Ancient Cities in an Ancient Game

Working on this project has often been a little frustrating, due to the limitations of using such old technology. I'll admit that I often wish that I could have some better tools to play with, and occasionally I turn to the Jupiter engine to check on things.

The Jupiter engine which is a more advanced version of the lithtech engine, was used in NOLF 2 and it would be a pleasure to be able to use this version in Blood 2. Through experimentations I've discovered that the unprocessed Blood 2 levels and around 75% of the models could be converted to the Jupiter engine with some effort. However the game code is far more complicated, and NOLF 2 has virtually nothing in common with Blood 2. If someone out there wants to volunteer their efforts into transforming the NOLF 2 game code, then I'd certainly be willing to move this project over to a newer engine. But it seems unlikely that anyone else would devote that kind of energy into this project, and I'm probably insane myself for even considering it.

So since I seem to be stuck with this old engine, I'm continuing to try to make the most of it.

I've been experimenting with the idea of mixing more realism and horror into the game. The look of Silent Hill for example might produce some rather interesting results. The textures may not have the detail and environmental mapping of the Jupiter engine but the results could still be worthwhile.


In addition I've been revisiting some of the older levels and experimenting with things. I think that by combining several different styles into one game, it should give a rather unique and interesting appearance to things. But the game's appearance still needs to feel related to the original Blood and that's where the challenge lies.

Using the Ancient Cities level from retail Blood 2 as an example, I might be able to better demonstrate what I mean. The appearance of this level now seems somewhat more realistic with the use of some greater detailed textures, yet it still incorporates some of Blood's and Blood 2's original textures as well.


I'm not really sure how well any of these different styles will work, but if I don't at least try then I'll never know...


There's still much to be done and I'll continue to be be around, even if these updates may become less frequent.

(I should probably also try to get some sleep before I attempt to do any more posting, lol)