SS2 Migraine Cyberspace

[663cb404134f9ZylonBane]

System Shock 2 Migraine Cyberspace
16 Sep 2020
by ZylonBane

This mod retextures cyberspace in the visual style of Night Dive's recent demo of cyberspace for their System Shock remake.

This is a novelty mod, not intended for use in actual non-masochist gameplay. It makes cyberspace look terrible.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRZXq0yNwNA

[663cb404136feKolya]

I didn't dare to ask for this.   

[663cb40413840Deu sex]

This looks sexy AF, can you make a version without the white static one?

[663cb40413b4csarge945]

Not gonna lie, I actually kinda like this. Please direct your insults this way. I also wish it didn't have the white static, even though I know it's a joke mod.

[663cb40413c3fZylonBane]

I have absolutely no idea what this "static" is that you crap-taste lunatics are talking about.

[663cb40413db4sarge945]

The "static" grid that appears as a result of the environment map. That always moves with the player.

Here's a version with it removed, which IMO looks better in a lot of ways, and is probably what @Deu sex was asking for.

I'm not exactly "good at modding", so there is probably some error here. But I gave it a quick test in the training level and it seems to work.

Now I just wish the green circle textures were modified too. But this is still very good work, especially for something you hate and consider a joke.

[663cb40413f4cGuyFawkesGaming]

Hate me if you want, but this legitimately looks pretty cool. A little over done, but cool!

[663cb40414098ZylonBane]

Of course it looks cool. That's the entire point. The problem is that it looks cool at the expense of gameplay. It transforms a training gamespace that Irrational designed to be simple and easy to scan into a visually exhausting hellscape of irrelevant detail. Amateur game designers apparently have a problem grasping this concept.

[663cb404141afKolya]

Video games have always been about pattern recognition among irrelevant detail, especially early arcade titles similar to System Shock's cyberspace sections. They're not designed for visual efficiency like applications or websites. The question how much is too much may just be subjective then.

[663cb404145fbZylonBane]

Video games have always been about pattern recognition among irrelevant detail, especially early arcade titles similar to System Shock's cyberspace sections.

This is false. In early arcade games there was little if anything on the screen that wasn't an active gameplay element. From Pong to Space Invaders to Asteroids to Donkey Kong, almost everything you could see was something you had to deal with. When technology allowed moving on from all-black backgrounds, with games like Street Fighter II, Golden Axe, etc., the purpose of the extraneous graphics was to look good, not to confuse the player. That's why good developers always did their best to make gameplay elements stand out from the background. The background would be a little less bright or vibrant or detailed, enemies would have black outlines and bold colors, etc. These principles carry on into the 3D era, with developers favoring relatively low-contrast environment textures and high-detail AI textures and models. This concern with failing to visually distinguish gameplay elements from environmental greebles is exactly why we got object highlighting in games like Deadly Shadows and Human Revolution as a slapped-on solution. This problem isn't even unique to video games. It's common across all visual arts-- the challenge of presenting an entire scene to the viewer but focusing their attention on what's important.

The only game I can think of off the top of my head where constantly assaulting the player's vision with irrelevant noise was a deliberate design decision was Space Giraffe, and most people hated it.

In light of all this, we now have Night Dive's vision of cyberspace, in which the frickin' walls are brighter, busier, and more detailed than the actual active elements in the levels. This is objectively bad game design, and doesn't even make sense from a lore perspective, since the core concept of cyberspace is that it's a visualization designed to be easy to navigate.

[663cb4041477dKolya]

Pattern recognition is a key element of video games and has been researched extensively. Even a game as simple as Pong requires you to understand that the short white lines on the sides reflect the ball while the white line in the middle does not. There is no visual clue to this. Why is there even a middle line? It serves no purpose! (Except to recognize the game mechanics by similar ground markings in tennis.)
You can't see the pattern recognition and symbol decoding going on here because you've done it years ago. But this cyberspace wall is new and confusing. You haven't internalized the necessary pattern recognition yet.
 

[pong.jpg expired]

[663cb404149aesarge945]

I assume that the majority of people using this mod have likely already played the game and already understand how the training and mechanics works. Having such an offputting title probably scares away any newcomers too.

