Obsidian's Pillars of Eternity [BETA RELEASED, GO TO THE NEW THREAD]

[catfood]

What impressed me the most were the characters. They were both fluidly animated as well as nicely detailed. I wonder how much their look changes based on the gear that you have. TOEE was awesome in this regard; it even had animated capes.

 

[imweasel]

As the people in the Obsidian forum have already noticed, there are no dynamic shadows. The shadows from the trees, bushes and other objects never move, they are painted onto the prerendered 3D background.

It would be a lot of work to implement dynamic shadows too.

 

[imweasel]

I liked everything except the running animation at the start. That looked kinda weird. The walking was much better.

True. The animations still need some work too.

 

[Duraframe300]

It could also be that dynamic shadows are still o the to do list.

Also

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-04-09-man-of-many-parts-chris-avellones-busy-schedule

 

[Fart Master]

As the people in the Obsidian forum have already noticed, there are no dynamic shadows. The shadows from the trees, bushes and other objects never move, they are painted onto the prerendered 3D background.

It would be a lot of work to implement dynamic shadows too.

I guess I'm weird but I couldn't give less of a shit as long as it looks good.

 

[imweasel]

As the people in the Obsidian forum have already noticed, there are no dynamic shadows. The shadows from the trees, bushes and other objects never move, they are painted onto the prerendered 3D background.

It would be a lot of work to implement dynamic shadows too.

I guess I'm weird but I couldn't give less of a shit as long as it looks good.

Oh, it looks great, no doubt about it. It is quite impressive.

Dynamic shadows would make it even better though. But maybe they are working on implementing that. We'll see.

 

[Diablo169]

 

[Krash]

They can implement them after making a great game, if there's time left.

 

[SwiftCrack]

I always turn any sort of shadow in (modern) games off; it never is done well for the GPU power it costs. Infinity engine games (atleast Baldur's Gate) always had nice shadows.

 

[Nithrakis]

Josh addressed some of the feedback in a comment posted on the official forums:

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/63...es-daynight-lighting-all-that-jazz/?p=1322360

 

[Tytus]

Ok, so I'll just write what I thought about the engine presentation, without reading the newest posts so they won't taint my opinion. If I'm going to bring some things that were already talked about - sorry.

I liked it, but...

1. The characters seem a little too small.
2. When Sawyer said that my head is going to explode I was expecting some moving grass and leaves, birds flying over, small animals on the ground, cloud shadows etc. It wasn't there.
3. If they showed animation of tides (how does that work with a stream with a waterfall beside it? ) They could've also show some weather effects like rain or something.
4. My friend said that ToEE looked as good as this in 2003 and I have to agree with him.
5. Day to Night cycle was ok, but the night portion wasn't really a night. Baldur's Gate 1 had darker nights. PE made a Hollywood type night where they just put on a dark blue filter over the lens.
6. Ball of light was actually really good - I hope to see more of that in the game (The technology not the ball )

Also I have this personal prejudice (not really rational but most prejudices aren't) When I see a heavily tattooed person especially if the person is tattooed in visible places I think that person is a dickhead. And after Sawyer made a big deal out of nothing really special, I'm inclined to still hold that opinion.

Plot and gameplay will be, of course, more important that graphics in this game, but it is 2013 and they did get 4mln to make the game. So I would really like to see a game that looks like it was made in 2013 and has visible differences from games done in 2003 - 2006.

 

[tuluse]

It has moving grass.

 

[AN4RCHID]

Hmmm... The water should really be reflecting the sky, and it should be murkier. It's a little annoying that the water doesn't react to the water fall - it's the same ripples at the fjord and right next to the falls. Look at the fork of the river that passes under the bridge - the water is still 'flowing' towards the bottom-left, when it should be flowing downstream, to the bottom-right. I expect this is far from what the water will look like in the final game, so I'm not worried.

Some of the bushes pretty blatantly just have one branch that moves back and forth and the rest stays frozen which is a little weird looking. The grass is perfect and the trees look pretty nice. One thing they should think about is coordinating the movement of the brush, grass, and trees to simulate gusts of wind. It wouldn't be that much work and it would look a lot better.

Overall it's a really nice demo. The quality meets my expectations, which were pretty high. I was hoping to see a new area, but if the prototype is almost done we should be seeing a lot more soon anyway.

 

[Infinitron]

4. My friend said that ToEE looked as good as this in 2003 and I have to agree with him.
5. Day to Night cycle was ok, but the night portion wasn't really a night. Baldur's Gate 1 had darker nights. PE made a Hollywood type night where they just put on a dark blue filter over the lens.

First we had people comparing tech demos to prototypes, now we have people comparing prototypes to finished games.

 

[GarfunkeL]

You can zoom in and out. The furthest zoom was shown later in the video and you can see the warrior being quite small. When the three characters came on-stage, that's the default zoom level but you can use mouse wheel to scroll closer if you want.

Sawyer said that they are still tweaking the amount of "idle" animations. I did notice trees slightly swaying and grass moving in wind.

