Is there truly more feedback you need on the art direction? I genuinely think the team has 10000% nailed it in what we probably all wanted in terms of art direction. It could be my eyes but it seemed some of the videos had noticeable fps drops but I know that is not a full issue and likely would be fixed or is already known.
Fantastic as always D4 team.
Reshade is gonna do wonders for D4. For once I canât wait to dig into that. Normally I roll my eyes at the 100 different reshades I always see in Nexusmods for every game.
And the whole quarterly update is BORING, btw. Nothing about core systems, endgame or anything of gameplay interest or value. No wonder this thread is almost dead already.
You will, hang on 
I like that they are not afraid to use some bright colors in dark gloomy places.
Very beautiful work! I canât wait to explore D4 open world and its dungeons!
I know itâs not final but I want to mention that, reading the reviews here, there seem to be things that were not addressed in the past year. For instance, someone mentioned the tidal scene speed. Something I brought up months or a year ago too⌠Waves move unrealistically. In the dungeons, seems like all the doors you open make the same sound. Maybe add variability. The breakables, they make the same sound wether they fall into water or on stone⌠Rain or wind still inaccurately affect puddles of water. Itâs details but they make the experience more immersive.
I like the rope the character used to go across a canyon in a dungeon, thatâs cool!
I also noticed one other annoying thing⌠the way the characters jump. It just doesnât feel realistic at all, itâs abrupt and supernaturally fast.
It seems like a negative review but itâs actually not. Iâm just trying to point out things that will make the game perfection. Damn I so want to try wander around with a character!
Iâd love to see different version on the same exact view with deferent weather pattern. What does x place look like when itâs day, night, when it rains, can it be sunny too?
Thanks, keep up the good work!
Matt McDaid still there!!! 
Thatâs the 1st good thing I noticed, just worth to mention, I remember him from Blizzcon 2019, his understanding of creation steps is solid.
About the blog, well everything from forms, textures, lightning to movement and perspective is nicely done, I can ask for more but it would be difficult to ask for better.
Flooded Depths
Unexpected transition, well done. Can we get a grappling hook (just in case)
I would like my character being attacked while on the rope or the ladder, just to get mad and beat the crap out the monsters.
Forgotten Places
The spider legs and tentacles, Lovecraftian, does it drain? does it whisper profane things?
Beautifully put, now I want to kill those things.
Orbei Monastery
0:42, the return of the sleeping people, their donations to the cause has always been welcomed.
On the last vid thereâs so much to say, I donât want to create a wall of text either, so Iâm just going to say that every scenes makes me want to chill out as well than slaughter everything that moves.
I would like clickable stuff to be rewarding, in D2 we had to smash everything to optimize the chances to get a valuable loot, that was a good thing. Miscellaneous loots from clickable stuff plz.
Exactly. The art is fantastic and the vibe is wonderful, the Wretched Caves gives me the same chill as my first time entering the Den of Evil in D2.
However, this blog post is quite underwhelmed. Donât get me wrong, some people will love this update, but Iâm more interested in gameplay and open world elements of the game than pure visual eye candy, which we were able to take some glimpses in the past blogs.
For the blog post which was supposed to replace their Blizzconline panel, I was hoping they would pick a more important topic that would interest more potential players.
Well of course. I canât imagine a modern hack & slash arpg without loot filter. That would be uber dump.
Agreed with people here that graphic doesnât make a game. What people want to know more the most about Diablo 4 are the gameplay, class, and endgame activities.
The Diablo 4 when it was announced was already looking great and beautiful when it comes to art and design and I donât think many people have any issue with D4âs art direction.
If you guys canât decide whether you want to make the game color darker or lighter, less or more, just give the filter+color options for the players to decide what works the best for them, assuming it is doableâŚ
Indeed, I donât think Iâve ever seen such an underwhelming response to an update of a game-in-the-making. Not even Immortal managed that.
I am extremely embarrassed for Blizzard.
Looks nice, but what I want to know is how the shared world will work and if I have to explore the shared world (with fog) or can I see the area from start.
I mean Iâm scared because I played (for 50) hours shared World MMO âLost Arkâ. I know Diablo 4 isnât a MMO. But what is it if we get a shared world? At least a half MMO or am I wrong?.
My fears: Enemies respawn seconds after I killed them. Too many other players, boring open/shared World but cool Dungens.
I mean, I saw a lot of things in Lost Ark since it relase and it was crappy as hell. And I saw a lot of things in Lost Ark and thought âAh form here they got this ideaâ I really hope you donât build a crappy open / shared world as Smilegate did in Lost Ark."
Please let Diablo be Diablo a cool single player experience with optional multiplayer and not a crappy half baked or full mmo.
Scosglen Coast
Orbei Monastery
Kyovashad
Forgotten Places in the world
Wretched Caves
Flooded Depths
Environmental Art
yea the water really looks like goo or something xD
Great looking games can have bad gameplay, item and other mechanics.
