Character Visual Quality

One simple question for the Devs,

When are you going to start working on the character visual. '

I'm a kickstarter backer and I've been waiting for a while to see something noticeable.
Yet..

Email after Email you keep saying the same thing : Efforts to improve visual quality are ongoing. We will continue to iterate on these until we have highly competitive visuals.

Any ETA on that matter?

 

Yeah! Also any word on sheathed weapons? How much longer must I keep this longsword stashed inside my rectal cavity? (ouch!)

 

I recommend that you all in this thread read this insights from Developer Qball to get a improved judgement about what to expect:

https://www.shroudoftheavatar.com/forum/index.php?threads/character-creation-and-content-from-the-
character-art-devs.16391/

It is a more part post. So do not miss out on his Part 2 and also his responses.

That said a deep thank you to the Team who are giving all to give us the best visual experience possible with the amount of resources and budget available. Looking forward to the dragon.
And i hope not to see any spoilers from QA anymore. Grin.

 

So, no clear answer, right?

 

Doing character art involves more than just working on textures and working on animations or whatever.

When you change a character model (which I'm hoping that's what they're doing), you have to redo EVERYTHING else. If they used biped rigs, they might be lucky and save themselves some animation time but they'd still need to adjust them frame-by-frame.

 

I'd hope after two years the male/female Avatar models would be finished so they could work more on faces, textures, clothing, armor, animations, etc.

I don't know that the models have changed in over a year.

 

So avatar weapons are going to be invisible forever then?

 

I hope not. It would be good to dress your character to suit your playstyle, weapon included - whether that's a sword at your side or a bow or polearm over your shoulder.

 

If it's being worked by only 2 artists, it might take a while, yeah.

Every time they add in a new clothing, animations and stuff like that, it just further prolongs the progress of updating the characters models.

I've worked on projects where a single humanoid character had over 20 different animations. RPGs tend to require some of the most intensive libraries of motions (EXcluding emotes). Considering that we've gotten Trolls and Dragons recently, I doubt updating the character models are on their top priority list.

"Smaller games" like the Legend of Zelda series... gives the team the opportunity to create a wider variety of monsters/characters at a faster rate because their move sets are limited... and these characters tend to wear a single outfit. "Zelda, what does she do? Walk, talk... wears a single dress? DONE!" "Link, the main character... how many different sword swings does he have? 1 or 2? DONE!" It's also, then, WAY faster for the art team of that project to update a character. The MAIN character will have 3 different sets of textures (green, blue and red) for his tunic.

That's assuming they're updating the character models at all (which I hope).

I'd be willing to help these guys out but I live in Canada.

 

This is one of the areas I hope improves as well. The character is the one thing I have to look at all the time, I would like the visuals and options for this to be done right. With better features for character creation we might also be able to start recognizing one another without floating nameplates.

 

Thank you guys,
I was hoping to get an answer from the Devs.. but oh well.

 

I'm with you Blackghost. I am ready to see some progress with the character quality too. At least make the hair look like hair and not plastic. And skin look like skin and not melty clay. And more variety. More hairstyles, colors, better slider ranges that actually make a difference, more facial hair options, etc. I have a feeling it's going to be a while.

 

Also just to note I am so in agreement about how much our avatars need attention, but I also do want it done right and done when the time is right. Right now SOTA creatures/monsters, and almost every other feature in the game are taking the developers attention.. I know that one thing we were waiting for was Unity 5 for improvements to many things. I know there will be a time for the Avatars. It has already been mentioned that it will happen.

 

Not before the next big unity patch anyway.

 

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

And again...

 

how far do you want the avatar visual changes to go? Because if you want something like this :

http://data:image/jpeg;base64,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

You'll need a fair degree of shoulder and limbs modification.

 

Personally I'd rather they get all the mechanics in and working before worrying about things like this. Which seems to be the plan. So many other companies have their priorities backwards, kudos to portal atrium for working on the important things first.


Not even to mention that I disagree and that the character models look great. If the game released with full features and the current models I'd be thrilled.

 

While that's true, you also have to see the other side of the coin. The more they delay the visual upgrade of the characters, the more emotes and armour sets they'd need to adjust and rework in order to get them to work.

... like that piano and lute animation they just recently added.

That's just putting more work on a handful of animators (2-3 guys is ridiculously small for a team).

Blizzard had it easy when they took almost 8-9 years before upgrading their original character models in World of Warcraft and all they had to do was remap the textures of the armour... since their armour sets are textures slapped on the bodies.

Character models are horrible and it's more evident once you enter dialogue with an NPC. They are, however, serviceable. While art is subjective, I know what a human is supposed to look like.

 

If its a big enough deal for tweaking then they'll get it done when they need to. The reverse of what you said is also possible, what if they updated the models and tweaked all the armor and weps and animations only to discover later on that due to some change they have to do all that over again? They're scheduling is pretty in depth and this is pre alpha so there's a lot of time left for that.


The models look good enough to me especially for now. To me game mechanics are by far the most important point to get right. The models aren't perfect but I just don't care. They could release the game with full features and give us stick figure models and I'd be thrilled because the game would be fun.

 

If you read my original reply, I explain why it takes a long time to rework character art.... so I'm not necessarily suggesting Portalarium to do this. If they WERE to do this, they'd be doing a great service to their art guys if they did it sooner than later.

That's like saying that the game won't have all the features because of... art.

They're completely unrelated.