Although he could not comment on an exact number of Blizzard staffers working on the game, he did say that the presence of its original creators went a long way in solving some potential roadblocks that other remasters tend to suffer from. Whoever made this model is working in a completely different world than the guy who made another model, so we're unifying all of that."īridenbecker tells us that a lot of the original Warcraft 3 developers are working on Warcraft 3: Reforged. "The challenges we're trying to figure out is how they did things and why they did things because it's very inconsistent. "For example, a unit is 100cm but we get into the game and it's either too huge or too small," he says. What this meant was, the size of units and heroes in Warcraft 3 was different in 3D Studio Max and Maya, forcing the developers to rediscover how certain aspects of the game were created. We found that some of our problems are coming from taking these models that were created in Max and scaled in Max and we're bringing them to Maya to see their actual scale, which then kind of changes." We moved into Maya and had to recreate a whole new toolset to actually speak to the game and that the game actually recognises it. "I'm not even sure it was 3D Studio Max, might have been version R4 or something. "The original Warcraft 3 was done in an early version of 3D Studio Max," he says.
On the topic of Warcraft 3: Reforged's art tool chain, Sousa explains what exactly has changed. "That's the biggest challenge, just adapting of our lineage as well as the art tool chain."
#Warcraft 3 hd resolution mod
"The mission is that we have to preserve compatibility, to make sure the game just works with all the maps that are out there from the custom mod community with all the campaign maps, all the multiplayer maps, all those have to come along for the journey as we go and we reforge the game," he says. Bridenbecker tells us that developing a 3D game 15 years ago was a radically different process from what it is right now, making Warcraft 3's user-generated content work in Warcraft 3: Reforged a point of concern.
That's not to say bringing Warcraft 3: Reforged to life was not without its challenges. "Finding source code, finding data, finding assets, that was less of an issue with Warcraft 3." "We did a better job, I think I was doing the IT on StarCraft so it was my fault for losing it, so I fired me and we brought someone else in and they did a much better job at preserving things," Bridenbecker jokes. Acquiring the necessities to get Warcraft 3: Reforged off the ground was less of a challenge. Unlike StarCraft, however, Blizzard wasn't dependent on its fans mailing it the original Warcraft 3's gold master - the final, finished version of the game. "We wanted to heal up some of those inconsistencies and build a bit of a bridge without fundamentally changing the archtype of what made Warcraft 3, Warcraft 3," Bridenbecker says. It's styled similar to the locale in World of Warcraft, bereft of oddities like dolphin statues and a zoo that were present in the original. "Because of all the lore and history that has been developed as a result of World of Warcraft, we actually have the ability to take some of that and fuse it with Warcraft 3 so we can augment that experience as well."Īn example of this is the Culling of Stratholme level in Warcraft 3: Reforged versus the original. "We loved what we did with StarCraft Remastered but we felt with Warcraft 3 because it was the first 3D game that we had, we could go further with the artistic styling," Bridenbecker says. While StarCraft was fuelled by the competitive scene surrounding the game, the reasons behind choosing Warcraft 3 were aplenty.
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"StarCraft was an obvious one, it's still broadcast on TV and you have these nice beautiful HDTVs when you're watching a game that's rendered in 640x480, it loses some of the appeal," Sousa explains "So for that we were definitely thinking of upping the resolution so it'll be exactly the same game but it'll look better." At BlizzCon 2018, Gadgets 360 spoke to Robert Bridenbecker, Vice President, Technology Strategy and Planning at Blizzard, who is spearheading Warcraft 3: Reforged's development and Brian Sousa, Lead Artist for Warcraft 3: Reforged to find out what you can expect when Warcraft 3: Reforged is out in 2019.Īfter StarCraft Remastered, Warcraft 3: Reforged is Blizzard's second effort at updating one of its older games though the approach this time was radically different. While StarCraft - Blizzard's last remaster - was a barebones affair, Warcraft 3: Reforged appears to be a lot more substantial. It promises to bring Warcraft 3 into the modern age with compatibility for newer hardware, sharper visuals, updated gameplay, and an enhanced story.
#Warcraft 3 hd resolution Pc
Warcraft 3: Reforged is a remaster of 2002 PC real-time strategy game Warcraft 3.