Yeah, a bit of rain would have made it even better. Can't see why it wouldn't be possible in the full version.

This does look better than ToEE, though the difference isn't that big. But - have there been any similar games between now and then that surpassed ToEE? None, AFAIK.

That's true but I don't want true night. It'll just make life difficult, unless dark vision is common or one party member can carry a super-torch that's enough to illuminate half a level. As this won't be a dedicated stealth game, I don't think that a truly dark environments are required.

 

[MicoSelva]

4. My friend said that ToEE looked as good as this in 2003 and I have to agree with him.

First we had people comparing tech demos to prototypes, now we have people comparing prototypes to finished games.

ToEE wasn't finished.

 

[pocahaunted]

There are already morons going "MAN I WISH THIS GAME WENT 3D WITH VOICA ACTING". Fucking idiots, that's what got us into this mess in the first place.

 

[Tytus]

4. My friend said that ToEE looked as good as this in 2003 and I have to agree with him.
5. Day to Night cycle was ok, but the night portion wasn't really a night. Baldur's Gate 1 had darker nights. PE made a Hollywood type night where they just put on a dark blue filter over the lens.

First we had people comparing prototypes to tech demos, now we have people comparing finished games to prototypes.

Yes, because people compare things to other things they know. Yeah it's a prototype, but if I'm going to give feedback it's the only way I can do it is - this game looked better in this regard, this had better effects etc. If anybody from Obsidian is reading this thread they will immediately know what I mean and what elements I am referring too. By your logic I only can compare things on the same level of development and give feedback only when it's done when nothing can be changed at that point.

 

[Duraframe300]

There are already morons going "MAN I WISH THIS GAME WENT 3D WITH VOICA ACTING". Fucking idiots, that's what got us into this mess in the first place.

Somebody's trolling the youtube comments with that, hard.

 

[pocahaunted]

There are already morons going "MAN I WISH THIS GAME WENT 3D WITH VOICA ACTING". Fucking idiots, that's what got us into this mess in the first place.

Somebody's trolling the youtube comments with that, hard.

Actually read it on rebbit, in a serious discussion where those comments were coincidentally being upvoted - it was disgusting.

 

[Infinitron]

Yes, because people compare things to other things they know. Yeah it's a prototype, but if I'm going to give feedback it's the only way I can do it is - this game looked better in this regard, this had better effects etc. If anybody from Obsidian is reading this thread they will immediately know what I mean and what elements I am referring too. By your logic I only can compare things on the same level of development and give feedback only when it's done when nothing can be changed at that point.

You can compare whatever you want, but you should also limit your expectations from a game that has been in development for barely half a year.

 

[Volrath]

4. My friend said that ToEE looked as good as this in 2003 and I have to agree with him.
5. Day to Night cycle was ok, but the night portion wasn't really a night. Baldur's Gate 1 had darker nights. PE made a Hollywood type night where they just put on a dark blue filter over the lens.

First we had people comparing prototypes to tech demos, now we have people comparing finished games to prototypes.

Yes, because people compare things to other things they know. Yeah it's a prototype, but if I'm going to give feedback it's the only way I can do it is - this game looked better in this regard, this had better effects etc. If anybody from Obsidian is reading this thread they will immediately know what I mean and what elements I am referring too. By your logic I only can compare things on the same level of development and give feedback only when it's done when nothing can be changed at that point.

Your friend's a retard and so are you.

 

[Tytus]

Yes, because people compare things to other things they know. Yeah it's a prototype, but if I'm going to give feedback it's the only way I can do it is - this game looked better in this regard, this had better effects etc. If anybody from Obsidian is reading this thread they will immediately know what I mean and what elements I am referring too. By your logic I only can compare things on the same level of development and give feedback only when it's done when nothing can be changed at that point.

You can compare whatever you want, but you should also limit your expectations from a game that has been in development for barely half a year.

My expectations would be limited if not for Sawyer who said that this will blow me away. And if a dev is saying that what is he about to show me is mind blowing he better have something awesome to show. Or he becomes Molyneux.
My expectations were high because I was told I will have to pick pieces of my head of the floor. So two options. Show a demo when you have more shit done, or be more humble.

 

[Infinitron]

Again, whether you're blown away or not depends on your expectations.

People were "blown away" by the Eternity screenshot and the Torment screenshots (except maybe the first one). And those were just screenshots. They were impressive because they came out before the game even entered pre-production.

They were blown away by the Wasteland 2 gameplay video too, which was just a bunch of monster slaying and a bit of dialogue. That was impressive because the game isn't even in alpha yet.

 

[Duraframe300]

My expectations would be limited if not for Sawyer who said that this will blow me away. And if a dev is saying that what is he about to show me is mind blowing he better have something awesome to show. Or he becomes Molyneux.
My expectations were high because I was told I will have to pick pieces of my head of the floor. So two options. Show a demo when you have more shit done, or be more humble.

He meant mindblowing in some of the stuff that they were capable of doing with the 2D pre-rendered map. And no, TOEE couldn't do everything the video showed.