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Warcraft III Remastered - News sites all over it today?

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19 June 2017

So if you went out on social media today or browsed some gaming & journalism sites, you may have noticed that a plethora of news sites published news about WC3 remastered today. There's been a lot of commotion about it, and people want to know what's going on and if things were confirmed. Even IGN and Forbes wrote about it. So that's really awesome that these sites are paying attention to Warcraft 3 for the first time in forever.

However, note that the information provided on these sites is outdated. The source they use are Blizzard's classic game
job listing descriptions, which some have been up since early 2016, or even late 2015. Perhaps whoever wrote an article about this first out of these sites found those job descriptions for the first time, and passed it off as new news. Or, this could be intentional and information might have been passed by an external source. Whatever it is, know that this isn't new information.

Back2Warcraft tweeted to quite a few of these news outlets, telling them that they're using old sources. They also linked these sites linked Hive's
The Future of Warcraft article. So thank you guys over at B2W! In other words, some representatives from news sites could be looking at Hive now, just like Blizzard has already been.

If you're looking for the most recent news on Warcraft 3 remastered, we have it in our
State of the Union (Warcraft III) article, which was posted a month ago. It could be passed on as rumors, but there's solid evidence and hints that Warcraft 3 remastered will come in the future.

UPDATE: The original source seems to come from BlizzPlanet
They actually did a good job in updating all of their information keeping it up to date.


UPDATE 2: Thank you PCGamesN for sharing a bunch of Hive Workshop threads on their article here!


----

In addition to this, Blizzard recently released a sneak peak regarding Battle.net channels and the custom game list for Starcraft Remastered. Hopefully we can see this in Warcraft 3, as it makes communication, hosting, and finding custom games much easier.


rsz_sc1_remastered_custom_games.jpg
 
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A bit of an over-reaction. I don't have the classified information clearence some of the HIVE mods have, but 'm fairly sure we are years away of any formal announcement considering the fact that job posting has been up for over a year with no takers. Though any BUZZ around Wc3 becoming mainstream can only be good news for us.

Hopefully Blizzard looks at this hype and stays on track with upadating/remastering wc3 and for the love of jebbus not make a Wc4, which would put all these amazing modding ressources we have built up over a decade to death.
 
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A bit of an over-reaction. I don't have the classified information clearence some of the HIVE mods have, but 'm fairly sure we are years away of any formal announcement considering the fact that job posting has been up for over a year with no takers. Though any BUZZ around Wc3 becoming mainstream can only be good news for us.

Hopefully Blizzard looks at this hype and stays on track with upadating/remastering wc3 and for the love of jebbus not make a Wc4, which would put all these amazing modding ressources we have built up over a decade to death.
Exactly this. I wrote this because sites like IGN are passing it off as new news, when they're actually just using old information. There needed to be some clarification, instead of just hype and clickbait titles like "WC3 is for sure gonna be remastered" like some of the new sites passed on. But I am happy that bigger outlets are paying attention to WC3, though.
 
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I'm 99.9% sure we wont(and we shouldnt) get remaster of Wc3, first of all unlike Starcraft and Diablo II it's 3D game, it's impossible to just remaster it so easily, they probably had initial pictures or even 3d models used for creation of those sprites, so basicly they used old source materials for Starcraft, same will happen with Diablo, but 3D game probably has none, except for cinematic models and assets. Secondly we have multitiude of resources accumulated since 2003/4, which puts pathetic base of such for Starcraft2 to shame. Starcraft had almost no modding like this, it was as limited in map making as Warcraft II was, modified melee is max without hacking game itself, so there is nothing to loose, and map files will probably be fully compatibable, which cannot be said about Warcraft III.
What we need for our beloved game is careful and focused patching, expanding upon it and fixing issues it still has. Updating Bnet's capabilties, mostly social part.
Adding Bnet 2.0 overlay, increased friends list, world editor capabilities(i know that we have newgen pack and WEX, but we could have some of basic idiotic limits lifted from vanilla editor entirely easiest and most obsolete is neutral buildings limit of 96, it should never be there, it's relic of the past with only shops in mind while it's hindering map making on grand maps that have lots of neutral buildings that arent shops.
I know that there are lots of ways to work around that limit, but it all could be easily avoided by lifting that silly limit. Slight increase of doodad and destructables would be nice too(engine limit is much higher), map dimensions too, maybe not to 800x800 but more like ~500x500, it would work for majority of people well enough. There is also major bug still tied to map size, ent's root ability doesnt allow them to root back on maps beyond original size limits, for some odd reason.
Last major reason would be change of artstyle, we had taste of that with "HD WC3 Assets" for Starcraft 2, most of changes are terrible, some are outright lazy usage of WoW derived assets which is insult to design of characters and units in Wc3(Orcs from that HD asset pack are by far best example of how wrong it looks, they outright used generic orc and tauren faces/heads, instead of maintaining facial features and variety from originals).

