The Visual Style.

[Stall]

I am really disliking what I've seen so far of the visual style in ETW. With the thumbnails from gamestar and the few screenshots we have so far, it looks like absolute crap visually. Absolute crap that could break immersion.

Why? Because it looks fake. With the bloom turned off and the brightness lowered, I really loved M2TW's gritty textures and dark atmosphere.

However, looking at the gamestar picture of the two soldiers fighting - they look like plastic. The textures look bland and the cloth is reflecting light. They look like toy soldiers, and it is frankly really disappointing. It makes you feel like you are in a cartoon, not a battle.

The ships too look cartoony.

Let me analyze this picture.



The sails, sky, and water all look great. What's bugging me is how overly shiny the wood and metal textures are - combined with the bland wood textures, it makes the ship look like a toy rather than a real sailing vessel.

I'm really disappointed thus far how CA has decided to go with the "OMG LOOK HOW SHINY AND PRETTY EVERYTHING IS LOL GOOD GRAFIXX!!1`11" Rather than the gritty, realistic-looking style of M2TW.

Anyone else agree or is it just bugging me?

[Spiff]

I think it looks great, the sails don't exactly look pristine either (aside from the holes they are grimey). Maybe theyll implement a gradual decay simulation to boats whereby they start off looking new and slowly get weathered as turns pass.

[Kinjo]

Yeah what are you smokin! The Game looks great and is light years ahead of other naval games.

I guess there are alternatives. lol
http://media.pc.gamespy.com/media/56...g_4665317.html

[Miraj]

I think it looks excellent!

I can bet the physics mechanics of the ships combined with weather will be a real advance in gaming in-general. Lets hope.

[preston]

i hate it when people ***** out new games especially when it even isn't released TO the OP lets see you make a ship.

[Prof]

there is one thing I'd like to add here...that game is still WIP...much will be changed about the game and its appearance...be patient, wait for the release and then see what it looks like and decide whether you'll buy it or not...

[el_dude]

seriously, this game is probably 9-12 months away. it's getting really annoying how abject fear of change is inducing many on these boards to jump to all kinds of hasty conclusions about how bad the game looks or how bad it "probably" will be.

as things stand, we know almost nothing about ETW. wouldn't it make more sense to wait for more info before passing judgement on the game, or am i the one being ridiculous here?

[Dogman]

Wait.. where's the rigging on that ship? D:

[Uzar]

hey, if it's gonna be anything like playing Master and Commander...then it'll be awesome.

[King Bob VI]

The men on the others screens did look pretty crappy, but someone from CA said they were just placeholders in another thread.

Of all the things there are to worry about what CA does with ETW, I really don't think graphics are one of them.

[HansDuet]

I think the ships look great. I dont want this game look medieval. They used bright colors at the time...
If someone wants dark and ugly look, go ahead and mod it yourselves.

[Lusted]

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".

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.

Things will move on. I'm glad you still think it looks good though.

When you see the sea "in action" you will realise that it really is better than almost any game you have seen before.

http://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showpo...5&postcount=30

[Chuffy]

Didn't you know stall?

Bloom means that it LOOKS AMAZING.

More bloom is an excellent way for the game to look go-

Yeah okay I can't keep that up. Hopefully CA reworks their bloom effects because they looked awful in M2.

In fact they look awful in most games.

NEXTGEN AMIRITE GUISE?

[Juno]

OP is too quick with the trigger.

I am starting to fiend for this game more and more, but my heart is also breaking because I know I will have to wait a few months in order to have enough money to buy a new system.

[Ahiga]

Didn't you know stall?

Bloom means that it LOOKS AMAZING.

More bloom is an excellent way for the game to look go-

Yeah okay I can't keep that up. Hopefully CA reworks their bloom effects because they looked awful in M2.

In fact they look awful in most games.

NEXTGEN AMIRITE GUISE?

BLOOM GAEMS. /TWC/ HAETS TEH BLOOM GAEMS.

*Ahem*

I find that I like Ca's skins and models, but as soon as I see fan-delivered content to replace it, I come to be unable to return to it. It's the way it is for just about any game - Half life 2, Armed Assault, and so on.

[Miraj]

but as soon as I see fan-delivered content to replace it, I come to be unable to return to it.

You mean like this?

[PartyElite]

lol @mirage.

anyways, if ur complaining about the graphics:
this game is scheduled for launch in a year/a year and a half. So understand that there's still a crap load of work to do, graphically, programming, UI design... everything. I'm no pro in the industry [thought i wish it oh so badly] but heres somethings i can say:
The spec maps and normal maps and possibly even the diffuse maps seem like they'll be reworked. Maybe not from the ground up, but retouched. It looks as thought there'll be 2 or 3 more passes, and then a few touch ups done. So the "LOOKIE @ MEE I R SH-EYE-KNEE!" look should go. I say so because the ship seems to lack many decals and details in the texture which i don't expect to happen from CA as a final product. [but this might just be cuz of angle and lighting]

u see how we can see little to no normals map details on the wood making the ship?
just my thoughts. and i hope they don't remain overly shiny. I do agree that i want that gritty look, but this doesn't look bad tbh!

oh, and one thing i hope is that we get a new shader that exploits normals maps to their height! i mean... i figured that there could be more depth in the textures in m2tw [no not a complaint, just a thought]

cheers
!

[Crusader Invasion]

This pic says it all...

The graphics are amazing (look at that water! The wood and lighting look absolutely brilliant too!). And, as Lusted pointed out, it's still in pre-alpha and the graphics are still being worked on.

[el_dude]

i'm no game developer but i heard that graphics are usually polished last (i think for games like the halo series, bungie said that they leave major work on graphics for the last few months of development) so i'm sure the game will look very different as we get closer to the release date

[Kinjo]

On the hunt, now only if the sails looked like this it would be perfect.