Mero, I would suggest that not all the videos need to stick to the same style as the originals. It depends on the video. Remember that when Pumpkin were doing originals, they had limited time and resources and 3D software was far less advanced than it is now.
The review of submitted videos should be critical, however, there is a need to make them compelling and visually breathtaking.
As I see it, there are 3 categories of video:
1. Background story of the campaign (full motion videos "FMVs")
These videos often have "fmv" in their filename somewhere.
IMHO, this category of story telling video should be afforded as much freedom as possible to get the best possible results. It should retain the same voice files, but the visual element should be brought right up to date.
Wouldn't that look so much better with decent terrain, Jorzi's amazing B-43 transport model, etc? And the greek symbols on the landing zones are just lame, so lots of room for improvement.
These videos also often contain "map related" (category 2, below) or "computer displays" (category 3, below) segments. Pumpkin probably inserted such elements to save time and money, but they detract from the overall FMV in most cases. An example of where they don't detract is the
cam 1 intro where you actually zoom in on a computer screen in the transport, but everywhere else they ruin the FMV IMHO. So in FMVs I think there should be freedom to replace category 2 & 3 style segments with whatever looks best.
2. Map related videos (
example)
Pretty obvious what these are:
IMHO these should be replaced with in-game camera work, something that can be dealt with as the JS API evolves.
3. Computer displays (
examples)
There are two sub-categories here:
a) The full computer screen display:
The general layout and top/bottom borders, as well as colours should be retained IMHO. Just as the computer screens in Star Trek have a very distinctive and instantly recognisable "
ah, that's from Star Trek" style, this is the distinctive style that we associate with WZ 2100. You can make some changes, but the end result needs to "
feel the same" otherwise emotions will run high.
It's function over form: The focus is on the information, not the stuff around the information. So no textures or random buttons/lights, etc.
The content of the sidebar needs to be yellow text, but it doesn't need to be flashing and scrolling like crazy, this isn't The Matrix. Things like the big randomly changing number at the bottom left doesn't really add anything (even in the originals) and should be removed IMHO.
The sidebar content should ideally relate to what's in the main panel. So in the example above, why is a cyborg being shown when the main panel has a sat uplink? It would be better if the side panel had stuff relating to satellites and radars.
b) Artifact "diagnostics / blueprint" type thing used on
intel screen:
There are several of these and they might make a good starting point for renovation work.