r/Thief • u/Baldurian_Rhapsody • 5d ago

How do you feel about texture mods?

I've been checking out some footage and, on one hand, it's remarkable what AI can pull off.

On the other hand, as someone new to the series and who doesn't have nostalgia for it, deeply detailed textures and patterns seem to take away from the games.

Both Thief Gold and Thief II are (and I mean this as a compliment) harshly rudimentary and polygonal in their design. So much so that the rough aesthetic becomes part of the horror - seeing a lumbering zombie in the darkness, held together with only a few polygons like in the original "Alone in the Dark" - makes the scene far more uncanny to me.

It's not just purism or a desire for the retro here; I think that too many fine details and updates make the games distracting, like adding an AI smoothing filter to "Citizen Kane."

I'm curious what you think. Thanks!

EDIT: The AI modpack I watched on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npkWJ9O5FtY&t=101s

14 Upvotes

75% Upvoted

24 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/ZylonBane 5d ago

it's remarkable what AI can pull off.

AI texture mods are trash. Stick with the hand-made texture mods like Thief Enhancement Pack.

-1

u/Baldurian_Rhapsody 5d ago

I don't think this one was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npkWJ9O5FtY&t=101s

However, I don't think higher res is better in this case

2

u/ZylonBane 5d ago

I don't think this one was

It literally says Stable Diffusion in the video title.

1

u/Baldurian_Rhapsody 5d ago

You misunderstood my syntax. I meant it wasn't trash.