Sunday, May 18th 2008

Blizzard Considering Major World of Warcraft Graphics Engine Update

In an interview about next expansion of WoW called Wrath of the Lich King, World of Warcraft producer J. Allen Brack said that the game will "probably" undergo a complete graphical upgrade in the future. "Will we need a graphical update from the ground up at some point? Yep, probably," he said. "That's actually something we talk about every expansion," he added. "I'm positive we'll talk about it next expansion."
"A lot of people continued to play with the original client, because it was faster, or they preferred it, or were just used to it or whatever," he said. "And so for me as a game developer, the idea that we would spend so much time and energy on something and have people go, 'meh, that's not really for me,' that's not very exciting."
Source: Eurogamer
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42 Comments on Blizzard Considering Major World of Warcraft Graphics Engine Update

#1
Kreij
Senior Monkey Moderator
If the core gameplay does not improve, more eye-candy will not make a difference to most people.

Sony learned this with EQ.
Posted on Reply
#2
PVTCaboose1337
Graphical Hacker
KreijIf the core gameplay does not improve, more eye-candy will not make a difference to most people.

Sony learned this with EQ.
+1 on this, people don't play games just for eye candy (except Crysis)
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#3
FAXA
I think it needs doing eventually, although, I agree with Kreij's point.

If blizzard do decide to upgrade the engine, they'd better make it an optional download, so that people running the game on an old machine can still play.
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#4
NinkobEi
KreijIf the core gameplay does not improve, more eye-candy will not make a difference to most people.

Sony learned this with EQ.
wow has great gameplay I think. some of the tactics required for raid bosses are just plain fun. like the big bad wolf in karazahn. he turns a random raid member into little red riding hood and that person has to run away from the wolf and cant attack or anything. thats just hilarious. and the chess boss is freaking great. what other mmo lets you play as a chess piece with heals/nukes and melee attacks? none. thats right.
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#5
exodusprime1337
it would be nice for a graphical update, but then again, i wouldn't be sad or unhappy if they didn't. WoW is just plain fun. I love logging in and having a multitude of thigns, and if one toon get's boring, i just start another one and level up. Endless amounts of fun with WoW.
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#6
xvi
I hope that a graphics update doesn't mean I need to upgrade my hardware. I always thought we should be seeing better performance out of today's WoW engine, but it's one of the few games I have to really dumb down the graphics on. Most other games run fine at medium to high on my X850. WoW runs sort of a lowish medium (and I still only get 10 FPS in Orgrimmar).

I wonder if this will bring back some of the people who quit.
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#7
mullered07
xviI wonder if this will bring back some of the people who quit.
u talking bout the people in rehab who spent 25 hours a day on wow lol
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#8
Gam'ster
Yeah an optional download would be better like the recent eve trinity patch, the patch was well received and adds a bit of life to it imo. Wouldn't hurt WoW to have a face lift again as long as its optional.

Gam
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#9
Scheich
Ninkobwiwow has great gameplay I think.
You are right, but .. thats only a small part of the game. Lich king has nothing new and now
they are going the easy way, but theres always hope, maybe there are some ideas left for
Diablo 3, in 5 years :roll:
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#10
a111087
wow, they are going to need to do a LOT of work because the world is so huge
so, I would love to see how it would look with new graphics
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#11
ShadowFold
If they update the graphics I will start playing again.
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#12
echo75
its about freaking time!!!!!
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#13
Unregistered
but then.....9 million people will have to quite...most people play wow...cos it can run on a toaster
Posted on Edit | Reply
#14
a111087
Azazelbut then.....9 million people will have to quite...most people play wow...cos it can run on a toaster
it will probably be voluntary and I don't expect requirements just that high
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#15
Unregistered
yeah :p blizzard are not stupid enough to do such a thing :p i was just taking the piss :p
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#16
NinkobEi
Azazelbut then.....9 million people will have to quite...most people play wow...cos it can run on a toaster
since when do Cylons get to play WoW? I thought that was specifically forbiddin by the Two's
Posted on Reply
#17
Assimilator
Yeah, WoW's graphics are WAY past due for an update. Every time I watch my brother playing, I'm struck by how "cartoony" the game looks (which is probably why I've never played it).

As Gam said, the best way for Blizz to do this is in a similar way to what CCP did with EVE - allowing players to either stick with the old graphics engine that runs on any PC, or upgrade to the new and purty one that requires a decent graphics card.

@Ninkobwi: you win the Geek Humour Award for today :D
Posted on Reply
#18
spearman914
FAXAI think it needs doing eventually, although, I agree with Kreij's point.

If blizzard do decide to upgrade the engine, they'd better make it an optional download, so that people running the game on an old machine can still play.
I SO agree with that. But I don' play it.

And I LOL at your sig.
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#19
trt740
the current engine looks very good and will run on just about anything improve the game content and leave the game alone.
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#20
XooM
there are some clips on youtube of how existing models would look if rendered in an engine with better lighting and shading options, and it looks awesome. IMO, blizzard doesn't need to redo all the art to make WoW look better, they simply need to upgrade the engine's lighting and shading capabilities.
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#21
Mussels
Freshwater Moderator
Ninkobwisince when do Cylons get to play WoW? I thought that was specifically forbiddin by the Two's
the rebel cylons decided MMO's were fun.
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#22
Kenshai
Ninkobwiwow has great gameplay I think. some of the tactics required for raid bosses are just plain fun. like the big bad wolf in karazahn. he turns a random raid member into little red riding hood and that person has to run away from the wolf and cant attack or anything. thats just hilarious. and the chess boss is freaking great. what other mmo lets you play as a chess piece with heals/nukes and melee attacks? none. thats right.
Actually dark age of camelot had a mini chess game in the trials of atlantis expansion. Which came out almost a year before WoW if I'm not mistaken.
Posted on Reply
#23
AphexDreamer
Hey right now the only thing keeping me from playing WoW is its Graphics. If its gets some DX10 like Graphics, then thats the day I'll become a WOW adicte.
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#24
Xolair
Guess a part of my WoW ''fobia'' has been partially the graphics, they've just looked too cartoonish so far. If they added even a slither of realism and some graphical appeal in the future, I just might get into it. :p
Posted on Reply
#25
Selene
I have been playing WOW, sence 2004 Alpha beta, and i must say yes its due for the upgrade.
I also agree that they should make it optional, I know 3-4 ppl in my guild are from 3rd world countries and have very very poor PC's they are still using AGP GPUs and DDR1 memery.

I Also agree they need to change how they do things, not only the way it looks, I have been a HC raider for many many years, and this whole thing they do with adding a new instance, but making you wait for them to remove some thing inorder to get to the next boss is old.
AQ gates was kinda fun but all in all waste of ppls time, because blizz is slow at adding new content, and now with Sunwell its kinda the same thing all over again, yet Sunwell realy did not add any thing new, 4 horsemen and Cthun still are the only real cool fights in the game to date, rest are just repetes of the past, with alittle added Blah.

I'm moving to AOC, wich is nothing realy new to MMOs but its a fresh look at the combat system, even tho its not as polished as WOW it feels like it will be a good game for years to come.
I would posibly keep my WOW sub open another year just to check out WOTLK and see what it holds, before closing the door on WOW all to gether.
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