The Real Reason Blizzard Burned Teldrassil

[Kathranis]

With the increased draw distances in Legion, it's become extremely apparant just how utterly the in-game representation of Teldrassil fails to capture the artistic vision Blizzard had for it.

Undercity is similarily a poor reflection of their gothic horror-inspired art direction for the Forsaken post-Wrath, looking more like the interior of a Scourge necropolis like Naxxramas.


Does anyone think that this is really a justification to build new, more visually impressive capitals for the Forsaken and night elves in the future? Or am I a fool to hope?

[Cryptoriana]

So in the game you quest like inside the tree dont you? But the top art shows like the city on the base of the tree?

What is it supposed to be? In or on the bottom of the tree?

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

So in the game you quest like inside the tree dont you? But the top art shows like the city on the base of the tree?

What is it supposed to be? In or on the bottom of the tree?

The idea is you're questing in the branches of the tree.

But clearly Blizz never figured out how to do that well.

[leviathonlx]

The idea is you're questing in the branches of the tree.

But clearly Blizz never figured out how to do that well.

It's less 'figured out how to do that' and more 'not as easy as you think in 2004 with the engine they had'.

[Slowpoke is a Gamer]

It's less 'figured out how to do that' and more 'not as easy as you think in 2004 with the engine they had'.

Could have tried fixing it in 2010. Didn't.

Though that's the Cata revamp in a nutshell. They really tried on Lordaeron and the Barrens, gave 0 shits everywhere else.

[Cryptoriana]

The idea is you're questing in the branches of the tree.

But clearly Blizz never figured out how to do that well.

Damn trees and grass growing on a branch. I never would have thought Darnassus was on a branch! Rutheran is still on the base of the tree right?

[leviathonlx]

Could have tried fixing it in 2010. Didn't.

Though that's the Cata revamp in a nutshell. They really tried on Lordaeron and the Barrens, gave 0 shits everywhere else.

Maybe but Cata was already suffering from them stretching themselves too thin and trying to do too much. They also didn't necessarily have the tech in early Cata development to use WMO files in such a way. They've made pretty vast improvements to their engine and things they can do since MoP and especially so starting with WoD so making a 'tree' like model may actually be more feasible now.

[Kathranis]

So in the game you quest like inside the tree dont you? But the top art shows like the city on the base of the tree?

What is it supposed to be? In or on the bottom of the tree?

What it's supposed to be is essentially a giant island supported by the branches of the tree, with various settlements spread across its trunk and roots. It's supposed to be so large that when you're on top of it, you can't even tell it's on top of a tree (similar to the pandaren starting zone being on the back of a turtle).

Well, back in 2004, the draw distance in the game was so low that you couldn't actually see all of Teldrassil at once. When you took the FP to Darnassus, it flew you really close to the trunk and took you in a spiral loop up through a cluster of branches, then into the city. If you jumped off the edge, you could see branches and roots coming off the side, but the draw distance was low enough that you could never really tell exactly what the tree itself looked like.

In reality, they basically just designed it as just a giant stump and put the starting zone and city on top of it. They then used forced perspective and the game's low draw distance to hide the reality of it, giving you the illusion that you were flying up the trunk of a massive tree, through some dense foliage, and onto a landmass atop its branches.

The illusion was kind of broken when they introduced flying to Azeroth in Cataclysm, but it's only with the dramatically increased draw distances of Legion that you can really see just how much they cheated the engine back in 2004 to make the idea work.

[Xennethia]

I sure hope so. I've always been disappointed in the "majesty" that is Teldrassil. I was expecting more like Vordrassil.

[Phinx]

This pircture, combined with this title made me genuinely laugh.

But yes, this seems to be a got opportunity to change the silhouette of Teldrassil - while burnt, I doubt it will be completely gone.