WAR Closed Beta has started!

[kaid]

having seen those videos and seen it in person at gencon I would have to go with a low res beta build. The graphics and animations at gencon were fine. They were between wow and eq2 for quality and the landscape looked fine. I wonder if WAR is going with a similar low res beta build like LOTRO did because what I am seeing in these videos does not match at all what I saw in person.

[goatface]

How many people have a system to play do large scale fights with hi rez textures? Isn't the system reqs for the current build already sorta high?

I think it was talked about before here, but mythic didn't code most of the animations atleast at release, they were stock from the gamebro (i think) engine

[gurgi]

Originally Posted by Wilfan

I've had great fun in Halaa ... for the first 14 days.

Hopefully WAR will be live for more than 2 weeks.

[Mist]

Originally Posted by goatface

How many people have a system to play do large scale fights with hi rez textures? Isn't the system reqs for the current build already sorta high?

I think it was talked about before here, but mythic didn't code most of the animations atleast at release, they were stock from the gamebro (i think) engine

Engines don't come with animations rofl.

[miber]

Originally Posted by kaid

having seen those videos and seen it in person at gencon I would have to go with a low res beta build. The graphics and animations at gencon were fine.

Yeah, I played the game at the Baltimore Games Day, and thought it looked good. It actually surprised me how crisp and clean it looked, because, not unlike now, there wasn't much in the way of decent quality video back then.

From what I remember - the models and textures looked good, and the animations looked 'good enough.'

[earthfell]

g

[goatface]

Originally Posted by Mist

Engines don't come with animations rofl.

It was called the Gamebryo Animation System, which was part of the Gamebryo Element.

[Mist]

Originally Posted by goatface

It was called the Gamebryo Animation System, which was part of the Gamebryo Element.

That's just the technical implementation of the animation system. The actual visual representations of the animations themselves had to all be created by Mythic artists and they fucking failed.

[Glaive]

Originally Posted by Mist

That's just the technical implementation of the animation system. The actual visual representations of the animations themselves had to all be created by Mythic artists and they fucking failed.

Big question is whether or not they're simply "placeholder" animations or if they really were intended to be awesome.

[...]

I'm bored at work. this thread needs more trolling. There's a beta, and I'm in it.

[gurgi]

Originally Posted by ...

I'm bored at work. this thread needs more trolling. There's a beta, and I'm in it.

This

[...]

Damn you!

[Presarc]

I wanna be in it

[...]

Hopefully they'll get more invites going soon. group play is a good way to test things. I think they're holding back in hopes of having more testers, rather than folks who just want to play free. That and I'm sure they want more polish before adding more and more opinions to the mix. WoW waited till it had tons of polish to release, vanguard tried a different method by contrast.

[RunningDog]

Originally Posted by kaid

having seen those videos and seen it in person at gencon I would have to go with a low res beta build. The graphics and animations at gencon were fine. They were between wow and eq2 for quality and the landscape looked fine. I wonder if WAR is going with a similar low res beta build like LOTRO did because what I am seeing in these videos does not match at all what I saw in person.

Keeping the resolution low is a good idea in beta when you're focusing on things other than graphics. You don't want lots of reports about slow framerate from people trying to run with ultra high resolution textures on their 286s, and if you do get reports of slow framerates at this point you know you have real trouble. It is odd that they posted videos of it however as it doesn't do the game any favours.

There's another possibility in that they've found the limitations of the engine they are using. I can remember seeing the engine Turbine were using for AC2 being demoed years ago, complete with dense forests and long grass waving in the breeze. Once they threw a few hundred players into the game they found they had to cut most of the pretty stuff out.