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

#26
Evo85
That "clip" on the main page is a little mis leading.

Recommend reading the entire thing. ;)

As for an graphic upgrade. IMO it's not needed. WoW is a fantasy game. I DONT want realistic graphics in a fantasy game.
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#27
Unregistered
XolairGuess 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
probably still be cartoony...

maybe WARHAMMER: Online will be for you :)
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#28
NinkobEi
KenshaiActually 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.
mini chess game? was it a raid boss that actually gave good loot? or just a /chess option that you can play against another pc
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#29
Darkrealms
I don't think this is suprising. If you've followed WoW from beta it was their goal to keep it on a level most computers could "play" (run) it. As tech upgrades on the world scale they are upgrading their graphics engine as well.
They have made all their games playable on most systems even the upcoming SC2 they are claiming this.

As far as EQ goes I remember friends going and getting more Ram or HD space as major updates came out, lol.

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#30
Rebo&Zooty
DarkrealmsI don't think this is suprising. If you've followed WoW from beta it was their goal to keep it on a level most computers could "play" (run) it. As tech upgrades on the world scale they are upgrading their graphics engine as well.
They have made all their games playable on most systems even the upcoming SC2 they are claiming this.

As far as EQ goes I remember friends going and getting more Ram or HD space as major updates came out, lol.

my uncle went and ordered memory sticks for his old HP system, it was pc133, he slaped in 4x 512mb (beastly or those days) because 4x256mb wasnt enought for one of the expantions to run properly :P
mine you thats back when having 1gb ram was considered overkill by most gamers, and a p3 900 was considered a monster of a chip.

i have said this about mmo's before, they should offer an upgrade pack thats 100% optional to the gfx of the game, i have seen games do this.

ultima online for example offered uo3d, a fully 3d client that was play compatable with the normal client, the only problem was that support for it was suq and it ran poorly even on powerfull computers, in it never was very popular because of that, now alot of UO players complained about it when it came out because they where using old pentium1 systems or even 486's to run UO with 14.4 modems, (no joke i knew a few that still chuged along at 14.4 lol) those people where the minority of players but they where the loud winging/crying minority, they drove OSI to effectivly dump the 3d client updates, sucks because with refigning it would have/could have been great.
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#31
candle_86
a111087wow, 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
world is huge, but it repeats alot of graphics, you don't think every single texture is unique, in duskwood for instance there is maybe 5 diffrent tree textures, grass all gets the same ect, so overall retexturing isnt the issue, its redoing the actual ingame models of the animals players ect
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#32
Kenshai
Ninkobwimini chess game? was it a raid boss that actually gave good loot? or just a /chess option that you can play against another pc
It was part of the master level side of dark age. Wasn't a raid boss, as raid bosses didn't truly exist in the way that WoW does it now. Basically a series of quest inside a dungeon that would allow you to gain more abilities.
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#33
Rebo&Zooty
candle_86world is huge, but it repeats alot of graphics, you don't think every single texture is unique, in duskwood for instance there is maybe 5 diffrent tree textures, grass all gets the same ect, so overall retexturing isnt the issue, its redoing the actual ingame models of the animals players ect
you are correct, its called higher poly count models, ppl with fingers that are round, animals with paws that arent just 3 points for claws :P
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#34
newconroer
OH NOES people with seriously out dated computers won't be able to live in their virtual world, where they seek adoration and adulation because they can't simply get a life.

And ..oh noes, developers of an MMO might actually have to CODE for once.

Oh the fukking horror of it all.

~stabs self~


It's got my support. Send the carebears away.
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#35
Unregistered
why do people have a hatred for mmorpg...and blizzard...just cos they are doing well...
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#36
NinkobEi
Azazelwhy do people have a hatred for mmorpg...and blizzard...just cos they are doing well...
no idea. blizzard is a much, much better company than most of the other big game developers. look at EA,. oh god they treat their workers like ccrap and turn out unfinished products. almost every single blizzard release has been high/superb quality. Warcraft2: amazing. Starcraft: cult status astonishing. Diablo 2: again, cult status, Warcraft 3: mod-errific awesomeness. World of Warcraft: possibly the best MMO ever designed, albeit its not for the "hard core" mmo'ers.
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#37
Unregistered
yes blizzard make allot of quality games. :p

im a little off wow atm :p its better for the casual players and people who are new to the mmo world ;p ...still a good game though
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#38
NinkobEi
Azazelim a little off wow atm :p its better for the casual players and people who are new to the mmo world ;p ...still a good game though
WoW is just great simplistic fun. its almost like a FPS- except less positioning tactics and more ability tactics.
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#39
Unregistered
NinkobwiWoW is just great simplistic fun. its almost like a FPS- except less positioning tactics and more ability tactics.
its too simplistic imo :p

oh well :p

i played it for a bit to long though...im just bored of it :p
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#40
Rebo&Zooty
any mmo or infact any game if you play to much of it will get boring.

Im an OLD mmo player, Ultima Online was my firts,then some ragnarok and others, honestly UO was the only one i didnt get totaly sick of, because in UO theres so much to do that no matter how long you play, you will alwase have something new to work on mastering, be it cooking, alchemy, fishing, magery, slew of wepon skills to work up, carpentry, mining, lumber jacking, tailoring, sheering, it goes on and on and on and on, and theres no leveling bs, your charictor is what you make of it thru pure work, the more you use a skill, the better you get at that skill.

WoW is fun on privat servers, to me the pay servers just get to boring trying to level.....

Once wcell is avalable for use I will be working with a few friends to build a version of wow's game play thats a bit more advanced and less restrictive then what you see on the current pay and privat servers.

we all are intrested to see if we can re-create most of what UO offers but using WOW as the client, i know building houses wont happen, but being able to bult a charictor 100% based on your own effort will be fun, :)
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#41
candle_86
i quite enjoy wow, graphics don't really matter to be honest, when your bored with alliance try horde, its what i do, im leveling on 2 diff servers right now
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#42
Unregistered
iv got a human mage to 70 and warlock gnome... (and allot of raiding)

i was leveling a warrior orc...got bored ans being a warrior is boring for me...tried a blood elf mage...then got banned from wow...the unbanned.. i cant be bothered to play again :p
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