Starcraft Ghost HD footage found (and possible dev kit leak)

[sandwich_bird]

I enjoyed a FPS game called Tresspasser back in the day very much, and it's one of the worst rated games ever. As well, the 2000 game Alien vs Predator was fantastic on the "Human" campaign, "Ok" on the Predator and downright "batshit frustrating" on the Alien. Very fun game tho. I would totally love Ghost too. It just sucks that we are seeing the art and dev 15 years later.

Ha! Tresspasser was great (in some ways)! Of course I'm biased because I love dinosaurs and I can count on my fingers the number of dino games that aren't complete crap buttt it had a lot of cool tech going for it.

Although subjectively speaking, I'd say it looks fabulous. I love the cartoony look of it all. SC2 tried too hard to be realistic, ignoring the fact that well, SC vanilla was pretty goofy at times.

That's interesting. I think most people would have said that SC2 was too cartoony. Comparing the 3, I'd say that SCG had characters with more cartoony proportions than SC1 or SC2 but the atmosphere is much closer to SC1. It looks gritty and has that late 90s/early 00s edgy vibe. I mean the devs did call themselves "Nihilistic" Software so I guess they were a good fit.


EDIT: Guys, best footage so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fS26DTLnGSY

[Visions of Khas]

From what I'm gathering, all of the leaked materials are from before Swinging Ape got their hands on the project.

AVModels seems to have extracted several of the character models from the game. Interestingly, the Spectre's boots have a "cloven" appearance similar to a protoss's foot. See links where appropriate.

Spectre Codenamed "Vulkan"


Infested Jackson Hauler:


Wraith:


Ultralisk:


Dark Templar Zangakkar


Zealot:


Spectre Condenamed "Artemis":

[Visions of Khas]

More models extracted:

Carrier


Battlecruiser:

[Nissa]

That's interesting. I think most people would have said that SC2 was too cartoony. Comparing the 3, I'd say that SCG had characters with more cartoony proportions than SC1 or SC2 but the atmosphere is much closer to SC1. It looks gritty and has that late 90s/early 00s edgy vibe. I mean the devs did call themselves "Nihilistic" Software so I guess they were a good fit.

Well, early 3D has to be cartoony, not having the power to be all that realistic. But nah, compare the facial features of the humans characters in SC1 and SC2. Super goofy in the early days, and well, SCG seems to be in line with that. Though yeah, it was always a combination of goofy and gritty. Makes me even sadder that this didn't come out.

[Mislagnissa]

Well, early 3D has to be cartoony, not having the power to be all that realistic. But nah, compare the facial features of the humans characters in SC1 and SC2. Super goofy in the early days, and well, SCG seems to be in line with that. Though yeah, it was always a combination of goofy and gritty. Makes me even sadder that this didn't come out.

I wonder if a release would have affected the development of Starcraft lore going further. If Ghost had released, then would SC2 have focused as much on Raynor/Kerry?

[sandwich_bird]

But nah, compare the facial features of the humans characters in SC1 and SC2. Super goofy in the early days

Yeah that's true actually. It's that good old 3d 90's feel. I guess in SC2 they used 3d scanned face as a starting point and also the texture details is much higher. Plus more bones so makes sense yeah. Was thinking more in terms of character design I guess. SC2 design is really over the top. Like for example Swanson has that cliche dwarf blacksmith look with that huge robot arm. You don't have anything as bad in SC1.

I wonder if a release would have affected the development of Starcraft lore going further. If Ghost had released, then would SC2 have focused as much on Raynor/Kerry?

Good question, I would assume a larger emphasis on Nova and the templar guy. Would have been good to give more exposure to Nova because now she just feels shoehorned. She kinda became the poster child of SC but she really doesn't deserve that spot.



Side note, I despise the yellow tone they used on the carrier/zealot. Hopefully that's something that would have been changed. Not sure how I feel about the Vulkan either. The ultra is pretty cool though.

[Nissa]

Yeah that's true actually. It's that good old 3d 90's feel. I guess in SC2 they used 3d scanned face as a starting point and also the texture details is much higher. Plus more bones so makes sense yeah. Was thinking more in terms of character design I guess. SC2 design is really over the top. Like for example Swanson has that cliche dwarf blacksmith look with that huge robot arm. You don't have anything as bad in SC1.

I don't know that I'd use the word "realistic" in SC1's case, but yeah, SC2 definitely made silly design choices. For example, the grotesque look of a woman with machines in her head as the adjutant is way more interesting than generic female robot with boobs. Seriously, boobs on a robot?

[Mislagnissa]

I don't know that I'd use the word "realistic" in SC1's case, but yeah, SC2 definitely made silly design choices. For example, the grotesque look of a woman with machines in her head as the adjutant is way more interesting than generic female robot with boobs. Seriously, boobs on a robot?

It’s not a sexbot. Why Blizz?

[Robear]

Oh wow, this site is active again!

I've been digging through the files quite a bit. I also coincidentally work with someone who worked at Nihilistic (not involved in the leak) back in the early 2000s, so this has been a fun conversation topic there.

Unfortunately the AVModels guy's images are just showing the color map, whereas most models have color and specular maps, so they should look a litttle bit better. For example, the floating mech dude (Vulcan) should have shinier armor and a big exposed brain in a glass dome, that is showing as opaque in Avmodels' upload. Here are some other images of ripped models, mostly by others.













Here is an album with a dozen more, we are slowly going to go through them and get better images for the starcraft wiki.


Also if you want to know the plot at the time of this Nihilistic build, Subsourian did [a write up of it from all the briefing / mission dialogue that was also in the leak.](https://www.reddit.com/r/starcraft/c...can_be_pieced/) That said, none of this was final / canon, and the later Swingin' Ape studios version would feature some totally different planets and stuff.