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

[861129]

The environment is fabulous, but I hope they can do something about the illumination/shadowing of the character models in relation to the apparent lighting of the scene. The characters seem out of place as it is now.

 

[Surf Solar]

The characters really need some drop shadows, like fallout did etc. Otherwise, it looks fabolous!

 

[Infinitron]

http://forums.obsidian.net/topic/64238-update-61-in-game-art/page-2

How will the shadows/lighting work in the final product? The environment is gorgeous, but the conflict between the apparent lighting of the scene and the way the character models are illuminated makes the latter seem out of place.

The character models only have one shadow cast from the scene's directional light. Per-character point light shadows (especially multiple point light shadows) would get computationally expensive very fast. The characters are lit using dynamic lights placed in scene, but real-time lighting is never going to perfectly match the pre-rendered lighting of the scene.

Yeah... umm... <sigh> I hate to do this, but you've asked us, so here I go:
You've stayed very true to the concept art, and that I love. Still, in my probably not so humble opinion, the final in-game render is somehow lacking in the shadows department. It seems all tad to bright, and that takes a bit of mystery from that particular scene

The stronger/less diffuse our environment shadows are, the more difficult it becomes to place characters in the scene and not have them stick out. We tended toward relatively diffuse shadows in the IWD games for that reason as well.

Looks amazing! My only (minor) concern is that the individuals inside the room are visible, even though the party is outside of the room, with the door closed. I'm guessing that fog of war/mob detection is not in yet?

The back end/data for fog of war is implemented, but not the rendering side. Also, if the room were obscured by fog of war, that would be a pretty crummy screenshot.

 

[Cynic]

I like this shot, but I have to say, I'm a big proponent of "If you're going to do something, do it right".

I hate to be that grafixfag in the room, but honestly, the models look like shit on top of that background. They look like they were badly cut out of some Photoshop PSD and pasted on to the scene. I almost think they should ditch their lighting plans completely and just have circular spot shadows under each model.

The player character models look fantastic on their own however. Loving all the different pieces of armour, the obvious difference between blade types etc., the detail is great. The lighting is very jarring though, I really wonder what it will look like when things are moving around etc.,

Hoping this was a bit of a rush job tbh.

 

[Brother None]

Looks amazing, really.

 

[Surf Solar]

I do wonder what these enemies are, some kind of cult?

 

[Infinitron]

stuff

Shut up grafixfag

 

[sea]

I think it looks fucking beautiful, to be honest. Just like a modern, high-res Infinity Engine game with art direction on par with Icewind Dale. You can nitpick tiny things, but... frankly, you're kind of an asshole if you do, and there are always going to be small inconsistencies when putting 3D-rendered characters on top of 2D backgrounds.

Seriously, between this and splurging over Larian's writing in Dragon Commander, my day has really brightened up.

 

[Cynic]

stuff

Shut up grafixfag

If they set the camera zoom correctly far back enough, all will be well.

 

[Jvegi]

I think the only reason some people are complaining about the character models is because those hats look fucking silly.

 

[Cynic]

I think the only reason some people are complaining about the character models is because those hats look fucking silly.

Thought the hats/masks looked pretty cool actually.

 

[Kaldurenik]

Looks nice, the shadows are abit out of place and the lightning is abit strange and i love the details on the characters overall i cant wait to play it

 

[Liston]

I like this shot, but I have to say, I'm a big proponent of "If you're going to do something, do it right".

I hate to be that grafixfag in the room, but honestly, the models look like shit on top of that background. They look like they were badly cut out of some Photoshop PSD and pasted on to the scene. I almost think they should ditch their lighting plans completely and just have circular spot shadows under each model.

The player character models look fantastic on their own however. Loving all the different pieces of armour, the obvious difference between blade types etc., the detail is great. The lighting is very jarring though, I really wonder what it will look like when things are moving around etc.,

Hoping this was a bit of a rush job tbh.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that ToEE implemented character shadows in the similar way as PE? It was jarring at first but I got used to it pretty quickly in ToEE.

