View Full Version : Creative Assembly Graphics don't look so good
Hoplite7
08-22-2007, 20:50
http://www.shacknews.com/images/image-o-matic.x?/images/sshots/Screenshot/8169/8169_46cc3b294bd3a.jpg
They look pretty terrible compared to M2:TW, even RTW. Does this mean they're putting gameplay over graphics, or is it just too early to get accurate screenshots?
Omanes Alexandrapolites
08-22-2007, 20:58
Hi Hoplite7,
Don't worry! I think that the problem may be that you are viewing the image scaled down to fit on your screen - this provides the effect of decreased quality. Simply click on the image, and everything should appear how it is supposed to.
Hope this helps, cheers!
IrishArmenian
08-22-2007, 21:34
That screen looks amazing! I think I'll have to upgrade my computer, though.
Zenicetus
08-22-2007, 22:07
Hmmm.... either that ship in the far distance and the one in the foreground are in irons (pointed dead upwind), or there isn't a realistic sailing model being shown here. Oh well, probably too early to start carping, eh?
Ooof... I'm going to need a new computer too. But the timing's about right, this time around.
I'd rather good gameplay over graphics anyways, or maybe that's just because I have a crappy computer.:sweatdrop:
IrishArmenian
08-22-2007, 22:17
Ichigo, I think a lot of us are in the same... dare I say boat! (Ach! Wretched pun!)
I would much rather have gameplay, hopefully they both arrive as it looks like graphic upgrades abound.
I think the issue is that the image is so big that you see a lot more detail than you should, I know I said I like high-res screenshots, but this one is so big you have to adjust it to the screen. If you do that(and it doesn't look bad when you do it in Opera, it's much better and faster than IE in that regard), it looks very nice.:2thumbsup:
The Blind King of Bohemia
08-22-2007, 22:37
Its only the first few images, why don't we just wait and see eh? All I see is amazing pictures, nothing bad at all
Are you kidding me? This is at best an early beta screenshot and it already looks better than M2TW in my opinion (water, anyone?)
Alexander the Pretty Good
08-22-2007, 23:11
The dudes looks like M2 but my GPU is overheating at the water.
Zenicetus
08-23-2007, 04:49
The water won't be too bad if they code it well. Silent Hunter 4 has ocean effects that good, with dynamic wave action, and I can run it at 1024x768 on a 2-year old PC and GPU... a pretty hot setup for the time, but still that old. Might need some major horsepower to run it at really high res though.
Considering how the current AI handles pathfinding for wall assaults, and inside cities, it will be interesting to see how those guys get from one ship to another during a boarding action. :beam: I guess it helps that it can't be more than a fairly limited number of men at one time, compared to huge army assaults on cities.
Daveybaby
08-23-2007, 10:16
Daveybaby wonders what drugs hoplite7 is on, cos he's clearly hallucinated a completely different picture to the one i'm looking at. :hippie: :elephant: :elephant: :elephant: :elephant: :shocked2:
NagatsukaShumi
08-23-2007, 13:08
Are you kidding me? This is at best an early beta screenshot and it already looks better than M2TW in my opinion (water, anyone?)
I agree alpaca, for an early release screenshot that is quite spectacular and is better than MTWII which is hardly poor in itself (with exception of some of the faces....they look like an omlet).
The texture size isn't huge, and the troops don't display shadows...but so what, it still looks fantastic :thumbsup:
Freedom Onanist
08-23-2007, 14:03
Hoplite7 has obviously got those special Friday night beer goggles on back to front again!
DisruptorX
08-23-2007, 14:05
I can practically feel my framerate dropping.
Those are very nice graphics.
Elmar Bijlsma
08-23-2007, 14:12
I'm as critical as the next guy, provided that next guy is a grumpy old curmudgeon, but to say the GFX don't look good... sjeez! Hard to please, aren't we?
I don't think there are naval sims/games out there that look so nice. Okay, so shadows aren't on. It's an early development screenshot, for goodness sake! In any case, I turn shadows off in most games, to increase framerates. Shadows are a real framerate killer without adding all that much to the visual feast.
Daveybaby
08-23-2007, 15:13
Shadows seem to be on for the ships themselves, just not for the troops yet. @Sapi, one reason the textures look low res is the resolution of the screenshot itself - Scale the image down by a factor of 3 and the textures will look pretty good i expect.
What i want to know is what percentage of potential customers will have a rig capable of running the game at 3840x2820? And exactly what sort of uber-PC's do they have to play with at CA? Yeesh! :rolleyes4:
I think someone scaled the pic up, the pixels visible in the picture are bigger than they would be at a real resolution of 3.840 x 2.820.
Hoplite7
08-24-2007, 02:38
Are you kidding me? This is at best an early beta screenshot and it already looks better than M2TW in my opinion (water, anyone?)
The water looks good, but there's a lack of shadows, and the textures are very low res.
Very little anti-aliasing. Almost none actually. Look at the masts of the other ships, they look like stairs to the sky...