In short remaster would pretty much kill the community. It's like doing engine swap for Gmod or Team Fortress 2 to Source2, just mere amount of content created by fans that would be instantly rendered incompatible is giant NO, not to mention changes of mechanics which couldnt hard to fully replicate, in case of TF2 this would be glitches which created things like rocket jumping, i our case "tools" in editor to create various systems.

P.S. sorry for spawning wall of text, but that's thing with me, when i start typing it takes as while for me to stop xD
 
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@Kacpa2
There's two things happening right now.
1. Classic games are being patched.
2. Classic games (SC1 confirmed) are getting remastered.

They have to do with each other, but they aren't the same thing. I think you're confusing the two.

If we follow Blizzard's model, the remaster is something separately bought. This means that anything done on the remaster does not affect the original game. So the artstyle and other things you mention that you don't want, don't change in the original game. They are only upgraded in the remaster for good. In the mean time, the classic games are also getting patched separately.

However, this doesn't mean it will split the community. Those on the remastered version WILL be able to play with those on the classic version online. Plus, if anything, the community gets bigger because of
1. Marketing and innovation of the remaster boosts the player base
2. The original game going free boosts the player base

Speaking of SC1's model, I'm adding some news about it to the top regarding custom games :)
 
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@Kacpa2
There's two things happening right now.
1. Classic games are being patched.
2. Classic games (SC1 confirmed) are getting remastered.

They have to do with each other, but they aren't the same thing. I think you're confusing the two.

If we follow Blizzard's model, the remaster is something separately bought. This means that anything done on the remaster does not affect the original game. So the artstyle and other things you mention that you don't want, don't change in the original game. They are only upgraded in the remaster for good. In the mean time, the classic games are also getting patched separately.

However, this doesn't mean it will split the community. Those on the remastered version WILL be able to play with those on the classic version online. Plus, if anything, the community gets bigger because of
1. Marketing and hype of the remaster boosts the player base
2. The original game going free boosts the player base

Speaking of SC1's model, I'm adding some news about it to the top regarding custom games :)
About compatibility i am not so sure if that would be possible in any way for Warcraft III, unless they plan to make it work as some kind of "Ultra" setting, mostly made with WoW assets or by using Armies of Azeroth team's work after paying them.
Base problem is that we're dealing here with much bigger game and community than Starcraft 1 ever was(it only has pro scene still strong mostly in asia), with it's own issues and most importantly 3D engine, that's borderline most important issue here. 'Paid' Higher resolution settings and sprites which work as ultra settings or official legal mod for a game are not as requiring and unsynchronizing thing.(tho with better FOV remaster players will have big advantage i guess) When it's something more than couple of sprites and little client and ui tweaks for higher resolutions it's rather easy, but when it's 3D everything changes. I doubt they would be capable of making remaster on old engine, especially with it's limited lighting capabilities(which tend to bug out causing "blackout" bug on low settings on big custom maps). Remasters for 2D classics, major patching for Warcraft III.
They cannot just apply same tactic here. There is literaly no custom scene for Starcraft 1, here we have it which is undeniably one of biggest things keeping Warcaft so well over the years and onwards.
So in case of Wc3 there may be a split, required by either change of the engine or too massive changes to it that would allow playing from both versions together.
They really just should patch current game, maybe prepare proper widescreen support(issues with gui dont reall allow that tho) and put of officially on sale on Battle.ne......ahmm...."Blizzard App" at lower price, add steamlike overlay for newer bnet. Aside from all this, also unlike Diablo II and Starcraft, Warcraft III isnt blurry pixelated mess, yeah models dont have too many polygons, but their art style holds them up well, while i couldnt say the same about Starcraft which is more akin to blurs of Warcraft 1 for some reason, zerglings arent even detailed, they look like single blob.
Warcraft III has none of this issues, it has others to be fixed tho, none of this will be fixed by remaster. And if we speak of 3d game like that, it only can be remade, unless all they will do is to force DX11 effects onto it, like peopel did for some other old games, adding tesselation and such, but it's unlikely, and would make it look odd, maybe even break the art style(on older game i seen it so far, stuff looks a bit uncanny with this shine, aside from lighting and effects). I'm concerned about this. I am not so sure about longevity of such boost you talk about too, what Starcraft has is most likely temporary, most people come back to relive it in singleplayer, play a bit on bnet and that's it. They will hop onto remaster then. In case of Warcraft i am not sure if compatibility is possible to such extend.
I would need to see how it turns out for Starcraft, but i'm still mostly against remaster for Warcraft III, it just raises too many questions and issues that are too hard to overcome for such small team working on classics, and it would really be much more than reusing old source material for couple of sprites and minor fixes and adjustments to resolutions and sound. I would rather have these two events mixed than forcefully made into one movement, especially when from all of these Warcraft III is one of it's kind there(only 3D classic). Time will tell....

