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Dune 2 HD Remakes Comparison & Skirmish Matches


Blake00

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Hi guys,

Decided to do some new fun video content for my Dune Games Website. I installed the latest versions of all the big Dune 2 fan remakes and created videos giving a brief tour of their features and then (badly lol) playing a skirmish match in each to put them through their paces.

OpenRA Dune 2 Classic Mod
Probably the most recent and rarely seen Dune 2 remake. OpenRA (a C&C and Red Alert engine rebuild) is extremely popular but because this mod only works with the Github development version of OpenRA it’s half impossible to get working. With some help from the devs my friends & I finally got it working. However our multiplayer match was over way too quickly so I decided to do a longer skirmish game to check out end game buildings & units too.


Dune Legacy
By far the the most impressive feature packed Dune 2 remake of them all and built from elements of the OpenDUNE project. Great graphical options, 3 sub houses (Fremen, Sardukar, Mercs), a map editor and loads of skirmish/multiplayer maps. They’ve added the Super Dune 2 Missions with new improved briefings so really the only feature still missing is support for Dune eXtended missions.

Dune Dynasty
A very good Dune 2 reconstruction similar to Legacy but focuses more on being an accurate recreation of the original Dune 2 game code. It has been neglected for years now so is lacking some of Legacy’s impressive features. However it DOES support Dune eXtended missions making it currently the only choice if you wish to play eXtended missions in HD with C&C controls. My skirmish match went longer than planned so the video is in 2 parts.


Dune 2 The Maker

No video from me but The Maker gets an honourable mention as to this day its enhanced, upscaled and sharpened Dune 2 graphics still beat all other projects. Unfortunately it doesn’t support high resolutions and was abandoned in 2013. HOWEVER it’s creator Stefan has returned in late 2016 and rebooted the project with a new java based engine. It’s still early days so I’ll hold off on doing a video for now. In the meantime here’s a very old video Stefan made.:)

For Shai-Hulud!!

 

Edited by Blake00
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  • 3 weeks later...
On 19/07/2017 at 6:33 PM, stefanhendriks said:

If you get demo 4 (the big green download button at the website http://dune2themaker.fundynamic.com/) you could probably video that ;-) Thanks for the honourable mention!

I also made a video years ago about it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qh1wBnwz6ms (which was even demo 3.5, not even demo 4! :))

Hey Stefan! Didn't even realise you were an admin here. Oh I have Demo 4 and very nearly did do a video haha. But I decided to wait until your new build catches up to the old one as I'm guessing from the screens that it will support those lovely higher resolutions we all enjoy today heh. :)

I've modified my post to include your old 3.5 video in the meantime mate. :)

Edited by Blake00
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16 hours ago, Blake00 said:

Hey Stefan! Didn't even realise you were an admin here. Oh I have Demo 4 and very nearly did do a video haha. But I decided to wait until your new build catches up to the old one as I'm guessing from the screens that it will support those lovely higher resolutions we all enjoy today heh. :)

I've modified my post to include your old 3.5 video in the meantime mate. :)

awesome. 

Yeah the new version should be capable of high resolutions. I tried it for fun on a 4K monitor, looked very tiny haha. To cope with that I want to have zooming (like you have with The Golden Path).

 

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On 16.07.2017 at 0:31 PM, Blake00 said:

Dune 2 Dynasty
A very good Dune 2 remake similar to Legacy

I think I need to point out that this is a highly inaccurate statement at best. Dune Dynasty (which is the correct name of the project, not Dune 2 Dynasty) is directly based on reverse-engineered code of Dune 2, making it an almost 100% accurate recreation of the original game's code and, effectively, behaviour. Several new features are imposed over this (including a mroe challenging AI), but the core is, at least theoretically, nearly identical to Dune 2.

Conversely, Dune Legacy (also please note that it is not called, and has never been called, Dune 2 Legacy) started as a game engine recreation which was based on observation only, without any reverse engineering. AFAIK more recent builds might have borrowed some code from OpenDUNE upon which Dune Dynasty is based, but the extent of these borrowings is unknown to me.

I understand that from a user's standpoint these differences might be trivial but in fact they are very important because reverse-engineering (if done properly) inevitably yields a more accurate recreation of the source game.

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On 10/08/2017 at 1:07 AM, MrFlibble said:

I understand that from a user's standpoint these differences might be trivial but in fact they are very important because reverse-engineering (if done properly) inevitably yields a more accurate recreation of the source game.

lol I feel like I'm at work as it's my day job to be the 'translator/go between/interpreter/rock in a hard place' between:

- A team of 5 database programmers who sit in dark room at the bottom of our building and send out large emails that put my OCD to shame as they dissect every little thing to a point where others are wondering why the items are even being talked about. Most others have no clue what they're talking about and the messages often lack in the social delicacy required to not come across as condescending or insulting lol!

- And a team of 3 ditzy admin project managers who sit at the top of our building, can barely turn a computer on and constantly make completely ridiculous feature requests with comments like "I don't see the problem? That should be an easy change shouldn't it?" and fail to understand why it's going to cost 10grand lol! When the features are completed they complain that its nothing like what they asked for because their best attempts at explaining what they wanted also made no sense to anyone else as they have no clue what their talking about and what is required to achieve it lol!

