First Page:
Hard A - 4
Hard B - 2 (implied but didnt specifically say)
A with equivocations 0r B with equivocations or A and B listed - 5
C - 0
A, B or C please, just to make compilation easier. Thanks.
My post is not disengenuous, it is just obvious they are 2 different quality of pictures being used.
my point was the first picture looks like some sort of photo mode was used and the second picture looks like they turned off the UI while playing. I have watched most the gameplay videos from various streamers and pantheon themselves and it never looks as good as the screenshots they have featured.
good shadows and lighting (ray tracing?) seems to be missing from both old style gameplay footage and the new style they have shown while their featured screenshots have it boosted. This is why I suggest comparing 2 gameplay photos instead. This is like comparing glamour shots to everyday photos.
This is gameplay from 9 months ago from pantheon's stream in the goblin caves by the fire with Minus's pov. The lighting is just not as dynamic. If the game looked like the pictures you are posting I would be A all the way. But it is unfortunately not. I am sorry you took it as an attack...it was not that at all.
Honestly, what I want from VR is a picture of the exact same scene side by side. Like one of those pics with a slider that you can go back and forth to really see the actual differences in colors and details. I don't find their new style too far off from the color scheme they had before either, just softer maybe(gameplay version).
Nexira said:My post is not disengenuous, it is just obvious they are 2 different quality of pictures being used.
my point was the first picture looks like some sort of photo mode was used and the second picture looks like they turned off the UI while playing. I have watched most the gameplay videos from various streamers and pantheon themselves and it never looks as good as the screenshots they have featured.
good shadows and lighting (ray tracing?) seems to be missing from both old style gameplay footage and the new style they have shown while their featured screenshots have it boosted. This is why I suggest comparing 2 gameplay photos instead. This is like comparing glamour shots to everyday photos.
This is gameplay from 9 months ago from pantheon's stream in the goblin caves by the fire with Minus's pov. The lighting is just not as dynamic. If the game looked like the pictures you are posting I would be A all the way. But it is unfortunately not. I am sorry you took it as an attack...it was not that at all.
Or pretty much anything from Zaide's stream .
But really weird trying to compare the best of shots from a style that was a few years in dev with full assets/lighting/atmosphere setups vs one that is a few months in.
I think that chenzeme is asking a simple gut-check question and too much is being assumed about it.
I took the wording on C to mean anything that is not A or B, including the answers that say "I like A but.." Or "B would suit me if..."
Perhaps I'm the one assuming incorrectly and I should apologize for littering the thread with my own thoughts outside of the original question.
To answer the original question A......However that is not the direction we should be moving in. It dosent matter if its 90/10 or even 100% A, we are getting B now. VR needs to show more ingame shots and we need to critique the art so we end up with the best B that we can get.
In that spirit I think the pictures of the bears needs a change, it looks like something out of a cute kids phone game that wont scare Minus in the least when he sees that bear. That would be a shame as we all should feel some sort of fear/angst that a particular mob will send us to the loading screen instead of dancing with us and passing out pastel/rainbow hugs.
Just to clear a couple of things. B was chosen as it most matches A in terms of composition. VR have not provided any in game screen shots with better lighting or atmospherics so I cannot use them. Indeed they havent promised anything in terms of the graphics and where it is headed since the abrupt change in style direction. If there was a better lit screenshot then I would have used it. At this moment in time, there isnt!
The screen shots are taken from VR's own gallery, that, in itself, gives us an expectation of what to expect with the game play graphics. So I still feel the use of the two is valid. If I had chosen one in a dungeon and one in the open air, there would still be complaints. There is no hidden agenda here. I am not asking to compare quality. I am asking to compare styles. In the same way someone can prefer Apple Pie over Pecan Pie over Shepards Pie. They are different beasts, and different people can make different quality of pie, but a choice can still be made about which you prefer!
Having said that, I do listen to opposing views and think it is right and just that I respond to criticism (unlike the almost total lack of input from VR thus far); I will introduce a 4th option: D: I feel I cannot make a fair comparison at this time.
For a binary choice of style preference, people just love to complicate things!
I also believe our views matter hugely. I for one think it is very justifiable to rage against the machine when it is bulldozing everything in its path. Dramatic, maybe. Whether it is listened to or actioned upon doesnt matter as pointed out, VR will release what they want. However, I think it is very important to tell them when they let us down, and in the handling of this matter, they have!
Back to the topic at hand. Thank you to those that have already participated. For future voters, please indicate style A, style B, C or D!
