Beyond the Scourge (New AT Launcher Discussion)

[Per]

The key here is to keep in mind that Warzone is an RTS game where 99% of the time you will watch the game from a far zoom out vantage point. The number of pixels you will actually see from each object is limited. This means that after a certain point, adding more polygons and bigger textures simply won't gain you anything. To the contrary, it may just mean more smear and less contrast as the rendering code desperately tries to squeeze it down in size. Small objects like weapons simply need to be simple shapes, or players will have trouble to make out what they are, while larger buildings can look good with much more detail and higher resolution textures.

Another thing to keep in mind is that you need to make the different game objects visually distinct, so that the game is easy on the eyes. High detail fan artwork made for games like this without considering this often appear to "meld" into the background, making it look nice but hard to actually play with.

[Deus Siddis]

Well keep in mind that screen resolutions are going up, you have VTOLs that fly close to the screen, you can zoom in and you have drive mode.

As far as art being recognizable, and distinct, this gets much easier the higher the poly count. Just look at the old propulsion-- what is a half track, what is a track, what is a wheeled vehicle? It is very hard to tell, because there is so little detail. They just look like boxes moving around on the screen.

[EvilGuru]

Well keep in mind that screen resolutions are going up, you have VTOLs that fly close to the screen, you can zoom in and you have drive mode.

As far as art being recognizable, and distinct, this gets much easier the higher the poly count. Just look at the old propulsion-- what is a half track, what is a track, what is a wheeled vehicle? It is very hard to tell, because there is so little detail. They just look like boxes moving around on the screen.

Screen resolution is going up but DPI is not. (With the possible exception being laptop screens.)

High polygon models are only likely to cause aliasing artefacts unless you are greatly zoomed in. Telling the difference between wheeled, half-tracked and tracked vehicles is hardly difficult, while the models may be similar the textures are not.

You are free to put a high polygon model in-game and it will work. The performance is not ideal (as we use immediate model for models), but it will hardly be poor. Take a look for yourself.

Regards, Freddie.

[kipman725]

the exponential weapon improvement compared to liner everything else does make sense otherwise defence would be too strong and games would drag on for hours. As for rockets I think a quad scourge would be a good idea. Also the tank killer is hardly used as scourge comes immediately after for me so changing the tank killer into an ultra long range and the scourge into a powerful but shorter range would be logical. Also if so the tank killer should have fewer body points and be lighter for hit and run usage. The scourge more of an attack role.