Once the anti-aliasing problem was solved, I liked the graphics. Sure, they could be a bit better (in matters of weathers, tracks where a vehicle/horse went by, fog in the morning etc), but they're ok. The maximum distance in which you can see is really great, the textures look (mostly) fine too.
This is a pic of my char when she was lvl 4 or 5 or something, now she is 14 but currently I'm too lazy to take a shot.
I'm a big graphics fan, and in my opinion the graphics in FE are OK. Not great at all (no MMO has excellent gfx), but they are sufficient to do the job. Graphics can never make a game, but bad graphics can break a game and FE is not broken by any stretch of the imagination. The things that pull graphics down is the ground being very bland and similar, shrubbery is 2d flat things, the massive draw distance is nice, but things "popping" as they enter is a detractor, and the palette is a little "pale" compared to actual nature. The sky, mobs, and looking into the horizon is very nicely done.
My opinion gfx are 5/10. For comparison, I would rate LotRO the same, WoW 2/10 and AoC 7/10 (to name a few).
The graphics don't suck, but leave a lot to be desired.
The engine need some serious optimisation, given the graphics quality i feel i should be getting over 100 FPS but i don't.
I have textures only appearing if i get close to an object and shrubs and bushes popping up close to me even though i can see other shrubs further away, this gives an impression of a struggling engine, even if it is not and with no way to turn off shrubs all together makes it worse.
Graphics don't make a game, but sure do help, imagne what FE would have been like with a fully optimised 3.0 shader graphics engine, removing any quibble about graphics - almost perfect i would say!
The graphics don't suck, but leave a lot to be desired. The engine need some serious optimisation, given the graphics quality i feel i should be getting over 100 FPS but i don't. I have textures only appearing if i get close to an object and shrubs and bushes popping up close to me even though i can see other shrubs further away, this gives an impression of a struggling engine, even if it is not and with no way to turn off shrubs all together makes it worse. Graphics don't make a game, but sure do help, imagne what FE would have been like with a fully optimised 3.0 shader graphics engine, removing any quibble about graphics - almost perfect i would say!
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows...
People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics.
In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively.
In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared.
This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game.
Just think about it.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
I have posted my pics several times on this forum and my rigs stats, since this thread has been devoted to FE graphics and comparisons, here they are again and this is Open Beta on the last day (September 1st or 2nd) I believe.
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
Motherboard:
My rig is about 2+ years old and I know I can do better, but this is what I got running right now.
I just wish FE would update their User Interface, to me it looks old school like DAoC, but it isn't a game breaker for me.
As people have stated on this thread, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but some people think FE is ugly to the bone. However there has been a lot of exaggeration on this game looking like something from the 90s.
And if the game looks like its from the 90s on your rig, I say its time for you folks to update your computer or just avoid playing Fallen Earth all together
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows... People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics. In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively. In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared. This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game. Just think about it. DB
FE still falls behind other MMOs when it comes to graphics, take a look at the graphics in Eq2, VG and AoC which has 3.0 shader graphics. Have not tried Aion yet so don't know but from the screenshots they look good.
The lag in towns is due to number of people and not really a graphics problem, this is due to server speed or lack there of, as can be seen in games like Eve during their fleet battles or AoC during sieges.
This will no doubt be an issues during battles in FE depending on the numbers involved with greater impact due to the twitch nature of combat.
I read that some games, like WAR, link the actual frame rate to the connection speed to the server, to ensure they remain in sync, not sure whether this is the case in FE, but one server world wide, i doubt is helping the issue.
On the positive side these are technical issues that can be resolved more or less by throwing money at FE which is a 1000% better than having a problem with design and game play etc.
So, before I bought this game a week ago I came to MMORPG.COM to see what the fuss is about. I read the professional reviews and checked out the MMORPG user's ratings. Here and there I noticed quite a few complaints about the graphics. Hell, I've even read a few loyal fans of the game say things like "if you can get past the graphics, the gameplay is awesome". I was turned off. I read that the graphics engine was made by some small, unknown company and that the engine is dated. I was sad to see this. Being someone with a 42 inch LCD and a nice rig, along with a full surround sound system... I was loosing interest real fast! Now I know I know... graphics are not everything but it sure is sad to see a sexy setup like mine not getting to use it's full potential, especially when the game just came out! Well, they say you shouldn't believe everything you read. Well, what the heck. I'm just not interested in many other MMO's and I need something unique, sci-fi, and involving. So, I've given Fallen Earth a chance. I installed, patched up, grabbed a cup of coffee along with a fresh new pack of smokes and devoted an evening to this so called "bad graphics" and "good gamplay" MMORPG... Fallen Earth. So, what do I think of the graphics?
:::::THE GRAPHICS DO NOT SUCK::::::::
No, i'm not some in-denial fanboy thankyouvermuch. I'm a realist and sometimes a pessimist. But when I read the following quotes from MMORPG's Rating section on this here game, I get confused: wolf11223 writes: Graphics are horrible. markt50 writes: ... it's graphics look dated... Getalife writes: If you can get past dated graphics...
