Visual Quality

So, are we done with updates concerning the graphics?
While I don't hate the environment, my character still have this shiny plastic look that I can't stand.

I remember Darkstarr saying : Visual Quality: Efforts to improve visual quality are ongoing. We will continue to iterate on these until we have highly competitive visuals.

I honestly think, we're far from the highly competitive visuals.

So devs, any update on that ?

 

Hm. Depends.

I think we are quiet good on graphics. Tek-Demos and solo-actions aside i have not seen any better unity game. In fact much unity stuff is faaar behind.
(In fact what i have seen ohters doing with unity i never thought Sota would look so amazing)
So not sure how much more we can get on this. Unity is relatively heavy on CPU.
Getting better... as far as i hear rumors... but we will see what next versions will bring to us.

But regarding graphics tech... well would be very interesting to hear about stuff like change to vulkan api and integrate some vr api stuff.
Both in theory is part of unity. But no idea here what is theory and what is in reality doable.

Not quiet sure about about your plastic look... there are a bunch of people i come across everyday in reality 1.0 which look a lot more plastic to me
But if high-end graphics is what brings you to computer-games... well... unity is probably not your horse.

 

Ill probably get a verbal bashing or excommunicated by some but...i like
Shrouds visuals + the vibrant colours.

See it running on Markee Dragons super computer before his PC becomes self aware then...singularity. it looks brilliant.

I think artistry is where Shroud is doing pretty well. + some of the recent areas.

 

The environment graphics are nice enough, but the characters do look super plastic. I wouldn't complain if the characters got redone. They still need an animation rework as well.

 

+1 Here .. Graphic is Awsome, in my perspective... but the Character animation, just need a little bit more love.

 

I like the graphics for the most part, but I agree there are certain things in game that look 'plastic', too glossy, or too reflective. Overall, I enjoy the graphics and really think that the game performance/mechanics are more of an issue, and should be addressed first.

 

Disagree... I like the graphics.
However, nothing is ever 'done'. All things will be iterated over and improved until the end of (virtual) time.
Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...
Same as it ever was...

 

Yes I agree, and we also need more character creation options!
Environment graphics are pretty good really.

 

World graphics are amazing, character and UI graphics need some work.

 

As far as I know, they just updated Unity to the newer version. That will affect graphic rendering to the extend.

I do no recall any dev mentioned that the visual quality/graphic works are done, though.

 

Being an artist myself, I need be honest and say what I like and what I think can be improved.

Environment work and world building is probably the best thing about SotA visuals.

The worst, the avatars/npcs models. Yes, we also need more and better animations, but they are not bad at all. The character models (avatars/npcs), from my point of view, it's the lowest quality aspect atm. For a game with a big and strong social side, the character creation options are insufficient, and low quality. Second worst thing for me is the UI, no need to say more about an issue we already discussed

I'm sure we will see some improvements in next months and years.


Important to say, the engine does not give you the graphics, so don't try to compare this game with other Unity games, you can even find worse graphics in games using UE. Art comes from artists skills, the engine just adds like a 5-10% with some post-process effects (AO, AA, color correction, etc) to improve the global final image.

 

Shroud is doing some amazing things, particularly with dynamic shadows and movable lights (although a bunch of the crafted ones aren't casting dynamic shadows bug).

I love the scenery in the new scenes. And when it goes from day to night or back, wow!

If you aren't playing with shadows, do so. Then go to the world map, stand under a tree and cast a light spell. Or run around with antlers or wings on.

But yeah, faces in particular need some love. And more hair styles. The clothing looks pretty great (except for the diaper cloaks, that should be fixed ASAP as a major source of pain for everyone) but not the characters skin.

Compare it to graphics of other games and we're actually pretty far ahead in environment and dynamic shadows though. So if the performance can catch up to the visuals, that part is going to be at the forefront soon.

 

thanks for this post. It's nice to see someone else who knows what they are talking about actually give a balanced and unbiased answer.

 

My only complaint when it comes to graphics is and has been for a while that all NPC's are the same. We have started seeing diversity, but for a long while they were all the same. I recently ran into Aerie, and saw a few new "skins" and I actually stood there analyzing them a bit, and it made me really happy to find those!

I feel like environment wise this game is magnificent, and I rarely feel like I'm looking at a digital envelope surrounding a stick, I actually feel the environment, it is THERE, you can feel a storm brewing, you can feel the wind, the environment speaks and you can hear it, it's only flaw is some traps look a bit rushed (like some spiked floors or breaking floors which are often WAY too obvious)

Character model is dull, but hidden behind so much gear that I hardly pay attention to it, but I was disappointed to not be able to play with muscle size and so one, everyone has the same "frame" with very weak differences to their faces. I would love to see y'all and skinny People, short and fat ones, viking style "fridges" that we nickname here, people who are tall and wide, but not fat, just strong. Our character is supposed to be a virtual representation of ourselves, and I can guarantee that I am not as tall and not as slim as Marcus, and would live to make him a bit tougher on the shoulders, a bit fatter on the belly, and drop his height a few inches to look more like me, considering I play him how I act in real life, with a few exceptions, and would love to get the looks close too!

 

I wish we could get a word from the devs about that.

 

Why I didn't get an answer for a question like that one ? I mean, from the devs..
I would appreciate an answer as this is a legitimate question.

 

Only area that I think needs any real improvement is character animations, some of the combat skill animations in particular are pretty clunky. Visually the world to beautiful to me, and I really love the art style of the game.