutes of Battlefields, CODs, GTAs, and Candy Crush Saga.
August 6th, 2014 at 9:58 pm
Beauty.
August 7th, 2014 at 1:08 am
Looks incredible guys, brought back fond memories of playing Riven for the first time back in the late 90s. Can’t wait to play it!
August 7th, 2014 at 1:54 am
OMG. I was blown away by how much you’ve accomplished… and it all looks just incredible!!
August 7th, 2014 at 3:42 am
The water is really nice, and the animations and everything. However, the switches part seems to be lacking shadows. Strange. Anyway, it’s great and seems to be playable already
August 7th, 2014 at 4:16 am
Guys, this is incredible! Far better than what I was expecting in such a short space of time, absolutely awesome, thank you so much, so looking forward to seeing this finished. 😉
August 7th, 2014 at 4:40 am
gorgeous – and great to see in close-up – but where is the bit where you fell off the pathway in the village? lol Seriously, can’t wait – and thx for the gorgeous wallpaper pics in the meantime.
August 7th, 2014 at 5:16 am
You guys deserve a big applause for this. The quality and accuracy is outstanding.
I realise of course that this is not finished, but the aspect that seems least accurate at this point is light and texture. I suppose you’re well aware of how inaccurate some of the textures are, since some others are so spot on (such as the wooden walkways, the sub exterior, and most of the gallows).
The lighting is perhaps a more difficult issue, and of course that’s where 17 years old offline rendering still shines… The ambient occlusion especially seems very out of place to me. But seeing how far you’ve come and how high the quality of the modelling is, I’m sure you’ll sort these things out too. Looking forward to getting my hands on this!
August 8th, 2014 at 7:00 pm
Yes there are many inaccuracies in this video and worry not because we are very aware of them! There are definitely some parts of the demo that were a bit rushed for Mysterium and we will be going back and adjusting everything until we’re satisfied.
August 9th, 2014 at 12:42 am
We always target high quality visuals, it’s our prerogative! But in terms of presentational value we prioritize having a working game to show. As we speak, we’re bringing the world you’ve just seen to a whole another level that both commemorates and enhances the original.
August 14th, 2014 at 11:51 pm
This is rather exciting.
August 7th, 2014 at 5:28 am
What gets me most excited is the fact that it’s unfinished (plus, rushed for Mysterium) yet it still looks absolutely amazing!
August 7th, 2014 at 2:05 pm
OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! OMG! This is amazing!!!
August 7th, 2014 at 9:12 pm
Comparison point.
August 7th, 2014 at 9:18 pm
Timecode 24:30 if it doesn’t warp to it.
August 8th, 2014 at 3:07 am
This is really all just too surreal, us sitting here watching these videos, talking about this, comparing the video to game footage to see what’s incomplete. Maybe I wake up tomorrow and realize “hey, nobody is actually really making Riven in full 3D, hahah that’s just a pipe dream.”
August 11th, 2014 at 4:07 pm
I’m so happy my money is being put to good use. Awesome people!
August 12th, 2014 at 4:28 pm
Even in its unfinished state, the attention to detail and realism is astounding! I can tell that you are taking every pain to make this as faithful to the original as possible. I am very excited to see this become a reality.
August 14th, 2014 at 1:11 pm
Original still looks way better in every way besides the higher resolution and the realtime 3d. If you compare screeshots at the same resolution. Its going to be nearly impossible to get the rock formations and everything else to look as authentic as it was. I know its still early though. I know that the people here think that modern realtime 3d has caught up to the level of quality of 90’s pre-rendered graphics. But i disagree. I think there is still a ways to go.
August 19th, 2014 at 1:57 am
You’re kidding, right? Have you seen what games are out these days (granted they’re First Person Shooters but technology + budget = photoreal graphics in realtime 3D).
Considering that this is a volunteer project where you’ll eventually get the game out for free I think your ‘way better in every way’ comment is a bit offensive to the team. It’s in real time 3D, and it’s in early stages! Have faith – the UT 4 engine they’re using is capable of some pretty awesome things.
August 22nd, 2014 at 6:16 pm
The game is not going to be free, the Starry Expanse team precised that recently. Don’t forget they team up with Cyan, and Cyan will want their Copyright royalties.
August 25th, 2014 at 9:10 pm
Actually, the game may be free; it’s not something that’s set in stone quite yet.
August 22nd, 2014 at 6:14 pm
I must admit that although I love this project, for the moment I agree with you, we are not at the same image quality level as the original Riven (let aside resolution matters, of course, but from a pure “eye feeling” point of view). Nevertheless we cannot deny that the new engine is clearly getting us closer to the goal.
August 19th, 2014 at 10:49 pm
I’m very impressed with all of the modeling and so on that you have completed so far, it all looks fantastic! I do however second some of the other comments about lighting and texture, although I realise that you say that bits were a little rushed, and I’m dying to see what the final product looks like!
I did have a question about the water though, in the original game, the water is quite cloudy when you’re in the sub, and the water reflections from the heat sinks gave this very surreal environment, will that be duplicated as time goes on, or is it more difficult to achieve those sorts of water effects in realtime?
Also in some places, the demo seems to run a little fast, although I realise that may well bee simply from the fact that it’s for a demo.
Anyway, great job so far, I think it’s amazing what you’ve been able to achieve in just six months when you have to stick that close to source material, I know from having worked on some projects that it’s no easy task!
August 20th, 2014 at 11:45 am
In games, water effects are relatively easy to implement (depending on how you write them in). For their game, they might implement a shader on the glass of the sub that will give a submerged feeling. For this specific demo, I assume they didn’t get around to adjusting that and what you’re seeing is just regular “empty space” in the engine.
For a WIP demo of a visually complex area of the game, I think this is great progress. The amount of audio present was a great treat. Can’t wait to see the finished product.
August 20th, 2014 at 12:39 pm
We actually did implement a pretty good-looking underwater effect, but at the last minute decided not to include it due to a few glitches it was producing. The final version of the game will, of course, have an underwater look that matches the original.
August 22nd, 2014 at 6:08 pm
Someone who just discovered your first prison island video (and didn’t understand it was also fromm you) said : This is much better than Starry Expanse demo (i.e. Jungle Island demo), WAY better textures and finishing in general. lol…
September 1st, 2014 at 7:08 pm
What can i say. Just fantastic.
To see my favorite part of the Myst series coming back with again so much hard work and love is just awesome !!
Thank you all so much.
September 15th, 2014 at 8:25 am
What is with new material ?
September 17th, 2014 at 9:26 am
September update ?
September 18th, 2014 at 8:57 am
We’re back to work, expect an update very soon!
September 19th, 2014 at 3:54 pm
Woo! I’ll be checking this page every day! 😀
October 4th, 2014 at 7:27 pm
What are people’s thoughts on the 3D rendered characters?
October 8th, 2014 at 12:38 pm
I think you should go with live action same as the original, some of the new versions of unreal engine 4 coming out are integrating video playback in game and might very well allow for masking so only the actor can be rendered. If this were possible you could just set up a 2d plane mesh and render the human actor in place where need be no?
October 17th, 2014 at 12:52 pm
This looks VERY impressive! Keep up the good work!