The GDC 2020 (Game Developers Conference) has a session covering the history of TRON, the games based on it, and its cultural impact.

There's no specific date given yet (at the time I'm writing this) on the session's dedicated page, as to when it's taking place. But the conference itself takes place between March 16-20, 2020 in San Francisco, California, USA.

If we're lucky, it's possible upcoming TRON content might be alluded to there.

Thanks to FattyJoker_ on Twitter, for making me aware of this!

A filmmaker has tweeted that a version of TRON Legacy supposedly exists, which has been upscaled to 4K UHD resolution (in 3-D, too).

And, more importantly, that the de-aging CGI effect for CLU (and most likely Kevin Flynn as well, in the flashback at the start of the film) has been greatly improved. No more "uncanny valley" look for CLU. He apparently now looks "normal", and much more human.

I’ve linked to archived versions of the tweets making these claims, just in case they’re deleted.

https://archive.is/0h0Jl

https://archive.is/VRO0y

As to why Disney would withhold an updated version of TRON Legacy (it’s not even on Disney+, as far as I’m aware), I don’t know. But I’m sure they’d release it, eventually. Maybe they’d do a limited 10th Anniversary re-release in theaters, next year? Followed by its release on Disney+/Blu-ray?

Thanks go out to wildchargergame on Twitter, for letting me know about this!


And another rumor about a TRON "reboot", possibly appearing on Disney+. I wonder if this is the same "reboot" idea we’ve heard about before. Except, this time, perhaps without Jared Leto attached. We’ve also heard the "new TRON content coming to Disney+" rumor before.

https://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/disney-reportedly-developing-tron-reboot/

Thanks once again to Employee_427 on Twitter for the news!

Monolith Productions changed their banner on Facebook and Twitter to include TRON 2.0, for their 25th Anniversary. Nice! (I also especially like NOLF, Shogo, and FEAR too, of course!)

I'm kind of surprised Monolith is acknowledging TRON 2.0 (and Aliens vs. Predator 2, for that matter) because, up until now, Monolith's social media accounts seemed to go out of their way to avoid mentioning their older titles made with licensed IP (from competitors to Monolith's current owner, Warner Media).

Perhaps Monolith obtained special permission to mention them, for the 25th Anniversary. Regardless, I'm glad to see Monolith's entire catalogue of games from the last 25 years will likely be featured in some way!

And Monolith is having two contests (so far).


One is where the person who submits the fastest time, in a speedrun video, for one of the indicated games (TRON 2.0 being among them) can win one of several exclusive posters, specially made for Monolith’s 25th Anniversary.


The speedrun video submission doesn’t have to beat the current record (which is 1h 40m 29s for TRON 2.0, at the time I’m writing this). It just has to be the fastest time submitted to the contest.

This contest ends October 24, 2019.


The other contest is to see who can submit the most artistic screenshot for the games indicated (with TRON 2.0 again being among them), the prize being a 25th Anniversary T-Shirt and signed print of their submission.

This contest ends October 22, 2019.

I’ve already tried coaxing digitalfrontiers into submitting some of his gorgeous screenshots of TRON 2.0, but haven’t received a response yet . . .


There’s also apparently further surprises in store for Monolith’s 25th Anniversary, when it comes to celebrating their classic titles. So there will likely be more TRON 2.0 related content from them, to follow.


October 30th, 2019 UPDATE: Monolith recently released some new concept art for TRON 2.0 I'd never seen before, as part of their 25th Anniversary celebration. I asked for, and got permission, from Monolith to share this new TRON 2.0 concept art. In return, they asked that I provide a link to their Official Monoilith Productions Discord channel, where the new art originated from.

Here are a couple of samples, of the TRON 2.0 concept art that Monolith released.




Last year, for the 15th Anniversary of the release of TRON 2.0, I put together a package on behalf of LDSO containing — among other things — concept art, and made it available to download. The majority of the content in this package is what I've personally managed to collect, and preserve, over the years. But since Monolith released more concept art, I've updated the package to include the few new pieces of art Monolith provided.

Find a download link to the TRON 2.0 15th Anniversary download package (now including Monolith's released concept art) here.