Well... I figured I should try to figure this problem out. Maybe it's just a perception issue. To figure it out I took screen shots off of MMORPG from 6 of the most popular/top-rated games and put them all into one big PNG file. Here are the games I chose: 1. Lord of The Rings Online (Voted #1 here on MMORPG) 2. Atlantica (Voted #2 and I've seen it #1 a few times) 3. Fallen Earth (Voted #3 Currently and #2 most popular based on the number of hits) 4. EVE Online (Voted #4 but has been as high as #1) 5. Aion (Voted #5 and #1 most popular based on hits) 6. WoW (The most finacially successful MMO ever made) So... we have some of the biggest, best, most successful, newest, and highly beloved games. Have a look at them all together, side-by-side like a bunch of bimbos at a beauty pagent and you tell me that Fallen Earth's graphics are an epic failure sitting right next to the super-stars. HERE is the Flickr link to the 2.83mb PNG file showing all 6 MMO's. I highly recommend you download the full sized image and take a good hard look... I know it's really, just a matter of opinion but FE looks fantastic next to the others. Aion looks great, but for me it's not realistic looking and the style is not to my taste. WoW is horrible, nuff said. EVE looks great, but in it's own kind of way. Atlantica doesn't impress me... are his feet floating above the ground? Seems like the character models don't meld well with the ground textures to me. LOTRO looks "good" and you can't go wrong with Tolkien's imagination. As far as realism goes, FE wins. As far as detail and style, FE / EVE / Aion win. Either way, even if you think a couple of the other games have better graphics... I see no validity to the complains about OMG HORRIBLE GRAPHICS!! FE looks great, and on my 42ihnch LCD, I'm truly in the grand canyon, and the world I'm in is a beautiful, disgusting, real, and gritty world!
MMOs have come a long way bro. The graphics of all of those games are good enough to be played for 10 more years each and still be enjoyed.
People that complain about graphics need to load up games like EQ and AO lol.
The graphics don't suck, but leave a lot to be desired. The engine need some serious optimisation, given the graphics quality i feel i should be getting over 100 FPS but i don't. I have textures only appearing if i get close to an object and shrubs and bushes popping up close to me even though i can see other shrubs further away, this gives an impression of a struggling engine, even if it is not and with no way to turn off shrubs all together makes it worse. Graphics don't make a game, but sure do help, imagne what FE would have been like with a fully optimised 3.0 shader graphics engine, removing any quibble about graphics - almost perfect i would say!
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows...
People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics.
-Not really but go on.
In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively.
-Algorithm, not AI.
In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared.
- This doesn't matter. Many mmos who use "high" graphics engine (such as EQ2 when it was launched) have built in modes, where your PC will only render so many characters in high detail, the rest be rendered in low but acceptable detail (in EQ2 you could change how many were rendered etc, all depending on your PC's strength). Anyhow, the synchronization is not that big of a problem either, many mmos servers work by sending changed coordinants to the clients. So lets say your friend moved, the server gets this info from your friends client and the server sends the new location to your client so your client moves the character. You basically see the same thing in single player games, except without the internet aspect, which btw actually slows down the process, giving the client more time to sync the scene. But yeah, CPUs and GPU have become extremely powerful, and although you make it sound like it's an insane amount of calculating, it's all in a days work for a decent CPU.
This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game.
-I think you're missing the point. What about single player games with great graphics but which also have multiplayer? Unreal 3 has great graphics and has multiplayer of up to 128 people, and those home owned servers, imagine what it would be like on a comercial server and with an engine thats fine tuned for lots of players? MMO with good graphics doesn't seem so far fetched now does it?
I can't help but laugh when people can't look past graphics and appreciate the gameplay. Considering that these days - on average - graphics are far from looking photorealistic, I can't help but wonder what all the fuss it about.
Yeah I think the biggest thing people can't get passed is the colors FE uses. Its not all bright and shiny as lets say Aion or LOTRO. But its a pretty accurate depiction of a desertish area, I look out my back windows and I see pretty much the same thing. Lots of bushes an brown with a tree here and there.
The graphics don't suck, but leave a lot to be desired. The engine need some serious optimisation, given the graphics quality i feel i should be getting over 100 FPS but i don't. I have textures only appearing if i get close to an object and shrubs and bushes popping up close to me even though i can see other shrubs further away, this gives an impression of a struggling engine, even if it is not and with no way to turn off shrubs all together makes it worse. Graphics don't make a game, but sure do help, imagne what FE would have been like with a fully optimised 3.0 shader graphics engine, removing any quibble about graphics - almost perfect i would say!
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows...
People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics.
-Not really but go on.
In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively.
-Algorithm, not AI.
In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared.