Mailman653
08-24-2007, 02:43
That picture is my new wallpapper :D
pevergreen
08-24-2007, 07:34
I had to wipe up the puddle of drool.
The water looks good, but there's a lack of shadows, and the textures are very low res.
The textures aren't necessarily finished and I have yet to see sails with high-res pictures in any game. It's just a piece of cloth.:inquisitive:
The other textures are fine, if you zoom in close enough, even so-called high-res textures will show pixels.
Very little anti-aliasing. Almost none actually. Look at the masts of the other ships, they look like stairs to the sky...
Like I said before, it was most likely increased in size which is why the pixels look so big, I also noticed that Fraps for example doesn't seem to capture screenshots with anti aliasing even if I have it enabled, als AA is not a game feature so complaining about a game not having AA enabled is a bit weird, AA is a video card feature.
To make you happy, I sized the picture down to 1280*960 (https://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i231/husar1985/image-o-matic_smaller.jpg?t=1187944722), looks a lot better, doesn't it?
Does this mean there will be naval battles?
Omanes Alexandrapolites
08-24-2007, 10:32
Hi Matty,
Does this mean there will be naval battles?Yep - naval battles are a confirmed feature.
pevergreen
08-24-2007, 11:22
Summary Thread - https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showthread.php?t=90496
Durallan
08-24-2007, 14:04
I can't believe how critical some people are being considering how this game has barely passed the alpha stage, I would say that the game looks fantastic and considering this is the first time CA has devled into naval battle, good on them!
Empirate
08-24-2007, 14:57
Oh my, oh my, oh my. I bought a new dualcore PC with a Geforce 7950 last year, yes, just to accommodate M2:TW. I hope I can play Empires at the highest graphic settings, else I'll be very disappointed. It's such a nice feeling to have everything run smooth at high resolution, with RT Shadows and everything for once. Don't wanna lose this feeling just because CA decide it's time to push the limit!
Pantsalot
08-24-2007, 16:15
The troops in the screen shots have probably not completed, like
many other game creators, they make the units with good enough
graphics to like at the start for previews, then they l8er complete the
unit with new shading & effects. 1 note-able game this was done with
was Halo 3, in the beta then the graphics weren't complete either. nor
is quite alot of the screenies.
Intrepid Sidekick
08-24-2007, 17:54
I can safely say what you are looking at is very early work. Things have moved on since then.
Lighting is a bit broken, textures are an early pass and the men are "placeholders" and not "the full monty".:oops:
Some of the ships are stuck "in irons" as a result of turning through the wind and as a result the sails, which are also not using the full sail model, look a bit ropey.
The naval AI is still being written.:whip:
Things will move on. I'm glad you still think it looks good though.:2thumbsup:
When you see the sea "in action" you will realise that it really is better than almost any game you have seen before.:yes:
Hopefully CA recognize that eye candy is not the most important thing for this game...
It will help nobody if we have a wonderful "sea in action" and stupid ai and broken diplomacy.
Rodion Romanovich
08-24-2007, 18:32
@SaFe: Being a soon graduated computer engineer I would say the most time consuming part of making the sea is to program the wave model, LOD and setting up a basic reflection, which seem to have been done already in the screenshots. Only things left to do are probably small adjustments that can probably be done by one coder in less than 3 hours or so: for example fixing the specular lighting (there should be a bright line from the sun to the camera), and secondly making the surface look less oily (I think it's possible to do that with 1-10 lines of code).
Though I agree the AI and gameplay is most important and hope it will be given more coding hours than other aspects!
Hoplite7
08-24-2007, 20:49
I can safely say what you are looking at is very early work. Things have moved on since then.
Lighting is a bit broken, textures are an early pass and the men are "placeholders" and not "the full monty".:oops:
Some of the ships are stuck "in irons" as a result of turning through the wind and as a result the sails, which are also not using the full sail model, look a bit ropey.
The naval AI is still being written.:whip:
Things will move on. I'm glad you still think it looks good though.:2thumbsup:
When you see the sea "in action" you will realise that it really is better than almost any game you have seen before.:yes:
Oh OK, that explains it. I knew something looked odd with the men lol.
Can't wait for the first video, videos always make it look better. The water part looks great, almost as good as Bioshock's DX 10 water, which since this is an RTS, is really saying something. :yes:
Just as a question: The game will obviously be a DX 9 game, but will it feature DX 10 settings?
Hell i'd be happy with Medieval 2 graphics as long as CA fired whoever did the mongolian skins, yuck. As it is it's looking far from shabby!
challengethesea
08-26-2007, 00:11
Hmmm.... either that ship in the far distance and the one in the foreground are in irons (pointed dead upwind), or there isn't a realistic sailing model being shown here.
Perhaps they're tacking? Though I believe they would rather wear ship... It could be indicative of poor AI, which at this stage would not surprise me (so early in development). I do remember in POTC the game, the AI had a terrible habit of trying to sail upwind and ending up in irons, which led to some very easy raking actions. At any rate, I am pleased to see that the sails in the ship in the background appear to be backed, unless me eyes are merely playing tricks on me.
