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New overall graphics????

dyermaker714dyermaker714 Member UncommonPosts: 192

So everyone is pretty aware that with Warlords of Draenor will come updated character models. I was wondering, however, will they be updating the overall graphics of the gameworld, NPC's, Terrain, Mounts, Shadows, Lighting etc? They've slowly improved things over time (water, for example has improved drastically since vanilla)

Will the environment sport higher resolution/better quality textures and colors and whatnot? Just wondering if anyone knew anything about this. I know they have stated they are updating the graphical quality of the game with this expansion but I can't seem to find anything specific besides character models. 

I would love for this to happen because this is already such a beautiful game as far as art and style goes but It would be pretty cool to have the little things like trees, the ground, sky, buildings, etc be rendered in higher quality.

So does anyone have any info on this? Will they be improving anything besides the character models as far as graphics go? And will our characters/mounts have smoother/better looking animations as well?

Thank you for any info. Can't wait for WOD!!

Also, random question: I will be buying a new "4k" monitor. Does anyone know if WoW looks better with 4k resolutions?

And please no "wow sucks blah blah blah" posts. They're pointless and lame. Thanks!

Comments

  • AmbrosiaAmorAmbrosiaAmor Member Posts: 915

    From the looks of it, yes.

     

    http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/11514711/World_of_Warcraft_Warlords_of_Draenor_BlizzCon_2013_FAQ-10_30_2013

     

    Q: Will there be any updates to the graphics and changes to the minimum system requirements?


    Yes—we’re planning a number of tweaks and improvements to the graphics engine in this expansion, including some updates related to the upgraded player characters and the introduction of the Garrison. We’re also looking into updating other existing systems with an eye toward improving graphical quality and performance. We’ll announce the exact system requirements closer to the expansion’s release.

     

    A few changes revealed so far from beta:

    http://www.wowhead.com/news=241869/warlords-of-draenor-beta-guide-to-ui-and-quality-of-life-improvements

    Graphics



    There is a new graphics setting specifically for Raids and Battlegrounds as well as Anti-Aliasing. These are found under Systems > Graphics.
    There is also an option to Show/Hide new character models, if the revamped models aren't your cup of tea.
    Outline Mode is a new setting that places an outline around important NPCs and objects so you can glean basic information about them without having to look at nameplates or tooltips.
    In Outline Mode, friendly NPCs are green, hostile players/NPCs are red, neutral NPCs are yellow, and unflagged characters from your faction are blue when you mouseover them.
    In Outline Mode, quest items are yellow and lootable items with Garrison Resources glow purple even without mousing over them.

     

    image

  • dyermaker714dyermaker714 Member UncommonPosts: 192
    Thank you for the reply! Very informative and pleasantly surprising. Anyone have any other info????
  • dyermaker714dyermaker714 Member UncommonPosts: 192

    So apparently they are updating some of the older "systems" graphically. Hopefully they update all the NPCs' character models as well as the Player Character models. All this game needs is some higher resolution textures, some new animations, and some higher poly mobs and whatnot and we're good.

    Not sure about what all exactly they are improving visually but the more the better. 

  • ThestrainThestrain Member CommonPosts: 390
    Originally posted by dyermaker714

    So apparently they are updating some of the older "systems" graphically. Hopefully they update all the NPCs' character models as well as the Player Character models. All this game needs is some higher resolution textures, some new animations, and some higher poly mobs and whatnot and we're good.

    Not sure about what all exactly they are improving visually but the more the better. 

    Considering NPC share same  models as players so you ill see all NPC upgraded as well. All in all this is shaping to be the best expansion so far in terms of content.

    Even though graphic update has nothing to do with expansion because everyone will recieve the graphic overhaul.

  • dyermaker714dyermaker714 Member UncommonPosts: 192
    Oh, I see. This is good news. I think the gameworld is going to look considerably better/more modern with the updated models and smoother animations that come with them. From the video's out there right now its fair to say that everything from fighting stances to running animations have greatly improved. Can't wait to see what else they crank up! This game is incredible in just about every way and its nice to see the Blizzard team giving some attention to the one area (dated visuals) in which it is lacking somewhat due simply to age. Obviously there is only so much they can do just because of the sheer age of the graphics engine, however, looking at WoW now compared to Vanilla, its easy to see how much it has improved over the years in the graphics department.
  • TalRashaTalRasha Member UncommonPosts: 827

    They will also be going from a forward rendering engine to a deferred rendering engine.

