Legend of Mir: Hotblood - Nostalgia in True HD

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OxxpqxxO

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Nostalgia in True HD - Legend of Mir: Hotblood

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There was a time when stepping into the world of Legend of Mir felt magical — exploring, battling, and making memories with friends. We were young, and nostalgia now creeps in when we think about it. That was long ago, a time when games, movies, and music were truly great.
I felt that joy again when Conquera was released, and I played it until it eventually closed. When it did, that joy disappeared with it.
But now it’s time. It’s time for a change… a good change. A chance to bring that joy back and create something for us — but most importantly for new players — giving them the opportunity to experience the magic we once did and build their own nostalgia for a game that made us fall in love with it.

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Legend of Mir: Hotblood aims to bring back the feeling we once had when exploring the game for the first time — rebuilding the world we loved to play, this time in true HD.

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The goal is simple: honor the spirit, challenge, and community of the original Legend of Mir 2, preserving its gameplay and atmosphere as faithfully as possible, but also innovating for a fresh experience. This journey is for everyone, but especially for those who remember the thrill, the adventure, and the friendships of those early days.

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My journey to create a better-quality Legend of Mir started on 2022, I was experimenting with AI to try and create a higher-quality Crystal client. By a strange coincidence, someone else was experimenting with AI on the exact same day for Crystal. Some might call it fate that brought us together.

AI upscaled objects.
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I was also testing applying a horizontal flip (or "mirror" effect) to normal tiles to get more variety of tile objects, but the shadows were in different directions. It looked weird, but that could be fixed with more investigation.

Horizontal flip (or "mirror" effect) Some tiles, like this castle, worked well because they had no directional shadows.
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During that time, as we talked and shared ideas and images, I began to see what Mir 2 could become in the future. His work was ahead of mine and far better prepared for this kind of project, so I joined his journey. Over the next few months, progress was visible, and everything looked promising because this time we had something else to play with. No more AI upscaling of the old tiles—this time we had real HD tiles — I truly felt that the project could become something extraordinary.

Image 0.jpg
Image 1.jpg

A lot of work went into it from both sides, but then, one day, everything stopped for unknown reasons. I wanted to continue and make that dream a reality, but I couldn’t do it alone; I needed his knowledge. For a few years, that dream felt broken… until today.

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At that time, as a father to a one-year-old, a loving husband, and someone facing personal challenges, I had to spend most of my time with my family outside of work. I couldn’t dedicate much time to the project, but in the little spare time I had, I tried to learn and reclaim what had once been lost. Step by step, I managed to recover some of the progress — even though the original source that ran the project was gone.

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Each step brings us closer to our goal: a game that feels just like the one we fell in love with, but sharper, smoother, and ready for a new generation of players.

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And this is only the beginning. With your support, ideas, and participation, we can push this dream further and make Legend of Mir: Hotblood a reality for everyone.

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Progress may be small — just baby steps for now — but here’s what I’ve accomplished so far. And with this, I invite you to join me and help turn this dream into reality!

I’m looking to join forces with the right people who share the same ideas and dreams for Legend of Mir, because this is not a one-person task. LOMCN it is — and it will be, I believe, the most important place for the Legend of Mir community!

Everything you see below was recovered from what was once lost, using the fragments I still had, with the hope that one day I could learn enough to try and finish what we had started.

The most up-to-date client available for the assets. I believe this was the hardest part at the time, because it took me a lot of effort and time to get our hands on it, and in the end it was not cheap. This was actually the first and most important step — having access to the assets from the most up-to-date client.
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Exported client asset resources.
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Sorted the .lib files for the maps. The maps are very beautiful and come with animations such as flowing water, moving objects like flags, signs, or hanging lanterns. There is also mist, falling debris, and many other effects around caves and dungeons. Some videos are provided below for reference.
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A few .lib files for ActorModel\Armours (armours and shadows are stored in separate .lib files).
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One .lib file for ActorModel\Weapons (weapons don’t have shadows, but I experimented a bit with Adobe Illustrator. With someone experienced, we could also create proper shadows for the weapons).
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A few .lib files for ActorModel\Monster (monsters and NPCs include shadows in the same image).
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CODE:
I’ve managed to recover the code and now have working sources for both the MapEditor and the LibraryEditor, which is very important because the MapEditor renders the HD maps and can also be used for the client part. Since my time is still limited and I can’t dedicate a lot of time to the project, progress will be slow, but I am now at the stage where I can tackle the most difficult part: the client code.
I am not a professional coder. I’m simply an explorer who is learning and trying to use every resource possible in the little free time that I have to recover what can still be saved, and then properly learn how to use it to port everything to today’s Crystal source.

