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Cant say Im very impressed by the gfx
Yamota
Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
After all the hype and that you needed a monster of a system to run this gameI was expecting really good gfx but from what I have seen so far, with spell gfx and character models/animations then this game doesnt come even close to EQ 2 or even Lineage II. This is on High gfx settings.
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I think the graphics are ok, but I agree - given all the system demands its quite a surprise how "average" they are. I thought LOTRO with WAY less polygons looks MUCH better, but thats mainly a matter of good use of placement, design and use of colour, light and fog. VG is all in some bright, artificial light and many sub par textures. But I hope they work on it. Khal is a good example.
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I had an old gaming laptop that I played VG/LotRO on, so I had to run the lowest graphic settings for both games. LotRO's were clearly superior at the low end.
Low end VG graphics had objects popping into view just a few feet ahead of me, while LotRO still managed to create a good feeling of depth to the world.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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Lotro graphics are nice for sure, but they never give me the same feeling as VG when I fly above the desert seeing palms miles away along the river. LOTRO graphics are minimalistic with pretty low distance view.
REALITY CHECK
The models and animations are often criticized. SOE is working on fixing the models to start with. They are very inefficiently resource wise and are said to contribute the high system reqs.
People in the community often laud the utter beauty and realism of the outdoors.
VG blows the competition away here IMO. WOW is pretty and well put together but often EQ2 landscapes just look like they were thrown together by some programmers, not professional artists. VG is draw-droppingly beautiful and I just wandered around in awe for while after I got a new system that could max out all of the settings.
There are some nice screenshots in these forums if anyone is interested. Graphic style preferences are a matter of opinion of course. E.g. Some people like WOW graphics some can’t stand it.
I think the graphix are quite amazing also, but at the expense of the high system requirements, it's a push...lol
I was flying over some trees on Rudolf, and with the new weather system it was snowing like mad. And the trees were swaying back and forth in the wind. I had to move around them, so it wouldn't stop my flying mount in it's tracks. That to me is immersion. Pretty awesome imo!
The environment gfx are nice, nothing amazing, atleast not on high settings but they are nice. However I spend most of my time watching either my own avatar, or whatever Im fighting/interacting with or the spell effects and neither of those are particulary good, the character models I would say are even bad, on par with EQ 1. EQ 2 and Lineage 2 are much better in this regard.
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VG largely depends on your graphics card.
I have a NVidia 8800 GTS and its awesome.
Also LOTR/WoW is too sterile by the environment of VG, which is so varied by comparison as VG is simple huge and has environmental factors.
Some areas in VG however do need a polish and they have been doing this for the last year, it will get there.
I guess though it is largely depended on the viewers eye.
Now playing: VG (after a long break from MMORPGS)
Played for more than a month: Darkfall online, Vanguard SOH, Everquest, Horizons, WoW, SWG, Everquest II, Eve
Vanguard was clearly made by talented people who had no real leader, so everything is disorganised and turns out to be a mess.
VG largely depends on your graphics card.
I have a NVidia 8800 GTS and its awesome.
Also LOTR/WoW is too sterile by the environment of VG, which is so varied by comparison as VG is simple huge and has environmental factors.
Some areas in VG however do need a polish and they have been doing this for the last year, it will get there.
I guess though it is largely depended on the viewers eye.
That is interesting, but still I doubt that it will make the character models and animation better. For example in melee combat it looks just ridicilous when a mob stands a good 2-3 metres away from me and yet is able to connect with his tiny little dagger or teeth.It seems like the devs put alot of effort in the environment but very little effort in characters and how they interact with each other in combat, for example.
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I really like the new weather effects for the most part. It needs work though. I could literaly step from blinding snow storm into a heavy downpour into a sunny day all within 1 chunk. Also the trees swaying is a nice touch but some of them sway a little to much. I saw trees swaying all the way down to the ground.
They swayed to the roots! looked more like this
than the way an actual tree sways in the wind.
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C'mon, micromanaging.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
C'mon, micromanaging.
The worst thing bout the combat is the way it looks, the spell effects and animations are soo bland and boring and every time you get hit it's the same animation + the same tin sound for everything you hit and the characters look like dolls with no emotion or movement.
When i used to play VG on a 7600gs and a P4 i didn't really think it looked THAT good either, i mean some things like the enviroment were better than most games, but i didn't think the graphics were near good enough for such poor performance. Even if i put the setting as high as they could go, it didn't look that good and played like crap.
But, after i got a brand new pc, a C2D 6750 with an 8800 card and turned the graphics up to max the goodness really started to shine through. Things like the shader 4.0 on 8800s must really make all the difference. Now there are plenty of things i don't like about the game at this point, but i have to say graphics are definately not one of them. I think graphically, everything about this game blows away all other games i've played, and there isn't much that i haven't played. Sure there are games like Crysis and CoD4 that look much much better, but as far as mmos go, VG stands head and shoulders above the rest IMO.
Ok this is news for me. I thought if the setting was on max then it would look the same regardless if you had a GF 7800 or 8800, except ofcourse the performance would be worse.
Guess I have to revisit this game when I get a GF 8800.
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IMO the game looks great and I don't know why you'd complain about it. You won't find any better aside from EQ2 (IMO EQ2 looks better as a whole.. it feels "alive" and populated while VG feels barren to me).
If you don't like it though then you don't like it. Move on and play something else. If the graphics are your only complaint then you need to just play and enjoy the game. I'm sorry, but it doesn't get much better then that.