- This doesn't matter. Many mmos who use "high" graphics engine (such as EQ2 when it was launched) have built in modes, where your PC will only render so many characters in high detail, the rest be rendered in low but acceptable detail (in EQ2 you could change how many were rendered etc, all depending on your PC's strength). Anyhow, the synchronization is not that big of a problem either, many mmos servers work by sending changed coordinants to the clients. So lets say your friend moved, the server gets this info from your friends client and the server sends the new location to your client so your client moves the character. You basically see the same thing in single player games, except without the internet aspect, which btw actually slows down the process, giving the client more time to sync the scene. But yeah, CPUs and GPU have become extremely powerful, and although you make it sound like it's an insane amount of calculating, it's all in a days work for a decent CPU.
This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game.
-I think you're missing the point. What about single player games with great graphics but which also have multiplayer? Unreal 3 has great graphics and has multiplayer of up to 128 people, and those home owned servers, imagine what it would be like on a comercial server and with an engine thats fine tuned for lots of players? MMO with good graphics doesn't seem so far fetched now does it?
Just think about it.
- Done
DB
-NB
Have you ever thought, why there is a limit in FPS multiplayer number limits? Yes, so they can be optimized. Dismissing the unforeseeable nature of true MMO graphics, with unpredictable number of players, where EACH ONE OF THEM can be differently dressed (again, unlike FPS multiplayers, where even if they are dressed differently, that is mostly just skins, not meshes, with no unique stats to be counted etc...), the comparison is just not valid, I'm sorry.
But even if it was, name one successful indepentend multiplayer shooter game (besides CS, lol)....
Finally, you just dismissed one of the most important aspects: development time....
Not a single MMO looks much nicer btw, vibrant colors do not mean better gfx.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
There IS something drab about the graphics in FE, but in my opinion they work in favour of the games' setting. I kind of pity the players who focus on the visuals of games, as if it is a barrier for them to enjoy excellent gameplay. Games are a bit like people... personality gets woven in with how someone looks as you get to know them.
FE has a charasmatic, independent spirit that invites you on a journey, one that I am loving so far!
I think that for most people who dislike FE's graphics, it is a case of either not liking the aesthetic or not being able to run their settings high enough to flesh the graphics out. They have just done some more optimizations for this by the way, so some of you may want to give it another try.
Here are some of my Fallen Earth screenshots. I think the game can look very good, I'm not even running on the highest settings either. Be sure to view in full size, they're widescreen.
Oh and about the dull colors, if you turn off "Post FX" that will take off the sepia filter, and as for green areas, there are some in S1 up north, and S2 and S3 also have their places, especially S3. I'll put some screenshots of these areas when I get there, but I am taking my time with this game, it's a really good game to play slowly, a lot to see.
Then again, this game is set in the Desert regen of the Grand Canyon...what can anyone expect from dirt and rocks??
lol...you mean besides the fact that the Grand Cayon, the red hills of Sadona, and the surrounding areas are probably the most unique and awe inspireing veiws in the U.S.
If anything they are so beautiful it's very hard (if even possible) to represent in a photograph or illustration/animation.
So, with absolutely all settings on max (external 8xFSAA 16xAniso), at 1280x1024, I'm getting 15-40 FPS in towns, 50-70 in the desert, and up to 120 in dungeons. I'd say, it' bearable The low town FPS is due to those horrible, horrible amount of people, all rushing to try this game . Damn you, guys
I know, right?! The game would be *so* much better if it weren't for all those other people playing it! (sad thing is, I'm sure there are those who think that way)
Seriously, the memory handling is excellent, I might get low FPS in crowded places, but at least there are no 1-2 seconds stops for loading textures/meshes, that most other MMO's have (including my longest ever played MMO, Lotro...)
Yeah.. I honestly have had no substantial performance issues in FE, other than around crowded areas, but even then it's playable. DB
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Then again, this game is set in the Desert regen of the Grand Canyon...what can anyone expect from dirt and rocks??
lol...you mean besides the fact that the Grand Cayon, the red hills of Sadona, and the surrounding areas are probably the most unique and awe inspireing veiws in the U.S.
If anything they are so beautiful it's very hard (if even possible) to represent in a photograph or illustration/animation.
Yep. Most folks who state the graphics are horrible and that they are 1990s graphics haven't actually looked at and compared them side by side. Sure, aesthetics or beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I can agree with those who say they don't particularly like FE's graphical style. I personally don't like WoW's or Aion's. That's not to say they "suck". They just aren't to my liking. FE's graphics are certainly above average and in fact good. The multiple times people (including myself) have posted up comparison pictures on this forum it usually finds those making the 1990s graphics claims and that they are outright "horrible" backing off those claims and instead saying that they personally just don't like them. Sure, somethings are universal truths. FE's graphics being horrible or outdated just isn't one of them. They just aren't rounded off, bright and shiny full of butterflies looking like a rainbow bright meets carebears meets my little pony mosh pit.
