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Lets get real regarding the graphics in Pantheon
ragz45
Member UncommonPosts: 810
I'm curious why the graphics in pantheon look as dated as they do. Is this an issue of finances? Did the team have to use an older engine because they couldn't afford the licensing fees for a nicer engine? When looking at these two videos side by side, the graphical fidelity from one to the other is nauseating.
Now, I'm actually cautiously optimistic about pantheon maybe getting a graphical overhaul in the future before full release. I remember early screenshots of Shroud of the avatar, and it too looked incredibly bad, and it is quite beautiful now. So part of me still hopes for some changes in regards to this. Am I being unrealistic though? Is this as good as it's ever going to look?
I've been trying to get a few old EQ era friends excited about pantheon, and all of them have said no. It looks too dated, and they can't play a game with those graphics.
This leads me to my other thought. If most games start out with a really low graphical fidelity while they are building the early game. Why then is Ashes graphical fidelity already so high?
Now, I'm actually cautiously optimistic about pantheon maybe getting a graphical overhaul in the future before full release. I remember early screenshots of Shroud of the avatar, and it too looked incredibly bad, and it is quite beautiful now. So part of me still hopes for some changes in regards to this. Am I being unrealistic though? Is this as good as it's ever going to look?
I've been trying to get a few old EQ era friends excited about pantheon, and all of them have said no. It looks too dated, and they can't play a game with those graphics.
This leads me to my other thought. If most games start out with a really low graphical fidelity while they are building the early game. Why then is Ashes graphical fidelity already so high?
Comments
~~ postlarval ~~
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
1) Graphics engine capabilities
2) Custom art
You have to understand that graphics engine is rather a 'minor' part of the game engine and likely the most easiest to upgrade and tweak up. Pretty graphics is very costly though, it costs thousands of manhours to create textures, models, shaders, animations etc., and all that need good graphics programmers to optimize for performance.
While Unreal Engine AoCR is using have undeniably better graphics capabilities and art assets, it might be lacking in other departments and turn out unsuitable for developer needs.
The other thing is that AoCR is just showing some generic stuff that use assets the game engine comes with. It is more of Unreal Engine demo rather than game demo. Once you start building the world, you will need to either start making your own assets and/or more buy assets. Both approaches have their shortcommings - the former is costly, the latter lacks in quality(case of Pantheon).
No engine is perfect, even the one you built yourself.
Watching that Ashes video again for the second time, the big difference is a max quality cinematic recording, and a ton of ambient lighting, lighting effects, reflections, and high resolution textures (grass, flora, fauna, water). Add a little animation to show all the grass and leaves blowing in the wind and rippling of the water, and you truly have a thing of beauty. And also something that would run like complete shit on a 1080p live stream.
They have plenty of time to add similar light, shadow, camera fx and higher quality object and npc animations. That has nothing to do with the engine, for anyone who has seen some of the more impressive Unity videos. They actually just began really putting resources into this aspect of the game, so we can expect things will only improve drastically between now and launch.
If you watched the last Ashes livestream with the rogue running around in the big town, looked like they had to set shadows ultra low even on the most likely very beefy demo-machine. A good indicator that they are aiming at future hardware. Which makes sense, they have many years to go.
You stay sassy!
There is no way Unity game could ever look anywhere close as game made in Unreal engine. Room for improvement? Sure, but it will always look dated due realistic theme and engine limitations.
Unity graphics engine is rather weak, unlike Unreal where graphics is what the engine excels at.
I really think playing around with realistic will be a major downfall. Realistic will always be controversial and will plague V Realms to the end !
I view V Realms as self thinkers. With that I'm surprised they got sucked into the selfish vocal graphics hound player base.
I absolutely love what Pantheon is. However I cant help thinking deep down inside, they are stuck in a 2004 EQ2 mode of thinking with their overall engine. This engine will fight against them all through development and into release.
If Pantheon looked 40% better than what it is now..... It would still look off in so many ways, in other words fake !...... This plagued EQ2 and Vanguard, and now Pantheon.
I'm just being real
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Pantheon is showing in-game footage while AoC is mainly pre-rendered footage possibly made with Unreal stock assets.
The Unreal engine is also more of a graphic Engine (Like the Cry Engine) and while it looks superior on the graphic department needs more fine tuning than the Unity which is more of a complete Game Engine.
I am playing Ark at the moment which uses the Unreal Engine.
Beautiful game but in order to run it you need a state of the art PC or it will lag like hell, and the game is not even a MMORPG, max 70 player per server, can you imagine running a game with that level of graphics on servers with thousands of concurrent players?
So let's see how the AoC Team will be able to optimize it for the actual game without affecting the graphic quality of the end product.
People keep forgetting that MMORPGs cannot afford cutting edge graphic unless they use clever tricks (WoW use of textures for example) so I doubt AoC will be able to make full use of Unreal graphic power without affecting the game performance.
I also like to add that I personally like Pantheon graphics which in my opinion needs more of a touch in the art department than the technical department (apart from better animation which are quite decent so far).
I would like to see more High Fantasy settings and creatures but I guess that's coming after they hire Graphic Artist.
Its the bland gameplay.
It looks like the graphics are the best part of the game.
~~ postlarval ~~
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
And will be for quite some time if it follows recent trends. In fact, you'll most likely be paying a sub and/or buying from a cash shop while the game is in some sort of "alpha" state for years to come.
Now that game developers know how much they can get away with concerning gullible gamers it's open season on your pocketbook.
~~ postlarval ~~
Still people don't grasp the fact that making a demo with the Unreal engine assets is not that difficult.
MMORPGs usually look 4-5 years older graphically than current Single player games, for obvious reasons, as they can't handle the amount of polygons and shadow/light effects as single player games.
That's the price to pay when you have thousands of people playing at the same time, you have to reduce graphic quality in order to reduce lag.