I also found out that my friend digitalfrontiers, whom I convinced to enter Monolith's screenshot contest, was one of the winners with his TRON 2.0 entry! So congratulations to him! He wins a Monolith 25th Anniversary t-shirt, and a print of his screenshot autographed by Monolith Productions staff!

Here's a screenshot from Monolith's official Discord channel announcing his win. (He's shown as Nautilus here on Discord.)

This rumor and article are so dubious that I almost decided not to share. It originates from a post by a user on Reddit, that's sparse on detail.

https://comicbook.com/gaming/2019/07/01/tron-new-game-ps5-xbox-scarlett-2021/

The poster of the rumor on Reddit has no posting history, so no track record to go by as to whether this person has been accurate before, or not.

Also, details are extremely vague. Just that it’s supposed to be an "Open World RPG" that ties Single Player and Multiplayer together, has been in development for at least three years, and won’t be coming out until 2021.

The site managed to create a long-winded article out of four short sentences on Reddit, and starts making assumptions while treating them as "facts".

For example, assuming which platforms the game will be on. The article makes it sound like the game will only be coming to the next Playstation and Xbox, as if the author knows this for a fact. It could just as easily come to PC and Switch, too. (Will the game come to the next consoles? Of course. But don’t assume which platforms the game will be releasing on, when you don’t actually know official details. All the rumor said is that the game is supposedly coming out after the "next consoles release". It didn't go into specifics about platforms.)

All that being said, it makes sense for a new TRON game — if there’s going to be one, any time soon — to be released at the same time the TRON roller coaster opens.

I’ve been saying this all along. If any new TRON film/series is going to be in theaters/on Disney+, and/or a new game comes out, it would be in 2021 to coincide with the TRON roller coaster’s opening.

Thanks to another user, Pooker100 on Reddit, for making me aware of this.

Some time late in the evening on April 17, 2019, Disney quietly removed TRON Evolution from Steam. It can no longer be purchased.

SteamDB entry showing the game’s removal from Steam:
https://steamdb.info/app/315440/history/?changeid=U:11283163

TRON Evolution Steam store page link
(which no longer works and redirects you to the Steam front page):
https://store.steampowered.com/app/315440/Disney_TRON_Evolution/


But it’s important to note that if you already own TRON Evolution on Steam, it will remain in your game library. You still own it. You can still play it.


To prove that if you own TRON Evolution you can still download it from your Steam library and install it, I’ve added an embedded video below demonstrating this. I downloaded and installed the game on April 22, 2019, which is several days after Evolution was removed from sale on Steam.


Since Evolution was removed from Steam right before the Easter long weekend: even if someone has tried to contact Disney to find out the reason for the removal (since they didn’t make any kind of announcement), we probably won’t find out why for a while yet. If at all.

Because of the lack of an explanation from Disney, there’s been a lot of speculation as to why the game was removed.

I can think of several possibilities, myself. But I feel these are the two most likely reasons:

• A number of people reported having issues getting TRON Evolution to work on Windows 10. And due to the number of refund and/or support requests, Disney decided support was more expensive than the profit earned from sales. Making the game not worth selling any more.
  
  However . . . a mistake Disney made with the Steam release of TRON Evolution, is they didn't prompt people to restart Windows after installing the game. For many people, the game won't work until the user does that. If they'd added a prompt to restart, it probably would've cut support/refunds to almost nil.


• The other possibility, is perhaps Disney had a contract with Daft Punk to still allow use of parts of their TRON Legacy soundtrack while continuing to sell TRON Evolution. And that contract has now expired. Rather than renew the contract, Disney pulled the game from Steam. Since Disney outright owns TRON and TRON Evolution, there can’t be any other kind of licensing issue.

A third, much more remote, possibility is that Disney hired a third party (GOG? Epic Games?) to update Evolution, to remove SecuROM and Game For Windows Live. And as part of agreeing to remove the junk, that third party will get the exclusive right to sell the game for a limited period of time.

But I seriously doubt it.

