World of Warcraft's Graphics needs upgrading badly!

I realize this is a 16 year old game but the graphics are terrible. It is hard to look at after playing FFXIV. Why won’t blizzard upgrade their graphic engine. I have seen Unreal 4 renditions of areas done by non Blizzard graphic programmers and they look really good. Why can’t a corporation the size of Blizzard make their flagship MMORPG look like it belongs in the 2020?!?

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It has been said many times though…blizz wants this game to be accessible as possible to the largest number of players. So, the game has to be runnable on a microwave XD

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Nah, it’s the toaster crowd that Blizzard really wants!

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Of course! How shortsighted of me D=

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The cartoony look is what gives the game its charm.

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Still, old areas need an update to bring them to the same level as new areas. I think WoD and up have very nice graphics that don’t need updating.

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That’s only part of it. Aside of being impossible to play if you don’t have a top-end machine, the Unreal renders don’t look like WoW. The cartoony aesthetic is part of what makes WoW stand out instead of looking like every other game.

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Idk what you’re talking about. Each new expansion visually looks better than the previous one. Have you been to Zul’Dazar?

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This. Update EK and Kal

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I to have seen those Unreal 4 renditions and they are beyond beautiful but I shudder to think just how much lag would happen if there was a raid trying to process through the engine at the same time.

:cookie:

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The old stuff is dated… but wow has always had that cartoony feel as part of its aesthetic. From a personal standpoint I think wow would be less of a game on the unreal engine.

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You can make cartoony graphics with UE4. It’s just an engine.

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But that isn’t what anyone who has used the Unreal engine for in wow has rendered.

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Obviously it’s the phone crowd Blizzard really wants.

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Also, this game needs to be updated for better multi-core support. Still running single core on 2020.

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Ya, they render it in a “photorealistic” style common to many modern games. But you can use Unreal to make cartoony graphics. The engine is flexible, and you can make your own art assets for whatever aesthetics you’re looking to create.

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Oof, that’s a ‘feels bad’ right there.

(Man, that “Do you guys not have phones?!” line was really ill-timed.)

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This is a “you think you do but you don’t.” Trust me it’s very easy to make something look photoreal, which is likely what you’re after, but it’s hard to make something look stylized, for obvious reasons. Games that can stylize properly have much greater value and appeal. Early WoW is a seminal example of that. Can’t say the same about current, but we should be happy they haven’t bastardized it with photorealism.

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I am not necessarily talking “photorealism” I am just talking not wanting to party up with Homer and the rest of the Simpson’s!

But cartoony IS WoW. It’s simply the style of the game, following from WC3’s aesthetic. It’s fine not to like it, but it’s a signature part of WoW – it isn’t going to go away.

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