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+--- Thread: Adventure game vinyls (/showthread.php?tid=395)
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RE: Adventure game vinyls - Space Quest Historian - 12-11-2025
(12-07-2025, 06:04 PM)Rubacava Wrote: The artwork on the Space Quest 3 vinyl looks so cool. Really stands out above the rest. In fact I think Space Quest 3 has some of the most eye-pleasing screenshots and characters from all of Sierra game. I can think of about 10 screen shots that are legendary.
We had a lot of "fun" with that SQ3 cover because we wanted to upscale it for the front cover. This was back when upscaling things was fun and didn't involve boiling away oceans to fuel data centers. But we couldn't get any of the Cupscale models to do anything sensible with the SQ3 graphics because the model would choke on the dithering and produce horrifying results.
In the end, my mate PickledDog realized that we could use an old version of FreeSCI for Linux that had very rudimentary upscaling, in that it would try to extend and join together the vector lines of the original image (remember, the graphics in SQ3 are vector, not bitmap) and try to make high resolution images out of them... often with disastrous results. But we got pretty lucky with the SQ3 cover.
Fun fact, FreeSCI was later merged into ScummVM but the upscaling routine was taken out because the author himself said it was too much of a pain in the ass.
Edit: I just remembered I did a video ages ago about this upscaling thing: https://youtu.be/gtcetDHwsMk — the stuff about FreeSCI starts at 8:17.
RE: Adventure game vinyls - Rubacava - 12-12-2025
(12-11-2025, 06:38 PM)Space Quest Historian Wrote:(12-07-2025, 06:04 PM)Rubacava Wrote: The artwork on the Space Quest 3 vinyl looks so cool. Really stands out above the rest. In fact I think Space Quest 3 has some of the most eye-pleasing screenshots and characters from all of Sierra game. I can think of about 10 screen shots that are legendary.
We had a lot of "fun" with that SQ3 cover because we wanted to upscale it for the front cover. This was back when upscaling things was fun and didn't involve boiling away oceans to fuel data centers. But we couldn't get any of the Cupscale models to do anything sensible with the SQ3 graphics because the model would choke on the dithering and produce horrifying results.
In the end, my mate PickledDog realized that we could use an old version of FreeSCI for Linux that had very rudimentary upscaling, in that it would try to extend and join together the vector lines of the original image (remember, the graphics in SQ3 are vector, not bitmap) and try to make high resolution images out of them... often with disastrous results. But we got pretty lucky with the SQ3 cover.
Fun fact, FreeSCI was later merged into ScummVM but the upscaling routine was taken out because the author himself said it was too much of a pain in the ass.
Edit: I just remembered I did a video ages ago about this upscaling thing: https://youtu.be/gtcetDHwsMk — the stuff about FreeSCI starts at 8:17.
Wow! fascinating story! I thought Sierra only used vectors in extremely early games like Mystery House! I took the liberty to use gpt with your post and got this:
"Space Quest III uses fully bitmap (raster) graphics via the SCI engine. FreeSCI’s old upscaler wasn’t working from vector data, but rather doing edge detection and heuristic line extension on raster images, which can look vector-like — especially with clean art — but the original assets themselves are bitmaps. The dithering is exactly why those routines struggled so much."
Dunno if that makes sense or its true. But in any case and unrelated: have you considered making a Space Quest Saga book? Someone is making it happen with Quest for Glory and publishing it with Bitmap Books! the same publisher from The Art of Point and Click Adeventure games. It would be awesome to have a dedicated Space Quet book.
RE: Adventure game vinyls - Space Quest Historian - 12-12-2025
ChatGPT is full of shit. The sprites in SQ3 are bitmap; all the backgrounds are vector. You can even see the vector commands in SCI Companion. When you scroll through them, it's like watching the background being drawn for you. God, I hate AI.
As for a Space Quest book, I've considered it a few times but... nah. I'd love to contribute to one but I'm not going to write one myself.
RE: Adventure game vinyls - Rubacava - 12-12-2025
(12-12-2025, 12:07 PM)Space Quest Historian Wrote: ChatGPT is full of shit. The sprites in SQ3 are bitmap; all the backgrounds are vector. You can even see the vector commands in SCI Companion. When you scroll through them, it's like watching the background being drawn for you. God, I hate AI.
As for a Space Quest book, I've considered it a few times but... nah. I'd love to contribute to one but I'm not going to write one myself.
Damn, its good to know we wont be replaced by AI anytime soon!