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Graphics?
Xion1985
Member UncommonPosts: 229
Hey, I'm thinking of getting and subbing to this game. I'm currently playing wow becuase well I haven't found anything with nearly the depth. My question is though how are the graphics? better then lotro's? I assume better then wow's.
ps. my computer surpasses the reccommended specs by a lot so i'm not worried about not being able to run vg.
Comments
If you are ok with WoW and assume the grphics are better than WoW, just try it...
WoW- lots of color..stylized
Lotro - Lots of color, a bit stylized..straddles the border between stylized and realistic. Great water effects and they did a great job of the flora/fauna (the seas of flowers, mountain ranges, swamps, etc are amazing looking). I am not so fond of the player character models though.
Vanguard - Goes for Hyper-realistic models. I am not fond of the character models themselves, but the armor looks amazing. Spell effects are also very good. Flying mounts are now in as well (which look pretty cool). Good water effects as well. The sky is amazing (specially with a storm is rolling in).
So, I like WoW and LOTR use of color. However, I like Vanguard's equipment a lot more. I think LOTRO wins when it comes to terrain though. Vanguard has more realistic terrain, but LOTRO just has so much color in it without having the style WoW does.
However, I am currently playing Vanguard the most, followed by EQ2, and then a little bit of WoW. I cancelled LOTRO only because I do not have any friends playing it.
Graphics are arguable and subjective. I think LOTR's graphics are better than Vanguard's as the towns, water and landscapes are more complete and the artwork is better. Vanguard's graphics are hit and miss some areas look great others look terrible. One area where Vanguard's graphics do shine is armor. Vanguard's armor graphics do look fantastic with the exception of the class sets from APW.
Vanguard's character models are not great. They are stiff and somewhat plastic looking but they are not near as stiff or ugly as those in EQ2. The water in VG is terible.
The artwork in Vanguard is mostly lacking. Little details and touches that you might have liked in WoW are for the most part not there in Vanguard.
Overall the graphics are good but not great. Some of the vistas are fantastic. The armor especially the low level armor really looks great. The artwork for the most part is rushed and lacking and the game is lacking in detail and finish.
It really depends on your taste and what your looking for.
This guy has most of it down. The characters mostly look like crap. The heavy and medium armor is nice, but most of the caster armor is bland.
The continent of Qalia is ugly, while Thestra is very pretty. Grass and trees add a lot of ambience to the game, very well done imo.
I disagree with the water though. You have to set a certain slider up to like 21% to get good looking water. The only place I know where this doesn't work is in a certain Kojan river. The underwater effects and swimming animations are horrid though.
I think what most people do is bundle graphics together with artwork. I think VG graphics is very good if not the best for any MMORPG very close. By this is mean the graphics capabilities of the game. The long view range, the highly detailed textures, etc. Where VG is lacking however is in the artwork department. This is more subjective and I'd say it varies in VG depending on what you look at but in general the artwork isn't consistent or generally very good.
When you look at a town in LoTR it has more color and is artistically cleaner and nicer looking. In VG the towns are not as colorful or well built. In many cases they look unrealistic and artificial not like a real town. That said in the right hands with an upgrade to the art quality VG could be far better. Look at Kahl as an example. Before the revamp it was plain and austier looking. Now it is far nicer.
It will be interesting to see what GU5 will yield in the way of character graphics. VG has a lot of capability in the right hands it could blow us away I'd suspect.
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Ethion
I agree with the folks that are saying graphics are a preference and somewhat in the eye of the beholder. Personally, I think VG's graphics are superior to anything else I've played including EQ2, WoW and LotRO. I found the EQ2 and VG approach similiar as far as realism and detail, just that VG is much better. I've just not liked the stylized approach of WoW or LotRO although you run them with an Apple IIe.
The terrain varies a lot in VG. A lot of folks say they rate Qalia last in terms of the landscape. However, it's more of a desert continent and it is suppose to look more desolate the lush Kojani continent or the temperate Thestran continent.
There are two screens in this thread I posted a little bit ago:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/170600
Sorry, but haven't find anything with nearly the WoW's depth? If we consider depth as a hidden mechanics that allows customization of lots of variables, that doesn't make it more complex, just giving more options, then WoW's depth is far far far far worse than EQ2, VG, DDo, CoH. There are basically no "hidden" mechanics one could focus on apart from the obvious ones. Vanguard has 15 crafting attributes that you can improve and customize as you like, and that affects your crafting progress. That's a depth. Not a silly casting bar for crafting as it is in WoW.
REALITY CHECK
Hidden Mechanics may give depth, but if they are hidden then they may well be lost on the player.
Xter customization in VG may well seem basic compared to WoW, as WoW offers 3 (colourful) lines of specialization(Talents) per class.
In VG you have attributes that at first seem pretty basic but are in fact a powerful and more generic way of shaping your xter.
Although for some classes, for example a Rogue, they remain pretty basic as a rogue will more or less concentrate on developing DPS.
As for graphics they are pretty much the market leader at the moment imho, they will push your PC to the max!
I think Vanguards graphics are good but they should be better for the system requirments. I think they are at the very least on par with Lord of The Rings Online.
..............
I'm using Highest settings with medium textures and the water is just amazing!!! Its the same PS water from 3dMark06. I can say the most beautiful thing in the game. The biggest downside of the graphics are the small high detailed objects like crafting tables, fence etc. They look very jagged without Antialiasing even on high resolution like 1650x1050. Turning FSAA (using beta drivers because with WHQL drivers its not possible) turn Vanguard in he best realistic looking game currently on the market. Of course you need latest hardware to enjoy it.
Where themepark games try to hide that they are copying WOW, games like Mortal Online and Darkfall make no attempt to hide their inspiration
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LordOfDarkDesire
I just cant get over the He-man looking avatars in WOW. Realy brings the game down for me graphic wise. Feels like I am playing a cartoon made for a 10 year old. LOTR is kinda the same for me. I like the EQ II and Vanguard realistic style.
Lotro graphic is good but 'cold'.
Vanguard needs a very good pc to get nice graphic. Here is my screens with high settings but not maxed:
s157.photobucket.com/albums/t56/Gilgameesh/Vanguard
in my personal opinion, despite lotro is a bit more polished, vanguard's environment is much more depth (unless you are a Tolkien's fan). Anyway both games are light years better than WoW (if you call graphic the wow's design...)
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