Bad looking games can have excellent gameplay and mechanics.
The reality is prettiness only gets you so far and the real meat of whether D4 will be a successful title is really in all its mechanics.
Thus, I really appreciate the environments update but it will mean little as its mechanic that determine I play this for years or it is a one off experience.
Iâve said this before and it bears repeating. Iâm old enough to have played Atari, 8-bit NES, and the first generation of DOS-based PC games on 5.25" floppy disks. I donât necessarily need great graphics to enjoy a game. My imagination is fully capable of filling in the gaps. A great game is built on great mechanics - and I think I speak for many when saying we would like to see more of that side of development in future updates.
That said, my thoughts are below. A lot of others have commented on some of the details I had intended to mention, so I will attempt not to repeat them.
On the general style:
I think the team has chosen well. Aiming for photorealism is always a bit of a trap for game designers and Blizzard has always been smart enough to sidestep it. Going with a more baroque style (you mentioned Rembrandt) was a perfect choice. Particularly in the night scene, like the Kyovashad video, you can clearly see the influence of something like The Night Watch, and it fits beautifully.
On Scosglen:
I love the inspiration that seems drawn from the coasts of England or northern France. Others have noted some of the deficiencies of the pre-alpha water effects. In general, the atmosphere worked well. The âculture kitâ fits well, though I noticed an odd marble statue at 0:58 in the video that seemed out of place for subsistence fishermen. Be careful with the doodads and standing things sprinkled around the world that they look like they actually fit in that environment or would be reasonable to build/put there.
On the Orbei Monastery:
I very much like the general theme here. The Southern European tile roofs evoke a Romanesque feel thatâs familiar but distinct to classic imagery we get of churches. The contrast with the salt flats environment seems to fit. The Atlantropa plan comes to mind here, but that may just be me letting my mind wander into obscure things. The hooded statues imply an air of ascetism, but I did get a sense of copy & paste with them. Surely not all monks wouldâve had the exact same height and body types. Is there a way to add variation without just breaking one of a pair of statues?
My other thought was about the stained glass. Stained glass was expensive. It was a luxury, and still to this day is quite expensive. Itâs something that I wouldnât expect in a minimalist monastery, but rather in a cathedral where the expense was justified because the goal was to create a heavenly light from a window that showed a saint or a Bible story. It would not have been just a generic geometric window. Iâd suggest that if the Zakarum priests had such windows, theyâd have contracted skilled artists to show something quite meaningful to them in those windows.
Also, the breakables worked well and were consistent with the lighting. The gold drop effect needs a little polish.
On the dungeons:
Everything looks gorgeous (the Kyovashad castle !) but most of all I like that many of these new environments and not just rehash of previous games. The eastern Europe influence is especially tangible.
Love the transition between dungeons areas, it can be a fantastic tool for random content.
Only downside are the waves of the Scosglen coast, same problem as in the last September blog. But I suppose itâs waiting to be corrected at some point in the developpement process.
Yes I remember him !
Also the environment Art Director, Chris Ryder, was already in the Diablo team back in 2012-13, he worked on RoS.
wonderful and cool!
Another beautiful update that leaves me feeling like they are really serious about going back to the roots! 
Even if I donât want to believe it blindly, so far it sounds to me as if the developers with d iv Blizzard and especially the Diablo franchise can and will return to their old greatness and (ingame) darkness . yey yey yey
This attempt â the creation of an immersive gaming experience â the developers emphasize this again and again. And their QU shows us that they think of really brilliant things. Whether with sounds (like from an earlier QU) or this time with the environmental effects:
The atmosphere is almost tangible in many places
And I think thatâs really nice! Sounds great!
And above all, for quality!
Donât quickly slap some cheap assets together and then sell them as a maximally variable random environment, no, quite the opposite:
When we handcraft the locations on the Eastern Continent
The good old manual work. 
Itâs a balancing act that results in a handcrafted look and feel with a unique visual style, continuing the Diablo legacy.
Thereâs soul in there! In the QU they also describe very well which processes they all go through and what considerations are behind them so that they really reach their goal in the end. And they are on the right track, I think. 
The âback into the darkâ concept spans everything from dungeons to lighting and embodies the notion that Sanctuary is a dangerous and grim medieval world.
I could quote a lot more here, but youâve probably read the QU yourself, so Iâll skip that.
Iâm just thrilled (and happy, because despite the previous QU and everything else Iâve noticed from d iv, my disappointment with d3 hasnât been forgotten yet)
the developers are doing such a great job!
Stone walls, collected driftwood and thatched roofs. A comforting place for the brave fishermen who venture on the treacherous seas.
Fishing is an important part of the daily life of these worn-down locals, so weâve highlighted that these villages are all about fishing. Elements such as makeshift docks and boat ramps set the stage for the interactive objects team to add their own touch to the area.
What materials will we collect to help the residents rebuild? 
Really nice, Iâm happy. Or in Acti-Blizzards-King language: super excited!
