LEGO Racers HD (mod project, WIP)

[BlazeD]

Are you still working on this project?

Anyways, it looks very nice

[alan]

As you can see he hasn't been online for about 10 months now, so you can conclude that there is not going to happen anything within the next months or years... unless he returns shortly.

[mumboking]

He does have a twitter account, but it's probably not a good idea to bug him too much.

[Cyrem]

No he isn't working on the project anymore, he's too busy with other things. I spoke with him about it on skype sometime ago.

[Wirza]

he's too busy with other things.

I hope said "other things" includes ert.

[Jimbob]

Kenney hasn't been on since October 27^th last year so I doubt you'll be hearing from him any time soon, sorry.

[Pengu1719]

I have extracted some textures from LDD that look just like the LR Textures. I have edited some of them. Here they are:

 

LH_SAD.BMP

LS_DFLT.BMP

SK_DFLT.BMP

LH_BLINK.bmp

LH_DFLT.BMP

[Kenney]

Hey guys, before you get all excited: not back to return to the project, sorry!

 

There's been a great deal of changes and my game studio has picked up some really awesome projects which (unfortunately for you guys) mean that all my time and efforts go into those. I won't be sharing the vector source files with the public, there's a couple of reasons. First, it's been a while and the quality of those textures isn't up to par of what I release nowadays. Next to that, since I've got my own game studio, I'd like to make sure I don't get into any trouble with LEGO or any other company for releasing their materials.

 

I've recently been contacted by community member lordtobi909 on Twitter regarding sharing the assets. Here's what he said:

 

Quote

 

"(...) and ARE in the talks with LEGO actually. In the meantime, could you hand me the original vector graphics files for everything LEGO you have?"

 

"(...) yes, but that is why we at RRU are in talks with them, but as long as we do not have it through we do not expect people aiming at revenue to work on things like LEGO Racers HD."

 

"So, could you provide us the vector files you already have, please?"

 

"So you are hopping on the "just not going to answer" train?" (I didn't answer for a day, shame on me.)

 

"And when you just stopped answering on Sunday, I had to believe you were no longer interested in even talking about it, which is considered in modern terms as 'abandonware'."

 

 

That's how you don't ask for source files.

[Giacomo1496]

Hi guys,i really appreciated this project and it's a sad thing that Kenny hasn't time to continue it,so i would to collaborate,according to him.If someone don't want me to do it i can do this work for me...i haven't a lot of free time in the week but with my time i can do it....i started with the 1st circuit,here  pics.For the moment i only retextured the grass in this track.

[Giacomo1496]

I'm proceding with this work ;).I almost finished the imperial gran prix,here's some pics.I hope to publish this first map this weekend,it's an hard work that requires a lot of time (that i don't have( and patience (that luckely i have).

[Giacomo1496]

Finally Imperial Grand Prix is ready!Here's the download link: http://dfiles.eu/files/q9zzbhu8e

You have to extract files in GAMEDATA/RACEOR1.

And i uploaded a video demostration too.I hope you will appreciate my commitment to continue this project and i appreciate comments (positive and negative ^^).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGhiOckYG1k&feature=youtu.be

 

[ChangedUsername123]

[comment redacted]

[Giacomo1496]

10 hours ago, lordtobi said:

 

 

Now other than any of the above, I only found one attempt at actually improving the image, that being on IG_FLAG1:

My first impression is that the former cannons now look like grey-black sausages, but I'd like to take notice of the image of a crown taken from the first page of Google Images (uncredited, original found here). The image was cut extremely half-heartedly, as if you were in a rush, and it really looks horrible, also seeing the higher level of detail slapped onto a five-color, simple-lines image.

 

Hi,thanks for your critic,i can do better and fix something.But i want to premise a thing:i'm not a graphic expert like Kenney,i'm simply a lover of this game that is doing is best to try to give it a better look.In particular this image is a very s*** and i have to give reason to you,so i redid it and here's two pics (the bmp and an ingame pic): 

In contrast with the map it looks good now.The most part of textures are good and it's not important the programs i used and i used illustrator too but i refined with other programs.I haven't exxagerated because the scope of this project is to mantein the original style.I forgot to write that 2 or 3 bmps weren't been elaborated and the reason it's simple:i haven't found a right way to convert.Now i'm trying again,informing myself better.So i trust in my project and i don't think that is a completely s***.In the gameplay this is very good,you don't stop to watch door handles,however i'll fix bitmap you noticed me and i'll try to do those i haven't did.Or today or tomorrow i'll publish a link with only these i mentioned.Bye and thanks again,the silence don't improve the things.

[Giacomo1496]

I fixed the pieces you said me,Lordtobi and i finished to do others.Now is very completed and i won't touch this track again,from tomorrow i'll start other.I play in 1920x1200 with 8x of anti alias and 16x and antiscopic filter and it looks very good.So for who want to try this first map,here's the link with all pieces to overwrite in GAMEDATA/RACEOR1: http://dfiles.eu/files/o7ioxq2o4

And here some pics : http://it.tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=bpRy0IYlPgO2TgTEKTBti4h4l5k2TGxc#.WLHPJW_hC6I

http://it.tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=bpRy0IYlPgOOWtTa4cfGBoh4l5k2TGxc#.WLHPI2_hC6I

http://it.tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=bpRy0IYlPgPep%2BKVHHGKB4h4l5k2TGxc#.WLHPJG_hC6I

http://it.tinypic.com/usermedia.php?uo=bpRy0IYlPgNpORxM66YaeIh4l5k2TGxc#.WLHPJW_hC6I

[CaptainGolem]

I'll be honest here - you simply do not have the required skill to do this project.
Your activity and love for modding would be useful somewhere else, like making new powerup layouts or editing the opponents, but making HD textures is simply not your thing.

