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Combat readability analysis - graphics


Justinian

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It has probably been said before, but there's too much shiny here and there, I can't understand a lot of what is happening; but I still manage to win.. Probably because I'm highly skilled 8)

 

Edit : Or because the game doesn't seem to be on hard as it should be, I checked the expert mode but still end with all the informations.

Edited by Klice
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Just to complement Justinian's post, here is a screenshot posted by Sensuki in another thread :

 

Something also needs to be done about spells. This really doesn't look great, and is completely unplayable.

That web spell is too white (=bright) and additive(=mess) - compare the webs as part of the environment in the background - the webs should be greyer and not additive (one web covers another, not mixes with it - this might be tricky to program though, I dunno), I think that'd go a long way to helping visibility in that mess.

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I'm just going to keep posting situations where the visibility is unacceptable and hope that Obsidian look into ways to solve these issues as a matter of priority.

 

I've also noticed that in effects heavy situations, not only does the visibility plummet, but the framerate does as well. Now it just so happens that the scroll speed of the camera is tied to the framerate. The net effect is just a visually indecipherable, stuttery, unresponsive mess during combat.

 

 

bleh3.png

 

 

To kill two birds (performance and readability) with one stone, I believe a very different approach needs to be taken with effects. Instead of the current high fidelity, high realism approach, Obsidian need to go back to the drawing board and recreate these effects in a manner similar to Diablo 3. I.e. visually clean, cheap to render, yet still striking and beautiful. Note the excellent visual clarity despite much more going on than in the above screenshot:

 

p14-tomb-guardians.jpg

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Hypothetically, if I were to create some vfx or animations to mod in, does anyone know what file format they're using? I know how to create that sort of stuff, but I typically do it for web and video, so I'm not sure how it translates into a game engine.

 

PS: Why do sometimes I see blue circles instead of green? I would think blue would stand out against the backgrounds in any circumstance more than green.

Edited by Falkon Swiftblade
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Blue circles are the colorblind option. I think they designed the game world for blue selection circles because that's what Josh Sawyer and Tim Cain prefer. I and others repeatedly asked for green ones though and we got them, but yeah they don't interact very well with the forest environments.

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Stamina bar & Action icon are a DISASTER.

 

 

Please, pretty please, fuse that feedback along with the Character Portrait.

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Matilda is a Natlan woman born and raised in Old Vailia. She managed to earn status as a mercenary for being a professional who gets the job done, more so when the job involves putting her excellent fighting abilities to good use.

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Blue circles are the colorblind option. I think they designed the game world for blue selection circles because that's what Josh Sawyer and Tim Cain prefer. I and others repeatedly asked for green ones though and we got them, but yeah they don't interact very well with the forest environments.

 

ahh, well if they could animate the circles to alternate lighter shades of green or red or blue, etc or glow a bit that would help too.

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@Falkon

 

Ive been trying to figure out the unity editor (I want to start on some mods). This is much harder than editting the dialog.tlk, some bams and 2da files, lol.

 

We had the fx guys from Naughty Dog come do a lecture for us before I graduated from college, and I pretty much saw their pipeline, but they used a custom engine, and it was a really ingenious technique of creating jpg or png files they animated with a alpha mask to create realistic fire in their games. The actual files were pretty tiny. I know how to create particle fx in the Shuriken Particle System in Unity to some extent, so I thought it would be fun to try it out.

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ahh, well if they could animate the circles to alternate lighter shades of green or red or blue, etc or glow a bit that would help too.

I would be against that. They added a blur effect for the part of the circle that goes behind the character in the latest version which makes them stand out even less. I'll be modding that out of they don't change it.

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  • 1 month later...

Also bumping this thread.

 

I was watching the live stream tonight and (at least in the dungeon) both creatures and party member were looking so incredibly dull/pale/transparent. 

 

Don't get me wrong, the models looked great, but the colors are (still) completely washed out, and characters and creatures alike seem to almost blend in the environment. See the screenshots below:

 

post-116047-0-62884400-1421366468_thumb.pngpost-116047-0-84221300-1421366529_thumb.png

 

I and a few others have mentioned it several times on these boards but it appears OE has completely ignored this issue.

 

It is a shame as it makes the game much less appealing to the eye, whereas it could be that it's only a matter of tweaking some filters (i may be wrong though?). 

 

Personally it's definitely one of my major pet peeves with the game so far. Here's to hoping it finally gets acknowledged by the devs,

 

 

 

PS: for some reason the problem was much more apparent indoors than outdoors (?).

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Unless the model rendering in the game gets a complete overhaul by release I will be severely dissapointed. Obsidian need to go beyond the background specific tweaks (spoken about during the meeting video), and completely reassess how characters are rendered in this game.

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I'm not asking for a complete overhaul. 

 

The graphics in general look amazing (IMO). For me the only thing that should be done is to make the characters more opaque/less saturated.

 

I'm guessing that there is some kind of filter for this that could be easily tweaked with (hopefully). But since Obsidian is not communicating on this issue I guess we can't know for sure.

Edited by Quantics
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Keep pushing this one Quantic, it's my only remaining gripe, excluding very minor points. It also only seems to occur indoors. I have no knowledge of game design but maybe if it only occurs indoors there just needs to be a tweak with interior lighting filters on character models? And, if so, shouldn't be too hard a fix to implement at this late stage.

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Most of the time lighting and ambient maps just need to be tweaked in the level. The area in those screenshots from the stream still needs to be tweaked a bit according to Sean. Also in the second screenshot the party is in stealth, and when stealth is activated the party members become transparent. We are still working on it, so thanks for the feedback. 

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Most of the time lighting and ambient maps just need to be tweaked in the level. The area in those screenshots from the stream still needs to be tweaked a bit according to Sean. Also in the second screenshot the party is in stealth, and when stealth is activated the party members become transparent. We are still working on it, so thanks for the feedback. 

 

Thanks for the response Adam. Glad to hear that it's a case of 'not done that area' yet with regards to the lighting balance. Also, I honestly didn't even realise stealth made them transparent, how silly of me.

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