It's a nice idea albeit a pipe-dream.
The problem with implementing such a change would be [as others have pointed out] requiring essentially a rewrite of the graphics engine as it's quite exclusively designed for isometric pseudo-3D projection. Not to mention the what, one, or two legacy developers voltuneering their time to maintaining Diablo II.
An alternative would to be use mipmaps (successive resamples) to enable scaling to some degree.
Q u o t e:
They would also need to address projectile range and AI aggression distances. IIRC the game was pulled into 1024x768 once, and you would basically see all the monster packs without them aggro'ing you. So if you were a ranged build, you would just kill mobs that stood there.
That's more of an issue with the game logic which is abstracted from the rendering semantics.
Q u o t e:
From what I've heard, nobody understands the code well enough to make those changes anymore.
There's a transcript of an interview with Peter Hu (network/server programming iirc) around wherein he admits he's embarassed by much of his code.
Q u o t e:
Sounds like d2 was scrapped together quick as possible using a 3rd party engine to me. Pretty sure no one is going to touch it on blizzard pay and in-fact the source and tools are all probably locked up in a vault. Even if they were leaked I'm sure it would take someone or even a team very smart and dedicated to make any type of change even if it were something as simple as changing the resolution, which really is not that simple as from what I am gathering.
The engine appears to have been developed in-house however it borrows several design choices from the infinity engine.
Q u o t e:
C++
Closer to C, your favourite, Kev ;)
--
Coincidently I've been developing a Diablo II remake in my spare time for the past year or so however I'm retaining the current art for a few reasons;
1) It's aesthetically pleasing.
2) It's a key part of the game's identity that produces the great nostalic experience.
3) Systems programming and a penchant for art are mutually exclusive.
The instant gratification experienced during game development, albeit primitive, and is sorely lacking when you spend your days writing device drivers and firmware.
"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people" -- Eleanor Roosevelt
