the graphics

[AnakinSolo2002]

Just as long as it's atleast as good as K1 and K2 engine, if it's less I won't play it. Also, if they make lots of changes, If they change the view point any I won't play it, That is the one reason why I actuallyplayed this game. I've never liked the weird 4th person view in RPG's like FF or NWN, as long as they keep this 3rd person type I'll love it to the ends of the earth, that's all I ask.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

FYI: Third person is what you are referring to as "4th person" and First Person is what you are referring to as "3rd Person".

 

I think you're referring to the isometric view when you speak about "4th Person", like the view you get in the Civilization / Total War games. You can change from isometric to third person view in NwN.

 

I actually prefer a "God view". I think the way forward is to have an unlimited zoom, so you can start at planet level then zoom all the way down to the blood gushing from a knife wound on your arm. (Of course there should be hotkeys mapped to favourite magnifications.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

ummm no not really.

 

I'm not refering to "writing" i'm reffering to 'view wise'

 

first person, like in a FPS (first person shooter) all you see are your weapons, not great for an rpg, but alright for certain ones. Second Person doesn't really exist in gaming. 3rd is, like in kotor, where you run around with the camera behind your self. 4th and "cinematic" runing camera is when the camera is static sometimes and moves with you others, where it's far from you, and you can zoom.

 

I like how in kotor where they took First person and mixed it with a cinematic display, so that you play normally in a modified 3rd person view, with a static FOV (important part) and they can make cinematics for "cut scenes" where they can controll the cammera.

[kalimeeri]

I can't say graphics absolutely don't matter, but they are not the most important aspect. I like seeing expressions on the characters' faces, but I still do replay some 8-bit sidescrollers, for their stories. Yes, my PC can now run all the way around structures and objects. So? A year from now I will not remember a minor tweak to graphics. I will only remember whether the game was a royal B888tch to run, and whether the story was worth my money and my time.

 

NwN was one of those games I could take or leave--a big deal was made of the graphics detail and camera work, but it ran really really crappy for me. Nor did I think the story was anywhere near as good as K1 or BG2, for that matter. Seeing every blade of grass wave individually was not enough to float that boat.

 

I would hope that whatever graphics are used in an upcoming sequel, they look and run halfway decent on a mid-level vid card. That's all. I prefer/have to stay one generation behind on the latest and greatest hardware, due to cost and other factors. Forcing a video upgrade (or more) for a new graphics engine is not a popular choice. What does it really gain overall?

[Haitoku]

They don't matter to me.

 

What does matter, is not having a buggy, unoptimized engine. Which is what both kotor1 and 2 had... -__-

[SteveThaiBinh]

If the graphics aren't good, the reviews will be poor, the game won't sell and the franchise will die. There aren't enough good RPG titles or franchises that I would ever want one to fail commercially, as it may have knock-on effects for the entire genre. So better graphics are a must, with the release of the new Xbox soon, there's no reason to hold back any longer.

[Haitoku]

Maybe...

 

But, I think your confusing RPG Players with FPS players. The RPG croud will care more about the other aspects of the game. I hardly ever see RPGs released with top of the line graphics.

[Stargate: 2000]

Hard to belive as it is there are still people out there who haven't played either K1 or K2 so when it comes to buying the third game in the series they will be heavily realying on the reveiws in making their decission to buy the game.

 

Now I can understand how the story is the main selling point in RPGs (this is ofcource assuming that the game works correctly) but graphics and graphics detail has to be next on the list. They help to bring the player futher into the world the programers and writers where invisioning when they made the game. Honestly how sucessful do you think K1 would have been if it was an 8-bit 2D sidescroller? more than likely it wouldn't have sold even a tenth of the copies that it did, and why is that? because the graphics hooked the gamer and the story held them there till the end. Personally I think that K3 should have a serious graphics/engine overhaul (perferably including the addition of a physics engine this time around). Since it is likely that K3 will be comming out on Xbox 360 it would be reasonable to assume that K3 will be leaps and bounds a head of what both K1 and K2 where graphics wise and we can only hope that it measures up, if not surpassing them, story wise.

[Yst]

I was fine with KotOR I's engine and I was fine with KotOR II's engine. I've come to associate the appearance of the models and the environments used by that engine with that universe and remodeling it in another engine would be a bit alienating, I think. I would not care if KotOR III used the same engine, but the odds it would do so, given it would be released on a next generation system on very different technology are very slim.

 

Personally, I think graphics hit a very critical point somewhere around Half Life's release at which it was finally possible to depict reasonably convincing 3D human beings occupying reasonably immersive 3D worlds, and development past there is more window-dressing than fundamentally crucial technological advancement. And in fact, it can introduce problems. If anything, we reach a bit of an impasse as we become able in real time to render humans with greater lifelike detail than we're able to effectively model. The result is what people may perceive as an eerie (one might say unheimlich) not-quite-right quality to ultra-realistic modeled humans, because things like facial expressions, personal bodily carriage and visible emotional responses are vastly harder to model accurately than we had once imagined.

[metadigital]

... Personally, I think graphics hit a very critical point somewhere around Half Life's release at which it was finally possible to depict reasonably convincing 3D human beings occupying reasonably immersive 3D worlds, and development past there is more window-dressing than fundamentally crucial technological advancement.  And in fact, it can introduce problems.  If anything, we reach a bit of an impasse as we become able in real time to render humans with greater lifelike detail than we're able to effectively model.  The result is what people may perceive as an eerie (one might say unheimlich) not-quite-right quality to ultra-realistic modeled humans, because things like facial expressions, personal bodily carriage and visible emotional responses are vastly harder to model accurately than we had once imagined.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree.

 

The ancient greeks, shortly after meeting the Ancient Egyptians who had developed sculpture and masonry to a high art, borrowed from them to create lifelike sculpture in about 600BCE. The period didn't last very long, though, before the next phase of Greek art, which involved the exageration of the human form in subtle ways, by disecting the body vertically and horizonally; typically the right side was flatfooted and arm static, whilst the left side was bent to give the impression of movement. As for the lower half of the statue, it would be rotated so that the legs were at an angle to the torso.

 

This all added depth to the sculpture, to make it look alive. It was exagerated further, to accentuate these horizontal and vertical halves, by, for example, removing the coccyx from the middle of the buttocks, which had the effect of emphasizing the break between the two vertical halves, same with the deeper than real furrow in the ribcage. Likewise the waist was thin and was easily recognised as separating the top from the bottom.

 

And when you look at the statue, all of this is subconscious detail that adds to the general impression that the figure is just in the middle of doing whatever has been captured by the sculpturer.

 

So, the next advancement in technology will not necessarily making graphics with the same resolution as the human face, but some way to fool the eye (a trompe l'oeil) into thinking it is seeing a real person, as on a tv.

 

After all, we have no trouble believing a talking head is a real person on a tv, and the resolution is less than 640x480.

[Lord Satasn]

I didn't like the Jade Empire Engine all that well to be honest with you....

 

maybe it was because the faces in Jade Empire kind of looked the same (I dont mean this in a racist way at all, please dont take it that way) but I hate the hazey glow t hing it does, like in fable too.....I think if they make it like the KOTOR engine, but just improve the graphics tremendously, but keep it normal and clear and crisp, just like the new star wars movies....that should do....in my opinion