EDIT: Just seen that improved Bnet for Starcraft Remaster. Maybe we couldnt get such Bnet improvements for Warcraft III?(even if it uses Bnet2.0, most of this could be moved for Bnet1.0)
 
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Dr Super Good

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WC3 will not get a remaster as there is nothing to remaster. It already uses vector graphics. At most one needs to fix the colour management cycle such that sRGB or a HDR shader is used. Obviously wide screen support is needed but that can come as part of a patch.

D2 might get a remaster as it uses raster graphics like SC. These do not look sharp on modern displays unlike the low poly but still vector models of WC3.
 

Dr Super Good

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Err, graphic update plz.
Cannot be done without breaking custom maps. Most models depend on in game textures which "remastering" would alter the wraps of. Also a remaster would need normal maps and other such textures, which all custom assets are missing.

And some performance tweaks probably would not hurt either.
I doubt WC3 could even perform better. At most the excessive loading times on some custom maps could be shortened but, again, there is no reason for that to not be a standard patch.
 
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I'm really hoping for more patches and less for remastering the game. I think wc3 looks pleasingly enough, especially with fitting custom content which we're having plenty of.
 

Shar Dundred

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A WC2 remaster seems more likely to me than a WC3 remaster.
At least it would make more sense, imo.

I do not want to be forced to spend days with my campaigns just to make them compatible for a WC3 remaster - which seems likely to happen if we get a remaster.

...
Just... Let me know in advantage, so I can take a few free days....
 
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I also think it is not much help for the community if Warcraft 3 actually get's remastered and it can't load the old custom maps, though a remastered Warcraft 3 would certainly be interesting. If they are motivated enough they can possibly find a way to run the old maps OR add strong features that help to transform maps from the classic wc3 to the remaster (needs to be a little better than what they added to sc2 :D).

I can imagine the second to be a thing... I am wondering however if there still is a market for this whole thing, this would probably hinder them from doing WC4 if every intended. But I would gladly go with a remastered and well working Wc3 instead :)

Also, why is noone EVER talking about Diablo 1, I love that game. Diablo 2 is the bigger game, and has way more different themes, sure... but diablo 1 is just so good with that classic dungeon, catacombs, etc. feeling. The sounds, music and texturing make it much more atmospheric in that area to me...
You can't even buy diablo 1 anywhere anymore... it's not getting remastered and can't be bought as a classic game -.-
 
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^ Sharing the exact same sympathy for Diablo. I literally played the game to death just after release, which seriously hurt my school grades - an addiction really.
 
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I also think it is not much help for the community if Warcraft 3 actually get's remastered and it can't load the old custom maps, though a remastered Warcraft 3 would certainly be interesting. If they are motivated enough they can possibly find a way to run the old maps OR add strong features that help to transform maps from the classic wc3 to the remaster (needs to be a little better than what they added to sc2 :D).

I can imagine the second to be a thing... I am wondering however if there still is a market for this whole thing, this would probably hinder them from doing WC4 if every intended. But I would gladly go with a remastered and well working Wc3 instead :)

Also, why is noone EVER talking about Diablo 1, I love that game. Diablo 2 is the bigger game, and has way more different themes, sure... but diablo 1 is just so good with that classic dungeon, catacombs, etc. feeling. The sounds, music and texturing make it much more atmospheric in that area to me...
You can't even buy diablo 1 anywhere anymore... it's not getting remastered and can't be bought as a classic game -.-
As i and Dr Super Good said, remaster wont happen(and it shouldnt). We need patches and not something that would possibly kill and/or split the community.You all seem to forget that Warcraft 3 is only 3d classic game, it changes everything.
These stupid clickbaits by IGN and others are fake or are misinformed. Only 2D classic games woupd be viable. Warcraft 1/2 could be remastered(tho due to long dead battle net and WC3 being the rally point for entire Warcraft RTS community(except for private server and edit of Wc2 or eurobattle for wc3) makes it very unlikely. Diablo II is very likely tho and besides Starcraft is in need of remaster, i picked it up again after the years and it horrendous in comparison to Warcraft III's battlenet or pretty anything. It doesnt even have settings in main menu(plus its limited as hell when you get to it ingame) aside from all pixelated mess it is. It doesnt support alliance mechanics in single player custom melee play and is super klunky with simple controls like selectic a race needs to be done while depressing left mouse button.
Warcraft 3 doesnt need remastering at all.

