Hi! So nice idea and implementation! I was really excited while watching and listening your opinion and demonstration of H2 graphics. :) Glowing effects for phoenixes, genies are made by the engine itself. Each creature sprite may have some sort of special pixels, which have several color states. They are constantly changing their colours and being combined in a certain manner, allows you to see colourful effects on the sprite. This is how cycling animation is made in Heroes 2. Between, many creatures have such glowing effects you didn't mentioned. Not only Fire elementals, Phoenixes and Genies, but lighting in Giants/Titans hand, Phoenix/Dragon/Cyclops breath attacks, Sprites/Genies/Mummies (and some others) attacks, orb on the staff of the Magi and even some eyes of creatures are glowing (Bone dragons for instance). Speaking of Bone dragons and their animation - this is not the only unusual thing about that creature. In the original game they have same sound design to regular dragons. But the game resources include a special sounds for bone dragons exactly, which we decided to use in our engine. :) I'm not sure, both dying animations are used in the original game. I believe one set of sprites is not used at all. Sad, that you didn't mentioned Air elementals, because they are really special too being partly transparent. The internals of the creature are generated by the engine in a specific way depending on the battlefield image and every object which is behind them at the moment.
Wonderful! I am so glad to get confirmation that it is the engine doing the work for Genies, Fire Elementals, Phoenixes, Lava terrain etc! Plus now I know to look out for some of those other examples like Magi and breath attacks! Like I said, you may not realize it's there until you slow things down, but we would really miss it if it wasn't there :D Bone Dragons have the same sound design as the original Dragons!!!! That is so very cool to know, and maybe provides some insight as to where these dragons came from 😅 So one set of dying animations is just never used, but there are two sets? I am wondering where Cyrus Annihilator got them to rip then and if they would have any indication, because the more I look at it the less crazy I think I am that there really are two possible deaths. And that is a ton of new info with the air elemental I hadn't even considered! I am going to pin your post for all of the wonderful additional information, as always the fheroes2 team knows their stuff and it is a pleasure to hear from you :)
HOMM2 creatures definitely have the best dying animation. Giants and Titans in the other games just kinda drop dead but here is the only one where they are actual statues that crumble when they die. The Jedi disappearing deaths of the druids and magi were awesome. The sounds that accompany them were also the best! Like the "woop woop" sound of mummies unraveling or the vomit sound liches make when they die. I also never realized that the ogres were wearing helmets. I was a bit confused why only in HOMM2 that the ogres have horns.
Ah you're totally right on the sounds as well! I wish I had included some of those sound effects that accompany those deaths because it all comes together so well! We may need to follow up to include some of those best sound effects :) And excellent point on the Ogres, they definitely went through a bunch of changes across the series, I hadn't really considered that those were horns attached to the helmet, but now I can see how likely that is :) Thanks!!
Great idea for a video, Fox. I enjoy these kinds of deep-dive videos. Not every video has to be about gameplay. Videos about art, history, music, speedruns, cheats, lore, the list goes on and on. You should do a deep dive video into into power and stats.
I appreciate it! And that is a great idea, there's a lot of different ways to do the stats/power video and I hope I do it justice since it's such a big topic 😅 I better bring the whole crew in to make sure it turns out right :)
This is an excellent video! I'm still amazed how cool this game looks. I remember when I was a kid, I was absolutely sure that this game has the best graphics possible, and no game will ever have better graphics than this :D.
Agreed! Sometimes going back to old games we remembered fondly leaves us disappointed, but the artists truly were artists and their work has stood the test of time! 😌
The artists did truly wonderful work! It feels classic without feeling dated, and it's a big reason why the game is marvelous to this day :) Thanks for stopping in and saying so!
I couldn't agree more ☺ The more I play it the more I realize how purposeful and precise certain gameplay elements were, the designers really did something special here! Let's hope others follow this classic example :)
Awesome video!! Here are some things I noticed: - The orcs seem to pretty much have the same daggers as the elves, so maybe they have the same supplier - The cyclops's armour looks a lot like an ironsmith's apron than actual armour - Perhaps the material that constitutes the bone dragon's wings is wing debris and necromancer magic. If you look closely, the bone dragon's outline is blue, and blue could mean necromancer magic, since it can also be seen in lich eyes. Wing leather is more fragile, so it constitutes of less debri and more blue magic sticking it together, just like you can see in the colour of the wings, which is more cyan than gray.
