Graphics, first impressions

Finduilas

Much has been written about this, and most of the posts seem to have been written by players with the minds of 5 years olds. I expected when I finally got to play to see commodore 64 graphics.

So, my view.

World

The landscapes I have seen so far have been excellent. The trees and grass not only look good but the way they sway in the wind adds a lot to the atmosphere. Water is ok, though not as good as EQ2 yet. The towns are detailed, medieval looking and just need some dynamic lighting effects, shadows and light.

Avatars

The biggest complaint so far has been about the character graphics and aninmation. Well, 2 things; Firstly it is still early beta, and designing artwork is probably the easiest and last part they need to concentrate on. Secondly, in all MMOs I've played lag and lower FPS occur the most in highly populated areas and having lots of highly detailed chars running about at this early stage, when server stability is still being worked on would make the towns unplayable. I have played several finished MMORPGs, some with average character graphics, and seen FPS and lag issues in town.

I expect ALL character graphics to be updated and improved by release.

Menus

The windows, inventory, quests, chat etc. are clear and readable but at this stage are very similar Anarchy Online which suits the latter because it is a SF MMO. Fonts, for names and such, are currently in Arial bold, nice and clear but not very medieval looking. I expect, in later betas and closer to release, that fantasy/medieval style lettering and windows will be added, and it would not take a great deal of work to implement I should think.

Summary

That's what I've seen so far, from my limited play time. I am interested to see what the mountains will look like, snow, coniferous trees, rocks, and how many different environments there will be to see.

All I can say is, it is not the doom and gloom, end of the world situation I have read about. But I would guess that mature players give the game a chance before they post their thoughts, the immature have "knee-jerk" reactions and post very quickly. 

Stableboy

I agree with you totally,

I dont have a high spec pc at the moment... the fact I got wish to run on this hunk o junk is amazing (on board graphics with shared memory... and only 256mb in total lol)

With a lot of tweaking I was able to play and saw the potential . I'm still wondering just how those trees would look with full graphics on . The only reason i could play/test at all was because they haven't updated the cyclops  model to morph yet .... its the only model that my card can handle lol.

Snow looks great even with all the graphics turned down .

However, did you have combat effects turned on ??? totally ruins the atmosphere lol.... korean style effects just don't go with the landscape ..... its just reminds you that you are in a game.

*scratches nose with his hackmaster +200 Universe Slaying pogo stick of DOOM