Despite some people having trouble getting the Steam version of TRON Evolution to work, I assure you it can and does work on Windows 10. Here's another video, embedded below, showing Evolution actually running on the upcoming Windows 10 May 2019 update.



December 5th, 2019 UPDATE: Before anyone else contacts me about it . . . Yup, I've been aware of the Steam version of TRON Evolution not activating on a new install. I knew about it before Jim Sterling's video. (Though if you've already installed TRON Evolution before now, it should still work.)

Since I've always been quick to bash Disney Interactive in the past: I wanted to give Disney a chance to fix their shit, before talking about this. Expected too much.

Other than applying a crack to the game right now, we'll have to wait for Disney to get off their asses and remove SecuROM from the game so it doesn't need activation any more. The game is almost 10 years old now. I think we're well past the need to "protect" the game's sales.

If the DRM is removed, then maybe TRON Evolution finally could show up on GOG. Hell, Disney might even get GOG to do the work of removing the DRM for them . . .

BTW, Disney have already said they’re working on a fix (as shown in Jim Sterling's video).



January 14th, 2020 UPDATE: Thanks to a recent statement made by Rockstar Games, concerning the (temporary) delisting of Grand Theft Auto IV from Steam, we may finally know why TRON Evolution was also delisted from Steam.

Remember that Disney never released any official statement, explaining why TRON Evolution was removed from sale. Up until now, the prevailing theory has been that the removal was due to a contract for usage of Daft Punk's TRON Legacy music in the game, that was expiring.

Rockstar has revealed that Microsoft is no longer issuing keys, to activate newly purchased games, that still use Games for Windows Live (GFWL). According to PCGamingWiki, TRON Evolution uses the SSA method of assigning a unique key that permanently binds ownership of the game to your GFWL account.

If Microsoft is no longer providing new keys, then if a publisher runs out of keys that were assigned to them: they can no longer sell a game that uses GFWL. Unless they make the effort to remove GFWL from the game in question. Which Rockstar will no doubt do, for GTA IV. (It also brings into question, if Microsoft eventually intends to completely retire GFWL. But as of right now, GFWL continues to function and games that rely on it still work.)

Will Disney remove GFWL from TRON Evolution? That is, to say, will Disney hire a third-party to do it? Since the games division at Disney is a skeleton crew these days, with practically no one left to do this kind of programming work.

I personally doubt it. Thanks to this new information, my latest guess is Disney will not offer TRON Evolution for sale again on Steam — or any other new digital games storefront — any time soon. They'll just do the minimum of removing SecuROM, at this time. If anything. So that at least those, who already own TRON Evolution on Steam, will be able to re-install the game at any point, and still be able to play it.

The CRPG Book, which I’ve talked about a couple of times before, had a free online .PDF version you could download in the past.

The creator of the book, Felipe Pepe, had to take down the free version for a time, until a physical copy was printed and sold out.

While I won’t be getting my physical copy of the book until July 2019, Felipe is now allowed to make the free online .PDF version of the book available again. It’s also been updated since the last .PDF release. So if you’ve downloaded it in the past, it’s worth downloading again.



Download the free .PDF version from here:
https://crpgbook.files.wordpress.com/2019/04/crpg_book_2.0_hq.pdf


As a brief recap of what the book contains: it has the history, and reviews, of hundreds of CRPG games. Said reviews are written by passionate fans of the genre, along with luminaries in game development or the gaming press, such as: Chris Avellone (Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II, Fallout: New Vegas), Peter "Durante" Thoman (of DSFix fame), George Weidman (Super Bunnyhop), and Jason Scott (Internet Archive), etc.

It also contains a review of TRON 2.0 written by myself, on page 318.

As it turns out, a lot of people were against the inclusion of TRON 2.0 in the CRPG Book, because they don’t consider it a "true" CRPG. But it does actually fit the definition of a CRPG. So I’m thankful to the creator of the book, Felipe Pepe, for including it. TRON 2.0 deserves to be remembered.

If you have any interest in the history of the CRPG (Computer Role Playing Game) genre of video games, you owe it to yourself to check out this free online .PDF version of the book.

