WAR Closed Beta has started!

[Araxen]

WoW Character models look fine to me still. They better not fuck with them either. I still have nightmares about what SOE did to the EQ models when SOL came out.

[Mist]

I don't think they should change the WoW models, they should just add boot and glove base models for the races that actually look like boots and gloves. Would solve the whole Undead ripped sock problem too.

[Ninajrr]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

You can increase draw distance, additionally you can go into the config files and make it go beyond the default distance.

I just went ingame, I see what you mean but the above screenshot (of the newest unreleased expansion) doesn't have maxium draw distance on, it can go alot further than that.

Is this comment meant for WAR or WoW? I was unaware that you can change the draw distance beyond the default maximum in WoW. That is awesome. Do you have any more information to share on it so I can go try it out? Also, I assume you mean that it changes the distance at which the fog recedes, as that is the primary issue, not so much the distance we can see massive monotone mountains.

I'm not sure about the above screen, as I didn't take it, but I don't see why they'd take a screenshot (which appears official) at nonmaximum settings. Alas, it could be so, but even then if you look at the screens below that post you'll see a lot of the same effect; poor transitioning and far too close monotoning.

EDIT: ARGH, a bit of hunting and I found this: Daostrasz's Realm - A World of Warcraft Blog

Why the FUCK wouldn't Blizzard let these options be known? Seriously, the fog and ambient lighting settings are a goddamn Godsend. I don't understand how they could fail so poorly to allow graphic customizability. Goddamn, what a load of shit, I've been playing this game for 2 years asking for this kind of thing.

Thank you for enlightening me. I will continue to bitch until the options are made available through the game.

[Chrisb3]

Originally Posted by Ninajrr

Is this comment meant for WAR or WoW? I was unaware that you can change the draw distance beyond the default maximum in WoW. That is awesome. Do you have any more information to share on it so I can go try it out? Also, I assume you mean that it changes the distance at which the fog recedes, as that is the primary issue, not so much the distance we can see massive monotone mountains.

I'm not sure about the above screen, as I didn't take it, but I don't see why they'd take a screenshot (which appears official) at nonmaximum settings. Alas, it could be so, but even then if you look at the screens below that post you'll see a lot of the same effect; poor transitioning and far too close monotoning.

In WoW.

I don't think any screenshots on the last page had max draw distance, although I guess you have a point with the transitions going grey too fast.

I saw a screenshot of someone increasing lots of things like ground clutter a while ago, everything looked pretty nice... i think it's either a /script command or something in a .txt file somewhere. I've only ever increased camera zoom so I don't know the exact command to do it.

[Ninajrr]

The foliage, ambient lighting and fog changes are all in the link in my last post.

Fucking eh. This is like christmas.

[Jabberwhacky]

I used his max-settings macro on a character whose server happens to be up. The one pic is with max settings, and the other is I guess low settings, I just hit the same macro again and it appeared to undo shit. Seems like a gnarly FPS hit for a bunch of Cocoa Pebbles and faint, distant lumps.

[Chrisb3]

Try a zone that isn't a wasteland. STV looks nice.

[Ninajrr]

The settings don't seem to work too well across zones due to the standard foliage. Someone should make an addon to store the data in a zone-based manner and autochange them for preferred settings. Alas...

[Praxus]

Originally Posted by Mist

WAR suffers from mediocre art ontop of mediocre animations ontop of a mediocre engine, and the whole thing comes out to be much worse than the sum of it's mediocre parts.

That's what I was thinking. The artists at Blizz have better style imo.

[jayrebb]

Originally Posted by Praxus

That's what I was thinking. The artists at Blizz have better style imo.

The animations were a deal breaker for a lot of people. I remember a year ago people were like "i hope that isnt the final animation quality/standard". If you remember the video showcasing the "world event" after your team gathered 100000 sticks to make the troll move. When the troll got up, it was like he kept tripping and falling but somehow still upright. All the animations were molded from a mud creature with cerebal palsy.

[Praxus]

Originally Posted by jayrebb

The animations were a deal breaker for a lot of people. I remember a year ago people were like "i hope that isnt the final animation quality/standard". If you remember the video showcasing the "world event" after your team gathered 100000 sticks to make the troll move. When the troll got up, it was like he kept tripping and falling but somehow still upright. All the animations were molded from a mud creature with cerebal palsy.

I hear that. They do need better movement animations in WAR from what I've seen. The only WoW character animation that I disliked was the human male, always seemed like he ran around with a 2x4 cram'd up his ass, other than that the animations for all characters were pretty top-notch.

I don't know much about the engine behind WAR, but I keep hearing it's subpar. Is it some type of old school engine or something? At first, it reminded me of the engine that DAoC used.

[Ninajrr]

Bleh, played with the WoW options and all I can say is you're a lying faggot. Yes, it let me change the view distance, but the fog distance is capped at godsofuckingshort that it doesn't help at all. My old statement remains, I hope WAR doesn't fall into this same shit.

[miber]

Originally Posted by jayrebb

The animations were a deal breaker for a lot of people. I remember a year ago people were like "i hope that isnt the final animation quality/standard". If you remember the video showcasing the "world event" after your team gathered 100000 sticks to make the troll move. When the troll got up, it was like he kept tripping and falling but somehow still upright. All the animations were molded from a mud creature with cerebal palsy.

It's a public quest where you kill squigs, but aside from that, the "giant" does seem to have more fluid animations now. Basically, he was lacking transition animations between his movements, so he'd walk - stop and suddenly be bent over - stop, and suddenly be standing upright - etc. He also changed direction instantaneously, and now he takes some time to rotate. It definitely looks better now, although it's not stellar or anything.

Comparison:
old video (starting at 0:47)
new video (starting at 1:31)

Assuming you are talking about that.

Originally Posted by Praxus

I don't know much about the engine behind WAR, but I keep hearing it's subpar. Is it some type of old school engine or something? At first, it reminded me of the engine that DAoC used.

They use the Gamebryo engine, which is also what they used for DAoC, and also what Oblivion and others use.

[Ninajrr]

This is the kind of shit I mean. Taken from the WAR website:


See how those mountains stand out like sore thumbs because of the shitty fog? WoW is littered with it, and I am seeing more and more of it in every WAR shot.

[Dontauro]

Too much Wow faggotry in this thread. Burns my eyes.

And FYI it's beta. Not saying the graphics won't be like that after the game is released.. but either way you won't find out the video options til way way later.