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| 06-09-07 / 23:08 : Tout sur le jeu Myst (cjed) |
 Myst Masterpiece est une version améliorée de Myst sortie en 1996 sur PC et 2000 sur mac. En réalité il s'agirait d'une amélioration (profondeur des couleurs, résolution audio) de la version PC originale de Myst, sortie après la version mac (portage sur PC effectué par Broderbound). Or cette version PC serait à la base bien moins bonne que la version mac : musiques coupées, certains sons d'ambiance absents, pas de gestion du changement du volume d'ambiance en fonction de l'éloignement, animations/transitions moins fluides, qualité d'image moindre.Et pour finir la version Masterpiece agraverait les choses en rendant plus évident le faible détail des images calculées (peu de polygones, rendu effectué sur des Mac IIfx), le dithering original en 8 bits ayant permis sur la version originale mac d'adoucir les images. Je me souviens que les images utilisaient les couleurs indexées (palette différente pour chaque image) et que sur les 256 index une centaine seulement étaient utilisés. "A brief history: Myst was originally created by Cyan Inc. on Macintosh systems using Macintosh programming tools. It masterfully exploited the Mac multimedia capabilities of 1993, squeezing the highest possible quality out of 8-bit sound (akin to a good AM radio) and 256-color video. It was later adapted for Windows -- not by Cyan but by Broderbund, who gave their best shot at porting the program but ran into technical limitations: The full-length soundtrack songs were cut short, the scene-to-scene transitions became rougher, the sound effects lost some atmospheric subtlety, and the images weren't quite as good as on the Mac. When Mattel (then the owner of what-had-been-Broderbund, in the middle of a dizzying series of corporate buyouts) created the Masterpiece Edition for Windows, they based it on the previous Windows version. They used almost none of the master full-length songs and sounds available from Cyan. Nonetheless, Myst Masterpiece for Windows *is* much better than the "original" Myst for Windows, because it has clearer graphics, smoother animation, and the online help system. Myst Masterpiece for the Mac is a straightforward transfer of Myst Masterpiece for Windows -- a port of an update of a port. The end product does have more-detailed pictures than the original Mac version, using full 24-bit color images. Ironically, these often look *worse* than the original's 8-bit images! In technical terms: Because they didn't have high-end graphics workstations when they created Myst, Cyan had to render the scenes from simplified, relatively low-resolution 3D models -- fewer polygons and lower-resolution texture images. To fit all the pictures on one CD, they downsampled the 24-bit master renderings to 8-bit dithered images, and the dithering added just enough noise to mask the lack of design detail (with the approximate effect of photographic film grain, not at all offensive to the eye). Conversely, the 24-bit images show every little technical and artistic shortcut in stark detail, giving many scenes a pronouncedly less realistic appearance. Even if you do prefer the greater picture detail, nothing else about this version is an improvement. Some players may appreciate the added help system; in my opinion, it gives away hints too easily. But Mattel STILL didn't go back to the audio source material: The songs are the same clipped Windows versions, so you don't get the whole musical experience. (Until I played Myst Masterpiece for the Mac, I never realized what the PC users had been missing all these years! The songs truly lose their character when cut so short. It's a shocking difference.) The soundtrack audio was cleaned up to remove noise, but it became muffled in the process. And a particularly effective subtlety of the original -- sounds are quiet at a distance and grow gradually louder as you approach the source -- is gone: Now the music or sound effect just comes on full blast, as if someone suddenly cranked up the dial. The wind on Myst Island, for instance, sounds as if it's always about to knock you over, even when you're standing inside a building. I've played this and the original side-by-side, and I can't believe they call this one the "Masterpiece." The original still looks and sounds superior." |
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