What's interesting is this Blade Runner reverse engineering work has already been done by the enthusiasts at ScummVM. "We had to invent new pipelines to extract the data and to modify it in a way that would present it in even a slightly higher resolution or higher fidelity. "We're in a really difficult middle ground where we can't really do what is typically done in a remaster," Kick said. The alternative would be to remake Blade Runner entirely, but that's not within the scope of the project. Nightdive must fill in the missing pieces, so to speak, while animating characters correctly by using a single model for every frame of animation. "Basically half the information from the model had to be removed just to get it all to fit in the game." "To get that all to fit for all the characters, they actually had to remove slices from every model," Kick explained. This means animations involve thousands of models. Basically, the characters have animations that are broken down into individual models, which means every frame of animation is, essentially, a different model. To pack that all in, Westwood compressed much of the game.Ĭomplicating matters further, Blade Runner's in-game models are not rigged characters that animate.
![blade runner scummvm blade runner scummvm](https://www.digikala.com/mag/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Blade-Runner-GOG-Screenshots-4.jpg)
#Blade runner scummvm full#
It includes full motion video, beautiful pre-rendered backgrounds and thousands of frames of animation. The original is a heavily compressed game that shipped on multiple discs back in 1997. "It's just taking a bit longer than we originally anticipated," Kick said.īut Blade Runner comes with its own set of quirks, quirks other remaster projects do not.
#Blade runner scummvm code#
This means Nightdive must reverse engineer the code - an arduous and time consuming task that involves creating tools to extract the original art assets. "I've been led to believe that there's some stuff but no-one will ever know." So we're basically working off what was in the original game at this point and not having access to any original stuff. "And even if there was something, it's very unlikely they would release it to us for legal reasons, mostly, which is a bit of a disappointment, because we were hoping to at least get the original audio recordings.
![blade runner scummvm blade runner scummvm](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NI2qqsQj7c4/maxresdefault.jpg)
"We've had some discussions with EA about what else is in the vault they found regarding Blade Runner, and we haven't been able to get a clear answer," Kick said. While a vault of old Westwood content was unearthed by EA during the development of the Command & Conquer remaster, Kick doesn't think he'll end up with anything Blade Runner-related from it, even if it is found. When EA bought Westwood in August 1998 and had the studio move office, the Blade Runner source code was lost.