TrekCore: "Important News about DS9 in HD Coming May 10"

Discussion in 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine' started by Aatrek, May 10, 2013.

  1. Beta-Z

    Beta-Z Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Oct 8, 2012
    Location:
    Germany
    As long as they consider to release both, i don't really care.
    My favourite TREK will always be TNG. Never been sure about 2nd place, DS9 has such marvellous plots and developments over its years, but VOY is a show based on a ship and discovers unexplored ground, none can win here for me, as I love them both to pieces!
    I want them all sooo much, no question about that! :D
    Don't give a damn about ENT though... don't know why, but that show never got me. Sorry so much, but I'm just beeing honest here. ENT is the only one of the bunch I won't buy on BD, as much as I tried to care for it's chars as much as I LOVE Picard, Sisko and Janeway, i just don't feel this for Bakula and Co. :(
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2013
  2. Lee Enfield

    Lee Enfield Lieutenant Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Nov 20, 2012
    Location:
    Germany
    It still looks cartoonish because of 2 areas:

    - Lighting
    - Materials

    The Production Rendering for the SD-Shot, back in those days, was prabably lighted in a traditional manner by the Lighting Artist(s). Thereby, an object gets sorrounded by at least 3 lights. The main light is the strongest. One weaker light fills the viewablle surfaces of the object with light and the third makes a contour, in most cases.

    Well, back in those days, when there were no Raytracing Algos for Global Illumination, Lighting Artists emulated scattered and reflected light by covering the object in something that is called a "light dome".

    The SD-Shots, most likely, have a couple of lights, to care for a more subtle and realistic light approach. But this traditional technique would'nt hold up with HD.

    The Original HD-Shot, as it seems, just makes use of ONE light source (counting out the light sources attached to the ship, because they dont add much to the overall secondary light bleeding). This is (the) one reason.


    The other reason is the usage of materials. The most important factor are the specular properties. They often get defined through two specular maps (actually, one is for glossiness). Standard Rendering/Shading-Models lack the ability to compute Raytraced Reflections(/Specular/Glossiness), therefore they look cartoonish. This is especialy apparent in HD-Shots.
    Though, this is another reason the HD-Shot looks a little weak, the SD-Shot-Resolution is too low to identify those properties in this particular footage.

    And here is the reason the HD-Shot doesn't have those features: Because it DOES take time and work to re-do the materials and the lighting to accomplish a current gen quality(HD)! And I somehow doubt that he can "just load his scenes with modern software", without having problems. - But then, I'm not familiar with Lightwave.
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2013
  3. davejames

    davejames Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2001
    Location:
    Sac, Ca
    Well we probably shouldn't get TOO far ahead of ourselves. Note that the article states there were two teams that worked on the CG effects (Foundation Imaging and Digital Muse), and it's only Foundation that this guy has all the effects files for.

    And from what he says, it was the other group that did most of the effects work, so until we hear from one of those guys I'd say this is all still very much up in the air.

    Although I'd be really surprised if someone didn't have those files. It's hard to believe a company would do all that immense amount of work-- for such a huge, iconic franchise-- and not keep the computer files stored away somewhere.
     
  4. Oso Blanco

    Oso Blanco Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2001
    Location:
    Berlin, Germany
    As far as I understand, they have only the effect elements from one of the two fx houses, and only for the later seasons. What about the other episodes?

    In der Tat ... aber da ich Star Trek immer im Original sehe, war ich auch noch nie in einem deutschen Star Trek Forum. Mir fehlen immer die passenden deutschen Wörter ... wie offensichtlich auch den Dialogschreibern der Synchros ... :lol:

    Aber ein deutsches Sub-Forum hier wäre eine witzige Sache!
     
  5. Maxwell Everett

    Maxwell Everett Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Mar 31, 2002
    Location:
    Los Angeles, CA
    Well, Eden FX is still around. Eden FX is what became of both Foundation Imaging and Digital Muse. Rob Bonchune worked for both Foundation and Eden FX, and Eden FX have all of Digital Muse's Star Trek assets. Here's the pertinent quote from Memory Alpha:

     
  6. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2001
    Location:
    Great Britain
    Doesn't the article say the picture was a quick test of what it could look like. So the fully finished article might look slightly different.
     