P.S. When something real is lost, it never truly dies. Thank you for reading about the project and supporting the idea. More updates will come soon as progress continues.
 
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Jev

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Assets look very clean, I’d suggest maybe redoing the default crystal UI to match the HD look.

Maybe even sharpen the minimap images as they look blurry when seeing everything else in HD.

RIP your client when you upload it as that’s going to be bum ****ed sideways for the assets. 😂

Best of luck

Edit: forgot to ask, out of curiosity, how large is the client compared to say default crystal?
 
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Lilcooldoode

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Mir needs something like this, especially after spending so much time on WoooL. Default mir images/framerates are just impossible to use for me now. Shame these chinese clones only have the basics though :( would love to see some newer stuff, and assassin remade
 

Hab

Legend Of Mir 2 Oblivion Server Owner
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This is what you can do with the crystal files when you actually spend time working on it. You wouldn’t know that.
I'm not paying for a Graphics Designer when there's professionals on here that could team up for 2 weeks...
If you've any material that can help just drop me an inbox and i'll hook you up with some cash for content.
 
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OxxpqxxO

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UPDATE:

Someone suggested that I get the sounds as well, so I did. Over the past few days, I’ve been building some tools, and one of them was for extracting the sounds too—437 .wav files in total. They’re nice sounds, but for nostalgia purposes, I believe the original sounds should be used. Still, these sounds could be useful as well. I still have to listen to all of them.

Image 1.png

Currently, I am working on a tool that can automatically slice sprite sheets. This is quite challenging because the frames are irregular. It’s almost there—about 95% working—but if I can’t fully automate it, I’ll have to do it manually in GIMP, Unity, or by using another tool I built. However, that tool requires you to set the width and height manually for each frame, which isn’t ideal for a fast-paced workflow.

Manual Slicing Tool:
This is a simple tool for manual cutting. It asks for the folder path, then detects the sprite sheets and prompts you for the first frame’s width and height. These values can be found using GIMP. It’s not really ideal to do it this way, since you could just use GIMP or Unity to slice them directly. This tool works with numerical input, whereas in other tools you have to manually select frames.

Image 2.png

Automatic Slicing Tool:
This is a more complex slicer. It has two modes: one for frames without shadows and one for frames with shadows. However, things get quite complicated because the frames are irregular, and some are even connected by just a single pixel of anti-aliasing. This can cause the tool to detect two frames as one, since it identifies frames based on gaps in transparency. I managed to address this issue by using an alpha threshold.

Frames Without Shadows:
In this mode, the result is 664 out of 664 frames, so it’s working at 100%. However, using an alpha threshold to separate frames that are connected by a single pixel does remove a bit of that 1 pixel anti-aliasing detail. For now, this is just a test, as I may still end up doing it manually to preserve the full frame quality.

Image 3.png

Example of a 1-pixel of anti-aliasing, two-frame scenario.
裸体-男_run_4_0_slice8.png

Frames with Shadows and Body:
This part was very difficult to implement, and it’s still not perfect due to how the tool currently works. I only have one issue left to solve: it doesn’t correctly group parts of a frame when there is a large transparent gap between pixels.

For example, in photo 2, the hands in frame 2 (digging up) are separated by a transparent gap, which causes the tool to split them into two separate frames instead of one. As you can see in the image, each hand is detected as its own frame.

I could use the manual slicer for this case, but I’m also trying to debug and improve the automatic tool.

Image 4.png
Image 5.png

Next Step:
The next step is to build a third mode for the tool that will handle only the shadows. This part is also a bit more complicated due to elements that are separated from the body, such as the palms. However, it shouldn’t be as difficult to implement as the body + shadow mode.

Over the next few days, I hope to get the tool working at least at 99% across all three modes.

裸体-男_s_die_0_0.png

The client code is almost rebuilt as well, and soon I’ll have the source code ready too, along with the map editor and the library editor. Progress is slow, but with small steps, we’ll get there.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again in the next update!

P.S. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks again!
SEXY.png
 
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Jev

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UPDATE:

Someone suggested that I get the sounds as well, so I did. Over the past few days, I’ve been building some tools, and one of them was for extracting the sounds too—437 .wav files in total. They’re nice sounds, but for nostalgia purposes, I believe the original sounds should be used. Still, these sounds could be useful as well. I still have to listen to all of them.