First impressions are always right. FE has bad graphics compared to the competition. There is no denying that. You're only deluding yourself if you're saying they are good or even average. Thats a whole different ball game if you say they are sufficient - but they still suck. When do you people realize that theres no smoke without fire. The reason why there are so much critisism is that the game really has bad graphics. I'd even go as far as to say the game animations and characters look a bit amateurish.
**cough** troll bait **cough
Yep, it's pretty plain to see this person is one who only believes that his viewpoint exists or if he does acknowledge the concept of other's viewpoints he certainly does not acknowledge that his views aren't universally right for everyone. So, yeah, there wasn't a point in responding to him. On the bright side, it let's you know who's worth having a discussion with and who will just argue against you no matter the point (i.e., the sky is blue today, the water is cold, the coffee is hot, etc.)
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
The graphics don't suck, but leave a lot to be desired. The engine need some serious optimisation, given the graphics quality i feel i should be getting over 100 FPS but i don't. I have textures only appearing if i get close to an object and shrubs and bushes popping up close to me even though i can see other shrubs further away, this gives an impression of a struggling engine, even if it is not and with no way to turn off shrubs all together makes it worse. Graphics don't make a game, but sure do help, imagne what FE would have been like with a fully optimised 3.0 shader graphics engine, removing any quibble about graphics - almost perfect i would say!
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows...
People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics.
-Not really but go on.
In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively.
-Algorithm, not AI.
In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared.
- This doesn't matter. Many mmos who use "high" graphics engine (such as EQ2 when it was launched) have built in modes, where your PC will only render so many characters in high detail, the rest be rendered in low but acceptable detail (in EQ2 you could change how many were rendered etc, all depending on your PC's strength). Anyhow, the synchronization is not that big of a problem either, many mmos servers work by sending changed coordinants to the clients. So lets say your friend moved, the server gets this info from your friends client and the server sends the new location to your client so your client moves the character. You basically see the same thing in single player games, except without the internet aspect, which btw actually slows down the process, giving the client more time to sync the scene. But yeah, CPUs and GPU have become extremely powerful, and although you make it sound like it's an insane amount of calculating, it's all in a days work for a decent CPU.
This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game.
-I think you're missing the point. What about single player games with great graphics but which also have multiplayer? Unreal 3 has great graphics and has multiplayer of up to 128 people, and those home owned servers, imagine what it would be like on a comercial server and with an engine thats fine tuned for lots of players? MMO with good graphics doesn't seem so far fetched now does it?
Just think about it.
- Done
DB
-NB
Have you ever thought, why there is a limit in FPS multiplayer number limits? Yes, so they can be optimized. Dismissing the unforeseeable nature of true MMO graphics, with unpredictable number of players, where EACH ONE OF THEM can be differently dressed (again, unlike FPS multiplayers, where even if they are dressed differently, that is mostly just skins, not meshes, with no unique stats to be counted etc...), the comparison is just not valid, I'm sorry.
But even if it was, name one successful indepentend multiplayer shooter game (besides CS, lol)....
Finally, you just dismissed one of the most important aspects: development time....
Not a single MMO looks much nicer btw, vibrant colors do not mean better gfx.
DB
Ok I'm not going to keep this discussion going if you won't even read what I'm saying, but for the sake of arguement I'll respond this time.
First off, I said that games such as EQ2 have settings which lower the texture quality of the rendered character if there are more than a certain amount of characters on the screen. You can easially do the same with any game engine, infact the Unreal 3 engine uses a similar system, hell it even has a feature where it will load the mesh of a character and allow the player to move around with that mesh, before the textures are applied, severly reducing the load. Did you know that there are several mmos currently being made with the unreal 3 engine? and FPS engine mind you.
Multiplayer games have caps for several reasons, some don't support more than a certain amount because private servers cant handle the load, some have a certain amount because it's on a console, and some have a cap because the maps are too small otherwise... there's a million reasons. Saying that they limit the numbers to "optimize" the game is just vague, what I ment with optimize is that they can change the engine used in a multiplayer game, to allow more smooth gameplay (refer to previous EQ2 comment).
But all in all mate, you have no idea how game engines and databases work it seems. Displaying unique clothing on characters is not the hard part, the thing which takes the longest is loading the actual textures for the clothes, which is something that several engines already have a solution for (refer to unreal 3 playable mesh).
Not sure what you mean by "indepentend" multiplayer but here are some games that come mind are Battlefield, Quake, Unreal Tournament (especially 2004), Team fortress 2 etc etc I could go on.
Development time? Ok I know I'm bringing up the unreal 3 engine example up a lot but it's a good one. Any company can get a hold of a premade engine such as the unreal 3 engine, where all they have to do is create the environments,characters etc.. and do some programming to fit the gameplay. What the Fallen Earth guys did was go the cheap way and make the ENTIRE engine themselves, which is why it took as long as it did and why the graphics are mediocore.
Heh you saying that Fallen Earth is the best looking game out there just shows how disallusional you are, and wtf vibrant colors? When did I talk about that??
