Some cows turn into manatee’s
It was indeed different than some people remember it, but what they usually remember correctly is the shimmer on top the water that made it difficult to see what was below.
Something that I notice about the modern WoW water… It looks like a strange clear liquid gel, not water at all.
IMO Vanilla did water better than Modern WoW…
I would rather have the animated or artist rendition water like Vanilla, than the bad CGI thing people like to say is water in Modern WoW.
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Old graphics are way better, it’s not even something to argue about.
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I prefer the old fog, lighting and bloom effects. As for character models I prefer the new due to their higher fidelity. Both the old and new models manage to capture that iconic, Disney cartoon WarCraft 3 look with a slightly more realistic edge.
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Opinions are opinions .I liked the old weather but vastly prefer new models.
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The ‘Classic’ water in the demo was opaque. If that’s not authentic, then they should fix that. But the original effects style should be the only one in Classic.
Well when i played the demo i didnt notice the weather changing at all. I would like the old weather back how it was in vanilla and tbc its was soo cool!
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I prefer the original lighting and fog. I liked the old Feralas for example. It had a soft white glow and fog effects around the trees that made the forest seem enchanted and magical. Dustwood was fantastic, dark, and creepy. It could have been in a Tim Burton movie. STV even had gorilla’s in the mist.
The contrast in many of those screenshots doesn’t look right. Some of them are so saturated; they look heavily modified. Look at this one of Lakeshire:
That’s about how saturated things get if I turn the game-mode setting on my monitor on. Compare it to this:
Or this:
Can you take those same situational photos from the same perspective? The perspective you use to display something can drastically change the way someone see the object or presentation.
Sure it’s the same little redridge town, but pick a spot and compare new VS old using the same location and everything.
Preferences aside, the fog and draw distance(which the fog is meant to hide) of Vanilla is less realistic.
Where I live the Rocky Mountains are about 80-100km away, and I can see them quite well on clear days. In fact the only reason we can’t see even further than we do is because the curvature of the Earth.
Fog would obscure vision over long distances, but the idea that the entire world is permanently covered in fog is completely absurd.
On top of this in any version of WoW mountains on the edge of the draw distance can visibly be seen forming in the distance. Thanks to a draw distance that reaches multiple zones in modern WoW, this actually isn’t something all that commonly seen anymore(though it can happen. The sword in Silithus notable because it can be seen from Tanaris).
What would be more realistic would be modern day draw distances with more weather effects that temporarily limit view distance.
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The old graphics look way better, period.
The Cata water doesn’t look like water, more like jelly, and the ground clutter is over-done by about 100x, it’s truly ridiculous. The ‘realistic shadows’ goes against the game’s original aesthetic, and SSAO is stupid.
While fog has traditionally been used to improve performance, it has the effect of giving the illusion of a larger space, which contributed a large amount to the feeling of a larger world in vanilla. Valve uses this same trick with CS:GO Blacksite because the map itself is actually very small. It also encourages further exploration etc.
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I could not have said it better. And you’re 100% correct about the fog being there to add a feel of a larger world. Many people don’t understand that design principle a bit.
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The only thing wrong with vanilla water is that it becomes an obvious pattern if you are anywhere further than 20 feet away from it. Like flying over a quilt.
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I didn’t even realize but there’s another screenshot of Lakeshire in that album. Compare the two:
Wrong, Saying that “only a fool would say current wow’s art style is bad” that is YOUR opinion. I highly dislike new wow art style, gross and too cartoon/ disney like. I loved artstyle back in warcraft 2, dark and gory fantasy.
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You missunderstood. Im not saying you’re a fool for disliking the style (everyone has an opinion), im saying artistically it is a good style, ie you may dislike the style of a disney movie for example; however it is objectively good as it uses art fundamentals correctly.
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the new textures on models are beautiful but they look like mannequins. whereas the vanilla models looked like moving artwork, like you’ve walked into someone’s fantasy art gallery
compare the amount of variation in models, also. newer models are like clones of mannequins, whereas vanilla models are full of personality and very different from each other.
What I’m getting from this thread is that there seems to be a huge misunderstanding of what the word “realistic” means.
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Although there is an increase in the polygon count, resolution, and capabilities with the new models, there is a certain… charm and familiarity that was lost with the new models. I’m not quite sure how to adequately express it. I look at some of the cinematics in-game for BFA and I think the expression of the character look somewhat ridiculous… Sometimes they’re fixed, but I’ll forever be scarred by alpha… Battle for Undercity scenario. Sylvanas and Saurfang were both fairly emotionless and Saurfang’s eyes from the very beginning to the end were AS WIDE OPENED AS THEY COULD BE BEFORE SHE EVEN SAID RELEASE THE PLAGUE AND I WONDERED IF HE HAD EYELIDS AND THEN HE TURNED SO ROBOTICALLY TO THE SIDE TO LOOK AT HER WITH THE WIDEST EYES I’VE EVER SEEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE haha. I didn’t really like the updated graphics before that, but … that horrible cinematic helped solidify it in my mind haha. Shortly followed by an old Cataclysm cinematic of Thrall blasting Deathwing made for… quite a jarring experience between the two.