If you have an interest in the modding scene for older games: you may have seen a number of articles on gaming sites, mentioning enhanced texture upgrades created by using AI "Deep Learning" tools, with the most commonly cited tool being ESRGAN.

For the longest time, upgrading the textures in TRON 2.0 as part of the Killer App Mod was something I did not consider doing. At all. For the following reasons.

• I believed any enhanced textures would likely not have much of an impact. Both due to the nature of the original textures (I'll elaborate on this point, shortly), and the fact that Monolith Productions were forward thinking, by including fairly high resolution textures in TRON 2.0 to begin with. (For the time, in 2003, anyway.)


• Upgrading the textures would also result in requiring more disk space. Much more. Something I'd prefer to avoid.


• The work required to manually upgrade any significant amount of textures, would have been an enormous task.


• As a side-note: There seems to be a misconception, out there, that previous versions of the Killer App Mod already had enhanced textures in the Single Player campaign. This is incorrect, as the earlier points explain. The only improved textures, are those that replaced some very low resolution ones, on some of the Multiplayer characters. These enhanced Multiplayer skins were done via a laborious manual process, by hand, by LDSO team members.

But with the advent of AI tools, to automate the upgrading of textures: I decided to investigate whether or not using these tools would truly provide any benefit.

I used three AI tools, in my attempts to enhance the textures in TRON 2.0. Waifu2x, ESRGAN, and SFTGAN.

There are others, too, such as Topaz AI GigaPixel and NVIDIA's GameWorks Textures and Materials, with more appearing on a regular basis. But some of these aren't free, or require applying for an account in order to use. So, I stuck with the three aforementioned tools.

Of the three tools, I predicted that Waifu2x would very likely provide the best result.

This is due to the fact that most, if not all, the textures in TRON 2.0 are, effectively, pixel art. Consisting of large bands of single, solid colors, and some line patterns (with many located at the edges of the textures).


Below are images showing the results of using Waifu2x, ESRGAN, and SFTGAN with the various "model" data sets available for them. Each "machine learned" model provided slightly, or sometimes even greatly, different results. The original textures were 2x upscaled while being enhanced. (Except ESRGAN, which defaults to 4x.)

Apologies for using larger .PNG images. But avoiding quality loss, when doing image quality comparisons, is essential.

Please click on the images to open them in new tabs at their proper sizes.

Original texture on Transport Station level	Texture upscaled using simple 2x pixel resize	Waifu2x (UpResNet10 model)

Topaz AI Gigapixel	ESRGAN (Manga109 model)	SFTGAN (default model)

Original texture in-game

Waifu2x texture in-game

Original texture on Primary Docking Port level	Texture upscaled using simple 2x pixel resize	Waifu2x (UpResNet10 model)

Topaz AI Gigapixel	ESRGAN (Manga109 model)	SFTGAN (default model)

Original texture in-game

Waifu2x texture in-game


After testing the various models available for the AI tools, I found that:

• UpResNet10 provided the best quality for Waifu2x.
• Manga109 the best quality for ESRGAN.
• SFTGAN had one default model, and was inferior to both Waifu2x and ESRGAN.
• Simple 2x pixel resizing in an image editing program, is also inferior to Waifu2x and ESRGAN.

Based on the results, I only provided screenshots featuring these models.

As predicted, Waifu2x provides the best result in every case. Though ESRGAN, using the Manga109 model, is a close second.

However, when comparing the original and enhanced textures in-game: the results are less than impressive. The higher resolution enhanced textures really don't add much in the way of visual improvement.

The texture at the rear of the Exit Port on the Transport Station level is slightly sharper, using Waifu2x. But the alpha channel seems to have been affected negatively, reducing the glow effect (bloom).

March 15th, 2019 UPDATE: Fixed the problem causing the reduced glow/bloom in the Transport Station texture. The Waifu2x in-game screenshot has been updated, accordingly. If you want to see the previous broken glow/bloom screenshot, it looked like this.

The texture on the wall of the Primary Docking Port level shows almost zero difference in sharpness in-game, using Waifu2x. Even when viewed close-up.

