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MMOG Art Direction
vonhase
Member Posts: 6
I really have to ask. Why is it that some game developers are willing to put forth the extra effort and make a graphics set that makes the best looking game they can with as little as possible while other developers are under the impression that the latest technology is somehow superior to good looking models?
For instance Lineage 2, although a rather bland game, managed to take some very low system requirements and created a gorgeous game. Final Fantasy Online had a few more polygons, but still used what they had to create beautiful graphics. City of Heroes can run on almost any system and looks great. The new Dark Age of Camelot graphics are all but stunning. These are all excellent examples of what developers are capable of doing if they would just put forth the effort.
Then we turn our attention to games like EverQuest 2... a game that has system requirements that could choke a horse, and yet it still looks awful. The characters all look alike, which is poorly designed playdough people with plastic hair. Am I the only one who finds it self defeating to spend all the money on developing a graphics engine, a game, and everything else only to wrap it up in a poorly constructed package? Why won't these developers take some extra time and tweak the models, create good textures, and produce quality skins? To me, it is like building a car from the ground up with the most expensive parts you can, and then painting it primer with a spray can, when you could have cut out a few stencils and airbrushed the hell out of it. I will freely admit that the people at Sony did an excellent job with their environmental textures, and have set a new standard for motion capture animations, but all of that is moot when your character looks like butt.
World of Warcraft is so cartoony that I just can't get over it. However, if you consider the system requirements, the graphics are stunning. And I have to admit, they did a great job of mnaking the game consistant. It is cartoony in the same way the whole way through, and that pulls it all together and makes it work. On top of that, they had some people do some very amazing things within that format. So while I couldn't get into it, I do have to say it was a true work of art and quite appealing on its own level.
But back to EQ2... the biggest problem with the game is that the character models don't match the rest of the game. It was like they had two seperate art directors working on the game. One was told to make it as realistic as possible, and did a great job. And the other was told to go for a Disneyesque feel and make everything look like a toy, and also did a great job. Unfortunately, these two things do not work together.
So, after all of that rant, because I am bored waiting on a download, I will postulate my real question...
If you are going to spend millions of dollars developing, creating, and advertising an MMOG, why in the world would you settle for graphics that don't work, or mistake the newest rendering technology for being well rendered?
Comments
Yeah. I know I'm in the minority here, but I think the graphics in EQ2 are pretty poor. The system requirements are stellar, mind you. And they've bump mapped everything and then some, and used high res textures all over, and realtime shadows, and blah blah blah. But...
I don't really care about shadows - most people need to turn them off to really play anyway. And high rez bumpmapped textures are only good if the art on the texture is good. And IMHO, in EQ2 they're not.
Don't know just what I was expecting; guess with the money they threw at the game, and the graphics requirements they have, I was expecting The Best in graphics. And they really didn't deliver that, again IMHO. Maybe it's a matter of taste though.
Owyn
Commander, Defenders of Order
http://www.defendersoforder.com
Because when you develop a persistent world that will hopefully have a lifecycle of 5+ years you will be faced with a game that has graphics that are dated. Consider that most MMOGs have graphics engines that usualy come to market already dated and the problem compounds itself.
As for the idea of what "works", you're presuming that your view of what "works" is the right view. Those are your opinions...but they are not fact.
No. A masters degree in graphic design, national awards for illustration, and over 20 years of experience as an art director for with addy awards for my work at NBC news say that my opinions are in fact facts. When multibillion dollar companies start paying you to make viable aestetic desicions that will create the highest level of viewer appeal, then your opinions will also be facts.
The character models in EverQuest 2 are not the result of outdated graphics. The are simply poorly designed by an artist without a lot of scope in his ability to render. I have taught illustration and 3D animation in college, and the sorts of mistakes the artist in question makes are precisely the thing that students paid me to help them overcome. The features of all of the character models are uniform, showing that the artist has not yet mastered representation of the subject, but instead relies on a system of visual symbols. Overcoming this would allow the artist to render as in nature versus as in his own style. Additionally, the artist has a poor understanding of anatomy. The characters' limbs and body frames are slightly out of perspective to one another. The fact that they are all uniformly disproportioned again illustrates that the artist is relying upon a sensibility rather than nature. Finally, the textures and patterns in the costuming shows that the artists who did them took short cuts. The difference in style shows that these items were produced by someone other than the main character modeller, proving that the entire project's responsibility boiled down to one art director who settled for substandard work from his employees instead of making them correct the problems. All in all it was a team that was just talented enough to get the job, but unfortunately not talented enough to actually do it.
