World Enhancement: Making Azeroth look Real

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Hey all,

First of all, this isn't a thread about why Blizzard should make the graphics better. This is a thread about making Azeroth look nicer, using the tools they already have.

Now that I have gotten that cleared up, I will got straight to the point. Blizzard has been developing WoW for ten years now, and despite the fact that the game is run using a 2003/04 engine, I must state that they can make the world nicer. No, you don't need 2K high-resolution textures to do that or fancy particle effects. To give you a better understanding, let me show you an overhead view of Mulgore and the Burning Steppes, just a couple of many regions that could definitely be more attractive.





As you can see, these regions are largely void of detail. Sure, there are few trees here and there, or maybe a a small camp, but the game world is overly the same: it's mostly just hills, and that's about it.

Now considering it is 2013, technology is sophisticated enough to allow small teams of developer create very interesting and immersive virtual worlds in a matter of days, and Blizzard has 4,700 employees! Not to mention the fact that the game is a decade old, it would just take five people and a couple of weeks to make Azeroth very pretty! Seriously, it really isn't that hard; add more trees, moss, and streams to Elynn Forest! Make the Stonetalon Mountains actually look like mountains and not just really tall hills! Perhaps add some more clutter to inns and shops, or make Thunderbluff and Ironforge really feel like important, bustling racial capitals and not just underpopulated collections of tents and forges with a few NPCs walking around. Blizzard certainly has more than enough creative employees who aced geography or environmental science, and it isn't like adding a few boulders to the Redridge Mountains is as hard as creating a new ability, or adding twenty new NPCs walking around the Undercity is going to crash the server.

[SherbertLand]

World of Warcraft was made with the intention that the graphics would be cartoonish.

[jsz]

"Why's there no new content? Why did this patch add dumb trees and not new gear?"

[SherbertLand]

"Why's there no new content? Why did this patch add dumb trees and not new gear?"

I don't think they would ship a graphics redo in a patch.

[Nekrosislol]

They can't upgrade it too much, remember the average wow player isn't playing on a 2012/2013 pc. It would cut their base players a lot if they made it too much to the point where a lot of people would need to upgrade pc's

[Dald]

It's all about being able to play the game on low end systems.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

I'm not complaining about cartoonish graphics, but I'm annoyed that Blizzard isn't making it look as if it were a real place (ie, don't just make an empty world with little bumps here and there and an occasion tree or boulder)

[Trassk]

Wow is, what i think of, a very comic book themed game. When you consider the super villains, the heroes with super powers, the multiple classes with there own super powers, and the cartoon like graphics.. yeah, its like living in a comic book.

---------- Post added 2013-04-04 at 12:40 AM ----------

I'm not complaining about cartoonish graphics, but I'm annoyed that Blizzard isn't making it look as if it were a real place.

but its not a real place, its a fantasy world.

[Rivin]

They look empty because you're zoomed way out and/or have graphic settings lower than maximum. WoW's zones aren't as empty as your screenshots imply. I mean, yes, they're emptier than areas in newer games, but that's by design. WoW is intended to run on lower-end computers, and trees are very graphics-intensive (yes, even the cardboard cutout trees that make up a lot of the old world).

But yeah, go fly in to the ground level and turn graphic settings to Ultra and check again. Mulgore looks way better than that on the ground.

[SherbertLand]

I'm not complaining about cartoonish graphics, but I'm annoyed that Blizzard isn't making it look as if it were a real place.

Of course. I know it's not a complaint thread. I was just explaining why I think they would never update. And how would higher graphics even work? What about the spell details of the 24 other people in your raid?

[skitzy129]

Frankly I don't think there are enough people that care that much for it to be worthwhile, on top of the other reasons listed. I mean, you're talking about zones people might spend all of a half hour in before they out level and move on, if they don't just dungeon grind to Outlands anyway.

When you level a new toon you can see the graphical advancements throughout each expansion as you go and things look quite nice for the engine now, but it doesn't bother me that much that the old areas don't have quite the same level of detail.

[Deleted]

Blizzard has 4,700 employees!

Sure, I know that the Janitor Bob and the Cook Smith are great game developers!

Seriously now, WoW has actually around 100 team members and it's because they are now split in patches team.

On the other topic, many people still play on their old computers and can't handle more particles in display.

[Dragon2K]

Every expansion has had graphic updates... have you compared WoW 2013 to WoW 2004 at all?

A lot of the world was remade with Cataclysm.. and everyone complained it had too little end-game content.
No matter how many people they have; developer time is a very limited resource. April Fools' even got scrapped this year.

[Jerycho]

I understand you're point and it would be great if the landscapes had a bit more polish and detail. I'd rather have them update character models first. Then we can talk about adding more landmarks and stuff lol.

[Dragon2K]

Besides... I rather like Mulgore... and Elwynn too!

[Phood]

I just see a serene landscape and a desolate wasteland. I don't mind these spaces at all. I think sometimes zones seem so loaded with stuff its exhausting going in there. Grizzly Hills is a good example. That zone has stuff on top of stuff and seems almost randomly placed.

[Incognito Noctix]

I like Mulgore as it is. Don't ruin it like Loch Modan.

[TyrianFC]

I think the Mulgore screenshot is beautiful. Much nicer than many 'busy' zones.

And besides, thats a lvl 1-10 zone. It should be simple. What did you honestly expect? Some sort of complicated zone for lvl 1's to quest through? Thats a great use of resources for the 1 hour they will spend there?

[Haven]

"Why's there no new content? Why did this patch add dumb trees and not new gear?"

And that is why we can't have nice things. "Why does this patch have nothing to make my e-penis bigger, BLIZZARD FAILED!"

---------- Post added 2013-04-04 at 10:48 AM ----------

but its not a real place, its a fantasy world.

You know, even a fantasy world could use some trees, bushes and other small details that could make it look more alive. It doesn't help when you constantly realize that you course between quest hubs and all the rest is a half-assed decoration.

[Kaleredar]

Scale of the game world plays a large problem too.

Have you ever actually paid attention to how freakin' huge things are in WoW? Try comparing your character's model size to a window in SW, or the billboards, or how high up the signs are. And then consider that (unless your toon is a goblin, dwarf, or gnome,) you'd probably either be as tall as, or maybe even shorter than, that character. Ground-level Windows in SW are placed ABOVE your character's head level. The gaps in the metal grate over the IF lava channel would be large enough for your character to fall through. The Shrines in Vale of Eternal blossoms are larger than the Sistine Chapel.

Almost all the "individual" trees you see rival the size of young sequoias, like in Howling Fjord, while the "giant" trees you see in places like Ashenvale, Un'Goro, or Felwood are at least 500 feet tall, and likely have a branch radius of about the same.

Players play with their cameras jacked so far behind them that filling the area with "small" trees really only serves to clutter the camera.



That being said, OP, you did pick two particularly poor examples of areas...

Mulgore is supposed to be a grassy plain, while Burning Steppes is a volcanic wasteland...

Really, if you want detail, look at the WotLK zones like Grizzly Hills, or Sholazar, or Zul'Drak... You can even look to Cataclysm zones like Vashj'ir, and even the river areas and tomb areas of Uldum.