Haha, the dagger smith is supplying both sides and making a killing off of the business 🤣 That is a really good observation on that Cyclops! Their tunic/apron/armor seems very practical. There is also just a tiny bit of a holdover from the original garment worn by the Cyclops in HoMM1 too I think, now that you say that :) Mhhhm, Necro magi explains an awful lot, and the blue outline would tie much of that theory together in a really nice way! I think that the outline colors for each of the units had to have been a very purposeful choice since so many other choices were purposeful, it seems only right that this is another example of that :) Well spotted, I feel like I learned something from this! 😁
What a cool video idea. And my word, such beautiful creatures :D the dragons and sorceress creatures are in my opinon the most beautiful. As someone mentioned, a deep dive into Enroth, Erathia or some of the heroes would also be cool.
Right on, that's a great idea to look into! And beautiful may be one of the best words to describe the game and how it comes together 🙂 Glad to hear it was worth your time and thanks for letting me know as I know you often do ☺
Nice!! I am looking forward for others to share their thoughts and tell me what I may have gotten wrong or missed! We are discussing on the Phixfox Discord if the Ogre is wearing a helmet with a chinstrap or if it's hair and a beard 😃
It's funny that you say that the trolls are magical in a way, because as a child I always thought the rocks that they are throwing are actually crystal balls. The kind a fortune teller would use to foretell the future or something 😆
I fall into speech patterns that become sort of a "word of the day" until they are completely overused, and I think you spotted at least one such example in this video 😂😂 I don't drink, but I would drink to that! 😜
Hi! So nice idea and implementation! I was really excited while watching and listening your opinion and demonstration of H2 graphics. :)
Glowing effects for phoenixes, genies are made by the engine itself. Each creature sprite may have some sort of special pixels, which have several color states. They are constantly changing their colours and being combined in a certain manner, allows you to see colourful effects on the sprite. This is how cycling animation is made in Heroes 2.
Between, many creatures have such glowing effects you didn't mentioned. Not only Fire elementals, Phoenixes and Genies, but lighting in Giants/Titans hand, Phoenix/Dragon/Cyclops breath attacks, Sprites/Genies/Mummies (and some others) attacks, orb on the staff of the Magi and even some eyes of creatures are glowing (Bone dragons for instance).
Speaking of Bone dragons and their animation - this is not the only unusual thing about that creature. In the original game they have same sound design to regular dragons. But the game resources include a special sounds for bone dragons exactly, which we decided to use in our engine. :) I'm not sure, both dying animations are used in the original game. I believe one set of sprites is not used at all.
Sad, that you didn't mentioned Air elementals, because they are really special too being partly transparent. The internals of the creature are generated by the engine in a specific way depending on the battlefield image and every object which is behind them at the moment.
Wonderful! I am so glad to get confirmation that it is the engine doing the work for Genies, Fire Elementals, Phoenixes, Lava terrain etc! Plus now I know to look out for some of those other examples like Magi and breath attacks! Like I said, you may not realize it's there until you slow things down, but we would really miss it if it wasn't there :D
Bone Dragons have the same sound design as the original Dragons!!!! That is so very cool to know, and maybe provides some insight as to where these dragons came from 😅 So one set of dying animations is just never used, but there are two sets? I am wondering where Cyrus Annihilator got them to rip then and if they would have any indication, because the more I look at it the less crazy I think I am that there really are two possible deaths.
And that is a ton of new info with the air elemental I hadn't even considered! I am going to pin your post for all of the wonderful additional information, as always the fheroes2 team knows their stuff and it is a pleasure to hear from you :)
HOMM2 creatures definitely have the best dying animation. Giants and Titans in the other games just kinda drop dead but here is the only one where they are actual statues that crumble when they die. The Jedi disappearing deaths of the druids and magi were awesome. The sounds that accompany them were also the best! Like the "woop woop" sound of mummies unraveling or the vomit sound liches make when they die.
I also never realized that the ogres were wearing helmets. I was a bit confused why only in HOMM2 that the ogres have horns.
Ah you're totally right on the sounds as well! I wish I had included some of those sound effects that accompany those deaths because it all comes together so well! We may need to follow up to include some of those best sound effects :) And excellent point on the Ogres, they definitely went through a bunch of changes across the series, I hadn't really considered that those were horns attached to the helmet, but now I can see how likely that is :) Thanks!!
