How improved will the graphics be over Shogun? Same game engine?

[ket222]

I remember years ago being impressed with Medieval pre release screenshots that looked WAY BETTER than the actual game with good computer. The screenshots for Rome look fantastic, esp the detailed cities, but will the game look that good? How much better will the graphics be than Shogun if they are using the same game engine? Will the soldiers have a lot more detail, and will the cities be filled like the screenshots or just big ugly empty spaces with walls like they are in the other Total War games?? Most of all, will the battles look good up close but when you get a high view perspective it will just be ants like Shogun? Basically, if you give Shogun a 6 rating graphically, will Rome get a 8 or 9, or just a 7? is it a big jump visually or a small improvement?

[ptoss1]

There won't be any difference for me since it'll be running on the same settings.

[empr guy]

well medieval 2 looked better on medium then shogun 2 on low (demo at least), but they said they actually worked to make this game run decently on lower end computers so hopefully there will be an improvement.


On ultra with all the fluff then yes it will look better, CA's marketing stratagy is 3/4ths "doesnt this look good? oh the gameplay is good too we promise"

[Elitewolf]

I'd be fine with it looking like Shogun 2, Shogun 2 looks great. I just hope my pc won't spontaneously combust when I boot up Rome 2... I swear, my GPU temperature skyrockets the moment my mouse cursor approaches the Shogun 2 shortcut... D:

[ket222]

the question is, HOW much better? I know we can't know for sure but based on what people have heard, can we at least have a sense of greatly vs slightly improved and in what areas?

[Bekaya]

I think that the final game will look the same as in videos and screenshots (minus the motion blur maybe). But it will not look that good on average PCs. In pics and videos there is insane anti aliasing that mid range GPUs can't pull off. For shogun 2 you can't even see how the game looks in ultra details if you have GPU with 1GB of vRam, game lowers the details itself.

[Shamshir]

I hope they'll solve that texture pop-in problem that plagued Shogun 2.

[0ldboy]

I hope they'll solve that texture pop-in problem that plagued Shogun 2.

You and me both buddy, you and me both.

But they won't. No huge deal, but I dislike sprites n' all ever since Empire.

[Sharpe]

I have never played Shogun 2 on other settings than low.

[boxleitnerb]

I think they worked on the particle and lighting system. Apparently, it's a deferred renderer which means MSAA (antialiasing) will be very costly and/or not catch all the jaggies.

[emperor77]

You are worried about the graphics? Seriously?

[Stoferr]

Well, here's some hard facts for you, polycount of a single soldier since Empire:

Empire: 2-3000 Polygons
Napoleon: 3-4000 Polygons
Shogun 2: 5000 polygons
Rome 2: 7000 polygons

I think we can project these numbers to most objects in the game, buildings and foliage in Rome II will probably see the same increase compared to previous games.

A single projectile in Rome II (Arrows, javelins, rocks, etc.) has more polygons than a soldier in the original Rome

Texture size is the same, but that shouldn't matter too much, as they already look good. Another aspect is the design itself, it seems that CA are returning to more cluttered maps from Empire/Napoleon than the ugly empty plains of Shogun 2, making terrain more interesting and varied. (Far more hills, forrests etc on a single map) Ofcourse this might not be the case in generated maps, but we can hope.

I believe the main improvement will be in atmosphere, the effects and the post process of the images, which will have a huge impact. Sometimes playing with the colours can do much more than simply increasing polygon counts.

Lastly there is obviously also the improved animation, the Skeletons in Rome II has more bones than in previous games, allowing more realistic improvements, and hopefully the studio has been working their arses out to create plenty animations, so we wont see the same moves over and over again.

[boxleitnerb]

Graphics is just as important as everything else. It's a part of the experience - better graphics, better immersion.

[Caelifer_1991]

My guess will be a small graphical improvement similar to between Empire and Napoleon, or Napoleon and Shogun. It is afterall the same engine as you say.

[Sherm]

Is the same engine used since Empire, the Warscape, you can see similarity beetween the screenshot of Rome II and the previous game. But of course like every Graphic Engine, the warscape was improved in the years.

[ket222]

I have a GTX GForce 570 video card from when the first shogun came out will I be able to do advanced graphics for Rome? Stoffer thank you for your excellent comments which seemed to be based on fact it seems like a fairly big improvement I esp like LANDSCAPE improvement with more details but I wonder if the cities will be as detailed as the screenshots, which seem a VAST improvement from shogun??

[Stoferr]

No problem, the GTX 570 should do just fine (probably not on max tho, but it should still look good.)

And about the cities, well I cant see why they shouldn't be that detailed, why add all those stuff only to remove it again? I generally believe that the theories about pre release screenshots being far prettier than the end product is a myth. Ofcourse, they only publish the ones that look good either due to composition or atmoshphere, and there might also be some Photoshop included to make the colours just right, but in terms of hard specs such as polys and textures, it would make no sense that the end product would be worse.

[ptoss1]

I have a 7850 and it can't run Shogun 2 on medium settings.

[=Vastator=]

I have a 7850 and it can't run Shogun 2 on medium settings.

Then there's a problem. Maybe weak CPU/power supply or other problems?

[Elitewolf]

I have a 7850 and it can't run Shogun 2 on medium settings.

Something's wrong then (unless you're running multiple monitors). I could run it on medium/low with a 3850 and a dual core processor and medium/high with a 6850. My new 7870XT runs it very well at max (except AA, but who needs that at HD resolutions?)