    It remains to be seen if a good anti-aliasing option will make it at launch, but your 4k monitor might make this less important for you :)

  • ImpacthoundImpacthound Member UncommonPosts: 367
    Originally posted by Thestrain
    Originally posted by dyermaker714

    So apparently they are updating some of the older "systems" graphically. Hopefully they update all the NPCs' character models as well as the Player Character models. All this game needs is some higher resolution textures, some new animations, and some higher poly mobs and whatnot and we're good.

    Not sure about what all exactly they are improving visually but the more the better. 

    Considering NPC share same  models as players so you ill see all NPC upgraded as well. All in all this is shaping to be the best expansion so far in terms of content.

    Even though graphic update has nothing to do with expansion because everyone will recieve the graphic overhaul.

    I can confirm that guard and vendor NPCs all around the old world content are upgraded in beta atm. Looks really good in general, but some older races like furbolgs still look like blocky crap when they're anywhere near new NPCs.

  • jesteralwaysjesteralways Member RarePosts: 2,560
    WoW always had surprisingly good terrain, shadow, tree etc etc graphics if you set the graphics settings to ultra. what horrible was all kind of character graphics : player, npc, mount. on rare occasion they created raid boss that had more improved model, for example garrosh in MoP. otherwise their character models were always horrible. let's see what they do in WoD.  

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  • noncleynoncley Member UncommonPosts: 718
    I must admit, I am quite disappointed by what I have seen so far of the new character models. They don't seem much different from the old ones and they certainly don't allow for any new customisation.
  • WizardryWizardry Member LegendaryPosts: 19,332

    No i 99% doubt it,instead they carefully worded it that way because it sounds good.Yes they will upgrade the system to handle Garrison and character models which imo is doing VERY little since they are covered in gear anyhow.Also the character model improvements alone do NOT look very good to me,they are still low poly characters weather you agree they look improved or not.

    I highly doubt Blizzard will ever update the graphics,it is not financially in their best interest.I think one would be extremely naive to believe Blizzard is ever going to update this game to look like FFXIV.

    Now in saying that IF Blizzard ever did do it,i would give them full props because Square Enix would not do it for FFXI because was too costly so Blizzard would gain some serious applauds.However i know it won't happen,i have seen how they make EVERY game low poly,they do it on purpose to allow a cheaper running game.

    Would be a smart decision to do it,would they gain more players,i am not sure it could perhaps over time pay for itself but not sure Blizzard would risk that when they don't have to.

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  • MukeMuke Member RarePosts: 2,614
    Originally posted by AmbrosiaAmor

    From the looks of it, yes.

     

    http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/11514711/World_of_Warcraft_Warlords_of_Draenor_BlizzCon_2013_FAQ-10_30_2013

     

    Q: Will there be any updates to the graphics and changes to the minimum system requirements?


    Yes—we’re planning a number of tweaks and improvements to the graphics engine in this expansion, including some updates related to the upgraded player characters and the introduction of the Garrison. We’re also looking into updating other existing systems with an eye toward improving graphical quality and performance. We’ll announce the exact system requirements closer to the expansion’s release.

     

    A few changes revealed so far from beta:

    http://www.wowhead.com/news=241869/warlords-of-draenor-beta-guide-to-ui-and-quality-of-life-improvements

    Graphics



    There is a new graphics setting specifically for Raids and Battlegrounds as well as Anti-Aliasing. These are found under Systems > Graphics.
    There is also an option to Show/Hide new character models, if the revamped models aren't your cup of tea.
    Outline Mode is a new setting that places an outline around important NPCs and objects so you can glean basic information about them without having to look at nameplates or tooltips.
    In Outline Mode, friendly NPCs are green, hostile players/NPCs are red, neutral NPCs are yellow, and unflagged characters from your faction are blue when you mouseover them.
    In Outline Mode, quest items are yellow and lootable items with Garrison Resources glow purple even without mousing over them.

