Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Advantages of "Stylized" Graphics
robert4818
Member UncommonPosts: 661
Games with simpler stylized graphics have an advantage over "realistic" graphics for a variety of reasons.
The most obvious is processing power. Simpler graphics are able to run on a larger spread of machines.
However, there is a subtler, yet almost more important reason to have simpler stylized graphics over realistic ones. Its easier for people to "accept" them. What do I mean by that? Its a mental issue. When graphics are simple and stylized, people's minds will suspend disbelief easier than they do with realistic graphics. The more realistic graphics become in visual quality, the more realistic and fluid the animations have to become in order for the mind to "accept" them.
If you take a "cartoony" game like WOW, you're mind will glaze over stiffer animations. On th other hand, if you decide to make you're game photo-realistic, those same stiffer animations stick out like a sore thumb. Your mind objects, and it keeps your attention, breaking your suspension of disbelief.Games with simpler stylized graphics have an advantage over "realistic" graphics for a variety of reasons.
The most obvious is processing power. Simpler graphics are able to run on a larger spread of machines.
However, there is a subtler, yet almost more important reason to have simpler stylized graphics over realistic ones. Its easier for people to "accept" them. What do I mean by that? Its a mental issue. When graphics are simple and stylized, people's minds will suspend disbelief easier than they do with realistic graphics. The more realistic graphics become in visual quality, the more realistic and fluid the animations have to become in order for the mind to "accept" them.
If you take a "cartoony" game like WOW, you're mind will glaze over stiffer animations. On th other hand, if you decide to make you're game photo-realistic, those same stiffer animations stick out like a sore thumb. Your mind objects, and it keeps your attention, breaking your suspension of disbelief.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Comments
Stylized meaning crappy cartoon like graphics most comparable to WoW and ToR?
Not a fan .
becuase not graphics look real. You might as well make them look attractive.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
Imho, there is a common prejudice among people that stylised approach automaticaly means poor graphics and comic book art style. Game can still be stylised and use advanced graphics. Aion is a good example. Also, stylised =/= cartoon/comic book inspireed visuals. GW2 is a nice example of that....
i like most is for realistic graphics and it gives more enthusiasm in playing the game.
Suspend belief more easily?
I don't know. You might have a good point. Thinking about how some cartoons can get away with extremely raunchy content (South Park, Family Guy) in ways a live action couldn't pull off (see the South Park episode about the last Indiana Jones movie for e.g.). Is that because we see them as not reality more readily?
I wonder about the psychological interaction going on here. There does seem to be an almost inborn human capacity for abstract depiction. I also wonder if it is different for different people.
Perhaps some people find stylized depictions give them just the outlines and they imagine the detailed world, whereas others want it all imagined for them.
I don't think there is a right or wrong there, some people would rather read the book and others watch the movie. Some like to do both.
I don't have a strong preference in games. I found AoC awesome, I also like the look of Ryzom and CO. Aion made me laugh too much.
"Never met a pack of humans that were any different. Look at the idiots that get elected every couple of years. You really consider those guys more mature than us? The only difference between us and them is, when they gank some noobs and take their stuff, the noobs actually die." - Madimorga
In many cases, they age better.
I also do not have the aversion to them that some people seem to have, I really enjoy different artstyles in comic books and cartoons, even if they take some getting used to.
As long as they clearly bring their own touch into the setting.
In fact, I find realistic graphics pretty boring most of the time, although shooting sims and such are better off with of course.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Example.
Lets say I create 2 games.
One with a very anime style (say for a dragonball z mmo) I could get away with oversized eyes, and extreme facial expressions.
Even though they are not realistic, the mind doesn't pick out "something is wrong" when those are used. (A person's opinion of that style might make them dislike them, but they mind won't reject the looks of them)
On the other hand, the other game is realistic looking. In order to convey those same emotions, I have to have a much more detailed facial expression, otherwise, the players mind will think "That doesn't look right, their face is "Too wooden".
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
The "uncanny valley" theory applies here.
Things that are inhuman, but have human qualities to a degree, generally are considered to be cute and likeable. Like baby animals, for instance. Likewise, games that don't go for realism get accepted more easily because people are focus on how cute or interesting something is.
Things that are supposed to be human, but are off somehow, creep people out. I know alot of people at that are creeped out by mannequins...and of course many people get uncomfortable with deformed people. So in a game that goes for realism, if they don't get it just right, people will either feel uneasy looking at the art, or focus on how it doesn't look right.
To a degree, "stylized" is a marketing catch phrase. Every art style is a style, so the term "stylized" is quite vague. Perhaps its only true meaning is that the game art follows one style (which is no small task on a large project with multiple artists,) but it's probably inaccurate to claim this is the "true" meaning since virtually nobody uses it to mean that.