If this game was turned into me as a college project, I'd give it a B for effort and consistancy. But this isn't student work. It is an international video game, and the standards are as high as they get for this media. It is in the league with motion pictures and national television. And quite clearly, it fails to compete.
The only thing I disagree with you on EQ2 is all characters looking alike.
The only reason this happen's is because players are too damn lazy to use the Character creation tool, if people took the time, there is no reason anyone should look alike. I have yet to find a single person who looked like, or anything Close to like my character. You cannot blame people's laziness on the Devs for this, you can only give people the tools you cannot force them to use them.
However everything else is pretty much spot on. I play EQ2 and FFXI, While EQ2's world is pretty darn impressive with everything turned up, and I mean IMPRESSIVE. The character models are Crap..Customizable yes..but Overall...Crap. the hair is awful...the Rigidity of the faces is worse, dont get me started on animation's and Emote Animations.
If EQ2 had taken say, the charactermodel's from FFXI I think they would have been far better off, Not necessarly the same style I am just referring to the complexity, softness, animations and emotions. I do not know how to explain it other then, I could attach myself to my char in ffxi, where as my EQ2 char feels more...anaceptic and ditached. I enjoy the overall gameplay in EQ2 more..but right now the Character model thing is seriously getting tiresome.
I agree with you about the gameplay. EQ2 isn't what it could be with respect to game mechanics. The characters are in my opinion too overspecialized. However, all that aside, playing the game is actually a lot of fun. When you look back at how monotonous all of the previous MMOGs have been, it becomes clear that the developers had some incredible insights. EQ2's gameplay is dynamic, engaging, and just plain fun. That is something I didn't expect, and will happily praise whoever is responsible for.
However, just like yourself, once the gameplay dies down, I find myself staring at those play dough character models and wondering what else I could be doing. As for whether or not characters look identical, that's not my point. The problem is that they all look extremely similar. The range of customization in the faces is negligible, and there are only three body types, all of which exactly the same except for the size. Pretty much, the only distinctive features are characters hair styles, of which three or four colors can be chosen, and none of them look natural.
I just downloaded the free trial version of the new Dark Age of Camelot graphics. With less than half of the system requirements, the people at Mythic have managed to do exactly what EQ2 were attempting to do, only better. If EQ2 looked that good, these sorts of posts would never see the light of day. However, the gameplay in DAoC is so monotonous that there is no way Ill ever consider going back to it. Pushing the same five buttons over and over, the same way every encounter, just so I can hit level 50 and begin to be competitive in the Realm vs Realm combat is not my idea of fun. It is my idea of an exercise in futility.
So, those of us who actually care about this issue are in a difficult spot. It seems that EQ2 has the best gameplay of the genre, but the worst graphics. Were going to have to decide which is more important to us, and that is a choice that we should never have had to make, because the Art Direction of this game should never have produced the character models it did.
If it were up to me, Id hire the people that updated the DAoC engine to revamp the character models. They are most likely looking for work, and I dont think anyone would complain if the characters actually looked good for a change. The only argument I keep hearing is Theyre not that bad. Quit complaining. That certainly doesnt sound like We love the play dough graphics! to me.
I don't care one wit for your pretention or pedigree. That which you find to be attractive is entirely subjective. To argue otherwise is hubris and arrogance.
Except that he's right, Ian.
I think the single most often heard complaint about EQ2 is how bad the graphics are; how bland the characters look, and how the overall "feel" does not seem to fit together well.
Owyn
Commander, Defenders of Order
http://www.defendersoforder.com
It is still opinion, not fact. You can show me 100% of people who feel that they "like" or "dislike" something, and it is still opinion. If you want to specify that there are 300 polygons, that is a fact...if you want to qualify that the polygon count makes the model look "good" or "bad" then you are in the realm of opinion.
Thats news to me. I usually hear it the other way around. Your welcome to look at my character profile in eq2players.com and see some caps of my gameplay, there is nothing bland about it. The only time I have heard people say the graphics arent good or the game lacks color or any other comments like that are people that I or another here have proven that they never even played the game, they were either mimicking someone elses comments or they looked at some bad screen shots (or they are picky like me but didn't bother to try turning on AA for the textures, which is your "doesn't fit together comment).