As for confusing design decisions and gameplay, interesting point and I sort of agree. I guess if you want to get technical, all art in any videogame that isn't directly tied to some gameplay purpose is irrelevant and thus noise, and if implemented incorrectly could negatively affect the gameplay. But it can also add greatly to a lot of games, especially horror games where the majority of the experience is normally wholly unrelated to gameplay. I think making the argument that anything art-related not tied to gameplay == visual noise == bad is too reductive. At the same time, I can see how someone might genuinely find this a little cluttered, and how it could make it harder for some people to navigate through the training areas. However, I find the environment still quite easy to navigate, and it's nowhere near the "visually exhausting hellscape" you seem to claim it is.

If a newcomer was to use this, I really don't think they would run into any major problems navigating the training worldspace. If they want something less visually cluttered they can use the version I posted above which removes all the shinies except on the actual surfaces themselves, which should make navigation easier.

I can understand not liking this, especially when the original textures are so.....basic. But nobody should be claiming that this is bad design in any meaningful way, at least not until it becomes a genuine problem. If this thread gets inundated with people on their first playthrough saying "I tried this mod and had a lot of trouble seeing properly in the training sections", then maybe ZB has a point. If not, I think we can safely classify this as "some people just don't like it" and leave it at that.

[663cb40414c8fDeu sex]

sarge945
Oh didn't see you actually made one, I'll have to try it at some point, I'm kind of waiting for SS2EE to come though, especially if it only comes it a few months (I have no idea)

[663cb40414ddfDeu sex]

Also for the game design discussion, while in theory it indeed makes it better for newcomers to keep it simple, it most importantly makes it "waw this game is old and looks like trash", which will sadly be the reaction on 98% of newcomers to be absolutely honest.

Today's gamers will prefer a fancy looking game over a well designed one. See it as a way to lure them into a great experience
Also most gamers today tend to skip tutorial sections completely, so it's really no big deal. And if those cyberspace textures also work for the last level in the game, that would just look phenomenal.

[663cb4041524dsarge945]

Yes I am also interested to see how it looks in the final section. The tutorials I don't really care about.

sarge945
Oh didn't see you actually made one, I'll have to try it at some point, I'm kind of waiting for SS2EE to come though, especially if it only comes it a few months (I have no idea)

If you're expecting Crisis level graphics, super modern interface, and all the clunky/unbalanced stuff to be fixed, don't bother. I am not getting my hopes up. I think it's going to be decent and bring some welcome changes, but it's not like the original will become unplayable.

[663cb40415512Deu sex]

sarge945
Yes but official support is always appreciated, plus, it's a bit of a hassle to compile all those mods together and in the right order to be honest. I don't have the patience anymore, I mean, not if a more convenient version is on it's way.

+ speedrunners will be able to play the newer version instead of the old one, and maybe even at 240 FPS without having physics problems, etc...

[663cb40415699Deu sex]

Bruh, this looks amazing : https://i.ibb.co/ZNPZZHH/dump000.png

Totally canon as far as I'm concerned, looks hundread of times better, plus the animation is really good and the reflections highlighting the electronics is a super nice touch. Feels like actual cyberspace / VR instead of a dark room with phosphorescent painting on it.

[663cb404157f1NicVerret]

I also think it looks good. SS1's cyberspace, now that was crap.

[663cb4041595cHikari]

Oh cool you managed to recreate what a detatched retina looks like.

No, really, that kind of patterning and 'what the fuck am I seeing everything is headache inducing' is what i saw when my retina decided to delaminate.

[663cb40415d26Xkilljoy98]

Kolya
IK this is a few years old but I would like to add that while pattern recognition is important in some games, it is not a focus of every game and details aren't irrelevant as some games have detail be a vital part of the game

[663cb40415e42Xkilljoy98]

While I would be fine with Cyberspace's Remake look in a sequel, in a remake I am not a fan as it is too different from the original.

That said I do find this mod very funny, and the Shodanpedia discord server and the podcast I did a few years back really had a kick out of this.