Posted May 02, 2014
Not so much a problem on GOG.com, but in other some forums user are comlaining about shitty graphics.
I don´t think that they are right, but I think a critic review dealing with the graphics cannot be wrong at this stage. Oh, and maybe it will even help the devs to further enhance the game!
To start with positive aspects, Sir, YABH got two things right that are the lettdows in most other games.
Those two elements are fog and DepthOfField. Why that? DOF is not applied to general weapons, (which is often way to heavy) but on the bionoclulars. The Effect actually works very well, as not only the non-focused areas are blured, but also the edges of the sight of the binoculars! The fog is just necessarily to create the right athmosphere in such a britain setting---and yes, it´s simply well done, and it looks even better ingame than anything I´d able to shoot on screenshot! Oh, and thebritan setting brings us to the RAIN.
The rain is... well... some rain? It´s something, but nothing compared to good rain like seen in Omerta or Witcher II. Actually Gothic I has better one; The rain here is just containing some lines that are dropping on the ground and are instantly disappearing! It´s actually so fairly noticeable that if you´d turn of the sound you´d need a few seconds to recognize it´s actually raining...
Someting that you will definitvly recognize are the ragdoll-effects applied to the robots! They are VERY well done and it does a lot of fun shooting them with the shotgun just to see how they are flying away!
So yes, this is actually very well-done; just like the lighting. GodRays are beautiful and very nice to look at, both in movement and on screenshots. But one part of the light is not so nice, and I´m not so amused to have to say that:
The Shadows! Theiry positioning (in comparision to the sun) is computed very well, but they´ve got very low resolution and (partially linked to that) are flickering like hell in movement.
And the textures aren´t better. A door is hard to be identified as a door if you are standing next to it, and even walls are full of blur. Of course, the game tries to avoid this, as tons of grass is planted all around (the "Oblivion-Trick") and both robots and buildings got well-done objects to be covered with textures.
Oh, and their is one negative point left: The game hasn´t got any AntiAliasing and as many transparent objects are used, their is a lot of fickering.
Which leeds us to suggestions: Devs should add three things:
1. HighQualityTextures---if you cannot afford them right now, (or your textur designers are busy with AddOn-Content), outsource that task to some talented community-members. There are actually some that might be very glad if they could do some enhancements for the game, and if cannot find anybody, you could hire one from the Gothic-Community, who are well-known for their texture packs ...
2. Just offer unlimited resolutions for shadows. Do some extended menu and let users pick their own ShadowRes ;)
3. Nearly the same to fix the AA-Issue: A Resolution-Scale-Bar should do the job. OGSSAA is not very efficent, but at least effective ;)
Oh, and if you get something
I like the art direction of the game; it´s very constant what´s always a good thing. And I like mostly everything else; exept for those issues that are caused of low res. Textures are simply the graphical part that is most impressive---and the textures are not good. And beatiful lighting isn´t as beautiful as it should when there are mostly LowRes-Shadows...
To put it in a nutshell:
Complains about graphics of your game aren´t fair. It´s actually OK, with some breathtaking moments. But it could be so much more intense with a little bit of tweaking and I´m sure that would also result in even more fun! Wasteing a thought on Textures inGame that isn´t "Oh God, this is awesome" is never good. And your lighting is already capeable of causing this feeling, so please extend it ;)
Oh, and I´ve missed one thing:
I´ve done four screenshots to show the best (3 screenies) and worst (1 screeny) things of games graphic---and I don´t think that I have to say anything else!
I don´t think that they are right, but I think a critic review dealing with the graphics cannot be wrong at this stage. Oh, and maybe it will even help the devs to further enhance the game!
To start with positive aspects, Sir, YABH got two things right that are the lettdows in most other games.
Those two elements are fog and DepthOfField. Why that? DOF is not applied to general weapons, (which is often way to heavy) but on the bionoclulars. The Effect actually works very well, as not only the non-focused areas are blured, but also the edges of the sight of the binoculars! The fog is just necessarily to create the right athmosphere in such a britain setting---and yes, it´s simply well done, and it looks even better ingame than anything I´d able to shoot on screenshot! Oh, and thebritan setting brings us to the RAIN.
The rain is... well... some rain? It´s something, but nothing compared to good rain like seen in Omerta or Witcher II. Actually Gothic I has better one; The rain here is just containing some lines that are dropping on the ground and are instantly disappearing! It´s actually so fairly noticeable that if you´d turn of the sound you´d need a few seconds to recognize it´s actually raining...
Someting that you will definitvly recognize are the ragdoll-effects applied to the robots! They are VERY well done and it does a lot of fun shooting them with the shotgun just to see how they are flying away!
So yes, this is actually very well-done; just like the lighting. GodRays are beautiful and very nice to look at, both in movement and on screenshots. But one part of the light is not so nice, and I´m not so amused to have to say that:
The Shadows! Theiry positioning (in comparision to the sun) is computed very well, but they´ve got very low resolution and (partially linked to that) are flickering like hell in movement.
And the textures aren´t better. A door is hard to be identified as a door if you are standing next to it, and even walls are full of blur. Of course, the game tries to avoid this, as tons of grass is planted all around (the "Oblivion-Trick") and both robots and buildings got well-done objects to be covered with textures.
Oh, and their is one negative point left: The game hasn´t got any AntiAliasing and as many transparent objects are used, their is a lot of fickering.
Which leeds us to suggestions: Devs should add three things:
1. HighQualityTextures---if you cannot afford them right now, (or your textur designers are busy with AddOn-Content), outsource that task to some talented community-members. There are actually some that might be very glad if they could do some enhancements for the game, and if cannot find anybody, you could hire one from the Gothic-Community, who are well-known for their texture packs ...
2. Just offer unlimited resolutions for shadows. Do some extended menu and let users pick their own ShadowRes ;)
3. Nearly the same to fix the AA-Issue: A Resolution-Scale-Bar should do the job. OGSSAA is not very efficent, but at least effective ;)
Oh, and if you get something
I like the art direction of the game; it´s very constant what´s always a good thing. And I like mostly everything else; exept for those issues that are caused of low res. Textures are simply the graphical part that is most impressive---and the textures are not good. And beatiful lighting isn´t as beautiful as it should when there are mostly LowRes-Shadows...
To put it in a nutshell:
Complains about graphics of your game aren´t fair. It´s actually OK, with some breathtaking moments. But it could be so much more intense with a little bit of tweaking and I´m sure that would also result in even more fun! Wasteing a thought on Textures inGame that isn´t "Oh God, this is awesome" is never good. And your lighting is already capeable of causing this feeling, so please extend it ;)
Oh, and I´ve missed one thing:
I´ve done four screenshots to show the best (3 screenies) and worst (1 screeny) things of games graphic---and I don´t think that I have to say anything else!