Avernum portraits got "squashed"

[posfan12]

After examining the portraits for Avernums 4-6, I think the original portraits somehow got "squashed" between the time they left the artist's hands and the time Jeff got them. Compare the images below:

 

 

At left is an example of one of the original portraits as they appear in AV5; at right is a version I stretched vertically a tad in a graphics program. At least to me the stretched version looks marginally better...

 

If this is in fact the case, I'm surprised nobody noticed/commented upon it before now. :shrug:

 

Some of the newer sprites (such as G230, G231, G242, G243 in AV6) probably don't need any fixing. Some of the sprites (such as G226 in AV6) could probably benefit from having the modification applied *twice*.

[Slawbug]

They were probably squished to force them to fit the equipment box placement.

 

This is unfortunate, but there you go.

[Dintiradan]

Huh. A few of the PC graphics always looked a little odd to me, but you really see the difference seeing the two versions side-by-side.

 

If the portraits are really bothering you, check out a reskinning that Dahak did a while back. Discussion thread here and final results here.

[Enraged Slith]

I don't think they look squashed.

[Metatron]

It's clearly a case of island dwarfism, except there is no island. Instead, the cave systems are serving as the environmental impetus for genetic drift toward smaller people.

 

There are too few resources for too many people. The smaller people are better off because they're less likely to starve, and nobody gets enough nutrients to grow really large anyway. And there's no sunlight, so Vitamin D3 production (which helps with bone growth and strength) is way down.

 

By the time of about Avernum 9, we'd have been dealing with full-fledged pygmies.

 

After the Avernites fully adapt to their environment, we would expect them to be rather slender, with very little mass. They would have large, bulbous eyes to maximize the intake of light. Their skin would be completely without pigmentation, because it would be useless in the dark caves. They would be... Vahnatai.

[La paix]

...

[Dintiradan]

Metatron: Win.

[Slawbug]

But the vahnatai are particularly tall... quite different from pygmies. How do you account for that?

[Metatron]

Well, it's clearly a case of island gigantism, of course.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

But the vahnatai are particularly tall... quite different from pygmies. How do you account for that?

A wizard did it.

[The Mystic]

Originally Posted By: CRISIS on INFINITE SLARTIES

But the vahnatai are particularly tall... quite different from pygmies. How do you account for that?

The Vahnatai didn't get shorter; they got thinner, and learned how to hibernate magically.

[keira]

This topic is full of win.