Perhaps more experimentation with different models, or even different AI tools, could provide better results. But for now, my conclusion is: Attempting to enhance textures for TRON 2.0 is not worth the effort.

These experiments will briefly be featured in the upcoming third Single Player fixes trailer video, but I most likely won't be spending any more time on attempts at texture enhancement for the foreseeable future.

March 24th, 2019 UPDATE: Decided to revisit texture enhancement one last time, because I wanted to see how Topaz AI Gigapixel fares against the other tools. Screenshots for Topaz have been added to previous comparisons, and also added a third new comparison where I enhanced another TRON 2.0 texture.

Overall, in all texture comparisons, Topaz produces results similar to ESRGAN using the Manga109 model. With one sometimes outdoing the other, and vice-versa.

Please click on the images to open them in new tabs at their proper sizes.

Original texture on Program Integration level	Texture upscaled using simple 2x pixel resize	Waifu2x (UpResNet10 model)
Topaz AI Gigapixel	ESRGAN (Manga109 model)	SFTGAN (default model)

Original texture in-game

Waifu2x texture in-game


For this third, new texture: Waifu2x once again provided the overall best result. Topaz AI Gigapixel was a very close second.

But, more interestingly, looking at the Waifu2x result in-game actually shows a noticeable, subjectively improved, texture difference for the first time. (The previous enhanced textures for the Transport Station and Primary Docking Port levels, in-game, did not look significantly different.)

This latest result doesn't substantially alter my conclusion, though. Attempting comprehensive enhancement of all the textures in TRON 2.0, still won't be worth the effort based on these results.

Perhaps some selective enhancement of a few textures — where the difference is actually noticeable in-game — might be worth it. Something to consider in a potential Killer App Mod v1.3, but not for v1.2.

Some time in late January 2019, Steam starting prompting people that there were updates for TRON 2.0 and TRON Evolution. (Didn’t notice any mention of TRON RUN/r.) But it’s not what you might think.

The updates weren’t issued by Disney. They don’t patch the games.

These were updates issued by Valve, and they have to do with reducing the amount of disk space used by all the games in your Steam library. (So you should be seeing updates for your other Steam games, all at the same time, too.)

Many games come with what are called "redistributables", libraries of code that the games rely upon to function. They need to be installed first, before your games will work properly.

The problem until now was, every game came with its own copy of the redistributables it needed. But what if several of your games used the same exact redistributables? Why keep multiple copies of them? Why not share one copy of each redistributable, amongst all the games that need it?

That’s what these Steam updates to TRON 2.0 and TRON Evolution were about. Consolidating these redistributables so they can be shared among many games, and therefore stop wasting disk space (by not keeping multiple copies of the same thing).

If you’ve patched or modded TRON 2.0, this recent update should not affect or break your game installation in any way. I discussed this with someone on the Steam forum a bit more in-depth.

Eight levels in roughly 28 minutes. This second trailer showcases more of the fixes to the Single Player levels of TRON 2.0, via the upcoming Killer App Mod v1.2. (Some have been shown in previous trailers, but most are new.)

These are all the Single Player issues I've personally noticed, or had pointed out to me. (Some by Mister Julius. Thanks!) But I'm sure I've still missed a few.

The original plan was to do two trailers demoing all the Single Player fixes. But there's too much to fit into only two, and yet still keep them at a "reasonable" length. So there's going to be at least one more, after this second one.

You can see the first Single Player fixes trailer here.

One of the mandates of Killer App Mod v1.2 has always been to fix or enhance the Single Player campaign, a goal partly inspired by the similar (in purpose) System Shock 2 Community Patch (SCP).

