Myst IV: What Could Have Been

[Ainia]

I will hope along with you Twitch. It looks like Ultraworld would be a fun exploration of an alternate vision for Tomahna.

[Main_Avvie]

DreamForge definitely drew on Myst's more romantic aesthetic over Riven's steampunk. This always made more sense to me. After all, Riven's aesthetic was a reflection of Gehn, not Atrus. Yet the series turned more steampunk in its visual design and conception after Riven seems to have established it; although the aesthetic carried on in a much cleaner form and less gritty than in Riven.

I agree that DreamForge's conception of Tomahna appears too opulent for Atrus' and Catherine's sensibilities. After all, she came from a primitive culture and he grew up in a hole in the ground. But Tomahna always seemed too opulent to me anyway. Especially from an engineering perspective. It's inconceivable enough that Atrus could acquire the materials to develop Myst Island, but Tomahan is a vast complex construction. At this time he would have had help in its construction, but it still would have required much manpower to engineer. What makes far less sense is the construction of Myst III's ages. They are by far more complex than the primitive ages linked to in Myst and they would have been constructed at the same time with limited manpower and resources.

The article claims that the graphics would have 'rivaled' Uru's. In their current state I don't think that's even remotely true. Uru looks far better than this. And those character models! Ugh! gross. Sorry but there's a reason Myst IV is among the last games to utilize live action actors. Even Ubisuck still had enough self awareness back then to understand the importance live action portrayals had in the Myst games.

Glad to see this hitherto unknown piece of Myst history come to light as of late. Would be interesting to know more about the Myst sequel that could have been but never was.

[Jamie Marchant]

Those where Beta(or earlier) graphics so they may have not been on par with URU at the time of the trailer.

[Magic88889]

DreamForge definitely drew on Myst's more romantic aesthetic over Riven's steampunk. This always made more sense to me. After all, Riven's aesthetic was a reflection of Gehn, not Atrus. Yet the series turned more steampunk in its visual design and conception after Riven seems to have established it; although the aesthetic carried on in a much cleaner form and less gritty than in Riven.

I agree that DreamForge's conception of Tomahna appears too opulent for Atrus' and Catherine's sensibilities. After all, she came from a primitive culture and he grew up in a hole in the ground. But Tomahna always seemed too opulent to me anyway. Especially from an engineering perspective. It's inconceivable enough that Atrus could acquire the materials to develop Myst Island, but Tomahan is a vast complex construction. At this time he would have had help in its construction, but it still would have required much manpower to engineer. What makes far less sense is the construction of Myst III's ages. They are by far more complex than the primitive ages linked to in Myst and they would have been constructed at the same time with limited manpower and resources.

The article claims that the graphics would have 'rivaled' Uru's. In their current state I don't think that's even remotely true. Uru looks far better than this. And those character models! Ugh! gross. Sorry but there's a reason Myst IV is among the last games to utilize live action actors. Even Ubisuck still had enough self awareness back then to understand the importance live action portrayals had in the Myst games.

Glad to see this hitherto unknown piece of Myst history come to light as of late. Would be interesting to know more about the Myst sequel that could have been but never was.

For Exile, the ages could have easily been written that way. No need for elaborate construction if you're actually writing the age from scratch.

And as for steampunk making it past Riven, it makes sense for some areas. Catherine was from Riven after all. You can be sure that she had an influence on Atrus. So places that they shared would naturally reflect some of her sense of style. Most of the other places didn't include that aesthetic. Haven, Spire, Edanna, Amateria, Serenia, and many others were clearly different. And while Atrus didn't write it, can you really say that the Uru ages really had a strong steampunk feel to them?

[Graizur]

Tomahna appears too opulent for Atrus' and Catherine's sensibilities. After all, she came from a primitive culture and he grew up in a hole in the ground. But Tomahna always seemed too opulent to me anyway. Especially from an engineering perspective. It's inconceivable enough that Atrus could acquire the materials to develop Myst Island, but Tomahan is a vast complex construction. At this time he would have had help in its construction, but it still would have required much manpower to engineer. What makes far less sense is the construction of Myst III's ages. They are by far more complex than the primitive ages linked to in Myst and they would have been constructed at the same time with limited manpower and resources.

I was wondering what it was about the starter ages for Exile and Revelation what were so off putting. Yes, it felt like they went too far. Opulent. Good word. I find opulent design to be too busy. I hope cCan isn't cheered off a cliff designing Obduction. The images we're seeing are already starting to differ from the concept sketches that so precisely hit their target. But, it's their car, they can drive it off a cliff if they want to, heh. I won't cross my fingers but I'll hope for the best though.

[Magic88889]

But Exile and Rev were not made by Cyan. The designs were done by other companies. I think that, more than anything else, is why they feel different.

And I don't think we can really judge Obduction yet. The only images we've seen have been pre-texture samples of a few scenes. I'm not even sure all the shapes are completely rendered in those shots either. They are NOT the final product.

[Main_Avvie]

And I don't think we can really judge Obduction yet. The only images we've seen have been pre-texture samples of a few scenes. I'm not even sure all the shapes are completely rendered in those shots either. They are NOT the final product.

Even still, Graizur is being very particular about the aesthetic.

[Graizur]

And I don't think we can really judge Obduction yet. The only images we've seen have been pre-texture samples of a few scenes. I'm not even sure all the shapes are completely rendered in those shots either. They are NOT the final product.

Even still, Graizur is being very particular about the aesthetic.

Thank you, I apologize for taking so long for me to see this post.

[Agesage]

Interesting. The lighting looks very flat in most areas but I'm sure that's because it was still a prototype. The video is too low res to be sure, but the objects in the environment do look more detailed than those in Uru. Nowhere near what we got in Revelation of course.

Alternate history question: If Ubisoft had decided to let the fans choose which version would be developed; would you have chosen the lowpoly but realtime Overworld, or the highly detailed but pre-rendered Revelation?

Today with engines like UE4 the choice is obvious, but back then.... RealMyst was made way too soon. That's my opinion.

[Graizur]

Interesting. The lighting looks very flat in most areas but I'm sure that's because it was still a prototype. The video is too low res to be sure, but the objects in the environment do look more detailed than those in Uru. Nowhere near what we got in Revelation of course.

Alternate history question: If Ubisoft had decided to let the fans choose which version would be developed; would you have chosen the lowpoly but realtime Overworld, or the highly detailed but pre-rendered Revelation?

Today with engines like UE4 the choice is obvious, but back then.... RealMyst was made way too soon. That's my opinion.

:-/ at the time I was 100 behind a real time environment capable of being visited by more than one explorers. Xbox was about to come/had come out, Xbox Live was launching, etc.

Speaking of alternate history and dev trivia, did you know that Presto Studios developed a real time multiplayer game called Whacked that launched free with every single copy of the Xbox Live starter disc?

How's this for an alternate history, What if Presto Studios had developed URU and every Xbox Live player had been given a Relto as a Demo instead of Whacked!?

[Jamie Marchant]

Presto was going to make the Journeyman Project 4 before they got the contract for Myst III. To bad they never got the chance.