Here's Over 170 Arcanum Portraits

Discussion in 'Modding and Scripting Support' started by Leonidus, Feb 26, 2013.

Remove all ads!
Support Terra-Arcanum:

GOG.com

PayPal - The safer, easier way to pay online!
  1. Leonidus

    Leonidus Member

    Messages:
    115
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2011
    http://www.filedropper.com/arcanumportraitsbyleonidusx

    Simply place this folder from the zip file into your Arcanum\data folder.

    Over 170 portraits, mostly from victorian era paintings and photographs for every race/sex combination except female half-orc. Because it was difficult to find victorian paintings of people who look like half-orcs or half-ogres, athletes or people afflicted with giantism were used.

    This is a preview of a mod I am looking to host, which rebalances the game entirely, changing almost every monster, item, and spell in the game. It is completed so look for it to be available quite soon.

    Also I'd love to hear what you think about the portraits.

    If you already have custom portraits this will replace them, and you would need a custom .mes made to play with yours and mine at the same time.
     
  2. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    4,182
    Likes Received:
    22
    Joined:
    May 22, 2007
    Most of those are badly cropped. Way too zoomed out, to be exact.

    Portraits in Arcanum are quite small (even more so when playing the game in high resolution), therefore it is essential for them to have as little empty space as possible, concentrating fully on the face instead. Otherwise they will be little more than a blurry blot when experienced in-game.

    Compare a correctly cropped in-game portrait with a random one from your pack:

    [​IMG] [​IMG]
     
  3. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    3,029
    Likes Received:
    122
    Joined:
    May 29, 2011
    I only ever like portraits that are in keeping with the existing style of the game, otherwise I find them immersion breaking, but that's just preference.

    On the whole, I'll only use a patch/mod typically if it's a restoration and bugfix patch (the UAP, the UP for V:tM~B) or if it radically changes the game so it's no longer anything like what I was playing before (the Third Age: Total War mod for Medieval II: Total War). All the minor mods in between I feel are a departure from what the original game was about.
     
  4. Leonidus

    Leonidus Member

    Messages:
    115
    Likes Received:
    0
    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2011
    Thanks guys.

    Muro when I made them there were some which the source file was too small to get a non-horribly-pixelated face at the smaller portrait size, so the large one was just scaled. To enlarge the head would've been a pixelated mess, as it were.

    That was only the case on some of them though, and I remember taking plenty of time to resize the smaller ones on a good deal of them. I do remember not doing it for all of them and I could go back and release an updated version if you like.

    When I use the portraits though they stand up quite well. I wouldn't say most of them are on the small side for the ingame size, but some are. One thing I did was always try to show the hair, instead of cut it off like the virgil portrait.

    And jojo the vast majority of them are paintings from the victorian era, in keeping with the game's setting.

    As an aside, I had to go through far too many portraits to find good ones. In RPGs royalty and nobility rich enough to have their portraits taken are always so appealing to the eye, but dear god you have no idea how hideous and unseemly the actual historical nobility looked until you have to dredge through it.

    Were there any in particular you did like Muro?
     
  5. Jojobobo

    Jojobobo Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    3,029
    Likes Received:
    122
    Joined:
    May 29, 2011
    Isn't there any alternate photoshop software you could use to avoid the pixelation (not sure pixelation is a word but hey-ho)? Stuff like GIMP, which is free, springs to mind but I'm not sure if that would do the trick - I'm pretty sure I've used some professional software on a trial basis to re-size pictures and avoid compromising on quality before but the name of it escapes me now.
     
  6. Muro

    Muro Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    4,182
    Likes Received:
    22
    Joined:
    May 22, 2007
    Re:

    I'd say that means those particular source files shouldn't be turned into portraits.

    I wouldn't, really. I'm just giving feedback while not being interested in additional portraits myself.

    The thing with Arcanum's portraits is that they were all done in a similar characteristic style and most probably by the same person. That being said, even genuine victorian oil portraits tend to look off as portraits in Arcanum.

    It's part of why your portraits stand out when compared to the ones from the game. As seen here (Arcanum-Followers & Arcanum-Portraits), nearly all portraits are cut just slightly below the chin + they cut off the top of the head, including hair if present. It allows the portraits to show as much detail of the face as possible + it defines a specific close up.
     
Our Host!