Hopefully CA recognize that eye candy is not the most important thing for this game...
Eyecandy makes sure the game will be sold to the big public. All other things make sure that some people will play it longer than a month. Simple as that.
If you want to make millions with your game eyecandy is the most important part, face it most people buy games because of stunning graphics. Ever heard reviews: "look at this stunning looking game ... oh and it plays quite well as well, but it looks so good".
You might not agree, but look at things, every game that sells well as damned good graphics.
ninjahboy
08-26-2007, 15:15
things are looking fantastic - some screenshots better than others :P
Hopefully itll be DX9 compatibile but mostly DX10 (hopefully illl have vista and a new graphics card by the time this comes out :D)
Hard to please, aren't we?
If we are so hard to please with CA, why dont we help CA?
Eyecandy makes sure the game will be sold to the big public. All other things make sure that some people will play it longer than a month. Simple as that.
If you want to make millions with your game eyecandy is the most important part, face it most people buy games because of stunning graphics. Ever heard reviews: "look at this stunning looking game ... oh and it plays quite well as well, but it looks so good".
You might not agree, but look at things, every game that sells well as damned good graphics.
Two of the best PC developers, Bioware and Blizzard aren't noted for their graphics. Blizzard makes pretty artwork from an artistic standpoint but they make graphics that are dated from a technical standpoint. Bioware's graphics are mediocre at best.
Red Spot
08-27-2007, 06:56
Does this mean they're putting gameplay over graphics ...
I'm hoping they do!!
than you'd finally have a game thats not just cool to see, but actually cool to play ...
dont get me wrong Rome and M2 I have with expansions for Rome and I like them, but if they'd ask me if I'd like to comprimise some graphics for better gameplay I'd take gameplay any day!!
IMO the whole gamemarket atm is about nothing else than who can release the most and most flat but graphicly über games.
G
ninjahboy
08-27-2007, 13:24
i dont think that theyve compromised anyhting in M2 tbh. maybe the only thingis unit groups caps at 150 men. but meh i can still have sweet battles.
Geoffrey S
08-27-2007, 14:06
Graphics over gameplay... all I have to say on the matter is that first time I loaded up any TW game I've been amazed at the graphics, and they have all been among the most enjoyable titles I've ever played. Sure, they're not perfect, but issues that long-time players notice will probably largely pass most consumers by; I know I've only ever played an unpatched MTW and did so for a long time with RTW (before joining these forums) without it reducing my enjoyment whatsoever.
Daveybaby
08-28-2007, 15:26
When you see the sea "in action" you will realise that it really is better than almost any game you have seen before.:yes:
Post some movies for us then. :wink:
Hooahguy
08-29-2007, 01:17
i, for one, would rather have the graphics of RTW but really good AI and such than ridiculously god graphics (which, btw, would be a sad mistake on CA's part to have really high system requirements, for i for one, will not have a GeForce 8800, whcich is what most people are thinking is what you will need)
Intrepid Sidekick
09-06-2007, 11:12
We have programming teams dedicated to different tasks; One for Graphics, one for AI for the battles, one for AI for the campaign etc etc. Each element of the game is getting its fair share of attention.
For those that are interested in the appearance of the ships I have just seen one of our artists putting in the new stays and shrouds for one of the first rates. He assures me that the reefed sails are looking spanky too :0)
In a way it's a shame we have to show stuff that isn't finished but it's all part of the development* process, and of making you people and the rest of the world aware that we are not resting on our laurels.
I could also talk about the clouds and the rain but you might think I was a "bit odd" for finding this stuff so interesting.~:wacko:
* This means things are in an ongoing process of change!
pevergreen
09-06-2007, 11:41
Any word of progress on the campaign map?
Incongruous
09-08-2007, 13:48
Yet more info on GFX:dizzy2:
Intrepid Sidekick
09-20-2007, 16:44
You have no blummin' idea how hard it can be to just sit here and not be able to blurt out everything we are doing, or talk about how great it is, or even talk in any detail about the complications and issues we have to deal with everyday to get a game built and ready to play.:help: :juggle2: :sweatdrop:
Its best I leave that stuff to our marketing chaps to announce. I will be happy to talk about the NON GFX elements of the game when they are announced.:yes: You will see that has been done elsewhere on these and our own forums.
There will be some dev diaries being released on our forums as development continues and we will be spending more time talking about actual game features and not just what some of you think of as "eye-candy".:2thumbsup:
Boyar Son
09-23-2007, 19:46
need to have good graphics....
but i cant wait for those inf. battles!
Bootsiuv
09-24-2007, 01:40
Hmmm.... either that ship in the far distance and the one in the foreground are in irons (pointed dead upwind), or there isn't a realistic sailing model being shown here. Oh well, probably too early to start carping, eh?
Ooof... I'm going to need a new computer too. But the timing's about right, this time around.
Probably more like a Pirates set up....wind will still play an important factor, but I don't think they'll go into huge detail, especially not the first time around.
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