Warcraft3 Reforge Reforged - Retextures by Mr.Goblin

[Mr.Goblin]

WARCRAFT3 REFORGE'S TEXTURES - REFORGED

Like many of you, I'm not ...quite... pleased by the graphics of Reforge. It's a damn shame because most models are actually ABSOLUTLY gorgeous upclose, it's just their weird Shader and their color palette choices that made most model look souless and empty.

So, I may start something new here.... retextures of the reforge models to bring back the glory that Warcraft3 diserves. I'll try to bring my own flare into the textures, while also interpreting and trying to respect the old warcraft3 textures appeal onto the reforge models. Wish me luck.

Not sure how many units/heroes I'll retexture, I'll do one at a time and will see from there. I'll update this thread when ever... don't wait for it, just enjoy.

On my list as of now=
1# Grom Hellscream (no full black chin? COMEONE!)
2# Cairn Bloodhoof (No gray old looking furs and retard looking face? yeah needs fixing)
3# Mannaroth (He's not the scary imposing demon we all imagined.)

Grom Hellscream
Work in progress #1
Work in progress #2

-In construction-

 

[Mr.Goblin]

First Simple Work in progress

 

[Footman16]

Looks good I'll definitely keep an eye on this. One thing I would say is that the green seems quite dark so I don't know how well it would look in-game, but I'll wait til the end product to comment

So far pretty good.

 

[Mr.Goblin]

Looks good I'll definitely keep an eye on this. One thing I would say is that the green seems quite dark so I don't know how well it would look in-game, but I'll wait til the end product to comment

So far pretty good.

Yeah, just like you pointed out, I'm working smartly, so editing the different sections will be easier. I'm also causious about my darker skin tone. I'll try it ingame eventually and improve from there.
Meanwhile = Newest Work in progress.

I'm trying to incorporate the colors of the original Hellscream texture, while also being more realistic. I'm also adding the ''maskara'' effect of the original Hellscream. the glowing yellow eyes, etc. Cheers.

 

[Footman16]

Yeah, just like you pointed out, I'm working smartly, so editing the different sections will be easier. I'm also causious about my darker skin tone. I'll try it ingame eventually and improve from there.
Meanwhile = Newest Work in progress.

I'm trying to incorporate the colors of the original Hellscream texture, while also being more realistic. I'm also adding the ''maskara'' effect of the original Hellscream. the glowing yellow eyes, etc. Cheers.

Sounds good, I know first hand the difficulties of working with the Reforged skins. Trying to make Free-hand look good/fit in on them is... difficult. I often found the best way of skinning them to be rough free-hand colouring and shadow work followed by copious amounts of in-built filters and effects lol which I imagine isn't too far off how they made the originals.

 

[deepstrasz]

Wow MrDotGoblin. That's really proper. If only they made it that way from the beginning...

@YourArthas @kantarion what do you guys think of this retexturing?
(calling the purists)

 

[Barorque]

Can honestly not share most of the aesthetic displeasure with Reforged, that some here seem to have.
For me WC3 was always miles behind other strategy games of it's time in the models section. I have always wished for the simplistic ¨origami¨ models to look actually 3D (TFT brought some better looking ones, and later WoW).
Of course there were some ¨interesting¨ choices (human ear naga) since it was an outsource job and not a Blizzard artist one. Yet I follow and enjoy (most) of Warcraft universe and don't limit myself to 1 game, overall I think they nailed the aesthetic very well.
I do agree however that the shader changes in early reforged look worse than on launch, it was a community request to better see team colours. And now everything is over saturated compared to launch.





The example with Grom's texture: the old textures were so small that they couldn't even go for asymmetry (both his pants etc. look the same).
And he look somewhat different in his WC3 cinematic, the chin looks more like a stubble, armour is somewhat different.
I think the choice Blizzard made later, that's it's actually a tattoo or face-paint is much better. Garosh got the full chin pain and Grom had more intricate lines.
Now regarding colours, even though the shader upgrade made most things look worse imo, Grom is literally the same as he was (you can argue that his skin is less monotone and simple, so more warm tones, but the tone is the same):




And a question for armour, do you actually plan to change the hues of each unit is say his pants were a red leather, or what ever small difference there was, or is it specific units?

 

[deepstrasz]

I think the choice Blizzard made later, that's it's actually a tattoo or face-paint is much better. Garosh got the full chin pain and Grom had more intricate lines.

Maybe it should have been the other way around or not at all different?

You can see the Warcraft II version had a whole jaw paint.

 

[GhostWolf]

I think some people miss the point.

While some models shown in the beta were lousy and lacked quality, I don't think many people are or ever were "displeased" with how many polygons were used or what tattoos a specific model has.

Personally, the moment I saw the beta hype with models shown with the user's perspective as if they are standing right in front of the model, my first reaction was "show us an actual in-game screenshot from above".

Perhaps you can make tattoos that fit some style you like better, perhaps some colors are too bright for your taste or too dark.

But the reality of the matter is that you go around and ask people what the issue is, and it's the fact that it's very hard to actually understand what is even happening in a real Warcraft 3 game with HD graphics.

