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Sacred 2, The Ancaria Beautification Project


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Looks really good. The difference is -ahem- like night and day.

If you want to avoid blasting a thread with lots of big screenshots you can CTRL+Right Click on them to create thumbnails that will enlarge to full size when clicked.

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15 hours ago, Vishanka said:

I fear there is not much I will be able to do for them but I will try. Maybe if I replace the whole image...

I tried to replace the mane as well but that's tricky and will need a lot of more work.

There's actually a mane pattern on the model and that will create shadows so I need to follow the pattern if it's supposed to look like anything... and following the pattern is a lot of trial and error...

8ebSTzw.png

 

I cant get enough of seeing the swirls and eddies that are coming into your environment.  We take for granted how much there is in simple views of our own lives, but artists help us refresh our rosy lenses. :hugs:

and the details... deciphering the patterns of a mane's shadow...

:dance2:

gogo

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I didn't like any of the things I created.

And it annoyed me that there is that spot in Thylysium slums that just would not fit with the jungle grass.

But I got inspired by one of the grass textures and drew a new one based on that.

I drew one and duplicated it 8 times so no variation yet, colors/contrast and so on also not final but I think it's the grass base I was looking for :) reminds me of lank savannah grass.

Since the lower part is green grass blades it also fits Thylysium slums. The problem there was a ground patch which is green and not brown like jungle.

Didn't catch it with nice ambient lighting but it will do:

CNOtH4g.png

M8ckxTR.png

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1 hour ago, Vishanka said:

M8ckxTR.png

Haha one can see the shader at work, that's peak specular on the tree left.
At the risk of embarrassing myself because I don't know which of these pictures is Vanilla and which is your work:
I like the upper picture more.:sweating:

1 hour ago, Vishanka said:

 

CNOtH4g.png

 

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17 minutes ago, Lindor said:

Haha one can see the shader at work, that's peak specular on the tree left.

That are actually flowers on the tree :D

 

18 minutes ago, Lindor said:

I like the upper picture more.:sweating:

There is no change between them, it's just night time that settled in :)

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Second's my favorite.  Always loved how Sacred's designers put in so much wildlife just...chilling.  Skulking black panthers will do it for me anytime 

nice screen capture of vivid jungle 

:thumbsup:

gogo

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I headed back to jungle today and think I did a good job there, I really like it.

Can't wait until you see it live with the weather effects and so on, looks great.

Still, after I completed the jungle I knew that elven region needed another revamp, and elven region can't change without human region so basically I had to redo half of the mod.

old

mUq62oA.png

new

88fYtHm.jpg

I used to use the same filter profile for the earth and grass textures resulting in earth getting too dark and desaturated.

On the downside with lighter grass colors flowers will not pop as they used to.

Nighttime is still pleasent with lighter grass, the shader handles that pretty well

H5m9rDl.png

--

What do you think? Is it better or worse?

I could also use some grass color in between but any darker shade will make it appear less warm.

Edited by Vishanka
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Also I was moving forward with the mane texture. Not done of course :)

it will be one base texture for all, when it's done I can update the other horses quickly. I'm also reworking their hooves and want to try giving them horseshoes to upgrade those bulky chunks a bit.

I do the white horse first as it's a good base to go into any color from there and I consider it the most terrible texture of them all. If that looks acceptable, nothing can go wrong with the others. :D

zUHAty2.png

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1 hour ago, Timotheus said:

Difficult to say, since it also seems to affect the rock formations. I prefer the look of the rocks in the first pic. But I like the brown tone to the path in the second. Maybe try somewhere in between here? Or give it a darker brown hue?

The path is actually "rock" and not earth, that's why the color of the rocks change with it.
However I did only change the rock color that the way uses, there are more files that I used to edit in my first version.

I can try to use the same filter on those textures, although they are very susceptible for me missing one :crazy:

 

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2 hours ago, Vishanka said:

Thanks for the appreciation! It's actually taking a lot longer than I thought it would, but I also feel it's worth the time; And I really enjoy the change and also to walk around and say to myself "this could be different, I could try that, I feel like it was meant to look like this" :D
It's a bit like drawing a picture - sometimes you have to put it aside for a while and look at it again later with a new perspective :)

Definitely you need second looks to grasp everything. I think it's important to remember that Ancaria is not a unidimensional world where the same tempo and feel is dominating, unlike Westeros or Middle Earth. Here we have happy places like Thylysium and Griffinborough, where you perfectly captured them with the palette, dark places such as Entruag and Hissil'Ta, where more somber tones work, and fantasy places such as Dyr-Laigh and the Dragon Sea archipelago, where sharp contrasts would do wonders to capture the fairytale idea, just like a HOMM classic. And boy it's a big canvas...

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18 hours ago, Sasborg said:

This enhancement is absolutely stunning. Been playing this game for over 10 years, on and off, and seeing it being brought back to life like this feels me with joy! Love the darker theme somehow, it gives the game its gravitas which it always had.

Thank you for taking the time to make these!

A classy  first post and very encouraging!

I'm delighted that Vishanka's beautifully designed world has brought you back into the game  and want to welcome you to the forums!!

Thank for registering and finding our little Sacred Universe

:bounce:

gogo

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  • 1 month later...

Hello Vishanka, I've tried the Beautification Project because it looks lovely but I think one side effect is that the flying leaves are all brown now. Il looks ugly. Have you noticed it and is there a possibility to have them green? Thank you.

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2 hours ago, desm said:

Hello Vishanka, I've tried the Beautification Project because it looks lovely but I think one side effect is that the flying leaves are all brown now. Il looks ugly. Have you noticed it and is there a possibility to have them green? Thank you.

Yes, that is no problem, just delete the files in this path called z_leaf-atlas-...
Sacred 2\pak\mq\physx

Sacred 2\pak\hq\physx

and they will return to vanilla on your next start :)

 

I will have a next release ready soon (holiday finally :lol: ) and it will be a bit brighter again in general. It will replace the debris again, if you want a custom color instead of vanilla leaves that you like better then I can create some textures for you to try. The original light green might be a bit too flashy in contrast, but I could for example just make it a little more natural for you and tone the green down slightly.

Just ask if you want any custom changes.

Edited by Vishanka
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