Trespasser Remaster Rumors

[hppav]

Wanna make a dedicated post about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rEnSkEuqbs

What he posts at the beginning of the video is, unfortunately, NOT proof of a remaster in the works at this point. It's a 2018 GOG forum post with a link to a now deleted tweet from Steve Nick indicating they have the source code.

https://www.gog.com/forum/general/is_ni ... park_games

While it does seem to indicate that they have an interest in remastering Trespasser, it's not any form of confirmation that they are working on it right now. Nor do we know if they got the source code from EA or got it from the leak. I don't want you guys getting your hopes up until we get actual solid confirmation of Nightdive Studios remastering Trespasser.

I have made a thread in the admin section so we can try to get to the bottom of this through proper channels, don't harass Nightdive Studios. You can tell them you would like a Trespasser Remaster, it might help to get them to work on it, but don't go demanding they do it or begging them to tell you if it's in the works. That might have the opposite effect.

Post your thoughts on what you would like to see them do with a remaster. Remember a remaster is not a remake so it won't be a completely brand new game. Personally I would like the dinosaur AI fixed, better graphics capabilities and memory management, better lighting and shadows, and an overhauled physics engine. If they upgrade the models/textures at all I'd like it to retain the colorful feel of what Trespasser looks like. Perhaps they could include a new level editor that allows direct importation of models and uses the game renderer to show it in game. Also using the actual mesh of the model instead of physics boxes to determine physics, because that's the biggest pain in the butt when it comes to doing models for Trespasser.

[machf]

Yeah, I saw the video right now too...

[youtube]https://youtu.be/3rEnSkEuqbs?si=i_f7Lmp1boU1DrrT[/youtube]

It would certainly attract lots of people if done right...

[Draconisaurus]

Wha huh. That sounds pretty interesting. I am a little hesitant from how old the news is, though... 2018. But a game studio that does remakes has the source. That sounds like some kind of thing.

[MinePass]

While that sounds great I share dracs hesitance. If they do it, I think we'd be perfectly happy to just get the same game but completed. Add some more Dino's, fix up levels, and maybe include the cut story elements from the original script. Really if this is true and they plan on doing it we'd literally be playing out Hammond's line about returning the keys to time, the creation of a new empire. Guess only time will tell.

[Draconisaurus]

It is a bit interesting to think of some modern company going over unused Hammond voiceovers for potential use. I suppose if we wait long enough this could happen.

[TheIdiot]

Not to be the usual pessimist but I do find this one kind of unlikely. Tres is so complex and its problems so deep that I fear any remaster of it would ultimately end up a largely different game. I fear it would take away the charm of the original, especially since in all likeliehood they'd end up rewriting pretty much the entire engine. I can't imagine them leaving in things like the goofy dinosaurs and wonky physics - while I would love to see those things fixed and improved (especially in the original engine), at the same time those are what makes it Trespasser. If you got rid of those elements I just don't think it would be the same - fixing the bugs would be reasonable but I would hate to see the inverse kinematics on the dinosaurs removed, for instance.
I'm still in favour of a total remake on a new engine with its own deviations, but there is just so much that needs overhauling and repair in the original engine that you'd be better to just make a new one from scratch, and you'd still have to somehow preserve what makes the game what it is, despite a lot of that coming from its inherit weirdness.

It is a bit interesting to think of some modern company going over unused Hammond voiceovers for potential use. I suppose if we wait long enough this could happen.

I'd be curious to see what, if anything, they reused from the earliest versions. Most likely they'd be limited through some contractual obligation to only use what was in the retail release...we'd probably have to make a TresEd 2 and start the whole restoration process ourselves all over again. The Pine Valley curse would probably return to full effect if the level wasn't included!

[Nick3069]

The fact that the people at Nightdive Studios have had a copy of Trespasser's source code since 2018 doesn't mean much; the source code was uploaded to GitHub in 2017. Do some of the devs want to work on it? Probably, but considering Trespasser's troubled history, I assume there are many challenges preventing them from getting the green light.
According to this TechSpot article from last summer, Nightdive is currently working on 2 projects and Trespasser is not one of them:
https://www.techspot.com/news/99828-nig ... court.html

...Nightdive is actively engaged in developing two undisclosed projects. The only hint regarding their nature is that Trespasser – the Jurassic Park FPS that ambitiously attempted feats beyond the capabilities of technology in the late 1990s – is not among them.

