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what do you think of EQ2's graphics?
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One thats released or can I go into the ones that are still in development?
The question here is not if there is a MMO with better graphics than EQ2 but what our opinion is about EQ2's graphics. There are more than enough tech-demos out there mostly as add-on to academical thesis papers which are 3-4 years old already showing how this detail enhancement can be done easily with nearly no overhead using modern graphics hardware.
Ragosch
I for one can't, at least not a live one.
Though I am praying vanguard will at least be equal in overall quality, with more personality. Anyone around here in beta of vanguard to be able to answer what the live graphics are like comparatively? (off topic sorry) Shadows, reflections, flora, heat bloom, lighting aware environment (active armor reflections etc) I dont think thats an NDA breach
Well, that sorta says something for the graphics. After all EQ2 is almost a year and a half old.
In America I have bad teeth. If I lived in England my teeth would be perfect.
Exactly. Well said. It is like you have two completely art styles clashing, the environment and the characters, and they don't look like they go together - that and the fact that the character models have that playdoh hair. ::rolls her eyes::
I also laugh at the trailers term of "new threads". LMAO! They are still prudish and stodgy. God I hate the clothing and armor styles in EQ2.
I have a great computer, I have the latest greatest Asus MOBO, matched with a AMD FX53 CPU, 2 gig of hyperthreaded Kingston ram extreme low latency, dual raptor 70gig 10k rpm HD's and an ATI x800xt vid card. I can play EQII with most settings almost maxed. Here is a screenshot of what it looks like for me.
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=151123&poll_id=0&warned=y
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=151137&poll_id=0&warned=y
http://www.imagedump.com/index.cgi?pick=get&tp=154765&poll_id=0&warned=y
Despite that, the models and environment do not mesh as they should, and that is why the graphics get such a bad rap.
I think the main reason there are so many responses to this thread is cause the EQ2 fanboys keep calling everyone who doesn't like the EQ2 graphics names. I specifically looked at "Eye-candy" when judging this game since I knew what I saw in the game wasn't what was capable of the engine, and I still thought it looked like shit. SOE simply didn't take advantage of the engine; higher poly counts and large texture maps don't exactly make the graphics good. Its how you use the resources available that makes it good. Whoever made them was missing many details that take place in the human body so they ended up looking generic, and plasticy. Although there are a few models I like, like the froglocks; the majority I hate.
In response to the post I made earlier, I wanted to make it clear; since I didnt wanna look like an ass and post games that came after EQ2. With technology and engine capabilities aside. These games achieve a better graphical realistic effect. Lineage 2, Risk your Life, Asheron's Call 2, Gate to Heaven(characters only), Fung Wan Online(characters only), The Sims Online, Eve Online, and City of Heroes. The reason why these ones are more realistic is because they paint in details specific to real life. Like multi-skin tones, the graininess of the skin, low saturation colors, wrinkles, dirt on the clothing, realistic movement, and correct specularity of light on different materials. With 2 exceptions, they also properly create scale.
A common mistake people make about these graphics is they call it too cartoony and anime, simply because some were made in Korea or the details were painted in. They aren't infact they are alot more realistic. If you don't know why then look at pictures of real people and you might figure out why.
Ok anyone who downs this game as far as graphics go is missing something. They are by far the most up to date graphics in any MMORPG that is on the market right now. You have to understand that this game was released with the launch of the 6 series nvidia cards and they still done a great job with new technology that hadn't been played with much. Alot has happened in the last couple of years as far as graphics go.....just look at the screen shots the guy posted above they are great....enough said.
Nobody is disputing that the graphics are technically advanced, but it fails to give the impression of a real world. Certain zones look amazing while others just fail to impress. Take Antonica for example, it's just like one huge repeating texture. Even if you enable foliage, it just looks tacked on rather than belonging on the ground. Other zones like Enchanted Lands look much better than Antonica. Another thing is armor pieces, there's simply not enough variety. Most armor pieces look similar to other pieces with only slight texture and color changes. It just makes for a pretty bland appearance despite the superior graphics technology.
However, I'm still playing the game for the gameplay and the dedication I see the EQ2 team putting into this game. Quests are getting much more involved and fun and new zones and armors look better than their predecessors.
I suppose WoW gives the impression of a real world? And yes EQ2's gameplay is great.
i have a amd x2 4400+ and a geforce 7800gt graphics card and for me the graphics are great but the art and overall design is somewhat lacking. For instance, armours look downright horrible even on extreme quality and there isnt much detail anywhere.
The spell effects are amazing though, really REALLY amazing.
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I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.
AC2: http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/137/925814_20050518_screen002.jpg
EQ2: http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/293/reviews/928031_20051021_screen008.jpg
AC2: http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/137/925814_20050518_screen003.jpg
EQ2: http://img.gamespot.com/gamespot/images/2005/293/reviews/928031_20051021_screen007.jpg
I'll give the slight edge to EQ2 but it was released 2 years after AC2. But as both games showed us, graphics mean almost nothing if the game is just weak
The new EQ2, better than ever befor !
don't click this link...
Do you want to know what's the best in EverQuest II?
Ok.
Since last tuesday my character is blocked in the "Connecting to zone server" and I've sent more than 10 tickets without answer.
Friends tried to contact the customer support too in order to help me, so they got no answer.
