PoE2 game engine? How about Divinity Original Sins engine?

[Archaven]

Was thinking what PoE2 engine would use? Consider PoE is a success (more than 700K copies sold) any chance of it using a better game engine? How about Divinity Original Sins engine? DOS visuals are far better than PoE to me. Of course it's my opinion. Discuss

[MonkeyLungs]

I vastly prefer the visuals of Pillars honestly. The art direction alone sets it far apart. The armor design the weapon design. D:OS was just so saturday morning cartoon, and while I did enjoy it I would have enjoyed it more with a different approach.

 

Don't get me wrong though I really like both games.

[hamskii]

Really? The hand-drawn visuals of PoE are absolutely gorgeous. The biggest problem with them is the level of effort required to create new maps, and how that makes modding more or less impossible. For me, a new PoE game would ideally have the modding capability of something like the Aurora engine. I mean, imagine if a PoE game got the same attention from the modding community as FNV.

[SkySlam]

D:OS is a funny, light-hearted game, and the graphics reflect that aspect.

 

Personally, I strongly prefer PoE visuals and I hope that in the next chapter they will keep the same engine, art direction, and the beautiful isometric view.

[why]

I know this is a bit of chumming the waters, but why would they abandon all the work they've already put into the engine they're using now?  I'm not sure if the proposal is made in jest or not, but I would imagine, since there doesn't seem to be a compelling reason to change it, they'll keep their current engine and expand it.  I think most of the work is supposed to be backward compatible with the next Unity coming out, and that the next one will be easier to mod, but I get virtually (not completely but just about) all of my information about these things from this forum, so if you combine my aging brain and failing memory with scuttlebut from these boards, I'd take all that with a grain of salt.  I'm probably not going to go in heavy for a bunch of mods, but I do use custom portraits for two characters in my current run.

Edited February 26, 2016 by why

[Karkarov]

Fairly confident Larian built their own engine or highly modified an existing one.  Not sure they would even be willing to share it from the get go.  Also guys, engines are just design tools really.  Think of it like chess, your engine says you can move your bishop like this but not like that.  It doesn't dictate what your Bishop has to look like.  Obsidian could have gotten similar graphics to what you see in Divinity Original Sin with Unity 5 no problem, the graphics are what they are because that is the style Obsidian chose.

Edited February 26, 2016 by Karkarov

[Sceptenar]

I love the look of the game, keep the current engine. But maybe tweak some of the mechanics a bit. I get that they want to make sure that none of the stats are useless, but it doesn't work quite right from a role playing perspective. Seriously, might affects the spell damage of my wizard, but it is also used as strength in conversations and scripted encounters. So my bookworm wizard who thinks physical effort is vulgar is somehow strong enough to knock down trees with his bare hands.

[deveroth]

i fairly desperately hope they don't change the engine at all, and CERTAINLY not to DOS's if they do. first and foremost my computer is a bit s*** so i had to run DOS on medium settings, while pillars is also on medium but WAY more beautiful at that setting.

 

i also can't be the only one that hates 3-d camera controls in an isometric game. at least 10% of my time in DOS was spent swinging the camera around trying to get a decent view of what was happening.

 

not only that, but yeah, the art style was immature, inconsistent and generally ugly. seriously, why are all male characters so f****** jacked??

 

keep this engine. it's absolutely gorgeous and doesn't strain older computers.

[hilfazer]

Nah, I want to fight monsters, not camera.

[danielkx]

It would make very little sense for them to switch to a completely different engine unless they really hate using unity. No doubt they would switch to unity 5 for PoE 2 since it would be far easier to transfer their assets to that engine. Now that they have experience using unity, if they continue to use unity for the next game it will be a lot easier for them compared to making PoE 1. 

[anameforobsidian]

No thank you.

[harels84]

pillars of eternity graphics way more mature and classic and very much like the pure DnD BG and ICWD , while D:OS is more cartoonized ... i thinks i preffer obsidian pillars of eternity by far .........

[demeisen]

I liked and appreciated D:OS, but artistically, PoE is a far superior game, less cartoony and more ... well, just beautiful.  I'd say it's one of, if not the most artistically amazing games I've ever encountered.  There are many games out there which are impressive in terms of fancy postprocessing effects dripping with lens flares and motion blur and whatever, but very few I'd really call beautiful.  PoE is that.  It's akin to a master's painting you get to explore, the next corner always holding something astonishing and lovely.  The closer you look at it, the more little details you see.

I'm not even sure how they pulled this off with the small team they have.  It's a bit amazing to me.

[Harlath]

I'll second the broad commentary that (engine questions aside) the classic style and art direction of Pillars of Eternity is very welcome.

 

The armour, weapons and backgrounds really draw you in to the world.

[Luzeryn]

While I love both Divinity OS and PoE, visually I vastly prefer the latter.

