A passion project usurped by its own creator.
THOUGHTS ON #9: OPENLARA: SURPLUS TO REQUIREMENT?
The recent release of the remastered classic Tomb Raider games has been long awaited by many, and it’s great to see these titles available to play on modern systems without all the headaches that are usually associated with getting the older titles to run – especially the first Tomb Raider being on something as ancient and dusty as DOS. No modding or fiddling about is required with the recent releases, and that along with the preservation of the original aesthetics is something to be celebrated. There are some small issues to do with the lighting, odd textures, animations, and controls, but none of these are major, and are likely easily fixed in patches, but there are also some liberties that have been taken artistically, many people will approve of these subtle changes of course, but some might see them as detrimental to the originals, or just plain unnecessary. Regardless, it’s always a good thing to bring an old game out of the shadows, to allow the old player base to ruminate in their nostalgia, and to give new audiences a chance to experience these games somewhat refreshed.
For those that haven’t gotten their hands on the bundle already though, there is another option, and one that has been available in some form since 2016. It has been a very long time since I last played the first Tomb Raider on the original PlayStation as I don’t have my old consoles available at the moment, and when I got a hankering to play through the game again a few years ago I was faced with the option of either playing the PC, or emulating one of the console versions. The PC release works for the most part, but it’s not perfect, and more often than not there are headaches associated with the controls and display. This got me looking for some kind of alternative, and it was during my search that I stumbled across OpenLara, and to my delight, I found something quite remarkable.
I had planned on writing about OpenLara some time ago as I thought it a masterful example of a person’s passion for something they love, and in doing so now I came to realise that there was a more a more interesting story. The project has now become somewhat superfluous with the release of the remasters, so what happens when someone devotes years to creating something, and then they are hired to create that thing again, but in an official capacity? What happens to the original project? Normally I would expect it to be black bagged, never to be seen or heard from again. This hasn’t happened yet however, and it seems that the project will remain available in its current state, at least for the foreseeable future.
Quite often we are faced with the rather depressing reality that some of the games we cherish are no longer playable. This is likely why the retro market is so bountiful (at least for those selling), for the buyers it often leads to bankruptcy… or at least a bank balance deficit that can’t adequately be explained to a spouse. Anyway, this may also go some way to explaining why emulators, re-releases, remasters, and remakes are so popular. Sometimes buying used is beyond one’s means, sometimes emulating doesn’t quite offer what you need, and more often than not certain developers and publishers abandon titles that many consider classics worth preserving, leaving them to rot in the past. In these cases, especially with the latter, all can seem rather grim. This is where talent, passion, and free time come to the fore.
If we go back a couple of years, many people would have considered the original CORE developed Tomb Raider games as all but abandonware. The rights holders (Embracer Group) seemed rather focused on the modern iteration of Lara Croft, having left behind the ruthless femme fatale in favour of the more vulnerable survivor of the newer titles. A remaster of the classic games seemed like a pipe dream, something the community yearned for, but something that no one seemed willing to make, at least in an official capacity. It seems that Russian programmer Timur Gagiev had similar feelings, as in 2016, under his online handle of XProger, posted his initial commits to his GitHub repository for his OpenLara project. For those of you unfamiliar, in OpenLara, Timur has built from scratch an open-source version of the classic Tomb Raider game engine. That might not sound of any particular use to the average Joe, but it allows for the user to load in levels from Tomb Raider 1 and to play through them perfectly. Not only that, but the engine features framerate options up to 144fps, beautiful water effect, new shading and lighting effects, and even a first-person view, along with a plethora of other fixes and updates, all while keeping the character and feel of the original game intact. It’s an incredible achievement, and even works to some extent with the rest of the classic titles (as long as you have the level files, although you can expect a lot of bugs and unfinished aspects beyond the first game) – a real gem for those who want to replay the original game with a sprinkling of modern enhancements - an amazing piece of videogame preservation.
It's no wonder then that Gagiev was snapped up by Aspyr (the developers who were tasked with creating the remasters). He is not just a passionate fan however, although he clearly is passionate about Tomb Raider to have worked so hard to create OpenLara in his free time. Gagiev has worked for over a decade and a half in the games industry, so he is clearly very experienced, as is evident in his work. I can only imagine how he felt when he was offered the role of Technical Director on a Tomb Raider title. I reached out to Gagiev to ask him about his projects, as well as his involvement in the remasters, but he has clearly been inundated with requests of late and his response was that he was unable to speak due to non-disclosure agreements… A shame, but not entirely unexpected. This, of course, rather abruptly ended my line of enquiry and really goes to highlight my lack of journalistic credentials. This left me wondering about the state of OpenLara and his other projects, which seems to be the concern of many. He has publicly stated that during development of the remasters, his personal projects, notably OpenLara, was put on hold, and since then it seems that it’s still the case.
“For those who are still interested in the fate of OpenLara and my other projects, they are on hold. For the past year I've been busy with a dream project that has become the culmination of the last 8 years of my life - Tomb Raider I-III Remastered.” - Timur Gagiev
It’s my hope that OpenLara can live alongside the remasters however, perhaps under the stewardship of the community, if Gagiev no longer wishes to work on it. Publicly available projects such as this show off what wonderful things can come from the internet and the people who are willing to share their work on it. OpenLara can be, at least at the time of writing this, downloaded here, and if you are a fan of Tomb Raider, or just enjoy tinkering about, I recommend you grab the files while you can. If taken as purely a Tomb Raider 1 remaster, it is, at least for me, exactly what I would have wanted. Lara is the same, the levels are the same, the gameplay and combat are the same, but everything just looks, and more importantly, and runs better. The original experience is there in its entirety and no extraneous changes have been made.
Have you tried OpenLara, if so what did you think? I personally think it’s as faithful a modernisation of the original game as there is ever going to be, regardless of the official remasters. Having said that, I’m very please an official release has finally materialised - lets just hope they do the same for The Last Revelation, Chronicles, and The Angel of Darkness, the latter of which sorely needs a proper remaster… Speaking of the old games, as well as Gagiev’s efforts there is also the incredible work of the TRLE community, and other projects such as the Tomb Raider 2 remake, Dagger of Xian. These might be necessary as things go forward however, as recent news of Saber Interactive being sold off by Embracer group has put doubt over the future of its subsidiary Aspyr.
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