I'm sorry to say this in a EQ2 Graphics discussion, but I'm so angry and asking myself about why a great company like SOE steals 5 days of gameplay (and more, because I've the problem alive yet) caused by some bug and they don't have the detail of tell you "Ok we're sorry. We're going to unblock your character and we inform you we're fixing the bug.".
Preparing my weapons to fire as EQ2 servers as possible if tomorrow I can't play!
I cant stand them, and I cant stand that half the up and comming MMOs are trying to copy them. I have a 7800 so dont even tell me its just that my comp can handle them. Its that when you try to make the world look that real...it becomes disgustingly obvious how simulated it is. I would take the cartoony look of WoW and CoH or even the anime looks of L2 or RF over it anyday...I am also interested in the art of spellborn, but I think they overdid it by throwing the perspectives way out of wack...
but yea...EQ2 gfx blow ass
(some of the terrain is pretty, yes...but the models are horrible and the armor even worse)
I personally think they have no soul.
They remind me of how plastic and boring Doom 3/FEARQuake 4 and all these newer games look!
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Don't click here...no2
after running through the empty streets of freeport, id have to say that the art team could do better with the tools they are given.
The game seriously lacks color, then need to remove those 50 different shades of brown and add some serious color to the game.
If you play the game on extreme quality with full AA and AF like those screens someone posted, yes the game does look quite good. Unfortunately you need a 5000$ rig to come close to an acceptable framerate at those settings, which most players dont have.
_____________________
I am the flipside of the coin on which the troll and the fanboy are but one side.
The character models are just gross for most of the races. I still like Frogloks though, the only race I liked from EQ1 too. At least the backgrounds are nice enough, will probably buy it anyways whenever they release the expansion. Graphics aren't all that important. I still think WoW's style is terrible too, male NE's and Humans were probably the ugliest things i'd seen until this.
If you send a portfolio with stuff like this for an application as graphics artist you should better not wait for their call.
But I guess I'm out of it anyways, since I have no clue of CG. Which I get told by someone who can't distinguish between graphical capabilities of the engine or the art in it. Let alone know what process is involved in creating game art or how to spell uv mapping.
www.gLitterbug.org
My opinion boils down to: The world art is "okay", but the characters are terrible and all-in-all you get little in return for the resources that the game demands. Anything that walks around looks as though they're pasted into the scene.
Awhile back I read someone's comments comparing the EQ2 character models to Bryce 3D models, so I checked some screen shots of Bryce 3D stuff. The similarities were obvious.
Then there's the lack of originality. This makes EQ2 feel as though they created a single small collection of textures for the entire game world, and then reused those textures and covered them up with as many shaders and particles as possible. The lack of originality in clothing and armor alone is so severe that it feels, to me, as though they're using a free texture pack.
That's not the case, obviously, but take the movie linked to by the OP. The first text that splashes on screen is "make your character unique". Up to this point you have had recoloring of existing textures. That's pretty much it, you otherwise look like everyone else's character. It's a big enough issue that this is now a selling point for their new expansion.
That lack of original visuals is just as damaging as simply having awful graphics. You can have the best graphics system ever created, but it's going to look ho-hum and uninspired if it's not put to work.
EQ2 definitely has its "wow!" moments and I wouldn't say that it looks terrible. That's obviously not the case. Some things are done really well, but those moments are rare. What you generally get is a very sterile, unliving game world that looks generated rather than artistically created.
It can look really pretty, but it's not necessarily "good".
I like the graphics in EQ2.
I like to have the most up to date graphics cards and other equipment. It's my hobby. And I have fun with it. And of all the games I've played so far EQ2 takes advantage of more features that my system has to offer.
But it's not just that they took advantage of all of the technology on my system, I think they took advantage of it very well artistically. In my opinion they didn't just haphazardly throw some effects here and there. They are well thought out where they are placed.
I like the fact that the spell effects cast shadows, very dynamic. I think the water looks really good, especially the rivers when they are flowing by, like in Nektulos Forest. I like the specular effects and the way the sky looks. I like the way the textures respond to the lighting when I walk by. The character models armor is just amazing, especially the way it responds to light. And the character models themselves are rendered so smooth and sharp. Then there's the flora, whey you walk past it it moves like you've disturbed it with your feet. But my favorite part is how things look when it rains. The environment actually looks wet.
I think it's all a matter of opinion. I mean, some people think that the graphics in WoW look good. They sort of do. But I got bored with them because, like I said, I'm more into the cutting edge technology side of it all. And WoW just doesn't take advantage of too much of that stuff. The character shadows in WoW are just a circle below you. And when you get up close to stuff in WoW it's just blurry. The magic kind of wears off when it looks like someone smeared Vaseline all over your crisp graphics. And the water in WoW leaves a lot to be desired. And the character models, well... I don't think I need to explain too much about those.
I can't wait until even more technology comes out and EQ2 is going to be ready for it.
Man, hasn't this topic been discussed time and time again already?
All I have to say is last night I watched Madagascar on On Demand. While I was watching it I started thinking about how cool the graphics were. Then I realized something.
EQ2 graphics are about as close as you can get to the CGI motion pictures these days. Movies like Shrek, Toy Story, The Incredibles etc.
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I was just going to say that I can run the graphics on max quality and my rig only cost 600 dollars. I can post screen shots if you would like and rig specs.