How long before RPG's Graphics=FPshooters

[dfonda]

When Diablo 2 came out, I loved how the characters changed dramatically with each new weapon or piece of armor. That was my favorite part of finding new swag.

Now with FPshooters looking so great I just can not get into RPG's anymore.

So the question is how long before we get Doom type Graphics and.. like... a Max Payne 3rd person view in RPG's ?

 

[Gabbiani]

NEVA!!! See what happened with Fable? Part of the warmth to me is the animated feel of things. I don't want my rpgs to look real. Keep an eye out for Squares next one on 360. It should push the graphics envelope, but from what I have heard about the team working on it (classic FF) it should be awesome.

 

[Remove]

I on the other hand WANT more realistic games. I hate the cartoonish looking games. Example, I play EQ2 over WOW becuase of that reason alone.

 

[FlakMonkey]

TES: Oblivion. Nuff said.

 

[Gabbiani]

I on the other hand WANT more realistic games. I hate the cartoonish looking games. Example, I play EQ2 over WOW becuase of that reason alone.

I guess they can't please everybody with one product. But I would take either right now given the recent state of rpgs. I am looking foward to Oblivion though.

 

[Elif Tymes]

Oblivion == Greatest graphics evar.(I know! it's not true, but it could be)

 

[dfonda]

http://www.elderscrolls.com/downloads/media_movies.htm

Oh yes that looks great and its nice to see you can choose First person or Third.

 

[dfonda]

Capt Picard doing dialog and its lip sinked!

I would think the graphics will be Doom like in the very next version.

 

[Quaxor]

For normal, single player RPG's, I don't understand why they haven't improved the graphics on some games. Like FFX, the cut scenes are amazing, but when you see the actual gameplay it feels kind of dull. With online RPG's, I can see why graphics would not be as intense. There are usually going to be a lot more people together, like in WoW. Hopefully though, there will be some spectacular looking game sin the future.

 

[Janus67]

probably never, they keep the graphics mid-level to scale for all systems and to keep a fairly level playing ground. That and the less detailed things to send out, the less server bandwidth.

 

[Sliver]

For normal, single player RPG's, I don't understand why they haven't improved the graphics on some games. Like FFX, the cut scenes are amazing, but when you see the actual gameplay it feels kind of dull. With online RPG's, I can see why graphics would not be as intense. There are usually going to be a lot more people together, like in WoW. Hopefully though, there will be some spectacular looking game sin the future.

Well my knee jerk reaction to this question would be," For the same reason Id didn't go back and improve Doom. They can only make the bloody game once. If they want better graphics, they can just go and make a new game."

But as far as the overall graphics are concerned it's because they were working on ancient hardware that was filled with bottlenecks. They probably had to bypass the entire API to get it halfway, and then had their team of superhuman animators and modelers to get it the rest of the way. The lighting engine was not all that complex, they used Global Illumination, which simulates light coming from all directions, instead of the more modern Spotlights lighting method, where the lights actually have a SOURCE (Like in most modern FPS games.) Now before all the PC fanboys start going and trying to use my words against me to start trashing consoles, lets keep in mind, this game is 3 almost 4 years old. What type of games were people playing on the PC back then? Quake 3: Team Arena, AVP2, and Serious Sam. Which all look like crap compared to FFX.

That being said, to answer the question of what next gen RPGs are going to look like, go see the FF7 tech demo for the PS3. Graphically, it does to Oblivion what Killzone 2 does to UT2K7. Blows it out of the water.

 

[TUK101]

Part of the reason that RPG's graphics arent quite up the scale of FPS's is because the scale of the game and the terrains. They have to keep the poly counts and other things down otherwise it would crush even a top notch computer. You generally have way more enemies on the screen at once and the spells etc. really have a tendency to bring a system to its knees. That is one of the benefits of a fps game generally being fought in a hallway or a narrow setting. I know that a lot of you are going to bring up Far Cry but that game is kind of the exception and when it was first released it was crushing a lot of mid level systems.

 

[Banyan]

I play EQ2 over WOW becuase of that reason alone.

not to mention the difference between the two in content and community alone. had to quit though cause i'd like to have a normal life.

as far as fps type graphics in rpg's, i think oblivion will be the one to start to really bridge the gap.

 

[Gabbiani]

Elder scrolls did that for a while. I remember when my pc wouldn't run it...

 

[postaldudeleo]

Oblivion looks nice but graphic-wise, I'd say gothic 3. It uses the same engine as oblivion but the characters are made to be more realistic and the new screenshots from Oblivion are starting to level out from what the very first screenshots were. Gothic 3 screenshots are staying more or less the same detail
while one screenshot from oblivion almost reminded me of morrowind (model and texture quality) with heavy bump mapping.

I personally believe that sooner or later, games should start using older 3D development rendering engine because they would still run fast and look much better then anything else.

Maya 4 with low polygon ranges would own any game engine to date if made realtime.

 

[H4Z4RD0US]

well actually...check out this MMO game..
http://www.webzengames.com/Game/Sun/default.asp
SUN seems really impressive, also the graphics seem great too.

check out them screenies!

 

[dfonda]

Sun looks very good also.The characters have the look I would like to see. I would play either of these RPG's.

Sun 3rd quarter of 05 in Korea guess that must be out now.

 

[madcow235]

One thing you must take into account when comparing rpgs is the audience they are trying to attract. Its been proven that the korean and asian cultures prefer the highly detailed graphics of games like Lineage 2, which is still a damn good looking rpg, to the artsy type games such as WoW. They also prefer more fanciful armor and exagerated weapons, just look at L2. The american market however prefers unrealistic graphics with more practical weapons and armor, look at WoW and how much L2 flopped here. Also games like GW are the only balance between the 2 that I know and that was only EH in asia and sold pretty well here.
So will we ever see super realism in RPGS. Doubt it we will see games like Fable and WoW dominating unless you want to import or learn korean.

 

[azu]

wow oblivion = hotness

 

[Sjaak]

I saw a few sreenshots of Everquest 2 at high detail.

Looked on par with far cry for model detail.