  7. LtChange

    LtChange Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2001
    Location:
    Aboard the Destiny
    And how many times did we have in the TNG HD screens the reaction, that, well that looks OK but not spectacular, and when in motion we remained astonished? I always said a single frame is not enough, in motion it looks different single frames do not do justice.
     
  8. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2001
    Location:
    Great Britain
    True, it's hard to judge from a single frame.
     
  9. Scotty

    Scotty Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 26, 2000
    Location:
    The Netherlands, Les Pays Bas, Holland
    That still looks CGI, because it is. CGI will never look as filmic as model work. It looked like CGI on the DVD as well. To say otherwise is a bit silly. With digital techniques, they could make the CGI look more like film, but I will always see the difference.

    The most important thing is that the improvement in quality is staggering. And we should all be thankful that these companies saved their files.
     
  10. PlainSimpleJoel

    PlainSimpleJoel Fleet Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2002
    Location:
    Melbourne, Australia
  11. timtonruben359

    timtonruben359 Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2012
    This is fantastic news! I've always felt that once Paramount green lit TNG in HD they would eventually get around to DS9 and VOY. Star Trek is still a big cash cow and with the new Star Trek movie out (or just about out for some), it will only generate new interest in the franchise.

    The fact the the majority of CGI is saved is amazing!!!!! I feel as though the technical staff on Star Trek had a foresight that the Producers and the studio lacked!!!

    The good thing about DS9 is that the show actually didn't start heavily into CGI until the 6th season. The first 5 seasons were largely model work (even the big Klingon battle in way of the warrior). And the station itself was always a model they only CGI shot of deep space nine is in the final second of the show where Kira and Jake look out the window and the station fades away.
     
  12. NewHorizon

    NewHorizon Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Sep 18, 2006
    CBS greenlit TNG in HD. Paramount only holds rights to the movies.
     
  13. trevanian

    trevanian Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2004
    An observation about how it looked in GEN:

    ILM did a really bad paint job biased heavily into blue, which was still on it when I saw the model during the making of FIRST CONTACT. It actually looked from a distance like one of those cardboard Enterprises you'd see in a Tower Records movie department back then. Since this particular model was not painted that way during the series that I can recall, it might not be the best example.

    I do agree that the original series image you posted is nothing great ... however, I think it could easily be spruced up by playing with the contrast levels (which is what they really needed to do on TRIALS & TRIBB, because those excellent models read like mediocre CG to my eye, due to the lack of contrast and snap to the image.)

    If DS9 were remastered with an eye toward making most of the exterior ship VFX -- i.e., resemble the Wolf 359 battle in terms of really black shadow sides and contrast -- the series would probably emerge as having its own distinctive look, one that would match its equally distinctive creative voice in the writing department - that'd make for the best of both blah-blah-blahs.
     
  14. Destructor

    Destructor Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2003
    Location:
    Melbourne, VIC
    Q: Would people who do not like things 'changing' in remastered versions object if the repeated 'battle scene' in the final episode (pulled from a couple of previous episodes) was replaced with a new battle sequence? It bugs me tremendously that there basically isn't a new battle scene in the final episode, and that the 'epic confrontation' we had spent four years building up to was basically... a clips show. Given that this was PURELY the result of budgetary problems- that the original creators, given their druthers, would have included a new VFX sequence- would anyone object to these sequences being replaced?
     
  15. MacLeod

    MacLeod Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 8, 2001
    Location:
    Great Britain
    ^Short answer. No

    It would also allow hem to fix the Defiant's registry.
     
  16. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2001
    Location:
    Derry, Maine
    That kind of thinking kills blu-ray sales...:(
     
  17. DS9Continuing

    DS9Continuing Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2001
    Location:
    Manchester
    I don't really want them to fix the nu-Defiant's registry, though, because I like the explanation given for it in the books, and I don't want that negated.

    But new battle scene, yes absolutely.

    .
     
  18. SSOASS

    SSOASS Lieutenant Junior Grade Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Jan 23, 2013
    A blu ray release would be fantastic .. ideally with some new extras on it.
     
  19. Candlelight

    Candlelight Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 12, 2000
    Location:
    New Zealand
    Shut up and take my money!
     
  20. NKemp3

    NKemp3 Commodore Commodore

    Joined:
    Feb 28, 2000

    Even with that it wouldn't be worth buying if commentaries aren't included.