The main issue is the Animations though. They're HORRID. I do agree there. Bad animations ruin the immersion IMO.
[ Played ] 2Moons, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Everquest II, Guild Wars, HellGate: London, Lord of the Rings Online, Rappelz, RF Online, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Last Chaos
[ Playing ] Everquest II
[ Waiting ] Aion, Age of Conan
It does actually make a difference, the 8800s have shader model 4.0 and other things like it that will make the very same settings look better than an older card with shader 3.0 etc. Older cards simply don't have the tools to utilize certain shading techniques and things like that which the 8800 series can. There is alot more to it than simply performance increases with higher cards.
VG is 2.0
[ Played ] 2Moons, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest, Everquest II, Guild Wars, HellGate: London, Lord of the Rings Online, Rappelz, RF Online, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies, Sword of the New World, Tabula Rasa, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Last Chaos
[ Playing ] Everquest II
[ Waiting ] Aion, Age of Conan
Well then, i'm not sure what the reason is, but almost every game i play looks much better on my 8800gt than it did with a 7600gs, even with maxed settings being used for both cards. One huge difference i've noticed is the lighting on trees against a sunny background coming through the leaves in Vg and Lotro. And blur effects seem to look better in alot of games.
I was told shader model 4.0 made alot of difference in Vg and DnL a while back, so that's where i got that from. I know the game may only have a 2.0 or 3.0 requirement but i didn't know it couldn't utilize 4.0.
C'mon, micromanaging.
The worst thing bout the combat is the way it looks, the spell effects and animations are soo bland and boring and every time you get hit it's the same animation + the same tin sound for everything you hit and the characters look like dolls with no emotion or movement.
Ive had melee mobs hitting me from 6 or 7 meters away in wow , i like the way you people trash vanguard for stuff thats in every game
And as far as spell effects they look good on my machine put i can play the game every setting maxed at 1920x1200 , there sure alot better than most games , that totally go over the top with spell effects and such . It was real fun in wow been melee with spell caster hitting your target like a frost mage and alls you could see was a white screen till his spell effects went away than boom another one would hit pretty stupid if you ask me even scrolled out all the way the over the top spell effects ruined the experence in my IMO
You also have to look at good in terms of technical standards. Like one poster said L2... yea the characters look good but they are rendered differently.
L2 for example uses a model and puts on a torso leg head texture. VG however uses independantly rendered objects. eyes fingers hair eyelashes (if you look close enough) are all rendered with VERY high resolution textures... even though IMO they are very bland. if you zoom in real close and examine these and have some form of knowledge of how this stuff works it's noticiable
that being said however 90% of consumers DON"T know the differenc in rendering engines or type or style and just go... oh this looks like crap. And in the end thats all that matters what is apealing and what isn't. Having a backround in graphic design and art production i can point out kinda how stuff is put together
The high demands on system is DUE to independant rendering IE: every leav on a tree renders seperatly as opposed to render it as 1 entity with clear texture parts.
In the end it's what look good and does't have to be diesected to like. IMO L2 charactet models (not landscape) and LOTR is over all more apeasing for the player. Vanguard however is more technically awe inspiring and well made (it'd be good for pixar lol) but doesn't translate into a good engine for an MMO IMO it's too demanding to be able to make decen textures and good animation. Though VG landscapes are beasutifull you don't see it enough to make the engine what it could have been.
sorry about spelling it's late
It's a matter of personal taste. Some like manga style, some like cartoonish - I like the more "real world" look that VG provides (not saying I dislike the other styles). I would say that the models (characters, weapons, items, buildings, boats etc.) are extremely detailed and goodlooking. The hi-res textures are also very nice overall, but there are other some textures that could be a lot better (most of the bigger rock formations and mountains looks really bad close up).
There's still a lot of room for performance improvements, even if I never had any gamebraking issues with it (not even in beta). GU3 made a big difference, and I don't have to disable shadows or turn down the detail level one step anymore as I had to do during a dungeon crawl with a full group in the past.
I can't complain about the animations, but it can look a bit funny sometimes if you zoom out and have the animation LOD setting on default since it kind of skips frames in the animation. Basic auto attack animations look a bit stiff though, wouldn't hurt if there were a couple of randomized animations for it.
I have turned down the spell particle effects setting since I don't enjoy staring at flashing lights while being MT in a dungeon so I can't say if they are bland or not.
Environment in this game from the foliage to the distanced detail and photorealism are far superior to any mmo I've played or seen. Standing on the top of a mountain and looking out as far as the eye can see is awe inspiring at times.
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The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.
OP forgot to put "IMHO".
Cause IMHO they are better than EQ2 and run smoother, dont know about Lineage 2.
Yeh heh funny you mentioned that, I was in a gameclub this weekend and heared yelling from a guy playing WoW. He was obviously pretty irritated. He was playing a hunter and yelled at some mob that was attacking him on melee, altho he saw him far away. He couldn't attack him ranged (it said the target is too close) and he couldn't attack him on melee (it said he's too far). From the yells it didnt look like it's something that is happening ocasionally, but rather pretty often.
REALITY CHECK
this is a fair thread for a change
it seems people are realising that its all just opinion at last
my opionion is at high end VG has no competition at all. eq2 is better at low end but at high end theres no comparison. Of course, just my opinion 
But for the fighting a mob and being too far from them....lets face it thats always been a problem with these games. I remember going on raids in WOW and eq1 & 2 and its always been the same 