Will AoC graphics be able to handle the test of time?

BaSkA_9x2

Every aspect of games are important, some more than others, but graphics are definitely high on the list. If the game isn't eye-candy, some people won't even play it and, when the game starts looking old to the current standards, the influx of new players also decreases. That's what happened to many great bad looking games in the past.

On that premise, I believe that as long as Intrepid is able to revamp the game with the newest Unreal Engine release when they feel like it's needed, we're gonna be fine. It's definitely a lot of work to revamp the graphics of older games, but it's probably also a requisite if you want to stay on the top.

KoreKode

BaSkA13 wrote: »

Every aspect of games are important, some more than others, but graphics are definitely high on the list. If the game isn't eye-candy, some people won't even play it and, when the game starts looking old to the current standards, the influx of new players also decreases. That's what happened to many great bad looking games in the past.

On that premise, I believe that as long as Intrepid is able to revamp the game with the newest Unreal Engine release when they feel like it's needed, we're gonna be fine. It's definitely a lot of work to revamp the graphics of older games, but it's probably also a requisite if you want to stay on the top.

yes exactly! and i find MMO's suffer most when it comes to graphics because people tend to think about how much time they are going to spend looking at this game and if it will appeal to them or not for long periods of time because yes mmo's take up A LOT of your time. where I could play the first call of duty which would take me maybe a few hours to beat and I would probably just suffer through the old looking graphics because its just for a few hours. This could also depend on how much time you have in a day, week or month to play games to. There are lots of factors I just personally feel MMO's are also criticized for the way they look a lot more then people might think even if they do by standard look worse then say a single player open world RPG.

I to believe if it's going to be as easy as just tweaking the game to the new Unreal engine's as needed then AoC will thrive graphically no problem and even with the current graphics its got quite a few years before it becomes to much of an eye sore for even new players.

Nagash

Its off but games with worse graphics are the ones that look better in a few years time

Leroher

I prefer the game to be pretty and I don't mind how it will look like in 15 years tbh, we will see when we get there.

Jexz

If the PvP is good, there will always be a player base who will play in potato mode for that extra bit of FPS advantage.

ParadoxPK

The initial graphical standpoint needs to look decent. If it looks like a 5 year old game at launch it will hurt it. As time goes on obviously the earlier things in the game might not look at great as something just introduced 10+ years down the road.

Jyunkix

cant they upgrade unreal engine with newer version tho? or im i mistaking?

Ulf

The way I see it is that there are 2 options.

1.- They take their time with the eyecandy, thus releasing later but with amazing graphic and enviroments.

2.- They make the eyecandy not that amazing at first, but use tools to leave room for improvement and focus on the gameplay first.

Have a great day !

Ulf

NatureHacker

Yes the graphics can hold up. Still unreal 1 engine from 1990's (AOC is unreal 4) still look decent to me.

NatureHacker

Jyunkix wrote: »

cant they upgrade unreal engine with newer version tho? or im i mistaking?

no, no game should ever update graphics engine, even to the same engine type. So so many cases where they did and it lost it's charm.

NatureHacker

rodzor wrote: »

Well in 15+ years we will all be inside a simulation or realize we are already in one so... But yea I think they mentioned they will be able to upgrade UE4 to the next-gen UE when the time comes.

That is a really bad idea and it never works, players hate it. I have seen it done many times and it always backfires. This engine is great and it will look great for 10-20 years.

Atiqa

NatureHacker wrote: »

Jyunkix wrote: »

cant they upgrade unreal engine with newer version tho? or im i mistaking?

no, no game should ever update graphics engine, even to the same engine type. So so many cases where they did and it lost it's charm.

To answer Jyunkix, yes they can. Unreal Engine 5 is made so that you can (at least in theory) migrate from Unreal Engine 4 without anything breaking.

If they upgraded to UE5, that on it's own wouldn't change anything. Whether a game loses it's charm or not, depends on how they upgrade it. Personally I don't really understand what you mean though. If they upgraded textures, lighting etc. I don't see how that would make the game lose it's charm.

Grimfaldra

Machine learning and image improvements based on what ppl tend to call "AI" will take care of "bad textures" and "non-organic forms" in 15 years. Hell, they interpolate 2d maps of the world to 3d in realtime already. Including cities.

The graphics will be dated 15y from now and should the game still live, maybe they will just pipe their graphics dbase through a filter and have sparkly new textures and models.

Who knows. Look at EQ2. It was really beautiful when it came out and even with my rig back then (a real monster at the time), it was a slide show when I switched to more than medium settings. But a very beautiful slideshow. Now, the graphics (even with their overhauls) are just ok even on the highest settings.

Then again, if a game lives for 15+ years, graphics are getting less important.

Vangal

AoC may age a bit poorly but WoW looked stupid out of the gate imo. Graphics can always be cleaned up down the road too. Dark Age of Camelot updated theirs multiple times, and while it never looked gorgeous it definitely helped keep it immersive.

Grimfaldra

Vangal wrote: »

AoC may age a bit poorly but WoW looked stupid out of the gate imo. Graphics can always be cleaned up down the road too. Dark Age of Camelot updated theirs multiple times, and while it never looked gorgeous it definitely helped keep it immersive.

Actually, WoW did everthing right. The graphics were in the Warcraft theme. They were simple, ok, but you could run the game on a calculator compared to all the high res contenders in the day. And they stuck to their graphical theme throughout all expansions.

Yes, they age, no matter what you do, but the theme is there. And as long as they stick to it, people will not complain about it. Or not a lot.

Kaelang

I think graphics are merely a byproduct of the game experience. Sure, graphics draw newer MMORPG's players, and bring hype towards a game, but I still find myself logging back into Everquest, regardless of their dated graphics, simply for the experience, gameplay and nostalgia.

Bot

Modern graphics are at a point where they won't age poorly. Just like if you record a 1080p video on your phone you'd never say it will age poorly. You get to a point where there's diminishing returns and the focus becomes on extra stuff like god rays and shadows. There are plenty of older games that will always look good like Crysis 3, GTA 5, and even MMOs like gw2.

Atiqa

Grimfaldra wrote: »

Machine learning and image improvements based on what ppl tend to call "AI" will take care of "bad textures" and "non-organic forms" in 15 years. Hell, they interpolate 2d maps of the world to 3d in realtime already. Including cities.

The graphics will be dated 15y from now and should the game still live, maybe they will just pipe their graphics dbase through a filter and have sparkly new textures and models.

Who knows. Look at EQ2. It was really beautiful when it came out and even with my rig back then (a real monster at the time), it was a slide show when I switched to more than medium settings. But a very beautiful slideshow. Now, the graphics (even with their overhauls) are just ok even on the highest settings.

Then again, if a game lives for 15+ years, graphics are getting less important.

That's actually a really good point you're making. Upgrading graphics will become easier and easier the coming years for sure.

That together with what I said in a post earlier, that they can migrate to UE5 without breaking anything, allows them to keep up with modern graphics (at least for an MMORPG) if they do things right.

How easy it will be, will depend on how popular the game is, I would say, because that would bring in the money and they would be able to expand the team even more. If it doesn't succeed being popular, well, then it won't last that long anyways.