You can tell me you don't like the graphics, you can tell me you don't like the artists style but I am gonna have to completely discount your opinion to myself if your trying to tell me you think the graphics quality of EQ 2 is poor.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
Vonhase, have you turned on Anti Aliasing via your video card drivers yet for EQ II before you play? If not then I suggest you set it to about 4x AA and then go in. That is the only way I have ever seen the models not seem to fit with the terrain and if you don't have it on then YES the player models do seem cutout-ish from the rest of the terrain and game.
Considering your credentials you listed off I would presume you would have already thought of this, however if you haven't I suggest you try it, I had the exact same issues with the graphics UNTIL I did that.
- Scaris
"What happened to you, Star Wars Galaxies? You used to look like Leia. Not quite gold bikini Leia (more like bad-British-accent-and-cinnamon-bun-hair Leia), but still Leia nonetheless. Now you look like Chewbacca." - Computer Gaming World
I used to be a massive fan of the graphics in EQII but over time my appreciation for it has slowly dwindled.
The Good Press: I'm still awestruck by some impressively designed areas that really demonstrate what massive amounts of flora, bump mapping, bloom and flare can do for a game. I'm also fascinated by EQII's characters that in my opinion resemble real humans more than those in any other MMOG (save for the odd proportions). Unfortunately, I know that I feel this only because the engine is pushing so many polygons. Without my able PC, I would never have been able to appreciate all of the above.
I think the developers took a step in the right direction by creating an engine for the future, one that is not already stale by other genre's standards.
The Bad Press: After staring at a screen for silly amounts of time (as MMOGs make you do) I would become desensitized to the graphical tricks in place to inspire the awe that I first felt. After a while things would begin to look very bland. I think EQII lacks a large amount of style behind all that graphical and animated trickery, something (an overall artistic theme, feel, color palette) that must have been missing or lost in the design process.
I watched a couple of interview videos with the WoW art team, spliced with flyby footage of various landscapes and found myself nodding throughout. To be honest I doubt I'll ever enjoy WoW's graphics as they've gone too far down the low-poly road for my liking, a pompous personal preference that I wish I could ignore but low detail often makes me wince. Never the less those artist knew what they were talking about! The graphics in WoW look so good because of clever art and style decisions that were made in the design process. I gather that the artists restricted themselves to certain design styles and color palettes in the concept stages and translated these ideas into digital art (models, landscapes, textures etc) under stringent conditions. This is what gives each area (and the world as a whole) that cool "style" that EQII sadly doesn't have.
Sadly I know longer follow either game, instead I spend most of my game-time taking an outside look at MMOGs as a whole (playing each game on the market to check out what each developer can add to the genre) while tinkering with my own MMOG design just for kicks until I find a game that I can stick with.
I'm not an artist myself so I'm not entirely sure how well I've understood/explained everything in this post, but if an MMOG of mine were to ever be produced I think it would be important to spend most of my time at the drawing board, then build an engine that will pronounce the artistic style/direction that best fits my game (as I feel Blizzard have done). With funds allowing I would then hope to fortify the engine with graphical tricks and high polygon counts for the benefit of the game in the future, but I wouldn't worry too much about it (having seen WoW's success). I think EQII made the mistake of throwing as much money into the engine as possible, then adding as much art as the engine could push before they worried about direction and style.
Actually the graphics in EQ2 are quite good
The CHARACTER graphics in EQ2 suck though... and it's turned me off to the point where I hardly log in anymore... if it weren't for the fact that I enjoy both PlanetSide and SWG I'd have cancelled my SOE All Access Pass and gone back to just SWG already. It amazes me that the character graphics in EQ1 (seriously now) looked more carefully done and thought out than the ones in EQ2 do. The original character graphics in EQ1 (remember it was 1997 when they started writing em) were astounding for an MMO and, frankly, were better than most PC games as well. The revised character graphics that came with SOL were good too (though some I think were worse than the originals).
Then EQ2 hits
Plastic hair
Cartoony characters
Shoddy movement animation on the toons
I was quite dissapointed in the character graphics. The *other* GAME graphics in EQ2, however, are quite impressive, easily the best, or at least among the best, I've seen to date.
Currently Playing: Dungeons and Dragons Online.
Sig image Pending
Still in: A couple Betas
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