 

I really have to appreciate that you are actually DOING something though, absolutely anything is better than this depressing silence and total lack of any modding progress that has been present for quite a long time now.
This is the problem that just keeps repeating here - people who have time or actually bother with the game do not have the skills, and people who have the skills do not have time or simply do not care.

 

I have already abandoned all hope for online gameplay and track creation, but ANY simple progress like getting the AI car models would be nice. But not even this is happening.

[Giacomo1496]

Ok i understood that you want the perfection so if i will be able to attempt at this requirements i'll replay this topic or in oppositive sense i'll left this project.I'm curious if you tested in game or you simply watched bitmaps and compared with Kenny's work.I didn't want to emulate his style,first of all because he is an expert and me not and second,i did my interpretation and i did the best to continue this work and to to a better look.In the gameplay it looks good but i understand that is question of tastest too.And in every case,better these textures than the originals for higher resolutions,not?

[Lair]

it's not about emulating style or taste, it's about making textures that are faithful to the original decals and look nice and are probably drawn from semi-scratch rather than looking like they were upscaled in waifu2x on the highest settings. and that's just with decals, when it comes to other textures, just making higher-detail textures for low-polygon models can sometimes come across a bit uncanny (hell enough people seem to be weirded out by just playing older games with a higher internal resolution). like if you've got a lego brick model that's just a 12-polygon prism with a texture of lego studs on the top, rather than try to make that lego stud texture higher-quality it'd be preferable to just remodel the brick to have those studs. unfortunately, while that's easy enough with games like Rock Raiders if you've got the right tools, I don't remember much progress with model editing being made in this game, so I don't know what you can actually make out of this game. but I do know that's not a good attitude to approach art with.

[Giacomo1496]

Yes,you are right and i'm the first who want a good remake of textures for high resolutions manteining the original style.I understand too that is not a thing of everybody but it also is a thing that you can learn.I'm actually praticing to remake them using vector correction and to fill it with color.It's the only way to mantein the original style.So when i will finish some bmp i will purpose you some pics so you could say me if it's a fattible thing.I'm tenacious and i don't give up at the first failure ;).

[Ayliffe]

Since I was bored and had nothing else to do today, I decided to whip up an adjusted version of the flag myself in HD from scratch:

 

 

It's really rough around the edges in multiple places (probably 'cos, y'know, I'm not exactly the greatest artist in the world), but the point here is that there's much more to HD-ing games than getting the original textures and smoothening out the edges. I appreciate that you're really into doing this thing, and that's fine - it's just that you've gotta do more than just smoothen the jaggies to make textures look good innit. Often the point of HD-izing a game is to redraw as many textures as possible whilst still remaining the aesthetic of the original, and that's something that waifu2x can't offer.

 

tl;dr: creating new art in the same style > just removing the jaggies and such from the old ones through quick and easy means.

[Sluicer]

Just a suggestion:

This game is from LEGO... Why don't you use images of real parts for template?

I used google image search (lego flag with crossed cannons red stripes) and found something like:

 

 

[Fifi La Fume]

Here's my attempt at the flag:

 

 

It's not perfect, but it's something.

[FragrantGC]

Wow. This is pretty, and pretty good.

[Zatman1]

Excuse the bump, but is anybody still interested in this kind of LR1 HD project with design philosophy as outlined in the OP? Although I am not a professional and make no promises with regards to timescale of progress or even success, I may be able to vectorise many of the static graphics. What I apparently lack is the ability to implement them...

 

What is the correct procedure for increasing the resolution of graphic G in the game, given that I have a scalable vector graphic (.SVG) copy of G? I would naively think to just replace the original bitmap of G with a new bitmap, i.e. a rasterised version of my vector graphic at the desired resolution, which would then be (down-) scaled appropriately depending on the resolution the game is running at. However this doesn't work (the graphic is rendered at the original size). I feel I am missing something obvious but can't get my head around this aspect for some reason. Clearly it can be done judging by the screenshots of Kenney's work in this thread.

 

Anyway, as an example I have attached my attempt at the all important flag from Imperial Grand Prix, for which I would be willing to share the .SVG once finalised and if there is interest. From the original raster it is difficult to make out what exactly the 'crown' is supposed to look like, but I think it is the same as what is in the image posted above by Sluicer except in yellow; therefore I have modelled it based on that (I have a coloured version as well but I think the black looks better at the moment). 

 

Spoiler

 

Thoughts? Is this high enough 'quality' to be worth putting further effort into? Does anyone even care any more?

[RaveV]

Really nice man!

[grappigegovert]

Your texture looks really nice , and I'm sure most of us would like an HD texture mod.
As for the scaling problem, as far as I know, only HUD elements are sized based on their resolution, because all other textures are uv-mapped and should therefore always be the correct size. Can you send a screenshot of your missized texture in-game?