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1. Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 04:35:19 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

   Anyone bought the Riven remake yet? Can you check the credits and tell me if I'm in it?

   (I'm supposed to be but I haven't heard anything since, and I don't have the cash to grab a copy yet)

   • FurryBeta (furrybeta@shark.community)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 04:44:44 JST FurryBeta

     in reply to

     @foone You’d think that if you’re in the credits, that they’d just give you a copy

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 04:44:44 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • FurryBeta

     @FurryBeta I could probably ask 'em, but if they didn't put me in the credits it'd be kinda presumptive

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 04:46:38 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Ross Light

     @light awesome! Thanks.

   • Ross Light (light@inuh.net)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 04:46:39 JST Ross Light

     in reply to

     @foone Yes you are, under "Special Thanks".

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 04:48:51 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Turns out I am! Awesome.
     https://inuh.net/@light/112678956980208767

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 04:55:40 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     The story is just that they were apparently having some trouble re-opening the original assets of Riven. Like, they had them all, but I guess it hadn't been well documented which version of the software they had used?
     So they got in touch with me and I did some minor software archeology to figure out
     1. Which version (of softimage, I think?) they were made in
     2. How to convert that to something they could open in modern 3d software.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 04:59:26 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     That was a couple hours of work a long while ago, and I didn't accept any fee from it, as I was just happy to help with such a classic series. I just hadn't heard anything about it since, so I wasn't sure I was going to be thanked in the credits, since who knows if my one bit of help got forgot in the shuffle?

     Glad to hear it wasn't!

   • Thorsted (thorsted@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 05:09:17 JST Thorsted

     in reply to

     @foone would love to read about that process.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 05:14:14 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Thorsted

     @Thorsted it was mainly just reading up on the history of the 3d software and locating a bunch of old versions and running them in VMs, until I could find a viable version and conversion chain

   • Thorsted (thorsted@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 05:18:45 JST Thorsted

     in reply to

     @foone Were the softimage assets compound objects?

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 06:51:57 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Johanna Janiszewski

     @JohannaMakesGames I explained over here: https://digipres.club/@foone/112678970196211627

   • Johanna Janiszewski (johannamakesgames@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 06:51:58 JST Johanna Janiszewski

     in reply to

     @foone Congrats! Now I am curious, what did you do on the project? I loved the series!

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 06:54:47 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     And we've got a screenshot!
     https://cathode.church/@ratsprite/112679235019544890

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 07:30:35 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     okay I found my communication with someone from Cyan. It was indeed Softimage, which started as Softimage 3D, and then later became Autodesk Softimage.

     I was contacted back in 2022, and I was able to load the Riven datafiles up in Softimage 3.7, then 4.0, and finally I confirmed that Autodesk Softimage|XSI 1.5 could import them (if not open them directly). Once imported into Softimage|XSI 1.5, they could be saved back out, and then Softimage 2015 (the latest (and last)) version could open them

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 07:32:24 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     So it was mainly just spelunking through old versions of the software on various XP VMs and trying to open the files, until I found an appropriate combination that let them be opened in something modern.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 07:35:38 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I've got some screenshots of some Riven assets opened in old versions of SoftImage. I'm checking to see if it's okay to post those.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 07:44:08 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • ᴚ uɐᗡ

     @dannotdaniel all I know is what I said here:
     https://digipres.club/@foone/112679620985285977

     I think they exported from SoftImage|XSI 2015 to something else (maybe straight into Unreal Engine?), but I wasn't involved there so I have no idea.

   • ᴚ uɐᗡ (dannotdaniel@mastodon.social)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 07:44:09 JST ᴚ uɐᗡ

     in reply to

     @foone if that's the old software what was the new software if you don't mind me asking 👀

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 08:21:11 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I got permission. Here's my first attempt: This is that 5-way rotating room near the start of the game, and I was able to open it in SoftImage 3D version 3.7 (in an XP VM). This is a version from 1997, so probably close to the original version they used to make the game.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 08:24:08 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     I believe that was mainly for verification that I could open the files at all. Next I moved forward a few versions, up to SoftImage 3D 4.0, the last version before the SoftImage|XSI rebrand.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 08:28:48 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     Then I moved to SoftImage|XSI 1.5. This version couldn't open the project, but I was able to make a new project and individually import the scenes/objects/textures/etc. This version is apparently a complete rewrite of the codebase, so it's a much more modern version of SoftImage.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 08:33:07 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     And after importing into SoftImage|XSI 1.5, I was able to save it out and then open it up in SoftImage 2015, the latest & last edition.

     (The 3D views here are blank because of an issue with my VM)

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 08:35:26 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     So yeah! that was what I did, and what I gave to Cyan. They needed to import the files into SoftImage|XSI 1.5, then save out that project, then open it in SoftImage 2015. From there they could export into Blender or Unreal or whatever.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 08:37:54 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • immibis

     @immibis yup!

   • immibis (immibis@social.immibis.com)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 08:37:57 JST immibis

     in reply to
     @foone Foone Turing is your actual name?
   • Misty (misty@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 12:50:02 JST Misty

     in reply to

     @foone This is *very* cool!

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 17:20:15 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Johanna Janiszewski

     @JohannaMakesGames that's what VMs are for! The curses are contained. And containered.

   • Johanna Janiszewski (johannamakesgames@mastodon.gamedev.place)'s status on Wednesday, 26-Jun-2024 17:20:16 JST Johanna Janiszewski

     in reply to

     @foone fascinating 🤩 I hope you didnt catch a curse from opening software that ancient 😜

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jun-2024 07:55:40 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     • Friedemann Wachsmuth

     @peaceman Turns out they did! it was just delayed.

   • Friedemann Wachsmuth (peaceman@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jun-2024 07:55:41 JST Friedemann Wachsmuth

     in reply to

     @foone they really could have sent you a copy of the new thing afterwards.

   • Foone🏳️‍⚧️ (foone@digipres.club)'s status on Thursday, 27-Jun-2024 07:56:47 JST Foone🏳️‍⚧️

     in reply to

     BTW several people have said like "the least they could have done is sent you a copy of the game!"

     They did, after all. It just hadn't come through when I made this thread. Don't worry, I got a free copy from them in thanks!