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Are SWTOR graphics evolving?
Nugol432
Member Posts: 2
Here’s a video comparing early SWTOR graphics to some of the newer ones, is this a change in direction from stylized realism to a more photo realistic look?
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Logun makes the absolute best videos for SWTOR, especially his comparisons and breakdowns. His animation compilation video is one of my favorites.
The graphics in SWTOR have been evolving, you can see it in the early combat videos too. This comparison vid really shows the amazing detail from a game so many hail as being very "cartoony" but the realistic details with the faces and the expressions really are far above most MMOs we've seen to date.
Good find there Nugol
Logun always has interesting videos. It wil be interesting to see what the graphics look like in PaX east as they have time to grow even fuirther since mid 2010.
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Is ToR going to be good? Dude it's Bioware making a freaking star wars game, all signs point to awesome. -G4tv MMo report.
Speaking of PAX East, I recall the interview with a CM at Bioware on TOR-Talk and the CM mentioned to 'be at PAX East' when the talk become more specific than what was announced.
I suspect we'll get more details.
Btw, did anyone notice the 'we'll have a lot more on SWTOR in the next investors call' by EA during the last one?
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Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
The improvement is remarkable, really.
Just makes me think back to when the game was first announced, and how so many were quick to harshly judge the appearance of the game.
This man liked watching the video. (to make it clear im talking about myself)
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I clicked around loguns channel (also subscribed ehem..) and the guy [james ohlen] said that 15-20% of people choose the evil path when making decisions. Just interesting. I wonder if the number of people who choose the empire over the republic will still be 50% though or even ironically more people may play empire even though they want to do good for the empire (which of course as any good republican knows is like a mubarak supporter trying to clean the streets in support of the regime... wait what? they were overthrown? man am i behind.. [with my analogies that is.. (what, libya already? man.. slow down..)] )
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great find. the graphics are always improving in cycles so I cant wait to see the final cut once the game ships
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Of course graphics are evolving. Stuff like shadows and lightning is something you add relatively late in any game and it adds a lot to any game, just turn them off in any game and see the difference.
There will of course be more than that fixed up.
Wow, the close ups on the graphics look really nice.
In Bioware we trust!
Hmm ... character graphics might have improved a lot but going from being 'a big concern' to 'up to par with best in the genre' is a HUGE leap of wishful thinking in my opinion ...
In other words; I think his conclusions are off, or at least very much exagerated and based on just a few screenshots / very selective footage, and even then; mainly on one old npc's wrinkled face.
The rest of the newer close ups: the dark skinned guy, the sith warrior and the blindfolded woman weren't so convincing to me at all and often paled in comparison with his examples of characters in other games. (Apart from WOW's outdated looks ofcourse).
Player characters still look very bland and 'plasticy' in my opinion.
He is very right is assessing that player character faces are very important though, looking at the frequent close-up moments in the game. So I hope that Bioware will put in some more effort before launch because personally I don't think the characters are up to par with the awesome grapics of the world quite yet; their faces and animation skeletons still look much to 'string-puppety' simplistic in my mind.
Maybe it's something you get used to while playing though: works for WOW as well.
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Awesome find bro +1
Logun does a good job for sure.
I would say most people who hate on SW:TOR because of the graphics would be impressed by that video.
I think the one thing it did for me was rest assure that the initial bad feeling I got when watching the old footage (that it looked too cartoony) is no longer warrented.
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He had a point in regard to the "dead" look that you get from the eyes of characters in RIFT, but also as he pointed out - different people prefer different styles. I simply prefer the more "photo-realistic" than I do the - I still cannot get past thinking the TOR graphics are a slightly more mature version of Clone Wars.
Have to agree that many of the environments look awesome. The characters though still look cartoony. They have evolved from being on par to the Fisher-Price graphics that WoW has; but they are still heavily rooted in that niche.
And again, cut scenes - dialogue - etc. Are we "playing" the game or are we "watching" the game?
There is no denying the graphics have vastly improved in just over a year and those that are fine with the style have much to cheer about...
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What I found interesting is watching the dialogue sequences between TOR and GW2. I didn't really realize what you would be looking at in GW2 and it seems like they are pulling you out of the game to tell you about whats going on and allow you to make your choices. SWTOR in the patented BioWare fashion puts the shine on with expressions, emotions, movement... just a more avid interaction.
In that aspect, between the two, I feel even though you'll be watching both games in regards to the story sequences, I think you'll feel more a part of the SWTOR world as you'll be interacting, watching the characters and the area around you. While I do get the "plastic-y" feel in some of the characters still, I think they've done a tremendous job at making the characters... lively.
I like what that walton guy said ; wow games sometimes it feels like you're being dragged/pulled
with dragon age i never felt pushed, pulled, dragged.. more like led
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I understand that liking/disliking cutscenes and excessive dialogue in games is entirely subject to personal taste, but if you've played some of Bioware's other games, like Draon Age and Mass Effect, the question of "playing" versus "watching" during dialogue shouldn't even arise. Participating in dialogue in those games is anything but a passive experience. On the contrary, it is extraordinarily engaging.
Personally (and this is where my tastes lie), I frequently saved before conversations in those games so I could reload the game and try the conversations all over again, testing out the different branches the conversation could take. And in Mass Effect, unlike a great many other games, I never once found myself trying to fast forward through conversations or avoid talking to random NPCs. It was a joy and pleasure each and every time. I trust Bioware to do something similar for SWTOR.
(Just for the record, I'm not a star wars fan at all and probably won't play this game (although I wouldn' t pass up a beta opportunity). So definitely don't label me as a fanboy
)
Good and much needed improvements in the faces indeed. A good job.
What still is needed to do:
- less huge hands (they look like from Hulk)
- less clothing looking like painted on the skin
- more variety in hairstyles
- better textures on some environment, like rocks asf.
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I'd love some less heroic proportions, but I don't think that will happen.
On another note, even if the character graphics improve, I think it'll always be behind the spectacular environment graphics, because those graphics can compete with the best in the MMO genre.
But what SWTOR could be great at is the character animation, facial expressions and allround liveliness of the avatars: I've seen how expert Bioware is with those in a game as ME2, and it seems that bc of the cutscenes and stuff the character/facial animation is taking a sortlike direction in SWTOR.
If they can approach maybe not the detail but the liveliness in them that ME2 has, then the SWTOR characters cound end up being the most expressive in an MMORPG.
We'll see how far they've come with this at launch.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
This and better walking/running animations.
And top of all the ability to hide the oversized shoulder pads along an appearance tab toggle.
He must of heard you he has another video up on Walk/Run animations ..
Linkified^^
Nice vid this one. Running looks pretty good imo, the casual walk still has a distinct "Oh crap, I pooped in ma pants ..." factor though.
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Heh, looked surprisingly better than I'd expected, imagine that.
I don't know as for the walking, that first one looked pretty good and subtly natural. I did notice that there seem to be differences between the animations, older and newer builds mixed together?
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Personally I'm glad they've stucvk with the Art Style choice, I do see what people mean about the proportions though. Good to see some decent textures in the PAX 2010 footage. Looking good to me, and they are almost certainly still tweaking shaders and lighting efffects.
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I've liked the art style from day one anyway, but the grphics are steadily improving. Considering that we don't even have a firm release date yet they may well have another few months for finishing touches.
I on the other hand was pretty worried about the graphics. Bioware has definitely improved the graphics tremendously since I last saw them. I am looking forward to SWToR quite a bit.