I feel very similar to TI here. A remaster would be tricky as it is a very complex game and if they changed too many of the mechanics then the game would lose some of its charm.

I would love to see a movie canon reimagining of the game where you explore the island as depicted in TLW and JP3 though.

[Rebel]

Not to be a skeptic, but I highly doubt an official remake of Trespasser will ever happen. We probably missed that opportunity when Seamus' idea for T2 was basically swiped for Jurassic World
(at least, that's how I recall how that particular interview went),

[Draconisaurus]

I am thinking on the inverse kinematics of the dinosaurs in Tres. While I'd hate to see that removed... it makes me remember how cool the AI was in alpha Tres versions. The dinos moved so much faster and more lively, I sort of want to see that in Trespasser, and things like them jumping around and onto things.

[Double_G]

I really hope that one day we can get an actual remake. As for the locomotion, I think that there are ways to keep it physically based, without it bugging out or looking too weird. This video from 10 years ago is what I imagine a modern dino locomotion system should look like.



This was done 10 years ago, so I imagine with the advent of AI and machine learning, it should be much easier to run this sort of simulation. I don’t really like the idea of a potential Trespasser remake relying too much on key-frame animation, because the game would feel too rigid. I could see how motion matching could be used to mix in some scripted context sensitive behaviors though

[Draconisaurus]

Hmmm. I am unclear what a Tres remake would be like. When for example the Turok games get remade, it seems to me very few things are changed, mostly graphical improvements? I find it harder to imagine a company attempting to recreate Tres from the ground up. It sounds like a project beyond "remaster".

[Double_G]

I think that the original code for Trespasser would need a major rewrite. The assets would also have to be reauthored. At that point, it is hard to tell if the final product is a remake or a remaster. I would call it a remaster if it uses a large part of the original code and assets. But it is unclear if the developers would choose to replace some components, such as the physics solver, the rendering engine, and the game logic, with modern and stable ones; that could lead to many other changes and the final product could end up looking and feeling like a different game. I think that GTA The Definitive Trilogy has the original RenderWare code running in UE4, but it also taps into Unreal’s rendering engine. Maybe that is a good solution. It keeps the original game logic, and only changes what is necessary but, who knows if that’s enough. I wouldn’t want Trespasser to get a second chance, only to get buried for the same problems that plagued it when it first launched

[JohnDecodes]

Even if there’s no official remaster from Nightdive Studios, and whilst I know it doesn’t work with Trespasser at the moment, but Nvidia Remix releases in open beta on Jan 22nd. Hopefully it will be eventually compatible with Trespasser, or if not, mark the start of more DIY remastering software that is. That would at least cover the visuals and swapping of models for higher poly ones.

And whilst I know Trespasser couldn’t handle it in its current form; I’ve always loved the idea of the highly vegetated Plains map, but where you replace a jeep’s car battery, and then can drive around the large space, seeing all the dinosaur’s behaviours as the carnivores hunt the herbivores, and the herbivores defend themselves. More of a scenic safari as a reward and break from the puzzle solving and surviving. (But with needing the collar batteries to spice it up.)

Also, like Double_G mentioned, one day it might be possible to keep the source code running as-is, and just use Unreal Engine for the rendering, like GTA Definitive Edition. This method of remaster is what the alleged Oblivion and Fallout 3 remasters are rumoured to use, so maybe using Unreal as a ride-along for rendering might be a viable option in the future.

[codemuk3y]

I feel like if something was actually going to be made, the line would be 'the studio is in talks with Dreamworks/Universal etc' and not that they have the source code, we know the source code was leaked before that post

[Draconisaurus]

Well, I think it'd be odd if an official company bragged at having a leaked source code. Surely they obtained it from Universal/EA.