HIVESWAP: Act 1/Unused Graphics

This is a sub-page of HIVESWAP: Act 1.

Earth

To do: Investigate the cutscene "cover" images (particularly the Strife ones). The globe in the TS cover image is for some reason rotated.

Joey's Room

Joey's room has a few completely unused close-up views, which show that the posters on her wall used to be fairly different (in particular, with none of the names changed, though with other differences as well).

Posters Close-up

002c Posters_dark

002c Posters_light

This unused close-up view shows an earlier version of the posters on Joey's wall. For some reason, these images are 2120×1200 pixels (the standard size being 1920×1080). The differences in the final version of the posters when compared to this version are thus:

• Dirty Dancing was renamed to "Hot Steppin", and the design of the poster was changed.
• Are You Afraid of the Dark? was renamed to "Canadian Campfire Spook-ems" and the design was changed to a campfire.
• The NeverEnding Story was renamed to "The Story Keeps Happening", and the design was changed. The poster was also moved to the top-right of the wall, replacing the My Little Pony poster.
• The Tiny Toon Adventures poster (which is rather clearly fan art) was replaced with one for "Heal Rescue!"
• A poster for "Acorn's Shadow" was added where the poster for The NeverEnding Story had been.
• The Super Metroid poster had its name removed, and the designs of Samus and Ridley were changed.
• The Final Fantasy VI poster was removed, with a poster for the nonexistent Ginger Rogers film "Star Avenue" taking its place.
• Tetris 2 was renamed to "Block Hustle" (though the name is not present on the poster), and the design of the poster was changed.
• Mother 2 was renamed to "Second Mom", and the design of the poster (notably removing Paula, Jeff, and Poo) and Ness was changed. The poster's location was also switched with that of the Bubsy poster.
• The "Bubsy in Supaw Clawsome Caturday" poster had its name removed, and its design was changed.

Closet Close-up

002a joey_closet_DARK_simonN

002a joey_closet_LIGHT_simonN

An unused close-up view of Joey's closet, also showing some of the earlier posters. There is not a version of this close-up without the Simon game.

Old Diary Close-up

002e joey_desk_diaryCLOSED-dark

An earlier version of the diary close-up view, with the closed diary already included in the image. Part of an earlier poster can also be seen. There is no corresponding image with the lights on, or corresponding images with the diary open. For some reason, this image is 2048×1152.

Hallway (1)

Hallway-1_dark_background-*-*

Hallway1_dark_objects

Located in sharedassets58 is an earlier version of the "lights off" version of the background of this screen, present as a segmented texture (with two segments) and a separate texture with the objects in the background. There is nothing else in that particular assets file, and it is not the main assets file for this screen. A mockup of these textures combined, compared with the version of the background which appears in-game, can be seen below:

Unused
Used

The differences are as follows:

• The image was made generally darker.
• The water pistol was recolored.
• The doll to the right of the statue was changed to a reference to the Signless/the Sufferer (from Homestuck).
• A blue and black dart was added on the floor beneath the doll.
• Two objects in the lower-right corner of the screen and under the table had their color scheme reversed.

Oddly, this hallway would end up being used in Pesterquest instead of the final product in Hiveswap.

Hallway (2)

Hallway-2-BG-dark-*-* (Unused)
Hallway_2_dark_background_transparent (Used)

An earlier version of the dark background of this screen (sans most of the objects) is present as a six-segment segmented image. The objects in the background are not present. There aren't any noticeable differences between this version and the used version, besides the lack of objects.

Half-Harley Half-Landing

	Unlit	Lit
Hidden Portrait
Final Portrait

The bottom-right corner of the staircase half-landing's background cannot normally be seen while playing, but it contains a totally different Blue Lady portrait than the one that's visible in the living room.

Unused
Used

The landing also contains an unused view of Half-Harley Manor's garden, so presumably you were once able to look out at Jude's treehouse from the window beside the serpent statue. This version of the garden background is very slightly different, in that it's composed of two static opaque images (TreehouseExterior_background_01, TreehouseExterior_background_02) with a different painting of the night sky pre-composited (the moon's lower in the sky and more stars are visible), compared to the transparent tiles and animated background used for the final garden view in Joey's room.

Living Room (1)

008-LivingRoom1_dark_broken

008-LivingRoom1_light_broken

It's impossible to access this screen after the door is broken, so these textures go unused. It's also impossible for the door to be broken before the power is turned on.

Living Room (2)

Broken Door Backgrounds

It's actually impossible to access/view this screen after the doors have been broken (since the Strife battle doesn't use any of the backgrounds here, but instead uses a separate one), and it's impossible to return after absconding from the battle. This leaves a number of backgrounds unused, some of which are double-unused due to the fact that the power is turned on long before the doors are broken:

009-LivingRoom2_dark_door

009-LivingRoom2_light_door

009-LivingRoom2_light_broken

Strife Covers

LS_background_cover (Unused)
LS_11_5_cover (Used)

The differences between the used LS_11_5_cover background (used as the background during the Strife battle in the living room) and the unused LS_background cover are thus:

• The curtains were removed, to make way for the fluttering curtain animation. Some areas that had been covered by the curtain previously were replaced with drawn versions (these areas aren't fully visible in-game).
• The image was made slightly darker.

