"We went in with,'What could their intention be when they had the tools that Diablo 2 Resurrected Items we have now?'" The code, more than the original art resources, was vital for Diablo 2: Resurrected, which thankfully was not lost. "When you dig into the code, there is Diablo 1 hint in there. "That is what makes it have its own character. The idea that the old code works the way that it will means you have the sport which you have. If we had been hoping to modify engines and recreate it and we didn't have those intricacies of this old code, then it would not feel exactly the same. We're actually really grateful that we have what we have, as [players] may have that authentic experience."
Even though Diablo II: Resurrected is not trying to precisely duplicate the original's appearance, the newly-announced remaster is making an impressive attempt to match a few elements. Seeing a panel in BlizzCon now, I was thrilled to hear about how they awakened early Blizzard assets to recreate and even reuse in the remaster. My favourite titbit: the brand new Tyrael reuses the angelic wings from the true 3D version used to create his 2D sprite from the first game.
Throughout the board, Blizzardeers clarified they made an effort to gather original concept art, 3D models, code, leaves, and these to understand the original intent behind art and better inform the artwork teams' creative decisions as they remade parts. I'm a sucker for great archive .
This resulted in a fine discoveries like locating the source documents for mural textures in the Act II tombs, which they could then reuse for the remade tombs. I admire that technique in remasters - it is part of why the Resident Evil 4 HD Project mod is indeed impressive, searching down the buildings that Capcom had photographed as foundations for textures.
They also followed some of the techniques Blizzard utilized from the first game. For example, because the original Succubus enemies reused the body mesh of the Assassin (a sensibly efficient game dev practice using a frustratingly contentious public image, because of Internet loudmouths)they also reused their fresh Assassin's body mesh for Cheap Diablo 2 Items their brand new Succubus.
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