Time stamps for notable changes and fixes:

Prisoner Bin level

• 00:36 - Enhancement to opening cutscene for 16:9 aspect ratio (the actual player model not being visible while an "actor" version of Jet is doing the cutscene)
• 02:30 - Empty prisoner cells can now be opened with permissions cheat
• 03:05 - Encryption keys are difficult to destroy with certain weapons, this has been fixed (for the sake of Gold cheat users)
• 05:03 - Added sound effect for force field (which was missing)
• 05:59 - Fixed Exit Port beam missing beam splash and sound effects, textures in "socket" behind it dark and not panning

Transport Station level

• 06:26 - Fixed Exit Port beam not having beam splash or sound effect
• 06:53 - Fixed Exit Port textures in "socket" behind it being misaligned and not panning
• 08:09 - Switches at energy bridge now work for permissions cheat users, and the switches more accurately reflect their current status
• 10:46 - Fixed Mooring App switches not making any sounds, and added objective completion message when boarding transport

Primary Digitizing level

• 11:49 - Fixed green light "leaking" into area where it shouldn't be visible
• 12:17 - Fixed switches controlling bulkhead door (right before Ma3a) not being in sync with each other
• 13:04 - Fixed Ma3a referring to the player as "Jet" too early (instead of "Alan Two")

Ma3a should not be saying "Jet" when he frees her from her dock, and in fact she goes back to saying "Alan Two" in a cutscene right after this. It's not until the next level that Jet asks Ma3a to refer to him by his real name, instead of his User name. From that point on, Ma3a then calls him "Jet".

• 13:17 - Fixed missing build point and objective notifications when Exit Port is reached
• 13:33 - Fixed missing Exit Port base and beam activation sound happening too early

Alan's Desktop PC level

• 13:53 - Enhancements to video archive cutscene for 16:9 aspect ratio (Popoff is more visible at start, she doesn't "pop in" when she begins moving, and camera pans instead of "jumping")
• 15:58 - Second I/O Node can no longer be interacted with, and task list hint about where to go added

Players often get stuck on this level, when Ma3a says "activate the I/O Node". There's an I/O Node right there in front of them both, but it doesn't respond when used (and the player doesn't normally have the permissions needed to use it).

There's another I/O Node on the opposite side of the COM Port puzzle area. This first one, is the one that's meant to be used. In order to reduce confusion: the second I/O Node can no longer be interacted with at all, and it doesn't show that you need missing permissions any more. This is to tip off the player that this I/O Node is useless. A hint about needing to use the I/O Node by the "COM Port configuration panel" has also been added to Jet's task list.

Why not remove the I/O Node completely? (Which is what the Xbox version of TRON 2.0 did.) Or how about allowing the player to use either one? The latter was something I considered doing, but changed my mind.

I didn't do either, because: when you're using the first I/O Node, and Ma3a is communicating with you, how is she doing it? That's right, she's using that second "useless" I/O Node. Removing it or letting the player use it makes no narrative sense.

• 16:27 - Silenced distracting beam sounds during I/O Node use, and restored unused Archive Stack help file
• 17:45 - Restored unused Power Router help file and created artwork for it (since it was missing)
• 18:24 - Fixed missing build point and objective notifications on exiting level, sound effect missing, beam splash being too opaque

Power Regulator level

• 18:44 - Enhancements to video archive cutscene for 16:9 aspect ratio (Popoff faces right way from start, she and DataWraith trainees don't "jump", Crown more visible during camera zoom, camera movement more accurately syncs with sound effects)
• 19:55 - Fixed permissions cheat users being able to activate useless switch (now disabled), missing force field sound added
• 20:33 - Fixed Escher-like twisted geometry
• 21:03 - Program NPC now waits to activate bridge

After players eliminate a swarm of ICPs, a Program NPC would activate a bridge leading to the exit. The problem is that it's easy for players to not witness this happening. So they suddenly see the bridge and wonder how it got there. The Program now waits until the player talks to him, before he activates the bridge.

Power Oculus level

• 22:07 - Fixed textures on Exit Port columns being too dark to see
• 23:30 - Fixed sign above Protocol Socket not displaying info when reticle is placed over it
• 23:36 - Fixed ICPs' energy armor persisting after being de-rezzed

Main Processing Core level

• 24:18 - Fixed minor issues caused by using permissions cheat on force field switch
• 25:44 - Fixed permission in Archive Bin not costing energy

Main Power Pipeline level

• 26:02 - Added missing objective completion message after I/O Node conversation
• 27:12 - Fixed missing mission failure message (if you don't close all surge suppression circuits in time)