+1
My suggestion for improvement:
+1
Thank you d iv developers!
Edit:
the last 2 quotes are quoted but translated from our german d3 forum. the links (in the quotes) donât work but i post the sources for it here:
1.from Guts https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/de/d3/t/d4-quartals-update-q1-2022/4494/2
2. from Balbero https://eu.forums.blizzard.com/de/d3/t/d4-quartals-update-q1-2022/4494/4
Almost everything shown looks absolutely gorgeous. I have no doubt at this point that the game will look beautiful, have great presentation, and likely control very well. My big remaining fears are monsters having affixes like D3, which would severely undermine this cohesive world you built, seeing the same sort of lasers/walls/pools pop up randomly everywhere. Other than that, if the itemization and progression systems are nailed, this will be a fantastic game that I look forward to playing for years to come. Hopefully leveling and customization lend themselves to a sense of choice and build diversity, along with a drive to find more loot that is exciting to find.
Thank you for the update, and good luck with future development. The art/environment teams are doing an excellent job!
Agree. Lasers and things like that (from d3) would be very crap and will destroy the hard work they put in to make d iv immersiv.
A very nice video collection that makes you want to dive in there yourself.
Atmosphere topic
The environments feel very authentic, which is very nice. Iâve always enjoyed Titan Questâs environment as well, because it also felt very very inviting and ârightâ back then.
I feel the same way when I look at this scenery. So there you go, youâre on a good path.
Also, the cheesy and cartoony is gone, which is really like redemption. D4 is much closer to D1 in terms of atmosphere and visuals than the other two titles, and thatâs something to be commended.
The monastery of Orbei sounds like an abandoned, mystical place and promising, e.g. to build in a secret that you donât even notice on your first visit there. Only later, through decayed texts, legends and myths told by locals, you will find, for example, always parts of a stone plate that have a symbol eingraviet. If one has found all parts, one must put this ornament together again, which can function over something like the cube as in D2, which filled with further âingredientsâ and on an altar put then its work performs.
If one has now restored this âbowlâ in the form of an engraved stone, it fits perfectly into a dusty not really noteworthy indentation in the cellar of the monastery of Orbei.
Thereupon, an old, dusty, spider-webbed stone door, which was not at all recognizable as such, moves aside to reveal a spiral staircase leading down.
There, an ancient vault awaits the player. The deepest secrets of the Order and perhaps a dungeon. Here there is even an enhancement version of a spell for a certain class, and gladly visually. So that it represents a choice and also has a coolness factor.
But before you can enter the dungeon in this vault, you must first reactivate the three seals around the entrance gate. The things needed, you can find in the vault⌠But do not make a mistake in the order of the activation of the seals, otherwise in the interior of the dungeon threatens in each case other scenarios that will be very painful and punishing and that should also be implemented noticeably for the hero.
So Iâm convinced of the environment for now, at least what I could see.
Now it is still a matter of making the world a place that you live through and not rush through and everything was for the catâŚ
The hero should distinguish himself from the other heroes. He himself should also tell his story and bring. But not put on, but simply coherent with the time conveyed.
Also he could suitably also times a word to certain areas say, e.g. if one comes as a player for the first time to a certain monastery. Something that breathes life into your own hero and he grows on you.
Then itâs always important to say, take the speed out of the game.
Definitely take the feeling out of the game that youâre just working through quests. This must not determine the gameplay and be superior to the game world, but must have an accompanying effect and also feel like a reward for your own development, so rather less, but more profound, longer in the way and interesting implemented. Connected to the way the class itself works would still be important. Also how the inhabitants of the world react to the hero, depending on skill and class differently.
A druid with his wolves will quickly demand a lot of respect and this should be noticeable to the NPCs, for example.
But the wolves should also come across as the druid completely controlling them and not posing a threat unless he tells them to.
Then there also has to be a sense of not just wanting to get to the end game, that is, racing through the game. The journey is what makes it.
The development of the class associated with efforts, mission missions, guilds, orders, is just as important and must necessarily be oriented to the class and skill tree.
It is clear that a shapeshifter druid needs a completely different background than an elemental druid.
In the end, such an RPG must feel like all parts of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, viewed as a great adventure.
The journey and the experience, the development and the atmosphere, peppered with highlight and with tension, makes the game great.
If you can pull that off and make it a game as well and not an end-game competition, then I foresee a great D4 future that can be long-lasting as long as you keep the world in focus and expand and deepen thereâŚ
Currently, you have again collected a few plus points with what has been shown. The atmos is definitely strong and I will watch the videos a few more times. Especially when itâs dark outside, then I recognize more 
All the best
Absolutely. Donât get me wrong, I like having hard items to find and challenges to overcome, but that should not mean the rest of the game is just a rush to get there. Personally I love starting over in Diablo 2, and hopefully D4 provides that feeling but provides even more variety and reason to start over, making it a game to enjoy for a long time to come.