f13.net forums - Texture Design, How Important Is It To You?

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April 19, 2024, 04:29:54 PM

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Okay so I'm throwing this question out there:

I know a lot of people like the shiny and pretty but a good portion of people here probably look more towards the game mechanics then the overall look but I would like to know:

How important is a well textured, well designed game to you?

What can't you tolerate, design wise and what are you willing to overlook for the sake of an all around good game?

Consistancy. All textures must look like they belong in the same game universe. All models must have similar proportrionality. Everything must mesh into a coherent whole and never torture my immersion with jarring, off-kilter visuals.

If that's DX10 "Like real life, only prettier!" fine.
If that's WoW's lumpy cartoons, fine.
If that's Casey Wright, age 8, fine.

I just don't want to see any one of them intruding into the design of the others

Crisp clear graphics that allow you to instantly see whats going on and is easy on the eye. All else is pointless as you will rarely notice the shiny after half an hour anyway, and it can confuse things. See the homeworld series of games for example.

I think consistency is a big one. Both in the art style, and its hook to the storyline. I’m more of a worldy than gamey player, art consistency helps with world immersion, which is a hook for me.

I’m just starting a new Tauren alt in WoW. Mostly because the Mulagore area is so well done in terms of art and story tying well together. I know the “inefficiency” of the zone bugs gamey players, but the art makes it my favorite starter area in that world.

I’ve found I need to stick to one game at a time to best enjoy the art though. WoW always looks blocky and roughly textured if I come in from a game with fancier graphics. That feeling disappears after a day or so, and it all looks normal. I wonder if there is any correlation between people liking/not liking the cartoony art styles and changing games frequently?

There probably is. Animation quality, too. I really didn't like WoW from screenshots. Couldn't stand the style. Once I got in the game and saw how smooth the animations were though, the style clicked within a few days. Then I started liking it.

Except the silly over-sized shoulder pads. They break that.

Quote from: Lantyssa on May 18, 2008, 05:32:17 AM

Except the silly over-sized shoulder pads. They break that.

Yep. They sure do. It makes me glad I don't have epics. Well, thats mostly because of the grind, but the graphics don't inspire me to get something so ridiculous.

I can't stand what ever the hell they do to make everything look like plastic in EQ2/VG/AoC/InsertFutureMMO .

CoH and Guildwars is about as 'realistic' as I want my graphics.

See with WOW, I always had a problem differentiating between love and hate in the design of the game because it IS pretty, but it IS far too cartoony for me. I prefer more realistic looking textures and design elements. I like richness that you just don't seem to find in games like it or even EQ 2.

A really well put together world is important from the skies to the ground. You can tell when things were just slapped together and painted 4 fun. I'm also a person that enjoys the fluidity of design. It has to look as if it simply "belongs" in the world. Like Hellimar, it has to adapt into the surroundings.

Every real time asset artiest knows.

Its all in the textures.

This isn't a question of photo-realism btw.

Quote from: Mrbloodworth on May 19, 2008, 07:50:22 AM

Every real time asset artiest knows.

Its all in the textures.

This isn't a question of photo-realism btw.

Well no, I think photo-realism really can't be when you are talking in terms of an MMORPG or any massive multi. It has to have an element of artistry, not to say photo-realistic doesn't but I'm sure you get my drift. It's apples and oranges.

Texture Design vs what essentially comes down to photograph alteration and mutation.

Quote from: pxib on May 14, 2008, 07:05:01 PM

I agree here. Mixing all the original UO graphics (and the T2A stuff) with the UO2 stuff looked terrible.

I'm not a graphics whore. I'll take gameplay and smoothness over cutting edge graphics anyday.

It matters to me how realistic the game looks... not the graphics quality.

For example, I prefer EQ1's graphics to WOW's. Because the characters in EQ1 look more realistic even though WOW has a higher polygon count and better texture quality. I literally can not stand the Cartoon nature of WOW. It always makes me think I'm playing a styrofoam monster from the power rangers or something.

I think its all about the style. I think to often games go for the ultra realistic look and it fails because when you go that route any mistakes (bad textures/clipping etc) break the whole feel. Good examples of attempts at a realistic look that failed for me because of this are Oblivion and Mass Effect.

I think I actually prefer the cartoony as long as it is done with style and is smooth. WoW did a good job of this as did Team Fortress 2.

But ultimately game mechanics always trump graphic for me.

Quote from: SuperPopTart on May 14, 2008, 06:17:04 PM

Consistency is key once you lock down your art style.
I also believe that going for an artistic style will be a trend we see in games for awhile. The uncanny valley is a sound barrier of sorts causing problems on many fronts. One of them being that hard work actually has a relatively easy to hit point of diminishing returns and often can result in something that looks worse. Going for ultra realism is a sacred cow of sorts at this point in time.

I also believe that when it comes to styles in popular games we might begin to see devs hold back on the idea that more detail means cooler graphics as well. The only people I see these days who continue to push this idea that graphics need to be saturated with detail are the ones still stuck in the age old engine arms race that began with Doom. I am starting to realize that saturating your visual style with too much detail can have an effect on people I simply refer to as sensory overload.

Film directors seem to induce sensory overload as a way to cause the viewer to wake up out of a trance or forget everything that has happened up to that point. In small doses its a fantastic means to refresh an experience or cause something to feel very climatic. However some game companies such as Epic or Id simply saturate everything causing sensory overload with nearly everything.

Consider how much extra work it takes to induce this and consider its negative effects when overdone and you realize that you might have actually made your experience a little better by learning when and how to induce sensory overload rather than pander to old and broken philosophies where every wall needs to have 15 pipes and 34 light emitting diodes that that blink randomly.

The Art of game design should be more about execution not about the visual zerg of sorts.

I will always look more towards the game mechanics than the overall look of a game however no matter how amazing the graphics are.
I believe that games always need to be fun before one can even consider the graphics. One of the most interesting things about game design is that, if the game isn't fun when your visuals are as basic as possible there is little chance adding visuals will help at all.