Great idea for a video, Fox. I enjoy these kinds of deep-dive videos. Not every video has to be about gameplay. Videos about art, history, music, speedruns, cheats, lore, the list goes on and on. You should do a deep dive video into into power and stats.
I appreciate it! And that is a great idea, there's a lot of different ways to do the stats/power video and I hope I do it justice since it's such a big topic 😅 I better bring the whole crew in to make sure it turns out right :)
This is an excellent video! I'm still amazed how cool this game looks. I remember when I was a kid, I was absolutely sure that this game has the best graphics possible, and no game will ever have better graphics than this :D.
Agreed! Sometimes going back to old games we remembered fondly leaves us disappointed, but the artists truly were artists and their work has stood the test of time! 😌
This is amazing! this is a classic!
The artists did truly wonderful work! It feels classic without feeling dated, and it's a big reason why the game is marvelous to this day :) Thanks for stopping in and saying so!
If Heroes2 came out today, I bet it would still be a hit. True masterpiece.
I couldn't agree more ☺ The more I play it the more I realize how purposeful and precise certain gameplay elements were, the designers really did something special here! Let's hope others follow this classic example :)
Awesome video!! Here are some things I noticed:
- The orcs seem to pretty much have the same daggers as the elves, so maybe they have the same supplier
- The cyclops's armour looks a lot like an ironsmith's apron than actual armour
- Perhaps the material that constitutes the bone dragon's wings is wing debris and necromancer magic. If you look closely, the bone dragon's outline is blue, and blue could mean necromancer magic, since it can also be seen in lich eyes. Wing leather is more fragile, so it constitutes of less debri and more blue magic sticking it together, just like you can see in the colour of the wings, which is more cyan than gray.
Haha, the dagger smith is supplying both sides and making a killing off of the business 🤣
That is a really good observation on that Cyclops! Their tunic/apron/armor seems very practical. There is also just a tiny bit of a holdover from the original garment worn by the Cyclops in HoMM1 too I think, now that you say that :)
Mhhhm, Necro magi explains an awful lot, and the blue outline would tie much of that theory together in a really nice way! I think that the outline colors for each of the units had to have been a very purposeful choice since so many other choices were purposeful, it seems only right that this is another example of that :) Well spotted, I feel like I learned something from this! 😁
What a cool video idea. And my word, such beautiful creatures :D the dragons and sorceress creatures are in my opinon the most beautiful. As someone mentioned, a deep dive into Enroth, Erathia or some of the heroes would also be cool.
Right on, that's a great idea to look into! And beautiful may be one of the best words to describe the game and how it comes together 🙂 Glad to hear it was worth your time and thanks for letting me know as I know you often do ☺
Always excited to see a video from you my dude. Always appreciate any time you can give us!
Huge thanks for the positivity and I am always happy to hear from you! This is a really fun topic and I am glad it's interesting ☺ Thanks thanks!!😄
i am so happy now
It's a bit of a different video, but still all about the game we love 😄
17:50 the wings. that is why they are made in a laboratory ;)
Makes sense to me! I almost wish that they had somewhat less wing there, maybe some rips or missing (flesh?)
Someone analyzing homm2 sprites? Insta clicked and liked
Nice!! I am looking forward for others to share their thoughts and tell me what I may have gotten wrong or missed! We are discussing on the Phixfox Discord if the Ogre is wearing a helmet with a chinstrap or if it's hair and a beard 😃
Hilarious editing of your own commentary 😂😂
It's funny that you say that the trolls are magical in a way, because as a child I always thought the rocks that they are throwing are actually crystal balls. The kind a fortune teller would use to foretell the future or something 😆
I love that! It's a perfectly reasonable thing to think when we are younger! And plus, who wants one of those aimed at your head 😂
"More or Less"
You keep using that phrase; I do not think it means what you think it means.
Either that or a great drinking game lol. 🤔 😆
I fall into speech patterns that become sort of a "word of the day" until they are completely overused, and I think you spotted at least one such example in this video 😂😂 I don't drink, but I would drink to that! 😜
Love this art! it's timeless
Timeless is the perfect word for it! Quality is always beautiful ☺
@@Phixfox Amen!
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