How do you feel about the graphics thus far? (POLL: post pre-alpha release 2)

There will not be a big leap in the quality of graphics. When I look at this game, I say that it had better have one hell of a story if they're going to save themselves a lot of effort by using tools like Unity. It's a great shortcut that allows you to focus where it matters.
Most people using Unity know that they're going to take it on the chin in the appearance department or even the performance but if they have different goals, that's an acceptable tradeoff.
PS: DarkStarr just explained to us in chat that nothing is final until the game ships so take what I said with a complete grain of salt.

 

Ok, got clarification from Starr on this in chat:

13:14:25 DarkStarr: Smack: Nothing is final until we ship
13:15:03 smack: DarkStarr: yeah, trying to clarify on the forums but can you confirm that there will be time baked in the schedule for polish
13:15:43 DarkStarr: Smack: Yes we will devote time at end of schedule for polish. Yet another reason why I am not letting us commit to stretch goals

I hope these sort of rumors stop, but I also don't want us to stop giving specific feedback. Please do continue to tell the Devs exactly where they need to improve. Screenshots, videos, highlighting examples, etc. are all very helpful. Keep the pressure on the Devs so that they continue to make this game better -- but also thank them for when they do great things. They expect that from us and it's our obligation as backers.

So don't give up! Remember, they never even planned to give us jumping and now we have it in R2 and they're going to even make it better based on gear, skills, etc and not just for kicks. Let's all work together to make this game better!

 

This almost directly contradicts what I was told in chat, but I hope it is indeed the case.

Would like to see more of the transcript for context - was he specifically talking about polishing assets? Or using the term "polish" to mean overall tweaking and polishing of the final product - an important distinction.

 

I was talking about both

 

Excellent news, DarkStarr. Thanks!

 

I don't expect to be a HUGE leap in graphical quality. Honestly there doesn't NEED to be. However I expect what we will see is correction of graphical oddities (such as the cloak on the paperdoll), better use of textures, polygons, and contrast, better use of video processor technology (hardware acceleration, AA, etc), and so forth throughout the process.

Case in point, Path of Exile, when I started playing about a year ago was still a VERY ROUGH looking game with clunky graphics and very limited animation. Each patch and major patch refined the graphics and animation a bit more and a bit more, and one major patch reduced the graphics footprint by half or more and now the game is nice and crisp. The only thing it really lacks is a physics engine for better animations.

That's what I can see happening with SotA... incremental improvements through the process.

 

yea that actually came out wrong when I typed it , I corrected what I meant.

 

The graphics do not bother me. I just don't feel any need to defend them or try to deflect any disappointment by saying that it is still early. I don't expect this game to magically look like Skyrim (which isn't all that) by August. I'm sure that things will be better looking at launch. I've seen many games get better after launch even. The original screens in the Kickstarter left a lot to be desired so I kind of feel like I knew what I was getting into. Things are looking much better and this game will evolve right along with Unity.

 

I voted I think they need improvement, but that is some aspects need improvement, that is specifically, Character (player and non-player) models need improvement. The rest of the game for the most part looks FANTASTIC! Specific feedback would be hair needs a lot of work, lines (aged effects) some coloring differences here and there (bruises, patchy colored skin etc) would all make it look a bit more realistic.

 

I'm not voting because it's a PRE-ALPHA and the graphics are not even close to measurable against the final product... figured it would be good to get that reminder in for those who are reading the forums and think this is a rating of an actual product and not our PRE-ALPHA preview...

 

I believe they need improvement, the armors look quite nice, but the environment and characters are lacking, here is a screen shot of me running the game on my 580gtx+ on max settings vs ps2 graphics.

 

the graphics need a lot of work... Sorry, but its true.

 

I also think it is the character models, both player and NPC that needs the most improvement. Perhaps there are some artists among the community that could help? It is quite impressive how the Skyrim community has been able to mod character model improvements into that game, with tons of much better hair styles, skin textures and so much more.

 

You can compare a game with a 62 million dollar budget (71 million adjusted for inflation) to SoTA if you like... I think it's silly, we can compare it to crysis too if you'd like. How many artists did Square have working on that game? How many do we have with SoTA?

There are other aspects where FF12 (an 8 year old game) has much worse graphics. Also keep in mind, FF12 didn't allow you to zoom in like SoTA does, so you can't capture that ultra zoomed in look to show how bad it can possibly look with the right angle. I also believe you do not have anti-aliasing turned on and that is why you are getting odd jagged edges all over the place.



People agree that character models need work, but your screenshots are a gross exageration.

 

The player model has likely been worked on much more than the NPC ones. But if it's any indication from this poll, the models/animation is the area that need most improvement by far.

 

Its nothing to do with the budget its down to the engine if SotA had gone for the CRY engine instead of Unity they could have matched it graphically.

You wouldn't try to build a Ferrari around a Trabant engine.

 

Ofcourse it has to do with budget, cryengine costs 20% of all revenue. They'd already be down a 600k if they used it, thats a lot of artists. SquareEnix develops their own in-house engine which costs big $$$. Unity is only the cost of the license for the software, which is I believe 1500 for pro.


2nd you can still get really great looking graphics out of unity, limitations are more of the number of artists for the number of models they need to make and how good the artists are. Right now where that is really showing is in the character models. I found some really nice looking character models in a unity3d game a few days ago and can't find it now, but it's certainly possible. I don't remember the name of the game, some sort of military looking one.

 

That's probably like looking for a needle in a haystack.

 

primary issue is many of the games are developed for ios, android and facebook, second issue is many of them are using cartoon graphics, third issue is most of the games on their list have art that isn't in game graphics, fourth issue is the list of games developed using it is about 100x longer than cryengine, 5th issue is many of the games are indy games with low/no budget.