CSB palette different from DM?

[Erik Bauer]

Hello, there.
I was watching some CSB pictures last day and I got the same impression I got when I first played it, 2 years after DM: Walls, floors and ceilings seem, to my eyes, have a slightly different, darker, palette than they used to have in DM (talking about Amiga version of both games)
Am I the only one seeing this? Maybe it's just my immagination, but that always helped me to guess from which game a screenshot is taken, even when no monster are shown.

Ok ok, now you can close me into a sanitarium

[ChristopheF]

It must be your imagination or some psychic power because the color palettes used to draw the dungeon are exactly the same in all Amiga versions of both DM & CSB (I checked).

[Erik Bauer]

Ok, thanx! Must definitely be my immagination LOL

[Zolaerla]

Maybe whatever you were watching didn't have the light level quite all the way up?

[Erik Bauer]

Possibile, but it was more subtle than that... most probably just immagination

[ChristopheF]

In CSB the wall graphics are slightly different than in DM and the dungeon view has an updated perspective (except on Atari ST where the dungeon graphics are identical). Maybe that's the cause of your strange impression rather than the colors themselves?

[Erik Bauer]

Really? Yep, maybe it's that!
Could you elaborate on the differences, please? (If you can, of course)... I find it very intriguing!

[ChristopheF]

A picture is worth a thousand words. Here are screenshots of the very first dungeon view you see when starting the game.
Dungeon Master for Amiga 2.0 English (Perspective 1) / Chaos Strikes Back for Amiga 3.1 English (Perspective 2)

Animated comparison:


Perspective used in each version:

Code: Select all

Platform      Dungeon Master                Chaos Strikes Back
--------------------------------------------------------------
Atari ST      Perspective 1                 Perspective 1
Apple IIGS    Perspective 1                 N/A
Amiga         Version 2.x: Perspective 1    Perspective 2
              Version 3.6: Perspective 2
FM-Towns      Perspective 1                 Perspective 2
X68000        Perspective 2                 Perspective 2
PC-98         Perspective 2                 Perspective 2
PC            Perspective 2                 N/A

[Erik Bauer]

Uh, nice, thanx!
Perspective 2 seeems a little more claustrophobic, maybe my impression of "everything is darker" came from here

Thank you very much, that helped me to rationalize old sensations, which is always good, and to go even deeper into DM and CSB

[Zolaerla]

I actually discussed the alternate draw method for the walls in my highlight video about Dungeon Master. Here's the relevant part when talking about the Amiga version:
https://youtu.be/zzAMcSaMRy8?t=2874

Oddly enough, for me, the updated walls seem a bit brighter because you can see further.

[ChristopheF]

You mention DM version 3.2 in the video, surely you mean version 3.6 instead

[Erik Bauer]

I actually discussed the alternate draw method for the walls in my highlight video about Dungeon Master. Here's the relevant part when talking about the Amiga version:
https://youtu.be/zzAMcSaMRy8?t=2874

Oddly enough, for me, the updated walls seem a bit brighter because you can see further.

Cool video! And yes, watching it the difference is even more clear, now

To me the updated walls seems more dark and claustrophobic because corridors look more narrow. I wonder why they used upside down wall bitmaps, tho... was it a choice or a side effect of some change in the screen rendering routine? I guess we will never know...

[Zolaerla]

You mention DM version 3.2 in the video, surely you mean version 3.6 instead

Awww shoot, yeah, you're right. I played v2.0, 2.1, 2.2 (only 2.0 worked, due to being cracked properly) and 3.6 (Psygnosis version) and wrote the wrong version number down in my script notes before writing the script for the Amiga version. Grrf!