WithinAmnesia
commented
2 years ago Wait a second. If big character sprites (x4 times larger) were used then one can use regular Flare tilesets that are just enlarged (since they are tiled)? Does Flare use enlarged / up-scaled character sprites?
Can Flare have an entity / character sprite be scaled up / be rendered 4 times as large and or can a character take up ~'4 tiles'? Kind of like how Baldur's Gate / Runescape / WoW have big sized enemies that take up more floor space tiles / bigger sprite circle / bigger shadow (Azuregos https://imgur.com/DLSarif + https://www.reddit.com/r/wow/comments/tbead/i_felt_bad_for_saying_stuff_like_that_to_azuregos/ )
If the entity sprites can be scaled up (4 times larger) the tilesets should not be a huge issue. Does Flare have an entity scaling feature? Instead of scaling everything up by 4 if the entity sprites can be made larger that would still work. If a character was scaled up it would solve all the issues and as a bonus the game world times would be smaller but with more resolution / fine detail (like boundary edges).
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/872743295003000852/930688541720211466/unknown.png image From: https://github.com/flareteam/flare-game/issues/879 Now with all of the screen resolution is it possible to upscale all the assets by x 4 and have it loot the same as before with the old up scaled assets but have 4 times the pixel density so that new assets can be made to gradually replace the up-scaled low resolution assets?
I am not sure how that would work but if the tiles and spirits / animations are 4 times larger (x 4 up-scaled) they would look the same but have 4 times the pixel density / resolution. Now I understand icons are one thing and tilesets and animations are another.
Although how complex would it be for 'FlareHD light' / Flare x 4? If I made all of the old art assets scaled up the same as the icons (x4 in scale) would this work with making the tilesets and animations? How would the Flare engine be able to run these 4 times larger tileset and animations? Is it very complex? Or is it something doable? Can this idea even work in the Flare engine with the rest of Flare art be up-scaled / enlarged by 4 times to match the icons and take advantage of the 4 times increased pixel density?
This FlareHD light / ~'Flare x 4' would not require new art assets effectively (just simple scaling to nearest pixel edits). I am wondering if it would be a nightmare to render the tilesets and animations 4 times larger to match the x 4 time resolution like the icons?
Is this a reasonable idea or is it out for lunch XD? I know making new art is a hard thing to do but up-scaled art could be easier? I am not 100% sure how Wandercall handled the resolution although I like the original scale of Flare but I am hoping for x4 times more pixel density; yet using basically the same but x 4 up scaled art assets to start ~'Flare x 4'?
Is this asking too much and or is there a huge unseen complexity that is hard to over come? I am wondering if 'Flare x 4' can be achieved or not in a reasonable manner. As in kind of like what happened here with the 128 x 128 icons success; but for the tilesets and animations. Is it possible to run all the original art assets of Flare yet with x 4 the pixel density and hope they still work in the Flare engine?
If so then this could open the doors for the community to make higher resolution 'FlareHD' assets but at a reasonable pace with still using original Flare x4 enlarged / up-scaled assets as placeholders. This could take Flare from 2000's art into the 2020's art and add decades of life to the art and I think with x 4 the pixel density that the Flare engine can make some really amazing games. Although it all comes down to figuring if it can be done early enough I feel. I really hope that 'Flare x 4' can be reasonable to do for it can lead to some amazing looking games that graphically could stand the test of time.