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Modern MMORPGs, Ultima Online and You !
- Thread starter Reddeath
- Start date
- Watchers 1
D
DarkChronus
Guest
I think the lack of familiarity to the items in KR were what lead many people to feel so strongly that KR was ugly. Part of it is design, and part of it is the overhead perspective. There are some KR art assets that are crap, just like there are some that are better. I think Oblivion and Warhammer Online's perspectives automatically make it easier for you to relate to them, but with KR/2D's forced down perspective you have to do a bit of interpretation. The added complexity of the textures and models from 2D to KR doesn't help that matter much. I would imagine there's only so far you can go in creating detail from the fixed overhead perspective before your brain gets overwhelmed by trying to interpret it. 
R
Reddeath
Guest
I guess I was wrong about it not being the gamebryo engine. My fault. I looked everywhere for the info, but couldn't find it.
As for why it looks terrible in comparison is because of two things:
1. They wanted to keep the 2.5d look for the sake of the customers and long-time fans. Because of the 2d look, the textures are blurred in comparison and just aren't as high res.
2. They kept the Isometric view. I don't believe the Gamebryo engine was made to run in isometric, but more so a first/third person view like Warhammer/Oblivion. Things can only look so great in 2D, that's why the rest of the world made the move to 3D.
...
There is one other game that I know of that is run in Gamebryo that uses the Isometric viewpoint... just a little known niche-market game called Civilization 4.
The biggest difference as already stated between UO and other MMOG is the sheer amount of data due to the sheer number of items being processed in-game. Most other, especially 3d-based games do not let you drop an item to the ground, also resource nodes are usually handled MUCH differently.
Another issue is as Dark Chronus mentions... the sheer difference in item artwork can be VERY confusing to relearn. Something like a chest, barrel, or basket is no big deal (although a LOT of the item artwork DID start out in what must have been a lower resolution setting that had to be refined), however, EQUIPMENT items such as qarmor and weapons had HUGE difference in them that made them VERY difficult (even for me, a KR enthusiast) to adapt to seeing and recognizing. Mauls in KR look like Warhammers in 2d, Viking Swords and one of the versions of Long Swords are VERY close and easily confused, I still believe the graphics for Studded Leggings and Ringmail Leggings were swapped based on look and color of the two sets of armor comparatively, the list continues. Only through rigorous BOD filling has it really started to "make sense" to me in terms of item artwork to the item it represents in KR vs what it did in 2d.
For the updating of KR to SA as a client, there are some good things that have been announced though... characters and creatures will highligh again, hotbars and health bars will be dockable, the UI will be fully movable (and I know someone who has worked out the ability to anchor them as an option, so you can set up your UI, anchor each piece and not worry about dragging them around unexpectedly), the memory and animation footprint will be smaller (which means it will run even better, and for some of us, it runs pretty freaking fast), and probably plenty more to come (considering they've had about a year and a LONG list of feedback to work with).
So we'll see what happens.
I'm still skeptical about an actual 3d client for UO... the history of 3d and Ultima has not exactly been the best in the past decade.
There is one other game that I know of that is run in Gamebryo that uses the Isometric viewpoint... just a little known niche-market game called Civilization 4.
The biggest difference as already stated between UO and other MMOG is the sheer amount of data due to the sheer number of items being processed in-game. Most other, especially 3d-based games do not let you drop an item to the ground, also resource nodes are usually handled MUCH differently.
Another issue is as Dark Chronus mentions... the sheer difference in item artwork can be VERY confusing to relearn. Something like a chest, barrel, or basket is no big deal (although a LOT of the item artwork DID start out in what must have been a lower resolution setting that had to be refined), however, EQUIPMENT items such as qarmor and weapons had HUGE difference in them that made them VERY difficult (even for me, a KR enthusiast) to adapt to seeing and recognizing. Mauls in KR look like Warhammers in 2d, Viking Swords and one of the versions of Long Swords are VERY close and easily confused, I still believe the graphics for Studded Leggings and Ringmail Leggings were swapped based on look and color of the two sets of armor comparatively, the list continues. Only through rigorous BOD filling has it really started to "make sense" to me in terms of item artwork to the item it represents in KR vs what it did in 2d.
For the updating of KR to SA as a client, there are some good things that have been announced though... characters and creatures will highligh again, hotbars and health bars will be dockable, the UI will be fully movable (and I know someone who has worked out the ability to anchor them as an option, so you can set up your UI, anchor each piece and not worry about dragging them around unexpectedly), the memory and animation footprint will be smaller (which means it will run even better, and for some of us, it runs pretty freaking fast), and probably plenty more to come (considering they've had about a year and a LONG list of feedback to work with).
So we'll see what happens.
I'm still skeptical about an actual 3d client for UO... the history of 3d and Ultima has not exactly been the best in the past decade.