 

Unity is not considered a good engine though so if Obsidian can make the sequel look basically the same with a different engine, I wouldn't mind them using a different one for PoE 2.

 

PoE's visuals are far more than I could have hoped for a successor to Infinity Engine games. They absolutely nailed that in my opinion.

[Eisenheinrich]

Was thinking what PoE2 engine would use? Consider PoE is a success (more than 700K copies sold) any chance of it using a better game engine? How about Divinity Original Sins engine? DOS visuals are far better than PoE to me. Of course it's my opinion. Discuss

 

Quit drugs.

[MonkeyLungs]

The only thing I would like to see really addressed and improved is unity's use of 'animated environmental effects' like smoke and fire etc. This stuff is the primary cause of frame rate destruction and performance negatives.

 

In fact just a nice choice to turn them off or tone them waaaay down would  be great.

 

Of course if you have a beastly machine it probably doesn't matter but for me the added benefit of some smoke whisping around doesn't outweigh the negative system impact this kind of environmental effect animation has on the game.

 

Give us a checkbox in the graphics options to turn this stuff off or tone it down, pretty please.

[Stoner]

I don't understand why some people want 3D engines in isometric RPGs that bad. Playing D:OS was rather painful for me, and visual style hurt my perception more than once... seriously, D:OS has it's merits, but gameplay is so clunky and slow, it almost makes you set alarm clock on wake up on every action... if this game would be 2D, I'm sure gameplay would be improved tenfold, and yes, hand drawn masterpiece backgrounds beats any 3D by the long shot.

Edited February 29, 2016 by Stoner

[Ignatius]

Not a 3D engine but definitely something more optimized. Hopefully Unity 5 helps with that.

[Koth]

I love the look of the game, keep the current engine. But maybe tweak some of the mechanics a bit. I get that they want to make sure that none of the stats are useless, but it doesn't work quite right from a role playing perspective. Seriously, might affects the spell damage of my wizard, but it is also used as strength in conversations and scripted encounters. So my bookworm wizard who thinks physical effort is vulgar is somehow strong enough to knock down trees with his bare hands.

 

Yup, I always preferred when games chose to use a secondary stat to determine conversation options. Similar to how NWN used to have Persuasion as a skill. Could even lump these in with the current secondary stats (mechanics, athletics, stealth... etc). Although now as I type this I can see that this suggestion would make the dialog seem a little bland if everything was determined by the one stat. However, while I do like and respect what they've currently done in game, I don't like feeling like I'm missing out on dialog options because I've chosen resolve as a dump stat on my caster main for example. Anyway... just some random thoughts.

 

As for the OP's suggestion. Please no. I love the hand-drawn art style of PoE. I mean how could you take one look at the water wheel in Dyrford Village and not fall in love! /gush

Edited February 29, 2016 by Koth

[Lord_Mord]

Are you serious, or is this some kind of trolling attempt?

[ojthesimpson]

God DOS 

 

the art direction in that game makes so hard to feel any immersion. I dont see how that engine could be separated from it either. It's an OK game but it's not as good pillars by a long shot. 

It's campy and doesnt have good story telling or RPG mechanics. 

it's like a Mario brothers game as far as the mechanics, combat, and the game world are concerned 

[Bryy]

Wow, so much D:OS hate in here. Not everything needs to be grimdark just cause it is fantasy.

[ojthesimpson]

i like D:OS but the neverwinter nights style immersion breaking game mechanics and campy style just isnt my thing. It doesn't take itself too seriously which for some is good. For a RPG fantasy game it might not be the best. 

I think it's a great game but so is warcraft 3 and I dont like that either. there's just different types of games out there. I bought it on day 1 and played it through and enjoyed it. Pillars of Eternity invaded my dreams and work life. It's an all time great RPG that I think in the next few years will be seen as a revolution in CRPG gaming and in the industry as a whole. 

 

[Karkarov]

Wow, so much D:OS hate in here. Not everything needs to be grimdark just cause it is fantasy.

I am pretty meh on the game myself Bryy but not because of the graphics or comedy.  It has a broke ass challenge curve that goes from "how you like that stick up your cornhole matey!" to "please PC don't kill me".  Games shouldn't be drastically easier the farther you get in them, that was a criticism of Eternity but Divinity OS is twice as bad about it.  That isn't a huge shocker though cause Larian has that problem in a lot of games.  The story also fell completely flat after leaving Cyseal and just wasn't particularly engaging.  The "two players" aspect was also a completely wasted feature unless you really did play the whole game co op.

 

The only thing truly "stand out" about the game was the neat combat system and options.  Too bad the broken challenge curve either made combat an unfun slog you had to cheese, or an easy joke where all the options no longer matters.  It was only at a "sweet spot" for about half of chapter 1.

Edited March 2, 2016 by Karkarov