To finish off, I would just like to say that I have a bach in Computer Science (getting Master next summer) and I have worked on several online games already, so I'd like to think that I know what I'm talking about. Oh and this was never intended as an arguement, I was just pointing out the flaws in your first statement.
Lol, yeah right, if i use my imagination then i might as well not turn on my PC at all, and just day dream it all!
Would need some powerful hallucingens and i would be away!!!
On a serious note all Icarus Studios need to do is to hire a graphics optimiser to tweak the hell out of their current engine!
Ohhh! I got an idea! We could setup an "Imagination" chat channel in the game and have a meditation specialist sit in there giving us instructions on how to meditate and focus our imaginations to make the graphics "appear" much much better. We could sit in the desert and brainstorm, sitting indian style in a circle together doing our meditation hum and focussing on telepathic graphical improvement (TGI). Wow... this game is AMAZING! ESPECIALLY the graphics.
This morning I played in my mind while having coffee and eating a donut in my office at work. My secretary came in while I was imagining Fallen Earth (TGI) and I accidentally clubbed her over the head with my offfice chair and looted her purse! God, best graphics EVER!
Lol, yeah right, if i use my imagination then i might as well not turn on my PC at all, and just day dream it all!
Would need some powerful hallucingens and i would be away!!!
On a serious note all Icarus Studios need to do is to hire a graphics optimiser to tweak the hell out of their current engine!
This morning I played in my mind while having coffee and eating a donut in my office at work. My secretary came in while I was imagining Fallen Earth (TGI) and I accidentally clubbed her over the head with my offfice chair and looted her purse! God, best graphics EVER!
The problem with the graphics for most people is they are bland. I understand that. It isn't bright, it is earth colors(I love greens, browns, tans, and greys, they are the majority of the clothing I own) But the reasoning is flawed for it to be that way.
We keep hereing its a post-Apocalypse game. Caused by the Shiv virus, and nukes went off around us. Now I'm not sure if they decided how many Nukes went off, but it could cause a nuclear winter. History also has taught us that our earth changes its climate quite swiftly and this area could know be a in a different climate. (The Sahara Desert was grassland roughly 6,000 years ago) Now add in radition and mutations, and we could have vibrant floral and a setting. Will we see this? I imagine in a future sector we will see a more vibrant and lush landscape.
Personally I do think the characters are a bit boxy looking and the animations are a bit stiff, but the overall art design and environments are great and lend to the feel of the game.
It looks and feels desolate as you wander around, dead broke, looking for a copper deposit so you can make more ammo for your zip gun while whacking bandits to death with a 2x4 because they stand between you and your goal.
Comments
Once the anti-aliasing problem was solved, I liked the graphics. Sure, they could be a bit better (in matters of weathers, tracks where a vehicle/horse went by, fog in the morning etc), but they're ok. The maximum distance in which you can see is really great, the textures look (mostly) fine too.
This is a pic of my char when she was lvl 4 or 5 or something, now she is 14 but currently I'm too lazy to take a shot.
daemmerung.org/images/FE/sunset.jpg
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
I'm a big graphics fan, and in my opinion the graphics in FE are OK. Not great at all (no MMO has excellent gfx), but they are sufficient to do the job. Graphics can never make a game, but bad graphics can break a game and FE is not broken by any stretch of the imagination. The things that pull graphics down is the ground being very bland and similar, shrubbery is 2d flat things, the massive draw distance is nice, but things "popping" as they enter is a detractor, and the palette is a little "pale" compared to actual nature. The sky, mobs, and looking into the horizon is very nicely done.
My opinion gfx are 5/10. For comparison, I would rate LotRO the same, WoW 2/10 and AoC 7/10 (to name a few).
The graphics don't suck, but leave a lot to be desired.
The engine need some serious optimisation, given the graphics quality i feel i should be getting over 100 FPS but i don't.
I have textures only appearing if i get close to an object and shrubs and bushes popping up close to me even though i can see other shrubs further away, this gives an impression of a struggling engine, even if it is not and with no way to turn off shrubs all together makes it worse.
Graphics don't make a game, but sure do help, imagne what FE would have been like with a fully optimised 3.0 shader graphics engine, removing any quibble about graphics - almost perfect i would say!
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows...
People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics.
In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively.
In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared.
This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game.
Just think about it.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
I have posted my pics several times on this forum and my rigs stats, since this thread has been devoted to FE graphics and comparisons, here they are again and this is Open Beta on the last day (September 1st or 2nd) I believe.
Manufacturer:
HP Pavilion 061
Processor:
AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 3800+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.0GHz
Memory:
3070MB RAM
Hard Drive:
240 GB
Video Card:
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT:
Operating System:
Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
Motherboard:
My rig is about 2+ years old and I know I can do better, but this is what I got running right now.
I just wish FE would update their User Interface, to me it looks old school like DAoC, but it isn't a game breaker for me.
As people have stated on this thread, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but some people think FE is ugly to the bone. However there has been a lot of exaggeration on this game looking like something from the 90s.