Strife Intro Cover Images

1_09_livingroomstrife_AUDIO_FINAL_cover
LS_intro_cover

There are two cover images for the Living Room Strife intro cutscene in the game's files, one in sharedassets44 and one in sharedassets51 (respectively). They aren't identical (LS_intro_cover is brighter), so one or the other must be used.

Other Unused Backgrounds

009-LivingRoom2_dark-*-*

009-LivingRoom2_light-*-*

There are two further unused backgrounds in the form of segmented textures with 3 segments each, though two of the segments of the "dark" version of the background are missing.

Kitchen

Radio

011b radio_Light_closed

011b radio_Light_openbatteries

There are "lights on" versions of textures present showing the battery panel of the radio in the kitchen as closed, and open while filled with batteries. It is, however, necessary to take the batteries out of the radio before the player can turn the power on, and it is impossible to close the panel and/or place the batteries back into the radio, leaving these textures unused.

Broken Window

Kitchen_LightsOff_Window_broken

There is a texture for the broken window in the kitchen when the lights are off. However, the window is only broken after the power is restored.

testscreen

testscreen-**

testscreen-**

The kitchen has two backgrounds named testscreen, one each for the lights being on or off (there is one other background named "testscreen" in the game's files, of Xefros' backyard; see below). Both are segmented, with 60 segments each, a somewhat inordinate amount. The reason that the number of segments is so large is the fact that all segments of these images stick to widths and heights which are powers of two, as well as sticking to square segments. Other segmented backgrounds, including the few used ones, typically have segments with heights of 1080 pixels and don't stick to square segments, resulting in only two or three segments per background.

Treehouse

Binoculars

013b notes2_binoculars
013b notes2_NObinoculars

The close-up view of the branch in Jude's treehouse always uses the version of the image that doesn't show the binoculars, despite the fact that the binoculars are there for the entire time that Jude is playable; it's not even possible to pick them up. Despite this, there is a version of the image that shows the binoculars as being there.

Box

TreehouseInterior_box

This box is already present in the background of the screen, and is not a foreground object.

Window

TreehouseWindow_dark

A view of the manor while the power is out. Jude isn't playable until after Joey restores power.

TreehouseWindow_dark_window

TreehouseWindow_dark_door

Textures showing the kitchen window and living room door as being broken, despite the fact that a) again, Jude isn't playable until after Joey restores power, and b) both of these things are only broken after the power is restored anyway.

Attic (3)

portalpreview-alpha

activated_portalpreview-alpha

"Preview" images showing the portal in various states of activation. The activated/deactivated stages here don't seem to match up exactly with how the portal activates in-game.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Alternia

Xefros's Gander Precipice

Unused Background

217_Balcony_background-*-* (Unused)
XefBalcony_background (Used)

A three-segment background showing the view from Xefros's balcony, with the beams present and the box already being opened (and a few other differences, such as the sky being present, and the text and lighting on the bus stop being changed). The beams are only seen in-game here in a pre-rendered cutscene, and this background is unused.

Hives

XefBalcony_DAMbeams

XefBalcony_DAMhouse

XefBalcony_XEFhouse

Three unused background elements; both Xefros's and Dammek's hives are already present in the used background.

Xefros's Respiteblock

Unused Background

211-XefrosRoom_background-*-* (Unused)
211_XefrosRoom_background_2ndpass (Used)

An older unused three-segment background. The differences in the used second pass are:

• The lighting around the pool ball lights was changed slightly.
• The door was removed (allowing for the animation of the door).

Red Light

211_XefrosRoom_red_light

An unused red version of the green light overlay used in-game. A mockup of this overlay placed on top of the room's background, compared with the same thing but with the used green light, can be seen below:

Unused red light
Used green light

Xefros's Kitchen

216_clean02-*-* (Unused)
216_kitchen_background_2ndpass-*-* (Unused)
216_kitchen_background_3rdpass (Used)

There are two unused (segmented, two-segment) backgrounds here, obviously representing first and second passes of the background. Note that one of 216_clean02-*-*'s segments is missing. The differences between the first and second backgrounds, where visible, are:

• The foreground items were removed from the background image.
• The fridge was closed.
• The sky outside was replaced with transparency.
• The lighting outside was changed.
• The texture was made sharper and slightly less blurry overall.

While the differences between the second and third passes are:

• The shadow of the clock's pendulum was removed from the background (since it would not have moved with the pendulum itself).
• The occlusion outside was changed slightly.

