Honestly it doesn't look all that diffrent to me personally, they need to totally redo character models and such with high poly models for players and npc's and monsters, before worry about the ground you walk on IMO.
This is pictures from the new engine, not remodeled/retextured items. What did you expect, models would automatically get 4 times more vertices and changed animations?
As far as I know the Graphics engine will be adding in new stuff like the water reflections and shadows and the like, it's been in the works for about two and a half years but they had to completely scrap the first effort they made around 2 years into it because it couldn't cope with what they wanted, in the last 6 months they've gotten back to pretty much where they were with the Ogre engine before they scrapped it.
Some more things which will be coming seem to be a whole new set of heads, the devs seem to be doing their best to maintain the AO look and feel to the heads while still making them look much better.
The biggest advantage of the new engine though is that it will take full advantage of your graphics card, which the current one doesn't, meaning the game should run a hell of a lot smoother.
The developers are also in the process of rebalancing the professions in the game, rather controversial in some ways, but the dev team seem to be trying to fix some of the age old problems AO has, which includes the Aimed Shot mechanics being reworked.
Also some of the stuff that's been asked for for ages have also been getting added in, like the very recent addition of a mail system.
All in all while the while the player base may have dwindled from its prime the Development team aren't letting that get them down, they're working harder than ever to make AO the great game it is.
And on top of this the Game director is doing his best to keep everyone appraised of how things are coming along in weekly updates, where most of this information can be found, through the Friday with Means threads in the AO community forums, always worth a read.
Wow way to go Funcom. What has it been 2 years since the release of that "New Engine" video and now in that time span you've spent the years trying to find a perfect angle to snap a screen shot. Fuck you game devs. Gargle my balls.
You bastard! You made me laugh cola out of my nose! It burns! It burns!
Colin Cragg CPO - World of Horsecraft AB www.starstable.com
The influx of newer players seems to have petered out over the last 18 months or so, what with all the new MMOGs coming out that comes as no real surprise. That is mostly why the lower level areas seem empty. Plus there has been new content consistently so everyone is playing their mains rather than making alts. Plus, let's face it, leveling in AO is a lot of work. Much longer of a process than most MMOGs. There is a huge glut of MMOGs right now so it's really hard to compete no matter who you are. I give FunCom props for even keeping AO open at this point, never mind updating the graphics engine... I am also very glad that they are personally because AO is still one of the best out there IMO.
------------------------- "Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
I was hoping for more, they keep saying it is coming and I am aware of the work involved to re-design models etc. but when you finally get around to sending in a screen-shot. Why not some new area, I am pretty sure I saw this in the video without a gui, which brings up another complaint.
Funcom is spending all that time and money to redo the engine and you send a screen shot with the same old gui...can you say wtf?
I still play off an on, I have a couple accounts I sub with, once every couple months when I feel an AO burn coming on and I still like playing the game but damn...
Means - You should know better then to send something half-arsed in for the masses to view. But since you have been sick I guess we can let it slide.
Keep it up, I hope you all get around to doing the character models as well, they need some love along with the scenery.
You know you are old when the dev's on the games you play are almost young enough to be your grand-kids.
Wow way to go Funcom. What has it been 2 years since the release of that "New Engine" video and now in that time span you've spent the years trying to find a perfect angle to snap a screen shot. Fuck you game devs. Gargle my balls.
You bastard! You made me laugh cola out of my nose! It burns! It burns!
For those of you who apparently missed this ^ ^, Means is the game director for AO ( and yes, it's really him ).
------ Playing MMO's since my first which was Ultima online, then Anarchy online. and so on.. Now a days im very critical before i ewen bother downloading a Free to play mmo.
Comments
The only real differences that I see in these screens is the addition of shadows and water reflections. It's all just camera position and lighting.
I recall that the original video released for their "new graphics engine" looked better than this.
ho-hum.
This is pictures from the new engine, not remodeled/retextured items. What did you expect, models would automatically get 4 times more vertices and changed animations?
/Y
As far as I know the Graphics engine will be adding in new stuff like the water reflections and shadows and the like, it's been in the works for about two and a half years but they had to completely scrap the first effort they made around 2 years into it because it couldn't cope with what they wanted, in the last 6 months they've gotten back to pretty much where they were with the Ogre engine before they scrapped it.
Some more things which will be coming seem to be a whole new set of heads, the devs seem to be doing their best to maintain the AO look and feel to the heads while still making them look much better.
The biggest advantage of the new engine though is that it will take full advantage of your graphics card, which the current one doesn't, meaning the game should run a hell of a lot smoother.
The developers are also in the process of rebalancing the professions in the game, rather controversial in some ways, but the dev team seem to be trying to fix some of the age old problems AO has, which includes the Aimed Shot mechanics being reworked.
Also some of the stuff that's been asked for for ages have also been getting added in, like the very recent addition of a mail system.
All in all while the while the player base may have dwindled from its prime the Development team aren't letting that get them down, they're working harder than ever to make AO the great game it is.
And on top of this the Game director is doing his best to keep everyone appraised of how things are coming along in weekly updates, where most of this information can be found, through the Friday with Means threads in the AO community forums, always worth a read.
cant friggin wait
Games i'm playing right now...
"In short, I thought NGE was a very bad idea" - Raph Koster talking about NGE on his blog at raphkoster.com
You bastard! You made me laugh cola out of my nose! It burns! It burns!
Colin Cragg
CPO - World of Horsecraft AB
www.starstable.com
Are they re-doing the game engine, or just the graphics engine?
That interface is a mess. Putting new graphics on top of that would just be polishing a turd.
The influx of newer players seems to have petered out over the last 18 months or so, what with all the new MMOGs coming out that comes as no real surprise. That is mostly why the lower level areas seem empty. Plus there has been new content consistently so everyone is playing their mains rather than making alts. Plus, let's face it, leveling in AO is a lot of work. Much longer of a process than most MMOGs. There is a huge glut of MMOGs right now so it's really hard to compete no matter who you are. I give FunCom props for even keeping AO open at this point, never mind updating the graphics engine... I am also very glad that they are personally because AO is still one of the best out there IMO.
-------------------------
"Searchers after horror haunt strange, far places..." ~ H.P.Lovecraft, "From Beyond"
Member Since March 2004
I was hoping for more, they keep saying it is coming and I am aware of the work involved to re-design models etc. but when you finally get around to sending in a screen-shot. Why not some new area, I am pretty sure I saw this in the video without a gui, which brings up another complaint.
Funcom is spending all that time and money to redo the engine and you send a screen shot with the same old gui...can you say wtf?
I still play off an on, I have a couple accounts I sub with, once every couple months when I feel an AO burn coming on and I still like playing the game but damn...
Means - You should know better then to send something half-arsed in for the masses to view. But since you have been sick I guess we can let it slide.
Keep it up, I hope you all get around to doing the character models as well, they need some love along with the scenery.
You know you are old when the dev's on the games you play are almost young enough to be your grand-kids.
You bastard! You made me laugh cola out of my nose! It burns! It burns!
For those of you who apparently missed this ^ ^, Means is the game director for AO ( and yes, it's really him ).
You should stop by more often.
stop posting almost 2 year old news..
and new game director is !#%"*
------
Playing MMO's since my first which was Ultima online, then Anarchy online. and so on..
Now a days im very critical before i ewen bother downloading a Free to play mmo.