And if the game looks like its from the 90s on your rig, I say its time for you folks to update your computer or just avoid playing Fallen Earth all together
FE still falls behind other MMOs when it comes to graphics, take a look at the graphics in Eq2, VG and AoC which has 3.0 shader graphics. Have not tried Aion yet so don't know but from the screenshots they look good.
The lag in towns is due to number of people and not really a graphics problem, this is due to server speed or lack there of, as can be seen in games like Eve during their fleet battles or AoC during sieges.
This will no doubt be an issues during battles in FE depending on the numbers involved with greater impact due to the twitch nature of combat.
I read that some games, like WAR, link the actual frame rate to the connection speed to the server, to ensure they remain in sync, not sure whether this is the case in FE, but one server world wide, i doubt is helping the issue.
On the positive side these are technical issues that can be resolved more or less by throwing money at FE which is a 1000% better than having a problem with design and game play etc.
MMOs have come a long way bro. The graphics of all of those games are good enough to be played for 10 more years each and still be enjoyed.
People that complain about graphics need to load up games like EQ and AO lol.
PLaying: EvE, Ryzom
Waiting For: Earthrise, Perpetuum
For most people, 'bright colors' = pretty graphics. FE is realistic and looks just fine for the setting.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows...People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics.
-Not really but go on.
In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively.
-Algorithm, not AI.
In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared.
- This doesn't matter. Many mmos who use "high" graphics engine (such as EQ2 when it was launched) have built in modes, where your PC will only render so many characters in high detail, the rest be rendered in low but acceptable detail (in EQ2 you could change how many were rendered etc, all depending on your PC's strength). Anyhow, the synchronization is not that big of a problem either, many mmos servers work by sending changed coordinants to the clients. So lets say your friend moved, the server gets this info from your friends client and the server sends the new location to your client so your client moves the character. You basically see the same thing in single player games, except without the internet aspect, which btw actually slows down the process, giving the client more time to sync the scene. But yeah, CPUs and GPU have become extremely powerful, and although you make it sound like it's an insane amount of calculating, it's all in a days work for a decent CPU.
This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game.
-I think you're missing the point. What about single player games with great graphics but which also have multiplayer? Unreal 3 has great graphics and has multiplayer of up to 128 people, and those home owned servers, imagine what it would be like on a comercial server and with an engine thats fine tuned for lots of players? MMO with good graphics doesn't seem so far fetched now does it?
Just think about it.
- Done
DB
-NB
My problem with FE is that it feels too geometric.
I can't help but laugh when people can't look past graphics and appreciate the gameplay. Considering that these days - on average - graphics are far from looking photorealistic, I can't help but wonder what all the fuss it about.
Have some imagination already.
Yeah I think the biggest thing people can't get passed is the colors FE uses. Its not all bright and shiny as lets say Aion or LOTRO. But its a pretty accurate depiction of a desertish area, I look out my back windows and I see pretty much the same thing. Lots of bushes an brown with a tree here and there.
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows...People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics.
-Not really but go on.
In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively.
-Algorithm, not AI.
In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared.
- This doesn't matter. Many mmos who use "high" graphics engine (such as EQ2 when it was launched) have built in modes, where your PC will only render so many characters in high detail, the rest be rendered in low but acceptable detail (in EQ2 you could change how many were rendered etc, all depending on your PC's strength). Anyhow, the synchronization is not that big of a problem either, many mmos servers work by sending changed coordinants to the clients. So lets say your friend moved, the server gets this info from your friends client and the server sends the new location to your client so your client moves the character. You basically see the same thing in single player games, except without the internet aspect, which btw actually slows down the process, giving the client more time to sync the scene. But yeah, CPUs and GPU have become extremely powerful, and although you make it sound like it's an insane amount of calculating, it's all in a days work for a decent CPU.
This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game.
-I think you're missing the point. What about single player games with great graphics but which also have multiplayer? Unreal 3 has great graphics and has multiplayer of up to 128 people, and those home owned servers, imagine what it would be like on a comercial server and with an engine thats fine tuned for lots of players? MMO with good graphics doesn't seem so far fetched now does it?
Just think about it.
- Done
DB
-NB
Have you ever thought, why there is a limit in FPS multiplayer number limits? Yes, so they can be optimized. Dismissing the unforeseeable nature of true MMO graphics, with unpredictable number of players, where EACH ONE OF THEM can be differently dressed (again, unlike FPS multiplayers, where even if they are dressed differently, that is mostly just skins, not meshes, with no unique stats to be counted etc...), the comparison is just not valid, I'm sorry.
But even if it was, name one successful indepentend multiplayer shooter game (besides CS, lol)....
Finally, you just dismissed one of the most important aspects: development time....
Not a single MMO looks much nicer btw, vibrant colors do not mean better gfx.