Xefros's Backyard

Glacial Treehugger

Hoverboard

An animation of Xefros's lusus riding his hoverboard. The sloth lusus can be seen boarding the hoverpad during the cutscene where Joey rescues Xefros, so presumably this animation was intended to be used during the end cutscene of Joey and Xefros riding Dammek's lusus through the streets of Alternia. The concept art for the ending cutscene (hidden in the "sharedassets40" archive) also indicates this. The design of the hoverpad differs slightly from the one seen in-game (it's missing the horn-like prongs that jut out the back, and it isn't as vividly orange) so maybe the animation remained unused because of this discrepancy.

testscreen

testscreen

Another testscreen, this one with 37 segments, which, although not being quite as many as the kitchen testscreens' 60, is still a fairly large amount.

Dammek's Respiteblock

209C

An unused close-up view of the drums and guns on the stairs.

Dammek's Living Room (3)

DAMLivingRoom3_background-*-* (partially unused)

DAMLivingRoom3_button_green

DAMLivingRoom3_door_open

The door in Dammek's living room cannot be opened at any point during the game (except when it is opened during a pre-rendered cutscene). There are however images which seem to imply that it was at some point possible to open the door, including the used background having an unseen view out of the door (where normally in-game there is an overlay of the door on top of it). Note that Xefros's backyard (in a destroyed state) can be seen.

A mockup of the full view of the screen with the opened door (sans the animations of the screens) can be seen below:

Dammek's Kitchen

Unused Backgrounds

Unused	207-Dammek-Kitchen_closed-*-* 207-Dammek-Kitchen_open-*-*
Used	DamKitchen_background-*-*

There are three backgrounds in the assets file for Dammek's kitchen, all in the form of two-segment segmented images, only one of which is used. The other two show, respectively, the kitchen with both the fridge and cupboard closed, and the kitchen with both the fridge and cupboard open. The used background (one of the few used segmented backgrounds in the game) is actually partially unused, since it is not possible in the final game to open the fridge from the main view of the kitchen (clicking on it switches to the close-up view of the fridge without any animations, and clicking away from it also does not use any animations), leaving the interior view of it here unused.

Fridge Animations

As mentioned above, in the final game Dammek's fridge is not openable from the main view of the kitchen. However; in the game's files there are unused animations (and corresponding sounds; see main article) for the opening/closing of the fridge from the main view.

Click here to view the opening/closing animations with milk, or here to view the opening/closing animations without milk. The animations will only display properly if your browser supports animated PNG images.

The framerates of these animations isn't apparent from the assets, so a framerate of ~15 frames per second was used in these mockups.

(Source: Original TCRF research)

Concept Art

These three pieces of concept art for the game are present as two-segment textures in sharedassets37.assets, sharedassets39.assets, and sharedassets40.assets respectively. There is nothing else in any of those assets files. Also of note: there is text in the bottom-left of the second image which says 'repeat point'. The archive file containing the concept art of the balcony ("sharedassets37") has an associated internal level name "219 XEF Balcony 2", suggesting that Xefros' hive was at one point going to feature a secondary balcony (presumably accessed through the blocked doorway in the upstairs corridor).

(Source: Original TCRF research)

User Interface and Miscellaneous

Character Icons

joey_portrait	jude_portrait	xefros_portrait

These higher-resolution versions of Joey and Jude's character portraits can be found within "sharedassets0", along with an early version of Xefros' character icon that uses different artwork.

Inventory Icons

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: Apparently if the player has both the E-cell batteries and Xefros's microphone in their inventory (normally impossible in-game), they can be combined. Investigate this.

mic2

Xefros's microphone is out of batteries for the entire duration of the game, and so this icon is never used.

SpriteAtlasTexture-Item Icons-128x128-fmt12

Four item icons in a graphical style which doesn't at all match the one in the final game. It's likely that these were used as part of an example scene early in the game's development - the unused text associated with these objects can also be found inside the game's files.

!!! Cursor

cursor2

cursor3

These cursors can be found in the assets file for the Strife battle in the basement.

excursor_01

excursor_02

These ridiculously high-resolution (1964x1288) versions of the above cursors can be found in the assets file for the Strife battle in the trophy room.

Miscellaneous

hiveswap-black

An 800x800 image with Hiveswap‍ '​s logo in the centre.

SpriteAtlasTexture-CURSOR-256x256-fmt12

A number of early unused cursors, some seen in the October 2016 trailer. None of these are used in the final game.

SpriteAtlasTexture-UI (Group 0)-1024x2048-fmt12

Some obviously fairly early UI elements.

SpriteAtlasTexture-UI (Group 1)-512x512-fmt12

Likely dating from around the same time as the previous spritesheet.

Loading_Game_1_1, Loading_Game_1_2, Loading_Game_1_3, Loading_Game_1_4

An unused loading icon, representing the Cherub Portal.

Triangle Preview

Unity-logo

The Unity engine logo. This texture asset is never used.

(Source: Original TCRF research)