     

    Are they revamping the pre-90 zones, because, well, they look pretty terrible. Especially the 1-60 zones.

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  • JDis25JDis25 Member RarePosts: 1,353

    My biggest gripe with WoW's appearance was character models, which are FINALLY being updated.

    But otherwise it is the view distance. It's like a measly 100-200 yards. I climb a mountain to look at the view but all the interesting landmarks are out of sight. It's like the world is covered in fog all the time.

     

    Any improvements on this aspect?

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  • EdliEdli Member Posts: 941
    Lipstick on a pig really. The game is old.
  • redcoreredcore Member UncommonPosts: 108

    i think that wow will not look better on 4k monitor. you will have bigger field of view for sure (so you will see more of the world)  but graphics will look the same as on 2k monitor.

    well i am might be wrong ofc but unless they make 4k textures, wow won't really look better on 4k monitor. all will look smaller bcz of fov.

    looking for wod too!

     

  • ThestrainThestrain Member CommonPosts: 390
    Originally posted by Wizardry

    No i 99% doubt it,instead they carefully worded it that way because it sounds good.Yes they will upgrade the system to handle Garrison and character models which imo is doing VERY little since they are covered in gear anyhow.Also the character model improvements alone do NOT look very good to me,they are still low poly characters weather you agree they look improved or not.

    I highly doubt Blizzard will ever update the graphics,it is not financially in their best interest.I think one would be extremely naive to believe Blizzard is ever going to update this game to look like FFXIV.

    Now in saying that IF Blizzard ever did do it,i would give them full props because Square Enix would not do it for FFXI because was too costly so Blizzard would gain some serious applauds.However i know it won't happen,i have seen how they make EVERY game low poly,they do it on purpose to allow a cheaper running game.

    Would be a smart decision to do it,would they gain more players,i am not sure it could perhaps over time pay for itself but not sure Blizzard would risk that when they don't have to.

    Said who?

  • InfantryonlineInfantryonline Member Posts: 113
    Originally posted by Wizardry

    No i 99% doubt it,instead they carefully worded it that way because it sounds good.Yes they will upgrade the system to handle Garrison and character models which imo is doing VERY little since they are covered in gear anyhow.Also the character model improvements alone do NOT look very good to me,they are still low poly characters weather you agree they look improved or not.

    I highly doubt Blizzard will ever update the graphics,it is not financially in their best interest.I think one would be extremely naive to believe Blizzard is ever going to update this game to look like FFXIV.

    Now in saying that IF Blizzard ever did do it,i would give them full props because Square Enix would not do it for FFXI because was too costly so Blizzard would gain some serious applauds.However i know it won't happen,i have seen how they make EVERY game low poly,they do it on purpose to allow a cheaper running game.

    Would be a smart decision to do it,would they gain more players,i am not sure it could perhaps over time pay for itself but not sure Blizzard would risk that when they don't have to.

    Why wouldn't they risk it? They have 12 billion dollars in the bank. Why can't they give you what you need?

    ...That's essentially what being smug is. Acting like you're so blatantly right that even the thought of someone disagreeing with you is appallingly stupid and comical. you have a good chance of bullying them into believing you.

  • majimaji Member UncommonPosts: 2,091

    New areas, items and models will have slightly more polygons and textures of a slightly higher resolution, and there might be minor general tweaks, but nothing actual noticable about the old areas and items.

    Blizzard always makes sure to announce it if they change anything on the engine that notably improves the graphics in some area. Such as when they improved the shadows from circles to actual shapes, or made the water more realistic, or improved the character models. Since nothing but the character models has been mentioned this time, that's it.

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  • cronius77cronius77 Member UncommonPosts: 1,652
    after playing the beta for awhile i can say you really do not notice much except movement on the new models and honestly they are not all that great compared to most other games out there. I found this expansion to be totally void of anything at all innovative especially the housing system which is just like the farm basically a extra quest hub with little to no customization. I was hoping to they would do much more with the graphics and models this expansion with greg street finally leaving but honestly this expansion looks to me like a huge cash grab with very little effort put into it at all but revamped systems. Wait til everyone that plays it gets to see the same models rehashed from the last 3 expansions in WOD.
  • GravargGravarg Member UncommonPosts: 3,424

    In Draenor they are using all new textures and shading.  From the looks of playing through it, it looks like a sequel more than an expansion.  Everything is much more refined.  Best thing I can think if is if you look at the difference between Everquest and Everquest 2.  The old world still looks the same, but in Draenor it's a million times better.  There many many many more polygons in the terrain, trees, and the weather and sky effects are awesome.  Rain looks like real life rain, you can see the drops make a ripple in water.  Little things like this make a big difference when added up.