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
There IS something drab about the graphics in FE, but in my opinion they work in favour of the games' setting. I kind of pity the players who focus on the visuals of games, as if it is a barrier for them to enjoy excellent gameplay. Games are a bit like people... personality gets woven in with how someone looks as you get to know them.
FE has a charasmatic, independent spirit that invites you on a journey, one that I am loving so far!
Good post, and I agree.
I think that for most people who dislike FE's graphics, it is a case of either not liking the aesthetic or not being able to run their settings high enough to flesh the graphics out. They have just done some more optimizations for this by the way, so some of you may want to give it another try.
Here are some of my Fallen Earth screenshots. I think the game can look very good, I'm not even running on the highest settings either. Be sure to view in full size, they're widescreen.
http://www.mmorpg.com/galleries/stormina
Oh and about the dull colors, if you turn off "Post FX" that will take off the sepia filter, and as for green areas, there are some in S1 up north, and S2 and S3 also have their places, especially S3. I'll put some screenshots of these areas when I get there, but I am taking my time with this game, it's a really good game to play slowly, a lot to see.
lol...you mean besides the fact that the Grand Cayon, the red hills of Sadona, and the surrounding areas are probably the most unique and awe inspireing veiws in the U.S.
If anything they are so beautiful it's very hard (if even possible) to represent in a photograph or illustration/animation.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
lol...you mean besides the fact that the Grand Cayon, the red hills of Sadona, and the surrounding areas are probably the most unique and awe inspireing veiws in the U.S.
If anything they are so beautiful it's very hard (if even possible) to represent in a photograph or illustration/animation.
How about this then bverji..
Red hills of Sadona ..
Lol, yeah right, if i use my imagination then i might as well not turn on my PC at all, and just day dream it all!
Would need some powerful hallucingens and i would be away!!!
On a serious note all Icarus Studios need to do is to hire a graphics optimiser to tweak the hell out of their current engine!
First impressions are always right. FE has bad graphics compared to the competition. There is no denying that. You're only deluding yourself if you're saying they are good or even average. Thats a whole different ball game if you say they are sufficient - but they still suck. When do you people realize that theres no smoke without fire. The reason why there are so much critisism is that the game really has bad graphics. I'd even go as far as to say the game animations and characters look a bit amateurish.
**cough** troll bait **cough
Yep, it's pretty plain to see this person is one who only believes that his viewpoint exists or if he does acknowledge the concept of other's viewpoints he certainly does not acknowledge that his views aren't universally right for everyone. So, yeah, there wasn't a point in responding to him. On the bright side, it let's you know who's worth having a discussion with and who will just argue against you no matter the point (i.e., the sky is blue today, the water is cold, the coffee is hot, etc.)
"Many nights, my friend... Many nights I've put a blade to your throat while you were sleeping. Glad I never killed you, Steve. You're alright..."
Chavez y Chavez
Almost perfect, if you love slideshows...People need to understand, that MMO's gfx is a completely whole different world than single player games' graphics.
-Not really but go on.
In a single player game, everything is static, scripted, in the best case some little AI is involved in determining, what is visible in the screen at a given moment. Thus, optimization is easy, at least relatively.
-Algorithm, not AI.
In an MMO, it is plainly impossible to determine, how many characters/horses/mobs etc etc a player can get on their screen at the same time. On top of this, all clients will need to work on synchronizing all that info 20-50 times per second, with the server, who does that with hundreds of clients.... the sheer work behind that is incredible, and simply cannot be compared.
- This doesn't matter. Many mmos who use "high" graphics engine (such as EQ2 when it was launched) have built in modes, where your PC will only render so many characters in high detail, the rest be rendered in low but acceptable detail (in EQ2 you could change how many were rendered etc, all depending on your PC's strength). Anyhow, the synchronization is not that big of a problem either, many mmos servers work by sending changed coordinants to the clients. So lets say your friend moved, the server gets this info from your friends client and the server sends the new location to your client so your client moves the character. You basically see the same thing in single player games, except without the internet aspect, which btw actually slows down the process, giving the client more time to sync the scene. But yeah, CPUs and GPU have become extremely powerful, and although you make it sound like it's an insane amount of calculating, it's all in a days work for a decent CPU.
This is why it is completely irrealistic to expect MMO's to be even remotely close to the visual quality of single player games, and it will never change - yes, they will get nicer, but will ALWAYS lag behind single games - and this is only strengthened by the fact that an MMO's development is twice or thrice the time of that of a single player game.
-I think you're missing the point. What about single player games with great graphics but which also have multiplayer? Unreal 3 has great graphics and has multiplayer of up to 128 people, and those home owned servers, imagine what it would be like on a comercial server and with an engine thats fine tuned for lots of players? MMO with good graphics doesn't seem so far fetched now does it?
Just think about it.
- Done
DB
-NB
Have you ever thought, why there is a limit in FPS multiplayer number limits? Yes, so they can be optimized. Dismissing the unforeseeable nature of true MMO graphics, with unpredictable number of players, where EACH ONE OF THEM can be differently dressed (again, unlike FPS multiplayers, where even if they are dressed differently, that is mostly just skins, not meshes, with no unique stats to be counted etc...), the comparison is just not valid, I'm sorry.
