Realm Reborn = downgrade?

[Elexia]

Woah woah, back up. Have you played FFXIV?

Yep I do, have you played FFXIV? (What purpose was this question?)

when you leash that thing

This is why that happens, because the game forces entities into a cycle rather than letting it naturally occur like when you don't leash mobs. Same with knockback animation, given server checks and it doesn't display properly like it does in FFXI, a game with a more optimized client and server infrastructure.

When you have a lot of little animations for the sake of it

Indeed, things for the sake of it isn't what you should do, but it wasn't "for the sake of it", people seem to praise GW2 for doing things "for the sake of it", you know, making NPCs talk to each other isn't exactly needed as it adds zero gameplay elements.

your computer will end up dropping them when there's a lot going on on your screen anyway!

Only if you have a shitty computer or SE fails at the client design of ARR, this isn't a sprite based game.

[lololink]

and no one here is talking about attacking animation ...

[Kallera]

and no one here is talking about attacking animation ...

You are talking about animations used in battle and the shortcuts being taken(sliding backwards on movement being an example) Look closely at the dragoon's moves during the fight at 12:40 used in the demo. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDFIBCGbMaM the 2 Jump attacks and the dragonfire dive. Note the sliding of the character during said attacks.

I think it's safe to ask what other "shortcuts" SE intends to do.

[HiirNoivl]

You st-st-stutter and swear, Elexia.

Is that quality animation to you? That's a yes or no question.

[SwordCoheir]

Guh, this threads getting harder to keep up with. Seems like I can't step away for more than 10 minutes without another 10 pages tacked on.

While many of you here are arguing about whether the animation and gameplay affect each other in any meaningful way, I'm left wondering one simple question:

Why is it that ArenaNet has no problem coding Guild Wars 2 avatars with fluid stop/land animations while still maintaining lag-free gameplay? Here's your example. Also notice that, at about 5 minutes in, even in battle there is still somewhat of a foot positioning animation of about 1-2 seconds. Doesn't affect gameplay at all. Explain that SE.

Basically, if GW2 can do it, why the $%@# can't FFXIV?! SE needs to look at GW2 and stop looking at WoW for this and many other reasons.

Yeah I watched that one thing I noticed they did to help achieve their smooth transitions is they have the upper and lower bodies work independently of each other, it's odd seeing him walk and do a barrel roll while his upper body maintains arrow fire animation. However, FFXIV's animations are full body so what works in GW2 won't work here without SE going back and redoing all the animations and coding to incorporate it, which just isn't going to happen when time is not on their side.

That's also not pointing out that GW2 is graphically inferior to FFXIV, so it would naturally have room to work on smoother animations and transitions even on lower end computers while FFXIV has been known to even make high end SLI/Crossfired Video Cards sweat.

Let's just face it if it comes to sacrificing something to help make the game run smoothly on lower end PC's there's not a whole lot you can do that will make folks happy. You can't exactly dumb down the graphics, and even if they downgraded the new environment it wouldn't be flush with the characters graphic models giving it an awkward look and it would just be something else you, Nemy, or Rokien would post about saying it would ruin your "immersion".

[Zaireeka2025]

Yeah I watched that one thing I noticed they did to help achieve their smooth transitions is they have the upper and lower bodies work independently of each other, it's odd seeing him walk and do a barrel roll while his upper body maintains arrow fire animation. However, FFXIV's animations are full body so what works in GW2 won't work here without SE going back and redoing all the animations and coding to incorporate it, which just isn't going to happen when time is not on their side.

The ARR demo shows that the upper and lower body are in fact independent. Look closer please. The dragoon's legs go one way, while his upper torso goes the other. As a matter of fact, GW2 is better at keeping the legs and torso somewhat aligned (also independent of each other) while only the head is facing different directions in and out of battle. ARR needs a bit of tweaking in this dept, nothing serious there, but noticeable and makes the dragoon appear wonky.

That's also not pointing out that GW2 is graphically inferior to FFXIV, so it would naturally have room to work on smoother animations and transitions even on lower end computers while FFXIV has been known to even make high end SLI/Crossfired Video Cards sweat.

Let's just face it if it comes to sacrificing something to help make the game run smoothly on lower end PC's there's not a whole lot you can do that will make folks happy. You can't exactly dumb down the graphics, and even if they downgraded the new environment it wouldn't be flush with the characters graphic models giving it an awkward look and it would just be something else you, Nemy, or Rokien would post about saying it would ruin your "immersion".

First of all, please don't group me up with Rokien, cuz he's in a league all his own. Secondly, ARR is already able to run on lower-end computers. They've reworked the code from scratch. Gameplay mechanics have already been established, which allows for a few subtle animations to be added in. Alpha/Beta would be a great time to give the characters a little more fluidity.

Let me make one thing VERY CLEAR. Personally, 1.0 is the past and is based on old overly-complicated code. We are not asking the devs to copy/paste or force implement 1.0's code into ARR. Hellz no. We loved 1.0's animations, but it won't work in ARR... this is agreed. What we are simply saying is that a stop animation unique to ARR can be done. GW2 proves that it is possible in an MMO to have fluid-like walking animations outside and inside of combat with no lag. It's really just a subtle 1-2 second additions of foot placement that should be coded to be overwritten by any next command prompt entered. Nothing major. Simply stopping altogether is just too noticeable and robotic. Unfinished. Unpolished. Especially after 1.0's experience. They are following too closely into WoW territory with character animation expectations.

Again, we're not comparing the animation quality here (obviously SE will make better looking animations), but proving that gameplay doesn't have to be affected by movement stop animations if upper/lower animations are properly timed and aligned, and actions overwrite on command.

GW2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fg5Rx9RpS9k

ARR: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bjqmc4c8m3Y

[Exn]

1.0 is the past and is based on old overly-complicated code. We are not asking the devs to copy/paste or force implement 1.0's code into ARR. Hellz no. We loved 1.0's animations, but it won't work in ARR... this is agreed. What we are simply saying is that a stop animation unique to ARR can be done. GW2 proves that it is possible in an MMO to have fluid-like walking animations outside and inside of combat with no lag. It's really just a subtle 1-2 second additions of foot placement that should be coded to be overwritten by any next command prompt entered. Nothing major. Simply stopping altogether is just too noticeable and robotic. Unfinished. Unpolished. Especially after 1.0's experience. They are following too closely into WoW territory with character animation expectations.

ATTENTION DEV'S: SEE ABOVE.. & GET IT DONE.

[lololink]

of course it's sliding or there would be animation lock , or too fast animation that's for better gameplay .

[Kallera]

of course it's sliding or there would be animation lock , or too fast animation that's for better gameplay .

How does it make the gameplay better to apply this to movement? you could also get rid of turning around, or the need to "casting in place", would that make the gameplay better? Why cater to the attack and not the spell, hmm?

[lololink]

How does it make the gameplay better to apply this to movement? you could also get rid of turning around, or the need to "casting in place", would that make the gameplay better? Why cater to the attack and not the spell, hmm?

i'm for casting spells while moving because it make the gameplay more dynamic . and animation lock is really different from casting while not moving .