If we pretend "stylized" means graphics which strive for maximum visual impact at minimal technical/performance cost, then obviously that sort of efficiency is tremendously desirable. But I don't really think stylized evokes that.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
That's pretty much what has been determined in studies about androids. Attempts at making androids that could pass for human results in something that is close to "real", but different enough that it triggers a response in the brain similar to seeing a camouflaged tiger. You know something's wrong, but you can't pinpoint exactly what isn't right, so it must be something dangerous. Your brain will repeatedly note that something is wrong. It's easier to accept something that isn't real when it doesn't bother trying to look real, than something that isn't real and tries, but only almost looks real.
* edit - bansan named it - "The Uncanny Valley"
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
That's an interesting theory...
And definitely one I can find myself in, although I wouldn't go so far as 'feeling threatened' by games sporting realistic graphics...
But stuff like this is definitely way creepier because it looks real..
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
As long as a game doesn't kill my eyes I could careless about graphics...
I don't see why people stress them so much honestly.
Exactly!
Now compare the "creepyness" of that robot, with the easy feeling of This one.
So long, and thanks for all the fish!
Perhaps my brain responds differently than most but I instantly turned off by cartoony graphics; it's the second largest contributing factor (behind atrocious looking gameplay) to me not liking TOR.
I just look at screenshots and videos and can't help but think how awful and silly it looks. I think it's more difficult to take things seriously if they look silly.
Here's my two cents and then some:
There's nothing wrong with a game looking like a game.
When you try to make your game look realistic, several things happen.
First off, you fail. There are a lot of effects, like intrareflection, that just can't be simulated well with current technology. maybe at some point we'll have the processing power to handle these things, but until then we get game that are mostly brown to cover up the things that can't be simulated.
Speaking of brown, every game starts to look the same. Hell, even real life isn't as dull and drab as most "gritty" and "realistic" aciton games out now. Take screen shots of Modern Warfare 2, Medal of Honor: Black OPs and Battlefield: Bad Company 2. If you had no internal knowlege of these games (maps, featured weapons, story setting, engine features etc.) would you be able to tell them apart without being told?
And lastly is the lampshading of anything that doesn't seem real. When I'm in an environment that looks real, I sorta notice, like a whole lot, when my character eats a half a clip of enemy ammo, heals completely after resting for two minutes, and lives through an explosion while standing ten feet away from the initial blast area. Running full tilt after pulling a bullet out of your leg (Farcry 2) and enemies living after point-blank headshots are punctuated by realistic graphics. Cartoon or comic book graphics don't have this problem because we've already accepted that the reality is different from our own.
But hey, what do I know? What's important is that all the big tough manly men of gaming don't catch "t3h ghey" from cartoony art styles. Right?
I think it really depends on the game...
Something like AoC needs realistic graphics...
LotRO and anything Star Wars should have realistic character graphics...
DDO would be great with more so called "Stylized" or comic book-esque graphics...IMO DC Universe would be good with them too...
...to me it all depends on the game and the IP it comes from
PLAYING: NOTHING!!!
PLAYED:FFXI, LotRO, AoC, WAR, DDO, Megaten, Wurm, Rohan, Mabinogi, RoM
WAITING FOR: Dust 514
We have these shitty cartoony style because of the limitation of the technology today. It will come a day when a mmo will look like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ipYlHNvFVY
and it will not look strange. it will feel just right.
Um... games are already green and brown and covered with cheesy bloom effects.
I cannot help to think that bro wants to do naughty things with that robot.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
gonna have to agree, there are more realistic examples out there, that is rather cartoonie.
"Society in every state is a blessing, but government even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one ..." - Thomas Paine
Realistic looking graphics will always fail.
First reason is that they need top nocht game gear to be playable.
Then, as says before, you need a lot more work to make them realistic (animations). In fact going 100% realistic is impossible. Even rendered theatre movies that are calculated on frame to frame ratio don't feel realist.
Third is the technology aging. No matter how you make them realistics, they never will be as real as true 'senses' , they could be the best you can do a time 'T', and blow mind aways, they will be outdated with the next generation.
I think realistic graphics is just a way to make us 'consume' more and keep seeling us new gear every year.
Stylized is a synonym for crappy. All this "wow's graphics are stylized, not cartoony" is pretty stupid. Also photo realism is a kind of style.
There is always LARP'ing for those that want that ultra realism over stylized style.
Paramount importance, to me at least, is game play. Stylised graphics seems to be a better engine to delever to that end. Games with the more realistic look, stand on that point alone.
When EQ2 launched it looked
GREAT!!!!, but you needed an over clocked, watercooled, super machine at the time to run it, and heck, it probably was still glitchy.
Where as Wow, remember not comparing the games, just the play style, before it became the juggernaut behemoth of mediocrity that it is today, was pritty good at launch.
Presently I'm enjoying the heck out of some minecraft, with it's blocks and N64 level world graphics. Would it be a better game if it was more realistic? I'm not sure, but the gameplay rocks. Building a stylised National Mall with blocks is more fun than being able to count the scales on a fish in a cut scene.
I think GW2 is a great example of stylized graphics. There are lots of ways to go though I recommend against cubism.