Not that there's anything wrong with improving the style if you so desire, you can probably do a better job than whatever Chinese company (citation needed but you get the point) they outsourced all the work to, just sayin'

 

[Mr.Goblin]

Warcraft3 was indeed a mix bag of artstyles. Many units were done in a painterly style, while some other had realistic textures slaped onto them, same thing with the terrain and tileset. There's clearly major differences between one race and the other. But all together, in it<s wierd way, it worked.

Now the issue I have with some Reforged models, isn't the modeling, persay. 99% of the reforge 3D models are gorgeous. The issue I have is some of the redesign choices, and due to that, as a major fan, I want to improve some of those more daunthing designs and see if I can improve them.

Straight off the bat (as I'm currently completing the campaign for the first time in reforge) I have a few major issues. As a start (in no particular order)=

-I think Thrall's face doesn'T feel like Thrall (it's a weird comment I know, but there's something mising, hard to tell)
-I think Troll witchdocters are too colerfull, missing the pale grayness of them.
-I think many of the trolls face models feels off, there's a squareness mising
-I think Cairne bloodhoff should be pale and gray insted of bright brown. (he doesn't look old)
-I think the Sandris should definitly have her hoody back ,she blends too much with the rest now, and she used to be one of my favorite heroes.
-I think the face of the Nightelf armors feels like a bad CGI manga character's face.
-I think the Huntress's face is mising the smogness (and all the animations that made them so awesome)
-Mannoroth feels like an anime demon character not the scary imposing demon he should feel like.
-I think the Ashenvale tilesets is pretty, but it's missing the dark gloomy feel of the original.
-I think Lorderun summer tileset is too bright, feels to cartoony.
-I truely miss Muradin's moustache and skulls.....
-Northrend tilesets feels off.
-Tree of life is too blue, needs to be more gray. Also his face makes him look retarded insted of old and mysterious.
-Uther feels off, I think he's mising the lion mane of hair.
-Sylvanas face is just ugly
-Admiral proudmore should have bigger moustache
-Wisp face is too solid, should be transparent.
-All dreadlords aren't pale enough.
-All nightelf's skin tone aren't purple enough
-Ancient of war should feel more bulky.
-Ancienr protector should have a much bigger mane.

to name a few for now.

 

[Barorque]

I wish we could make ENB like for Skyrim, and recolour everything instead of spending probably half a year doing it to each texture, just for them to be slightly updated and all work becoming obsolete.
¨Quenching¨ seems to do similar things, but they have much more than the recolour, which is a shame in this case.

I would agree that some armor choices are a bit different than what we've seen, Thrall for example is super armoured, yes I know he got the armour from a warrior, but still.
And the elven female faces really do not look like we see in WoW, but good luck every doing anything to them.
However some of the characters look like they would in WoW so it's not a surprise for me that they went for that direction.


I won't be available for such a large project since I actively work for another one, but if there are question regarding textures I can surely help.

 

[Evilhog]

As Kurdran Wildhammer would say, "Ah, there is no hope for this lad!"

Here's a quick Photoshop edit of Mr. Goblin's Wip1.

 

[Barorque]

FYI: Showing a WIP screenshot in RMS is not very useful for textures, since they will look nothing like that in the actual game.


Anyways, least I can do is share our project's knowledge of basic settings for Reforged geoset texture edits.

You would want to edit a normal map IF you alter the diffuse in a way that would change its material texture. So making it wooden, or add a scar, tattoo, engraving etc.

When you alter the material appearance, it is suggested to also make it's ORM texture appropriate. If it was a metal before it will be purple-blue and will shine, edit it to be green-red if you made the texture wood for example. Save ORM textures as DXT5.

We're talking about Photoshop here, and the first step for normal maps is actually necessary, even if it seems to edit the already perfect default normal:

 

[Mr.Goblin]

FYI: Showing a WIP screenshot in RMS is not very useful for textures, since they will look nothing like that in the actual game.


Anyways, least I can do is share our project's knowledge of basic settings for Reforged geoset texture edits.

You would want to edit a normal map IF you alter the diffuse in a way that would change its material texture. So making it wooden, or add a scar, tattoo, engraving etc.

When you alter the material appearance, it is suggested to also make it's ORM texture appropriate. If it was a metal before it will be purple-blue and will shine, edit it to be green-red if you made the texture wood for example. Save ORM textures as DXT5.

We're talking about Photoshop here, and the first step for normal maps is actually necessary, even if it seems to edit the already perfect default normal:

View attachment 364066

Thanks for the reminder! I haven't changed anything in terms of reflection and normal maps yet. Currently respecting all the different textures. I may eventually tweak the normal map though. I'll cross that bridge once I get there, can't do all at once. First I want to fix the diffuse, from there, with photoshop I can generate and tweak the normal map. Cheers!

 

[YourArthas]

Wow MrDotGoblin. That's really proper. If only they made it that way from the beginning...

@YourArthas @kantarion what do you guys think of this retexturing?
(calling the purists)

As long as the model is *wrong* texturing will not save the day