Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition Interview @ RPGFan

RPGFan has interviewed Trent Oster about what Baldur's Gate: Enhanced Edition will offer:

RPGFan: How did the team go about adjusting the graphics, UI, and assets for a higher resolution? Were they stretched, or were you actually able to return to the source material? Is the new Retina iPad supported?
Trent Oster:The puzzling part. We started with the BG2 UI graphics as a guideline and repainted every single UI screen by hand. For the background and character art, all the source was lost, so we were unable to return and were forced to improve on what was there. We've added the ability to play at much higher resolutions and added zooming support with Catmull-Rom Bicubic filtering to ensure the art still looks good as you zoom in and out. We created the UI with the Retina iPad as a target. Since we are having size issues, we'll likely ship with the iPad 2 UI base and add the higher resolution assets down the road in an update.

More information.

WOW I was going to call BS…. I had to Google "Catmull-Rom Bicubic filtering". I couldn't tell if that was some kind of joke like "Flux Capacitor". I'm definitely going to have to throw that term around though at work now, I'll sound wicked smart.

What does he mean by 'having size issues'? (erm…context: original message

As for the zoom - I'd need to see it in action before I'm convinced. Interpolation is still interpolation, and bicubic is just a smoother kind of of interpolant. There are certainly more sophistiated 'de-pixelizing' methods out there, although most are probably proprietary.

You'd be surprised of how many irregular-sounding scientific or technical terms exist out there.

Originally Posted by booboo
What does he mean by 'having size issues'? (erm…context: original message

Hard to say exactly, the mention of higher resolution suggest that it might be memory size issue for different IPad version.

I'm amazed that no one bothered to archive the original assets from the project, not even the artwork.

Originally Posted by screeg
I'm amazed that no one bothered to archive the original assets from the project, not even the artwork.

Seems to happen a lot. I can kind of understand with games like Ultima 7, where storage was pretty expensive back then (though cheap tapes were available), but burnable CD's were dirt cheap when BG was made.

This quote sort of irks me: "Describe some of the interface changes that help to bring the game to a modern standard….

Trent Oster: On the PC, we've mostly left the basic controls alone. We've moved a few screens around in ordering and added a number, but the controls will feel familiar to fans. We also brought the key mapping system inside the game itself, so you can re-map controls from within the game."

Maybe I'm wrong, but is he largely admitting that the PC interface is pretty much the same (well.. based on BGII, but you get the idea)? This was supposed to be pretty much -the- big enhancement for PC, and now we're getting "On the PC, we've mostly left the basic controls alone."

As sad as it is to say this, I have a feeling I'll be skipping this and going back to my modded GoG copies. I still think the game could do well on tabs/phones, but I'm really not sure why a PC gamer should double down on this.

What would you have them change? As long as the zoom feature is in there, I'll be happy with the BG2 interface.

I'm a pc gamer and am looking forward to getting this. New characters, new areas, new items, high resolutions, more content coming in the future in the form of DLC, lots of good stuff.

Originally Posted by blatantninja
What would you have them change? As long as the zoom feature is in there, I'll be happy with the BG2 interface.

• Antialias the borders of the animated characters and creatures.
• Improve the clunky, dated spell visual effects.

Originally Posted by rjshae

• Antialias the borders of the animated characters and creatures.
• Improve the clunky, dated spell visual effects.

Neither of which have to do with the interface, which was the question at hand.

Originally Posted by blatantninja
Neither of which have to do with the interface, which was the question at hand.

They could have a custom party formation button; add more quick slots; allow for different interface skins, &c.

It sounds like they will be doing updates, so maybe there will be some enhancements down the road.