I disagree with the premise of this thread. "It's hard to do realism right, so lets not try at all" is a bullshit copout. VR is on the right track; please disregard the haters.
Having watched a few more gameplays I am really excited with the art direction. The environment is textured, but also has enough block colours to be easier on my eyes. The avatars are more Stylized, which I like, as well as the spell effects.
Obviously there is plenty of time for them to make changes, but still - Can't wait!
I really like the art direction for Pantheon. It's almost realistic but not quite, which is probably necessary for fantasy.
I liked VG graphics too, but I didn't like the lighting. A lot of objects looked like they were made out of plastic.
I like the level of graphics this game is attempting. As long as it's not so overboard that the game runs bad, then I'm happy that what's being rendered on screen is something I can recognize.
So if what I recognize and whats being rendered on screen are the same thing, then thats a win in my book.
After watching a bunch of the streams and seeing the gameplay at PAX, I'd also like to say that I'm loving the art direction seen so far with Pantheon. I detest cartoony art style, and am so sick of Blizzard's influence inflicting that style on so many games and genres. It's even infected Magic: The Gathering's latest online effort, with them trying to copy Hearthstone.
Also, kudos for keeping the weapon and armor sizing realistic. Nothing breaks immersion more than seeing people swinging around swords the size of surf boards, and usually one-handed as well. /eyeroll
The thing is, most people want these amazing graphics that go above and beyond, but what people don't realize is the fact that not everyone can afford a top of the line pc that can handle it. That was the only thing I ever liked about WoW lol, was they designed their game with this in mind. They made the graphics so low that nearly any pc could play the game. Now, I never got into WoW, I tried it, not a huge fan of the cartooney graphics myself.
But, I think VR is going for the same thing with pantheon, good graphics but not super needy ones. The higher you make your graphics the lower your player base. I don't need amazing graphics in an MMO. I just want a good playable game that will last through some time. I'm pretty happy with the graphics the way they were during the last stream lol. But again, I'm pretty easy to please, I just hope people don't have this crazy unrealistic graphics craze. Like I said above, the better graphics the more you limit the player base.
>The thing is, most people want these amazing graphics that go above and beyond, but what people don't realize is the fact that not everyone can afford a top of the line pc that can handle it.<
There are really two major issues with having really high quality graphics. The first is the time and expense for VR - most of us will strongly agree that eye candy is nice but a great game with a decent look is a lot better than a decent game with a great look.
The second is the Vanguard issue - making things so cutting edge that many people's computers cannot handle it.
We still don't have tools that let a developer make a game that looks really good on new and expensive computers/monitors but that old computers and monitors can handle by just using a lower setting (perhaps auto-determined by the game)?
I don't believe the problem with VG was having too cutting edge graphics, but by trying to hammer an engine that wasn't designed for large outdoor areas into an MMO, along with poor use of a shader pipeline and asset loading. Vanguard ran poorly even on the best hardware you could get at the time.
xilith said:I don't believe the problem with VG was having too cutting edge graphics, but by trying to hammer an engine that wasn't designed for large outdoor areas into an MMO, along with poor use of a shader pipeline and asset loading. Vanguard ran poorly even on the best hardware you could get at the time.
If i am not mistaken lots had to be fixed afterwards?
And half the people dont wish to upgrade either, to pour out a good 2000 grand on a good rig and higher alone the video cards top end 1200-1500 bucks so you get within budget.
Crazzie said:If i am not mistaken lots had to be fixed afterwards?
And half the people dont wish to upgrade either, to pour out a good 2000 grand on a good rig and higher alone the video cards top end 1200-1500 bucks so you get within budget.
VG cached files onto the system disk. If you were on a hard drive it caused severe slowdown when chunking and moving around the game. But, VG ran almost buttery smooth if you had an SSD, even a cheap one. The first time I played VG on SSD I almost fell out of my chair at how improved it was.