What it needs are patches. They should put it on sale on front page of Blizzard app and finally mention endless community content,because there no single mention on battlenet webpahe for purchase either and it really should be atleast mentioned aside from melee and ranked bnet play. Something among lines of "Explore endless replayablity granted by community created maps ranging from slightly altered melee map experience to new games within a game" Lets be real one of most popular maps spawned a dman genre into existence for crying out load!(Moba from Dota)*
You must mention us Blizz You must it will help and improve the sales.




*Tho i dont like how some people call Warcraft 3 - "Dota 1" its incredibly triggering, its damn map within this game with far more to offer than dota. XS
 
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I never said that I need a remaster for Warcraft 3... i absolutely don't. Most players go on to new games though and wont touch an old game again, just for the reason that it is old and has no modern graphics. I mainly play Half life 1 and still some warcraft 3, so I don't count myself in there :D

New patches are most welcome if they work well ( the installing issues of 1.28 are still a problem to many players), yet they don't actually have the potential to bring hordes of players back to the game.
A remastered game would have better chances there. I also never meant to judge if it comes or not, I just lost myself a little in the topic.
 
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Well it's not saying anything about the remaster, it's just "we're restoring them to glory" for Diablo and Starcraft it means expansive remasters, for Wc3 updating. Judging by info on that ux/ui info it doesnt even tell us if it's about Diablo II, it may mean very first installments of those, Diablo 1 and Warcraft I(or Wc2) needs remasters badly if they are meant to be played again. After so long time playing Warcraft III, which aged very well in lots of ways, Starcraft 1 aged terribly, it's ugly as hell, clunky with the ui, and sounds kill my ears with low quality(music is okay, but units sounds are muffled with compression). It has incredibly dated and mostly useless main menu style(like most 90s games) with no access to settings menu. Warcraft III is free of all these flaws, it needs patching not remastering. Tho i begin to repeat my previous post so i will stop here. Point has been made.
 
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Dr Super Good

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Could fix the unit lag, I'm sick of only having like 110 units before they start to lag and freeze in place. Silly Blizzard needs to remove that already, the engine or whatever for unit movement is horrible.
There is a reason for that... StarCraft II does not have such limits but try moving a few hundred at once and performance is poor due to how computationally intensive it is.
 
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It seems mind numbingly obvious that Warcraft 3 is going to be remastered just based on the addition of Wc3 to the Blizz launcher, the new update infrastructure and the things they did with Sc1. Did we really need this lengthy post to elucidate what to me sounds like common knowledge.

Diablo 2 is news though, have they actually updated Diablo 2?

Edit: They're clearly designing Warcraft 3 to run a on Bnet 2.0 the same infrastructure as everything else which is basically a remaster in itself to me and that's already been confirmed.

Edit: Clarification; remaster is a loose term, I don't think Blizzard will reissue Warcraft 3 because there is really no reason to, there's nothing to "remaster" visually like DSG said, but adding Battle.net 2.0, adding widescreen support, (I think they changed the shaders in a recent update? Because the graphics look a lot better), is all kind of equivalent to a remaster.
 
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It seems mind numbingly obvious that Warcraft 3 is going to be remastered just based on the addition of Wc3 to the Blizz launcher, the new update infrastructure and the things they did with Sc1. Did we really need this lengthy post to elucidate what to me sounds like common knowledge.

Diablo 2 is news though, have they actually updated Diablo 2?

Edit: They're clearly designing Warcraft 3 to run a on Bnet 2.0 the same infrastructure as everything else which is basically a remaster in itself to me and that's already been confirmed.

Edit: Clarification; remaster is a loose term, I don't think Blizzard will reissue Warcraft 3 because there is really no reason to, there's nothing to "remaster" visually like DSG said, but adding Battle.net 2.0, adding widescreen support, (I think they changed the shaders in a recent update? Because the graphics look a lot better), is all kind of equivalent to a remaster.
So why you made post which now after edit is countering what you said? It's not just Doctor Super Good that said that, i was talking about this too, How in the world remastering Warcraft 3 would make more sense than Diablo II?
Blizzard employees never said anything about remastering in words 'per se' they only said about "returning games to glory" which was probably broad way of putting both remasters of oldest games which desperately need it(Sc1 is horrific in comparison for more modern games, GUI, some menu controls and pixelation everywhere, lack of true settings, tooltips for buildings for new players) and just patching and fixing for Warcraft III, which is just needing several tweaks and improvements as oposed to overhaul of Starcraft 1.

About shaders, i doubt it nothing's changed, they would note it in the changelogs, it would be incredibly hard for them to do it, i guess it's placebo effect workin on you...
 

Dr Super Good

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About shaders, i doubt it nothing's changed, they would note it in the changelogs, it would be incredibly hard for them to do it, i guess it's placebo effect workin on you...
Seeing how WC3 does not even use "shaders"...

It uses the D3D7 level fixed function pipelines (and OpenGL equivalent), no sight of a programmable shader. Unless they changed it of course.
 
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