Thoughts on KR graphics?

[canary]

And you can mod your own skins, which is a plus.

I will say those that provided skins make the game in KR look nicer. I like whomever did the 'Silver'.

 

[Hemisphere]

BTW Hemisphere, you are completely wrong on how the UO 2D graphics were created. They were created the same exact way as the KR graphics are created now. Taking a snap shot of a high resolution model.

I am not in the least bit wrong.

I said (and I quote) "most of the items were designed on a pixel level".

I said that SOME were created pixel by pixel, which they were, but my main point is that the design process of the artwork involved pixel level editing, which it did in almost all cases.

A few examples:

In case it isn't obvious where the pixel work is in this art, the tarot have literally been designed pixel by pixel, the basin uses cross-shading techniques which can't be replicated through a renderer, but most importantly, every item is designed to adhere to a strict colour pallette - something which was nescessary for a lot of games in those days (though probably not in UO, but as they say, old habits die hard)

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying a LOT of 2D art wasn't made by exporting 3D models - plenty of it was, but almost all of it was refined pixel by pixel, to give it clean, crisp definition, without the need for black strokes outlines.

More recent artwork tells a different story:

What is that sink? Aside from looking like a prop from The Sims, most of it is just a mess of pixels. I can't work out what the front is supposed to be at all.

The statue is even worse, it's just a big grey poo. If you look closely you can see it has an eye, but you wouldn't know it, because it's just another pixel lost in the mess of undefined pixels.

I've included a direct comparison here of a chair to show what I meant about application of shadows and highlights. Look on each "rung" of the chair. 3 pixels wide - a highlight row, a middle row, and a shadow row. You don't get that level of definition straight from the renderer. If you just render the chair and put it straight in the game it'll look closer to the elven chair I've also pictured.

Thankfully I don't have access to any KR artwork otherwise I could probably make even more damning comparisons, but I think we've seen enough

Edit: Just to be perfectly clear unless I wasn't already, I didn't say every single piece of original 2D art is a perfectly defined, refined, and beautiful work of art. Much of it isn't. The statues castle British courtyard for example are guilty of similar design issues, but the vast majority of 2D art was designed on a pixel level, and that includes especially the all important wall tiles, floor tiles, furniture art, and all the things you would expect to see a LOT during general gameplay.

 

[Latobian]

For the most part I do not use KR because of the interface. I don't like the backpack (even if you switch it to legacy mode, don't like it) and I dislike the way stacked resources are handled (have to use shift I believe to pull some from the stack?). Also not a huge fan of the female paperdoll graphic(s) and the way items are presented on vendors. The separation of stuff with little boxes in the vendor pack and in my main pack makes it feel sterile and less realistic. I think it's actually harder to find and use things this way, IMO.

 

[Nestorius]

Interesting post, Hemisphere. Thanks!

 

[Nine Dark Moons]

This is my char on 2D, this is my char on KR. Notice how crappy he looks in KR the glasses look like glasses in KR and not sunglasses. The gloves and their layering, the pendant of the magi looks like a perl necklace etc.

http://img144.imageshack.us/img144/4697/2dkrghostxm7.jpg

LMAO!!!
Your char looks distinguished and rather artistic in the 2D image (I'm 2D all the way!) and like a flaming vacuum salesman borrowing his grandmas wig and pearl necklace in the KR version LMAO!!!