Upgrading WoW Engine with Overwatch-Technology

[Deleted]

Well, it's the year 2016 and Overwatch was recently released. I really enjoy the game and it's cartoonish appearance (typical Blizzard style) and think the maps look fantastic. Blizzard is working with subtle, but (in my opinion) very powerful visual effects like proper Shadows, Global Illumination, Bloom and Ambient Occlusion which makes the environment look very realistic (for a comic-world).

I think World of Warcraft would look so much better, just with these effects working in the background. Isn't there a way, to "just copy & paste" these effects and put it in the WoW-Engine ?

[Zulandia]

No there is not a way to "copy and paste it" /thread

[Cæli]

No thanks. The last thing the game need is a graphics style change. The visual and the art are a big part of what a video game is, take Okami for instance, it has a special graphic style, so has mario 64, being one of the first 3d game with flashy colors and weird shapes all over. Same for wow. Graphic is part of the soul of the game, don't touch it.
The graphic style of Overwatch is slightly similar but too different. It's very bright, textures emit some kind of white-y light/emit some kind of light, while it fits overwatch, it would be terrible on wow.

[Deleted]

Isn't there a way, to "just copy & paste" these effects and put it in the WoW-Engine ?

[klaps_05]

one of the reasons wow is so good is that i havent changed my laptop for years and i still get 300 fps even if the settings are mid-range.

[Brewhan]

Isn't there a way, to "just copy & paste" these effects and put it in the WoW-Engine ?

Yeah man of course...

[Deleted]

Guuuys, this was a joke ;-) Don't take the wording too serious.

But the basic message still stands.

[Thimagryn]

there's a reason why Overwatch is dedicated to 6 v 6 matchups and not some 64 v 64 grand scale battlefield.

[ruga]

Guuuys, this was a joke ;-) Don't take the wording too serious.

But the basic message still stands.

That's what they all say.

Anyhow, it's not fiscally feasible to completely overhaul the engine. It's like making a completely new game and you simply don't do that with a 10yo game.

[ComputerNerd]

there's a reason why Overwatch is dedicated to 6 v 6 matchups and not some 64 v 64 grand scale battlefield.

Very much this.
Number of possible variations, size of area, number of abilities, etc.
There is a reason why wow with what are deemed "inferior" graphics still suffers a LOT in larger group content.
Raising the requirements with better graphics wouldn't help that.

That's what they all say.

Anyhow, it's not fiscally feasible to completely overhaul the engine. It's like making a completely new game and you simply don't do that with a 10yo game.

We can but hope for it in the future, perhaps with optional DX12 support particularly for the multi-threading.
Though it does seem unlikely, as it would be a huge amount of work.

[Low Hanging Fruit]

All they have to do is pull the Lego blocks that are red and put in two greens and a blue in its place. Inside a solid Lego block the size of a pro football arena without altering its size or shape with about 1/4 of its current blocks being red. Then the graphics engine will be switched over to the new Overwatch one. So not as simple as control c and control p. But just a lot of completely taking stuff apart and putting in new stuff while also painfully scraping out all of the old. All the while tons of players screaming for more new stuff and it's been a year since you bothered.

[Deleted]

Well, it's the year 2016 and

Whatever the current year is WoW still has to reliably support 80 players spamming their spells at the same time (battlegrounds) or at least 20 players + various NPCs spamming their spells at the same time reliably (hard mode raiding).

Do that on an FPS game and see the results.

[Shadow Fox]

Overwatch as I recall is using the Havok Engine?

Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, Heroes are also using Havok, as I recall?