 

[Cynic]

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that ToEE implemented character shadows in the similar way as PE? It was jarring at first but I got used to it pretty quickly in ToEE.

Possibly, they do look kind of similar, I had no issue with them in ToEE though. I think the difference here is the camera is zoomed in a lot closer than it was in ToEE so the oddness becomes more obvious, also perhaps a lack of AA.

I'm sure it'll be fine on the finished product.

 

[Rake]

stuff

Shut up grafixfag

If they set the camera zoom correctly far back enough, all will be well.

You understand that in-game the characters and the enemies will have circles under them, right? They will look better and more in-place with them.

 

[Karmapowered]

Larger version:

Open door.

Cast fireball.

Close door.

What has changed since EDIT : NWN2 BG with this game ?

 

[Infinitron]

Open door.

Cast fireball.

Close door.

What has changed since NWN2 with this game ?

Fireball unlikely to kill in one hit since Josh doesn't like "save or die" type spells, you can't rest in place to get another one, and enemies probably know how to use doors since Obsidian seem obsessed with getting doors working correctly

 

[Delterius]

Meaning that a better example would be an AoE DoT spell, like Cloudkill. Though the improved AI and rarified spellcasting should fix this issue.

 

[Karmapowered]

Fireball unlikely to kill in one hit

Okay, let's make it a bit more sophisticated : caste fireball x2 (or grease + fireball) ?

enemies probably know how to use doors since Obsidian seem obsessed with getting doors working correctly

Wake me up once they do. Somehow I am not really optimistic.

Except pretty graphix (because IWD legacy), I still have to read something about P:E (Eternity ?) worth all the hype it seems to get on the Codex.

Are there other sites, except the Kickstarter updates, the Obsidian forums and the Codex I should browse to catch up on what I've been missing ?

 

[Delterius]

Hype? You must have missed the 800 pages of the pissing contest that was/is rules discussion.

 

[Rostere]

I like this shot, but I have to say, I'm a big proponent of "If you're going to do something, do it right".

I hate to be that grafixfag in the room, but honestly, the models look like shit on top of that background. They look like they were badly cut out of some Photoshop PSD and pasted on to the scene. I almost think they should ditch their lighting plans completely and just have circular spot shadows under each model.

I thought this was the classic cRPG subforum. If your main interest in a game is whether or not lighting looks nice, maybe you should really be posting somewhere else.

Hell, if the graphics looks like they're from 2001, then we can be sure they're spending their time making actual content for the game and not appealing to whiny graphics fags like you.

 

[Delterius]

Stop criticizing, this game isn't for you.

Man, does this bring me back memories.

 

[Infinitron]

"PE = NWN2 until I know enemies can open doors"

 

[Delterius]

As if doors are the ultimate issue. In BG enemies wouldn't follow you through fog of war.

 

[Cynic]

I like this shot, but I have to say, I'm a big proponent of "If you're going to do something, do it right".

I hate to be that grafixfag in the room, but honestly, the models look like shit on top of that background. They look like they were badly cut out of some Photoshop PSD and pasted on to the scene. I almost think they should ditch their lighting plans completely and just have circular spot shadows under each model.

I thought this was the classic cRPG subforum. If your main interest in a game is whether or not lighting looks nice, maybe you should really be posting somewhere else.

Hell, if the graphics looks like they're from 2001, then we can be sure they're spending their time making actual content for the game and not appealing to whiny graphics fags like you.

LOL

I'm currently replaying the Krynn games fucktard.

Graphics don't need to be spectacular, but they shouldn't be jarring. It should fit together as a scene and nothing should jump out as not being in place etc., that's when the graphics start to become irritating.

I'd rather them be less ambitious than try something that doesn't really work.

I love how all you retards ignored the positive parts of everything I said and focused on the negative. Classic diagnosis of fanboy dick sucking ITT.