I find it funny that people are complaining that I have a fully lit screen shot of what we had and a screen shot that lacks lighting that we have now. This is what VR have given us. We had deep and moody, now we dont. If these graphics improve, great. I will re-evaluate at such a point in time. However, there is no sign or word from VR that says they will or will not improve. IF these are place holders, they should have said that. If there is better lighting coming, they should have said that. Instead we are given these pictures and are told this is the new art direction. I take them at face value and not what may or may not happen in the future, anything else is just supposition. Quite frankly, VR have show an ability to suddenly change the goal posts as and when, so expectation and guess work is futile.
Is this not moody or deep enough for you:
https://i.imgur.com/kkAvKeT.png
Iksar said:Is this not moody or deep enough for you:
I like it. I like it a lot.
You know, I've never had a probblem with the art style change, I get the reasoning and accept that, except a few things like the trees and the grass looking a bit too hand painted, not enough definition and I did find it a bit too light and cheery, but after really comparing the screenshots he's posted in this thread more and more and watching old gameplay videos and now finally seeing this, I'm really starting to come around to think that the new art style actually has more potential than the old graphics.
The old graphics looked great for the environment, I do feel like it's a loss there. However the characters and mobs always looked ... off? wrong? to me. I think as a whole, this art style is going to come together better as a whole package, in the long run.
meh - D.
The quality of pictures and lighting are too different, I find myself judging that rather than the style.
Turn on the ultra settings on for the new style and I could make a better judgement. It is a pointless endeavor though, the new style is what we have.
The old style already looked dated and the new one doesn't. This is the last of the list of importance for me, way behind gameplay and combat animations. I am optimistic that they will produce something that is fun regardless of the style.
Can't wait to see some screenshots with the settings on "ultra" with the new style. I want to see more.
What is all this talk about the new art not looking "dated"?
It looks dated out of the box.
2004 WoW graphics.
And its going to "age well"?? if only because it can't really look any worse than it does.
Just beause its new doesn't mean its good. Just because the devs put it out there doesn't mean its good.
This new art style is such a tragic mistake. But what do i know. It worked for Dora the Explorer, maybe it will work for Pantheon too.
This is what I've wondered too. Seems like the pro painted crowds take is "if you don't try, you can't fail." However, I am in the minority in that I don't want to play Pantheon for 20 years. Hell I was hoping to play Pantheon 2 by now, with improved graphics over the original Pantheon. If Pantheon's gameplay leads to a resurgence of the type game I hope eventually happens, I'll dump Pantheon for a game with a similar gameplay, but better graphics, without hesitation. I prefer as realistic as they can get. They couldn't pull it off, in a reasonable time frame so we are on the present, regrettable path. Who knows, maybe they will come up with something reasonable... but yeah, painted vs "if it isn't absolute realism, it's dated" confuses the hell out of me.
To the people saying "oh that isn't what the game actually looked like" you aren't helping your cause here. Option A is what we were hoping for with this game, but even the least flattering areas of the old livestreams were far more to my liking than anything I've seen of the new art style/graphics. Telling the people who like option A that it was never an option is basically telling us it was all false advertizing, way to go.
Ziegfried: Telling the people who like option A that it was never an option ...
Keep in mind, that the graphics presented at the time of sign up were what was portrayed as the style of the game, so the change in style direction cannot be ignored as never being promised; it really was.
If you are posting on this thread, please also provide a preference of A, B, C or D. There are other threads related to the style where feelings should be vented, I am just trying to get a feel for how many prefer what, as there are a lot of posts with the argument "most people", or similar that have no grounds in fact what so ever. I am just trying to get some understanding (either way) about preferences, that is all.
Ok post seems to have run its course. This page's findings:
Hard A: 3
Hard B: 3
A with equivocations, or B with equivocations, or A and B listed: 1
C: 0
D: 1
Overall:
A: 7 B: 5 Mixed: 6 C: 0 D: 1
So the upshot is that there is no overall preference. No one (from these limited findings) can justifiably say "Most people prefer one style over another". As I suspected, this style is divisive. Some like, some love, some dislike and some hate, some not sure and some dont care.
I have a post on reddit about the new art style that has 11k views and an 82% upvote rate. I was trying to see if there's a way to see how many people liked/disliked as an additional metric, but if there is a way to see total votes, I can't find it. I just hope they put out new video of the art style sooner rather than later. A proper art stlye reveal that's atleast a 30+ mins video would probably put a lot of people's minds at ease.
chenzeme said:It would be interesting to see stats broken by age too. I think the bottom line is that on here, there is no overall preference.
This and I think it's too early to have a real preference. I get that you can be upset about the change if you loved the old graphics or hate cartoon-ish graphics, but as far as it working for Pantheon, I do not believe we have seen enough yet.
They aren't dumb, I guarantee they are reading and listening to every word being said right now and trying to come up with the best course of action. At this point I just want to see more. It was almost impossible for me personally to form a real opinion with 3 minutes of screenshots and a few environment spans and a few second running animation and some animals.
I need to see it IN ACTION.
