Dissolution: Remastered Demo released!

[Gunrock]

Dissolution: Remastered is a 4 map demo that serves as a prequel to "Project Slipgate". This new edition features the first 4 maps all remastered with enhanced architectural details, improved lighting effects, 4k textures, and effects! Requires either GZDoom or K8Vavoom.

Pics:

 

 

 

 

 

Download: Dissolution: Remastered

Optional Enhancement Pack: Addon

 

Special thanks go out to: Doomworld, ID software, Realm667, Ketmar, Graf Zahl, HorrorMovieGuy, and Nash Muhandes for all the resources used in this mod.

Please report any bugs and suggestions if any.

 

 

 

[ketmar]

this looks great, as usual! i tried it for a minute, but didn't played it "for real" yet, because it looks very addictive, and i have to finish some coding for new k8vavoom public build. ;-) but i'll definitely play it later.

 

thank you!

[elend]

Great screenshots! Very moody.

[Gunrock]

I'm going to upload the remaster to the official IDgames database now so it will replace the old Dissolution. Project Slipgate: Remastered will be coming in the next few months.

 

Thank you all at Doomworld for your help!!!

[AL-97]

I am confused. Is Dissolution: Remastered a demo for Project Slipgate: Remastered or are there any plans to update it with maps from the original release from 2002? What is being uploaded to idgames: a current demo or are you releasing the full episode already?

Edited May 13, 2020 by AL-97

[Gunrock]

Dissolution: Remastered edition is a 4 map demo that is replacing the old 2002 version. It contains only the first 4 maps and its just a demo and eventually I will release the full 7 maps very soon. Until then I'm working on a remastered version of 'Project Slipgate' that was also released back around 2001/02.

[ketmar]

really great and atmospheric! yet i am lost after blood rithual. it opened something, but where?

 

[Gunrock]

8 hours ago, ketmar said:

really great and atmospheric! yet i am lost after blood rithual. it opened something, but where?

 

 

Without giving too much away, look for this area. You should find something...

[ketmar]

ah, thank you! i usually sux at maps that require any kind of exploration (or even a small bit of a working brain).

[AL-97]

Finished the demo and can say that you did a great job on updating the Dissolution's visuals to a modern standard. It really feels like a true remaster. Old layouts are easily recognizable, yet feel fresh thanks to the use of current GZDoom-specific features. The MAP02, I think, is the standout of the demo: it feels the most polished, varied in terms of visual diversity, and offers most fluid progression. I hope more people will get a chance to experience the demo and to widen its reach I would like to suggest posting your episode over at the ZDoom forums, as GZDOOM-specific projects usually do better over there.

 

Having said that, there are a few drawbacks that I would like to mention as well:

 

On MAP03 - Dream Eden:

• There's a Yellow Skull Key, but it is completely unnecessary as there's no door or a button that requires is;
• The map offers plenty of rocket ammo, but no Rocket Launcher as it's only found on the next map where it is immediately made redundant by the BFG;
• Unless you go for a Plasma Rifle secret, there's some serious ammo starvation going on. Fighting Mancubuses and Arachnotrons with a chainsaw isn't fun;
• The two shootable switches in the square room with two Arachnotrons always spawn Cacodemons at the west first and Imps over at the east second regardless of the order you shoot those switches. Think they should spawn monsters on the opposite side of where you are;
• When returning from said switches through Red Skull Key corridor it should be repopulated with a new batch of monsters. Feels empty otherwise;
• The large open area before the Blood Trial feels empty with just a few Mancubuses and Imps. Maybe populate it with a bunch of low-tier monsters?
• In the very beginning of the map there's a Mancubus, Hell Knight and a Baron of Hell all standing one after another in a tight corridor. With no way around, it takes a noticeable amount of time to go through those with just an SSG. Maybe put higher tier monsters in a larger, more open areas and populate tight corridors with more easily, and faster, dispatchable enemies?
• Is there a reason why there are two Cacodemons in an adjacent corridor? What's the point of having a flying monster where it can't fly around.

On MAP04 - Sacrificial Grounds:

• Getting a Red Cross pickup requires the use of jump, while Blue Cross isn't;
• Those two secret sectors should really be one. They are one in front of the other - if you found one, you found the other.

You are storing textures in .TGAs and .PNGs, converting those to .JPGs with 95% quality rate should cut the size of the file at least in half with no visible quality loss.

Would love the opening fly-by from original version to return, even if just a TITLEMAP.

Probably worth mentioning somewhere that the use of mouselook is required. Otherwise, those vanilla-controls purists might get stuck.

 

Now, I understand that most of those problems are the legacy of original release, yet I think that when updating the visuals it is also important to take care of the gameplay. There's really no reason why those almost twenty-year-old idiosyncrasies cannot be polished out. Particularly, the excessive use of stealth monsters needs to go. Unfortunately, all that it does is it leads to more random and less interesting fights.

 

I also did a video playthrough of the demo. Because you're using high-resolution textures, I chose to complement those with upscaled monster sprites from Neural Upscale 2X project for a more consistent look and with a patch replacing those stealth monsters with their translucent ("SoulTrans") counterparts among other mods:

 

 

[Gunrock]

Excellent video and thank you for the feedback!!! When I release mods, feedback is what I need in order to improve my projects. I appreciate that. When I release the full version of Dissolution, I will implement the suggestions you mentioned. Also you may have missed a bug that I just happen to find. On map 04: Sacrificial Grounds, when you kill the first stealth Revenant near the teleport area, the player will teleport back to the beginning of the map. I accidentally gave it a script number. That has been fixed and uploaded to Idgames.

 

I'm now working on Project Slipgate: Remastered.

[AL-97]

7 hours ago, Gunrock said:

Also you may have missed a bug that I just happen to find. On map 04: Sacrificial Grounds, when you kill the first stealth Revenant near the teleport area, the player will teleport back to the beginning of the map. I accidentally gave it a script number.

I actually thought that was a feature. Those "Unseen Evils", you know :)

[whirledtsar]

Download link won't work anymore, anybody have it?

[FEDEX]

6 hours ago, whirledtsar said:

Download link won't work anymore, anybody have it?

https://www.doomworld.com/idgames/levels/doom2/Ports/d-f/distion