View attachment 39255

Currently, I am working on a tool that can automatically slice sprite sheets. This is quite challenging because the frames are irregular. It’s almost there—about 95% working—but if I can’t fully automate it, I’ll have to do it manually in GIMP, Unity, or by using another tool I built. However, that tool requires you to set the width and height manually for each frame, which isn’t ideal for a fast-paced workflow.

Manual Slicing Tool:
This is a simple tool for manual cutting. It asks for the folder path, then detects the sprite sheets and prompts you for the first frame’s width and height. These values can be found using GIMP. It’s not really ideal to do it this way, since you could just use GIMP or Unity to slice them directly. This tool works with numerical input, whereas in other tools you have to manually select frames.

View attachment 39256

Automatic Slicing Tool:
This is a more complex slicer. It has two modes: one for frames without shadows and one for frames with shadows. However, things get quite complicated because the frames are irregular, and some are even connected by just a single pixel of anti-aliasing. This can cause the tool to detect two frames as one, since it identifies frames based on gaps in transparency. I managed to address this issue by using an alpha threshold.

Frames Without Shadows:
In this mode, the result is 664 out of 664 frames, so it’s working at 100%. However, using an alpha threshold to separate frames that are connected by a single pixel does remove a bit of that 1 pixel anti-aliasing detail. For now, this is just a test, as I may still end up doing it manually to preserve the full frame quality.

View attachment 39257

Example of a 1-pixel of anti-aliasing, two-frame scenario.
View attachment 39260

Frames with Shadows and Body:
This part was very difficult to implement, and it’s still not perfect due to how the tool currently works. I only have one issue left to solve: it doesn’t correctly group parts of a frame when there is a large transparent gap between pixels.

For example, in photo 2, the hands in frame 2 (digging up) are separated by a transparent gap, which causes the tool to split them into two separate frames instead of one. As you can see in the image, each hand is detected as its own frame.

I could use the manual slicer for this case, but I’m also trying to debug and improve the automatic tool.

View attachment 39258
View attachment 39259

Next Step:
The next step is to build a third mode for the tool that will handle only the shadows. This part is also a bit more complicated due to elements that are separated from the body, such as the palms. However, it shouldn’t be as difficult to implement as the body + shadow mode.

Over the next few days, I hope to get the tool working at least at 99% across all three modes.

View attachment 39263

The client code is almost rebuilt as well, and soon I’ll have the source code ready too, along with the map editor and the library editor. Progress is slow, but with small steps, we’ll get there.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you again in the next update!

P.S. Any suggestions are welcome. Thanks again!
View attachment 39264
Really enjoy seeing your progress, hopefully you match file names up like we spoke about earlier this week.
 
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Bon

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amazing, we're doing something similar, great job.
will you ever release these assets to pioneer a new HD standard across servers?
 
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BlackWizz

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amazing, we're doing something similar, great job.
will you ever release these assets to pioneer a new HD standard across servers?
I don`t understand why you guys asking for release the files/assets...
Better to keep everything for you and don`t release to the public anything
There is some guys who gets only benefits from lomcn and they don`t release nothing .....
 
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Jambo

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robert downey jr lip bite GIF
 
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Bon

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I don`t understand why you guys asking for release the files/assets...
Better to keep everything for you and don`t release to the public anything
There is some guys who gets only benefits from lomcn and they don`t release nothing .....
did you even read what I said?

If this sort of stuff got released, it would pioneer a new high quality standard across all servers.

End of the day, nice images are awesome, but it doesn't make a game, they aint that game breaking. if after he's released his servers, these assets are no longer new, so why gate keep them?

perhaps your not familiar with concept of open source, but it'll always be the case where many benefit, and few contribute..... but it shouldn't be a barrier or an excuse to not contribute.
 
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Jev

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I don`t understand why you guys asking for release the files/assets...
Better to keep everything for you and don`t release to the public anything
There is some guys who gets only benefits from lomcn and they don`t release nothing .....
That doesn’t make much sense. Isn’t the point to share things with everyone and allow for collaboration etc? Surely that’d be better than keeping stuff private and encrypted.

Sounds counterproductive
 
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BlackWizz

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That doesn’t make much sense. Isn’t the point to share things with everyone and allow for collaboration etc? Surely that’d be better than keeping stuff private and encrypted.

Sounds counterproductive
for a collaboration to make it faster the server yes but not to realease public the files/assets
as you know there are alot of server creators... still using iceman/lomcn files and make alot of money for hes job and your job i think ....
and they don`t release any assets ....
Post automatically merged:

these assets are no longer new, so why gate keep them?
hmmm sounds like ...
did you release your assets after closed your server?
Answer : NO
Why you want him to release?