[Dragons] Drakan AiO Patch updated

[pyf]

A new unofficial patch for Drakan: Order of the Flame is out!
You may download it here

This new one (377/447, from 7/23/2016) mainly provides fixes for the level editor, which should now work reliably on modern OSes.


The Drakan: Order of the Flame All-in-One Patch (or simply the Drakan AiO Patch), is an unofficial fan-made patch for Surreal Software's video game Drakan: Order of the Flame. Originally designed for Windows 95/98, the game suffered major compatibility issues with modern OSes, since it was not updated anymore by its original authors.

Drakan: Order of the Flame walkthrough 1080p [COMPLETE] - YouTube


The Drakan AiO Patch is developed by UCyborg. His (supposedly) final patch version was released on November 2014.

It fixes many of the game’s bugs including crashes, sound and video problems, FOV issues, multiplayer bugs. It also increases maximum texture size, may remove fog completely, helps the game run better on modern OSes, and more. Please check the first link, to discover the impressive list of changes and bugfixes he did, all without the game's source code.


As an extra bonus for Dragons lovers, here is a rare official promotional poster for the game:
http://www.arokhslair.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/OOTF_Promo_Poster.jpg

** edit **
Touched-up, hi-res version:
http://i.imgur.com/YC4wLI3.jpg

 

[Dr Super Good]

The game looks like a primitive version of what Scalebound (XBO/W10) promises to be.

 

[pyf]

Drakan: Order of the Flame's development history, according to Stuart Denman.
He was the lead programmer on the game, and was also a co-founder of Surreal Software.


Also, some Skyrim mods may be reminiscent of some of the game's key features:

Hidden

 

[Naze]

The game looks like a primitive version of what Scalebound (XBO/W10) promises to be.

And surprisingly got me more excited than Scalebound tbh

 

[pyf]

Might have something to do with the Rynn character / model Myrna Blankenstein, possibly

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Oh god, 90's games! I have no problem with the low poly environments or character, but these cringeworthy walk and combat animations...

 

[pyf]

They look fine to me. However, I myself am a bit annoyed (and amused) by the fact that human characters are ventriloquists.


Updated OP with a better, hi-res version of the promotional poster

 

[Zwiebelchen]

Really? These walk cycles were stiff even for 90's standards!

 

[pyf]

You can find stiff 3D human body animations in more recent games.

The animations in Drakan feel decent to me. I do not believe any kind of motion capture was used to create them. Therefore, lively 3D human body animation heavily depends here on the 3D artist's talent. Turok Dinosaur Hunter had such great work imho, for both humans' and dinos' death animations.

One of the first (and most impressive) 3D human body animation work by a 3D artist in a video game I know, comes from Virtua Fighter. This 1993 arcade video game did not use any motion capture, though real humans were used for reference poses. Amazing 3D animation work from Sega-AM2 here.


As for technique, well... Back then, Quake did not use interpolated movement, not all games used localized damage skins (Sin did), not all games used animated 3D mouthes (Half-Life did), not all games used blinking eyes (Soldier of Fortune did iirc), and so on... Also, animations in conformance with 3D environments were very poor back then. See Half-Life characters climbing stairs (while running or not), or them simply turning around, for some blatant examples of weirdness / stiffness...

...but hey, this was all how AAA video games were designed back then.
It did not prevent some of them from becoming huge commercial successes, too.

 

[Naze]

Might have something to do with the Rynn character / model Myrna Blankenstein, possibly

Using a real model as reference and making several promotional pics and posters should've been quite a strategy of selling a game back then hehe. It's cool to see how much of Myrna's face actually ended up on Rynn's low poly face. But I actually didn't like her """"""armor""""" with a big cleavage, exposed shoulders and stomach, as it means that another cool videogame fell into this very common and lame fantasy archetype. However the game idea was cool enough.

 

[pyf]

Using a real model as reference and making several promotional pics and posters should've been quite a strategy of selling a game back then hehe. It's cool to see how much of Myrna's face actually ended up on Rynn's low poly face.

On such a topic, and me being an oldtimer, I only have one name to say:

** Maria Whittaker **, in :
- Barbarian: The Ultimate Warrior / Death Sword (1987)
- Barbarian II: The Dungeon of Drax / Axe of Rage (1988)


(careful, might be far too intense for some Hivers)

Boy we were such lucky gamers, back in ye olde days...