  • Thomas2006Thomas2006 Member RarePosts: 1,152

    I doubt you are ever going to see the game get a real major graphics update. Increasing texture size will be something done for new textures as shifting through a library of thousands upon thousands of textures and upgrading them with more detail and larger size is not something that is going to be cost effective via time wise, bandwidth wise (patching the client), diskspace wise
    (if they doubled the texture size from 512 to 1024 your looking at almost doubling the size of the client, I say almost as I cant say how much space is taken up by the models, sounds, music, ect. compared to textures. But I would bet 3/4ths of the size of the client is textures.) Wont even think about going from 512 to 4k.

    Also you have to think about the time spent just going through the textures one by one adding more detail, testing it to make sure it doesnt mess anything else up, ect.

    Last time I checked, World of Warcraft did not make use of any type of normal map or bumpmaping so they can not just take on extra detail via a bumpmap. Not to mention just adding a normal map or bumpmaping may destory the overall hand painted look of the game.

    Honestly there art style selection has really kind of hampered them in the graphics department. I am not saying the art style is not good, I enjoy the look of the game, but there really is little they can do to compete with games that have a more realistic art style. :/

  • JeroKaneJeroKane Member EpicPosts: 6,959
    Originally posted by jesteralways
    WoW always had surprisingly good terrain, shadow, tree etc etc graphics if you set the graphics settings to ultra. what horrible was all kind of character graphics : player, npc, mount. on rare occasion they created raid boss that had more improved model, for example garrosh in MoP. otherwise their character models were always horrible. let's see what they do in WoD.  

     I agree. The environments were always quite impressive. Even back in Vanilla, when you set everyting to max.

    It were indeed the character and NPC models that looked "off" .  :-/

  • expressoexpresso Member UncommonPosts: 2,218
    Originally posted by Thomas2006

    I doubt you are ever going to see the game get a real major graphics update. Increasing texture size will be something done for new textures as shifting through a library of thousands upon thousands of textures and upgrading them with more detail and larger size is not something that is going to be cost effective via time wise, bandwidth wise (patching the client), diskspace wise
    (if they doubled the texture size from 512 to 1024 your looking at almost doubling the size of the client, I say almost as I cant say how much space is taken up by the models, sounds, music, ect. compared to textures. But I would bet 3/4ths of the size of the client is textures.) Wont even think about going from 512 to 4k.

    Also you have to think about the time spent just going through the textures one by one adding more detail, testing it to make sure it doesnt mess anything else up, ect.

    Last time I checked, World of Warcraft did not make use of any type of normal map or bumpmaping so they can not just take on extra detail via a bumpmap. Not to mention just adding a normal map or bumpmaping may destory the overall hand painted look of the game.

    Honestly there art style selection has really kind of hampered them in the graphics department. I am not saying the art style is not good, I enjoy the look of the game, but there really is little they can do to compete with games that have a more realistic art style. :/

    Just look at EQ2 (on release) to see how ugly bumpmapping can make a game look.

    On topic - With each expansion the gfx improve with additional shaders, higher poly counts, higher texture res and so on, just go take a look at a vanillia screen shot and a MOP screenshot.  But all these new fancy things typicaly are only applied to new content.

    I'd love blizz to put a small team towards revamping the look of the vanilla and TBC zones, not changing the layout, quest etc but replacing trees and textures with high quality ones and so forth to match MoP or even Wrath levels.  I am sure Blizz has talked about it internaly and decided against it but its quite jarring to come from MoP back to vanilla zones like going from a PS3 game to a  PS1.

    All this being said I can run the game on Ultra in 1080p @ 60FPS and that makes for a great experience. 

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