Grass

[Linkurrra]

"Life" did maintenance on a park I zoned into, grass was removed.

In most MMO's that I have played there has been a 10-15fps difference in performance in playing in desert zones and forest zones. When I have had a crappy PC for a game I would intentionally play in desert zones to get a few extra FPS!

It also ruins the immersiveness of the game if I play the game with the LoD turned down so low that I have a 5 foot bubble surrounding my player of grass and objects etc. So I would in that case just turn off grass all together. Because I find it more distracting to have objects just pop into view just a few feet in front of me! I kinda fear this is how the PS3 will preform.

[Radacci]

I think the grass looks fine, update your computer before crying the graphics suck. Oh what's that, you are playing on ps3? Then please shut up.

quite ignorant comment. upgrading computer wont make graphics better in-game.

Where did I say there is only 5 people?

I don't know how many are currently developing the game, I'm guessing a lot. But as you said, grass isn't on the top of the priority list and I think therefor shouldn't take development time from things that needs to be finished for launch. It's not like this thread is about balance or gameplay issues, it's about grass. Now if he played the beta and thought the class balance is all messed up, that is worthy of their attention. Complaining about grass before the game is even finished and knowing where the game was, is IMO not worthy of their attention at this time.

i'm pretty sure most of the stuff in graphical department is kinda finished, since they are probably near complete with all zones and such. Anyways, grass is as much a part of graphics, as placing trees, rocks, rivers or anything else that has anything to do with the way the landscape looks. So people should complain about them adding trees? OMG SE stop adding trees, rocks, rivers, and finish more important stuff, like summoner!; Which others mentioned already, but there's some people working on landscape assets, and others working on classes; so one does not exclude the other.

"Life" did maintenance on a park I zoned into, grass was removed.

It's pretty big diff between ul'dah and grid grid is a lush forest, and should have plenty of trees and plants, for ul'dah it's more meh; its ok with some cactus' here and there, some dry bushes, maybe some grass in shaded areas.

[syntaxlies]

Back dat grass up

[Forgo]

Grass O.O

[Altena]

If you care for environmental physics, then FarCry 3 is a great game to play.

90% (yep I made that percentage up, come at me) don't really give a rats about grass & its physics in an MMO.

[Imoen]

If you care for environmental physics, then FarCry 3 is a great game to play.

90% (yep I made that percentage up, come at me) don't really give a rats about grass & its physics in an MMO.

Lol, Glad not everyone has that mind set or crap would still look like this.

[Yrusama]

I'm surprised people honestly think ARR grass is good

It is good. This is an MMO. Not Flower. The grass is passable considering it's not at all the main focus of the game.

[AdorraEloom]

Most of the "Grass" and texture pictures we are seeing are alpha/beta stages, I would assume most of the textures are not finalized yet, as alpha/beta focuses on server stress and glitches, no real point in adding every single detail/texture into an alpha version (Reducing Download Size) when the goal is to test the server stress. I could be wrong I'm no gaming programmer but that's just what I would do if I was a programmer.

[Altena]

Most of the "Grass" and texture pictures we are seeing are alpha/beta stages, I would assume most of the textures are not finalized yet, as alpha/beta focuses on server stress and glitches, no real point in adding every single detail/texture into an alpha version (Reducing Download Size) when the goal is to test the server stress. I could be wrong I'm no gaming programmer but that's just what I would do if I was a programmer.

Correct me if I am wrong but part of alpha/beta testing is not just "server" side, but also player side - getting min/recommended specs for the released game, etc. One would imagine stuff like the density of rendered polygons on the screen make a difference.

That and I doubt the devs would remove grass just to make a test client a bit smaller to download.

What you see is probably what we will get. Any changes on this would probably be made based on community opinion / system req / server stress.

Again, I am no programmer.

[Stephen]

Just before we get into beta because I'm probably going to bring it up there too lol I wanted to show people what I was talking about with flora (depending on the experience after testing beta first of course)



(Just look at the flora, fauna, this is what the thread is about)



ARR detail in a cinematic (from here: A New Beginning )

*disclaimer/comment: for those who read the OP before posting.. this is a prerendered scene so of course the game wont look exactly like that, but it shows like the other photos of grass blending - something I was asking for (density option / quality option).


Turn the up the graphics to see the grass better, not all of the game looks better mind you, like ARR character models are way better


In the first image, ARR, the grass is more like a cluster of random plants that make a very in-cohesive image. Also the level of detail on those plants is low.

In the third and following images, Archeage (its in closed beta at the moment), the grass is cohesive to the ground and is also of better detail.

Archeage has a lot of bugs still and parts of graphics that are inferior (flickers worse then a candle on a windy day) but I hope people can see the graphic differences I'm talking about.

They are some what present in GW2, and commonly in FPS and S(FP)RPGs like skyrim.


I hope people can both see and agree with me that ARR could use some better flora.

Unless its something in beta thats changed since alpha screen shots, I'll be bringing it up - hopefully I'm not alone when I ask Yoshida to put it on the to do list of graphic updates. That can be in the future like the graphic mile stone coming with DX11, but I hope they upgrade it because its not good, its 2005 good.

TL;DR, ARR grass still looks bad.

Pics are alpha/beta and are passable anyway imo - we have to remember we're being limited by the PS3. This is also an MMO, with a lot of character models and huge landscape to load up etc etc

If it looked like sh@t then I'd understand but ....