And there I am in the middle ground trying to keep everyone happy and the ball rolling. Suffice to say the job has taken years off my life lol!!!

 

When I make my videos & forum posts I try to keep things simple and understandable to the average Joe user as to them it's a Dune 2 remake and they don't care how it was done (as selfish as that may be to the hard working creators).. "It's dune 2, it's been remade.. yay lets play". So my titles & descriptions reflect that as most out there are not interested in whether its a reconstruction, re-imagining or reverse engineered and what the code source was.. they just wanna see it and play it. I'm well aware the project titles don't and have never contained a 2 in them but outside of the die hard dune gaming community people are gonna see the title and think its a dune 1 remake or something to do with the movie or first book lol. It has to be short, easy and obvious to the person 'just passing through'. However since such things are of great importance here I've changed the wording in my post here. Hopefully it's not so bad now lol!

Edited by Blake00
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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry if sounded a bit harsh: I tend to be pedantic when it comes to details like this.

Anyways, I have to say that you did a commendable job listing Dune related game projects at your site. I think you missed nothing except the turn-based Dune III (not related to a different game by the same title which is a precursor to Dune IV). You also have meticulously collected games related to other series as well, making your site a treasure trove of useful information. Thanks!

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On 03/09/2017 at 10:22 PM, MrFlibble said:

Speaking of which, perhaps this would be useful to you too:
http://www.mobygames.com/game/kings-bounty-2

(Technically the game's from Ukraine but it's in the Russian language)

Thanks for this too! I'm probably going to a create a big King's Bounty series tribute section separate from HoMM at some point so a KB fan sequel will fit nicely in there.

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  • 5 months later...
14 hours ago, Nyerguds said:

That game kind of reminds me of Heroes of Might and Magic... only with larger graphics.

Yeah the original King's Bounty was Jon Van Caneghem's first strategy RPG hybrid game before he went on to make Heroes of Might & Magic. Great games!

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  • 1 year later...

Been a few years since I last tested the Dune 2 classic mod for OpenRA so I've done a new video.. nothing exciting match wise.. just a 1 on 1 test game. They've been busy as its way more feature packed compared to 2017.

Edited by Blake00
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10 hours ago, Blake00 said:

Been a few years since I last tested the Dune 2 classic mod for OpenRA so I've done a new video.. nothing exciting match wise.. just a 1 on 1 test game. They've been busy as its way more feature packed compared to 2017.

Oh, cool! It's good to know the game has been developing this whole time.

Thanks for playing at a lower resolution later on. Or, earlier, I guess. It just ain't the same with everything so tiny, doncha think? :)

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6 hours ago, Fey said:

Oh, cool! It's good to know the game has been developing this whole time.

Thanks for playing at a lower resolution later on. Or, earlier, I guess. It just ain't the same with everything so tiny, doncha think? :)

haha yeah I copped it bad over my 2017 videos so I wasn't going to make that mistake again lol. I have a big 46" screen (old TV) so its pretty good for me at 1 to 1 zoom. However I found that after zooming in to keep my viewers happy I fell in love with that view too. It's still way bigger than original Dune 2 but everything isn't too small so yup, winning!

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/11/2017 at 12:16 PM, Blake00 said:

When I make my videos & forum posts I try to keep things simple and understandable to the average Joe user as to them it's a Dune 2 remake and they don't care how it was done (as selfish as that may be to the hard working creators).. "It's dune 2, it's been remade.. yay lets play".

The difference is actually that Dune Dynasty is not a remake of Dune II at all. It's an actual upgrade of the original game. If you play Dune Dynasty, you really are playing the original Dune II, only, enhanced. Unlike remakes, it will act and feel exactly like the original game.

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Are you okay @Nyerguds? You're quoting a comment from a conversation 2 years ago in 2017 that ran its course back at the start of the thread. Your comment doesn't add anything that wasn't already covered in that convo and ironically when I look above I can see you've even commented in this thread in 2018 AFTER that conversation was long done and the topic had changed course to king's bounty lol.

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Eh. It was a point that hadn't specifically been mentioned back then. Can't help it this place is kinda dead in general :P

Blame the C&C Remasters project; it got me looking into Dune Dynasty again since the scope of both projects is really similar.

Edited by Nyerguds
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lol well after my chats with Mr Flibble here I reworded my original post here and also the video descriptions on youtube to say that Dynasty is a reverse engineered reconstruction of the original dune 2 as opposed to Legacy which is a fan remake or recreation. I can't do much about what I said in the videos themselves as my original recordings are long gone now and my urge to redo them entirely is about zero haha.

Like I said before to Flibble I realise that remake, reconstruction, recreation, remaster etc all have very different meanings to those involved.. however outside of that bubble in the general masses of casual fans when someone sees that a 3rd party have reproduced an old game in a new engine they just call it a remake and not worry about accuracy or methods of how it was done. As a result seeing confusion and debates over the difference between remakes and remasters can found everywhere haha. Eg there's a fan remaster of Final Fantasy 7 and there's an official remake coming too.. you type either into google and you get both projects all mixed up in the results because all the people outside the bubble are ignorant of the differences haha. The C&C remasters are being referred to as remakes in many places too.. just unavoidable really.

Edited by Blake00
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