MKSchmidt

New STALKER 2 Screenshot for you...

Experimental Version 5.5.25c Here are all the new updates starting with the most recent, and going back to where I began this new branch... Testing Branch Updated to Version 5.5.25c Bad Inventory Slots Addressed Update - 5.5.25c....

Star Explorers has been updated on Itch to include the latest, experimental branch. There is a long devlog if anyone is interested in seeing all the changes...

schmidt-workshops.itch.io/star-explore...

Love the black and white aesthetic!

Someone made this Star Explorers DVD cover (it wasn't me!) and I love it. #GameDev #DVD #Retrogaming

Looks great!

YouTube video by Schmidt Workshops Paradox Vector Trailer - ss4

The Steam Sale is over in 4 hours, so I am just re-sharing the trailer for Paradox Vector. If you ever have the itch to play a first person shooter in the style of an early 1980s vector graphics arcade game ... now's your chance!
youtu.be/mXPcl0mCx7I

#VectorGraphics #retrogaming #non-euclidean

Hulder-Maiden?

Absolutely in love with this. I love graphics when there are hardware limitations that you just have to work within ... or whatever this is.

The indie scene still surprises me from time to time...

Yeah, I agree. That would be a kind of minimum viable product in my opinion. I still think there might be issues with the whole idea, but hat would make me reconsider it more carefully.

The 8th, was that the one with the endless staircase?

Yeah, this is true.

Right, but if it was only taking things that the public has allowed into the open, it would be less of an issue for me. But that doesn't mean there are not other, fundamental problems with it.

That's what I am interested in. I think I saw the theft, made a choice, and have not looked deeper into it. But this thread is demonstrating that there are lots of other issues to consider.

Another STALKER 2 location. One thing I loved about this series is that oftentimes, old abandoned buildings were just that ... old abandoned buildings. The empty spaces made the encounters that much more meaningful.

Yeah, I remember that feeling. Every game felt like it could be a completely different kind of experience. Graphics were evolving rapidly, so almost every new game felt like it was a new generation of tech.

Honesty is the best policy in my view. I expect you may say something like "the genie is out of the bottle" and it may be true.

To make it, I started with the original image, then I increased the resolution, and used this other drawing - I had doodled it a few years ago - to improve the eyeball. In hindsight, I think I knew subconsciously that I would need a big creepy eyeball some day...

And how it appeared in the original game...

This was the older version, which was lower resolution and only two colors...

Sharing an updated creature design, from Cyclopean to Cyclopean II. The Urhag is a creature Lovecaft mentioned, but never described. #TurnBasedThursday #CRPG #Retrogaming

I am hoping some of the push-back from artists and authors has a positive effect.

These are really good points. I think the training issue dominate my personal take on the matter, but there may be other totally legitimate reasons to hate it.

Yeah, more like a party trick than anything fine art related.

I will admit that I was initially kind of fascinated with it. Like the whole "deep dream" thing was interesting to me. And there were other very early, very clumsy generators that did not feel threatening in terms of taking people actual jobs, and had very unusual output.

Good point, even an "ethically" sourced AI generator will still need to consume a ton of energy, as it does now.

Yeah, I hear that. It would definitely be a different tool in that case, and probably not as "attractive" to investors and such. Maybe I just read enough Isaac Asimov to hold out hope that there could be a "good robot" :)

I do wonder how I would react in this circumstance. It's possible I might still hate it, and feel that it's wrong to try to teach computers to generate art this way regardless. But this concern has been overshadowed by the whole "theft" thing...

That's what I am saying though, if it had been made only from Public Domain work, without all the stolen data. Maybe I misunderstand how it works, that's entirely possible.

What are your thoughts on this? Do share...