But even if it was, name one successful indepentend multiplayer shooter game (besides CS, lol)....
Finally, you just dismissed one of the most important aspects: development time....
Not a single MMO looks much nicer btw, vibrant colors do not mean better gfx.
DB
Ok I'm not going to keep this discussion going if you won't even read what I'm saying, but for the sake of arguement I'll respond this time.
First off, I said that games such as EQ2 have settings which lower the texture quality of the rendered character if there are more than a certain amount of characters on the screen. You can easially do the same with any game engine, infact the Unreal 3 engine uses a similar system, hell it even has a feature where it will load the mesh of a character and allow the player to move around with that mesh, before the textures are applied, severly reducing the load. Did you know that there are several mmos currently being made with the unreal 3 engine? and FPS engine mind you.
Multiplayer games have caps for several reasons, some don't support more than a certain amount because private servers cant handle the load, some have a certain amount because it's on a console, and some have a cap because the maps are too small otherwise... there's a million reasons. Saying that they limit the numbers to "optimize" the game is just vague, what I ment with optimize is that they can change the engine used in a multiplayer game, to allow more smooth gameplay (refer to previous EQ2 comment).
But all in all mate, you have no idea how game engines and databases work it seems. Displaying unique clothing on characters is not the hard part, the thing which takes the longest is loading the actual textures for the clothes, which is something that several engines already have a solution for (refer to unreal 3 playable mesh).
Not sure what you mean by "indepentend" multiplayer but here are some games that come mind are Battlefield, Quake, Unreal Tournament (especially 2004), Team fortress 2 etc etc I could go on.
Development time? Ok I know I'm bringing up the unreal 3 engine example up a lot but it's a good one. Any company can get a hold of a premade engine such as the unreal 3 engine, where all they have to do is create the environments,characters etc.. and do some programming to fit the gameplay. What the Fallen Earth guys did was go the cheap way and make the ENTIRE engine themselves, which is why it took as long as it did and why the graphics are mediocore.
Heh you saying that Fallen Earth is the best looking game out there just shows how disallusional you are, and wtf vibrant colors? When did I talk about that??
To finish off, I would just like to say that I have a bach in Computer Science (getting Master next summer) and I have worked on several online games already, so I'd like to think that I know what I'm talking about. Oh and this was never intended as an arguement, I was just pointing out the flaws in your first statement.
Lol, yeah right, if i use my imagination then i might as well not turn on my PC at all, and just day dream it all!
Would need some powerful hallucingens and i would be away!!!
On a serious note all Icarus Studios need to do is to hire a graphics optimiser to tweak the hell out of their current engine!
Ohhh! I got an idea! We could setup an "Imagination" chat channel in the game and have a meditation specialist sit in there giving us instructions on how to meditate and focus our imaginations to make the graphics "appear" much much better. We could sit in the desert and brainstorm, sitting indian style in a circle together doing our meditation hum and focussing on telepathic graphical improvement (TGI). Wow... this game is AMAZING! ESPECIALLY the graphics.
This morning I played in my mind while having coffee and eating a donut in my office at work. My secretary came in while I was imagining Fallen Earth (TGI) and I accidentally clubbed her over the head with my offfice chair and looted her purse! God, best graphics EVER!
Lol, yeah right, if i use my imagination then i might as well not turn on my PC at all, and just day dream it all!
Would need some powerful hallucingens and i would be away!!!
On a serious note all Icarus Studios need to do is to hire a graphics optimiser to tweak the hell out of their current engine!
This morning I played in my mind while having coffee and eating a donut in my office at work. My secretary came in while I was imagining Fallen Earth (TGI) and I accidentally clubbed her over the head with my offfice chair and looted her purse! God, best graphics EVER!
Hahahaha xD
The problem with the graphics for most people is they are bland. I understand that. It isn't bright, it is earth colors(I love greens, browns, tans, and greys, they are the majority of the clothing I own) But the reasoning is flawed for it to be that way.
We keep hereing its a post-Apocalypse game. Caused by the Shiv virus, and nukes went off around us. Now I'm not sure if they decided how many Nukes went off, but it could cause a nuclear winter. History also has taught us that our earth changes its climate quite swiftly and this area could know be a in a different climate. (The Sahara Desert was grassland roughly 6,000 years ago) Now add in radition and mutations, and we could have vibrant floral and a setting. Will we see this? I imagine in a future sector we will see a more vibrant and lush landscape.
Personally I do think the characters are a bit boxy looking and the animations are a bit stiff, but the overall art design and environments are great and lend to the feel of the game.
It looks and feels desolate as you wander around, dead broke, looking for a copper deposit so you can make more ammo for your zip gun while whacking bandits to death with a 2x4 because they stand between you and your goal.
It's not shiny, but it does look good.