[MUD-Dev] The importance of graphics

[brian hook]

Zach Collins said:

> I was chatting with some friends last night, and we got onto the
> subject of graphics in games.  One of them made the claim that
> graphics will make or break a game, while another made a very
> interesting point, that it's the *consistency* of the art
> direction instead of just how pretty everything looks.

You need both.  Good quality graphics technology is sort of like
having a high school diploma -- having it doesn't mean much, but not
having it might just screw you pretty bad.

What people notice is consistent art direction on top of a good
engine.  High quality art direction and design can often lead to
much higher perceived technological quality.  Take a look at
Asheron's Call - - it had a decent engine, but completely piss poor
graphics which ultimately made it perceived as a "bad graphics
engine", which probably wasn't a fair assessment.

Everquest was lauded as having "Better than Quake 2" graphics (since
Quake 2 was the benchmark at the time of its release), but it
definitely did NOT have Q2 level technology.  It had progressive
meshes on the characters, but everything was vertex lit which made
things look atrocious vis a vis light radii.  BUT, Everquest had
astouding art, especially given that much of it was designed to run
on Voodoo 1.  Fantastic overall art quality really made it seem like
a much better graphics engine than it was.

A more modern example of this is World of Warcraft.  The first time
you look at it, it's "Wow, that looks great!" but then you REALLY
look at it, and it's just not that special technologically speaking
(which makes sense, given that Blizzard aims for much larger
demographic than most game companies are willing to target).
AFAICT, WoW doesn't even have bump mapping -- it's just regular old
Gouraud lit texture mapped stuff made with extremely gorgeous art.
The polygon counts don't even look that high.

>   How is visual consistency important, how do you create it, and
>   how do you maintain it throughout the life of a project (MMOGs
>   being continuously expanded)?

How it's done vs. how it should be done are two separate things.
The ideal is to have continuity with your art director and concept
artists who establish the flavor of the world.  Unfortunately,
personnel movement makes this difficult, not to mention the egos of
those that are doing the nuts and bolts of the art (making textures
and models and animations) who may have their egos bruised when
they're told that something they're making doesn't "fit the vision"
of the world.

-Hook


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