FreeGameDev

After playing RE some more today I think the main issue with the graphics right now are (in that order):

1. Bland level textures which look too computer generated/generic. The best would be probably to replace almost the entire texture library with better looking ones from OGA for example. See Xonotic for much better level textures for example.
2. Bland and desaturated player colors with stick out too little from the background... best solution would be probably to implement a TF2 like "rim-lightning" shader and add some color glow textures to the models.
3. 1st person weapon models... but I guess that is beeing worked on.

Otherwise the game is starting to feel pretty solid

In my opinion, the graphics are fine. RE is a solid game by gameplay, boosting the graphics will just screw the low-quality computers, like Mine.

I never really cared much about graphics, but I think it is weird the people explode in blood with a energy beam.

yes, but i think that is important to improve the graphics, and now it's the time!

I've been killed by or lost points killing Team Purple enough times that I would like to see some design and artwork changes that could help with Point 2*.

Suggestions off the top of my head:
- Hurt players should flash white not red, there being no white team.
- Grenades and flames could glow team colours.
- Grenades could glow white.
- Nothing should appear as purple on the radar.

Note that my specific suggestions all involve little to no new art - I'm fully aware how big a problem that is (I've got plenty of graphic artist friends who'd all but turn off their internet and run away at the mere mention of the "F" word...)


*EDIT: Or not - just noticed Julius's complaint is about contrast with background which I personally have no problem with.

Julius {l Wrote}:After playing RE some more today I think the main issue with the graphics right now are (in that order):
2. Bland and desaturated player colors with stick out too little from the background... best solution would be probably to implement a TF2 like "rim-lightning" shader and add some color glow textures to the models.

I think you can already achieve something similar with Cube2 engine:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

addpostfx sobel

I may be wrong, as i haven't played team fortress. Sobel is an edge-detection shader (similar to 'rim-lighting' i guess) I'm not aware if postfx shaders can be applied on a per map basis, you can enable it in your autoexec.cfg though.

unixfreak {l Wrote}:I think you can already achieve something similar with Cube2 engine:

{l Code}: {l Select All Code}

addpostfx sobel

I may be wrong, as i haven't played team fortress. Sobel is an edge-detection shader (similar to 'rim-lighting' i guess) I'm not aware if postfx shaders can be applied on a per map basis, you can enable it in your autoexec.cfg though.

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Thanks dude. Perhaps my only request then is that this be the default behaviour...

Vaecrius {l Wrote}:Thanks dude. Perhaps my only request then is that this be the default behaviour...

I find this effect quite hard on my eyes. If you like it, that's fine, but I definately do NOT want this to be the default behaviour.

To each their own I suppose... my suggestion was from the fact that it's made such a huge difference for me that playing against people who aren't aware of this setting almost feels like cheating >_>

Maybe it could be a menu option, a tickybox saying something like "Enhance ingame player colours" or similar...

Vaecrius {l Wrote}:Maybe it could be a menu option, a tickybox saying something like "Enhance ingame player colours" or similar...

Options? Buttons? Choices? I never vote against that :P

Does the add sobel command only effect playermodels? I would test it, but my Optimus laptop is acting up under Linux since I installed Mint12 (bug report done, fix in the pipeline). Maybe someone can post a screenshot?

@012yArthur0: Basically my suggestions would mean minimal performance changes as they are mostly art related.

Edit: The picture in this posts shows a very exaggerated version of rim lightning as found in TF2 and many other games:
http://www.catalinzima.com/2008/07/july ... -lighting/

Julius {l Wrote}:Does the add sobel command only effect playermodels? I would test it, but my Optimus laptop is acting up under Linux since I installed Mint12 (bug report done, fix in the pipeline). Maybe someone can post a screenshot?

It affects the whole environment including the map, playermodel, particles etc (pretty much everything rendered in the visible scene except for the HUD).

With & Without

ahh, no it is a different effect then. Rim-lights are also called back-lights in photography AFAIK.

Thx for posting the screenshots though.

I was just playing Linear on team instagib. Things got so bad I ragequit the team with the effect that all of us were on blue shooting red bots like fish in a barrel.

Red is way easier to see than blue.

I've noticed this in Space Tech to a lesser degree (everything kinda looks bluish to me on that map) and I suspect Stone might have the opposite issue. I suspect blue will usually be more often at an advantage since more maps are designed with cool colours.

So I was wondering if there might be an update with more of the player model not showing the team or personal colour? Could even things out in this sort of situation.

Vaecrius {l Wrote}:Red is way easier to see than blue.

Actually, if I may make this comment, I've had the same problem in FFA on maps like Echo where the grays and dark grays hardly stick out from the background. And what would be nice, as a small suggestion, is if there was an option to make all players a different color other than gray (just for FFA). Don't get me wrong, I know why everyone is one plain color rather than a bunch of different colors like in previous releases of RE. This is just something I thought might be helpful for players like me to be able to separate the player color from the environment.

inpersona64 {l Wrote}:Actually, if I may make this comment, I've had the same problem in FFA on maps like Echo where the grays and dark grays hardly stick out from the background. And what would be nice, as a small suggestion, is if there was an option to make all players a different color other than gray (just for FFA). Don't get me wrong, I know why everyone is one plain color rather than a bunch of different colors like in previous releases of RE. This is just something I thought might be helpful for players like me to be able to separate the player color from the environment.

You can probably play around with /playerovertone and /playerundertone to that effect.
Doesn't address Vaecrius' concerns though...

Vaecrius {l Wrote}:So I was wondering if there might be an update with more of the player model not showing the team or personal colour? Could even things out in this sort of situation.

I think the fact that the personal color is shown on the radar is a pretty awful thing, when I see a big white dot with a small circle around it I have to wonder if it's an opponent or teammate. I'd rather have it just color normally. Besides that, I sometimes get confused as to which team I am on. Always showing your opponent as Red would be an easy solution but I guess a lot of people would object to it.
(Only slightly on-topic, as it's related to team color as well, but coloring all enemies Red, no matter what team you're on, would fix these "inbalance" issues, wouldn't they?)

Sounds like a good idea, but every so often people do vote multi and it is useful to know whether certain enemies are also enemies of other enemies.

Another possibility: Replace red team with white team, make blue team a brighter blue. (Getting rid of the red team entirely solves 2 more problems: 1. red being naturally more eye-catching than the other colours and 2. injured players turn red which is actually IMO a nice visual feedback but makes someone momentarily look like they're on the red team)

I must honestly say that I don't like the idea of being red or blue all the time at all. Iet alone changing colors... No more red/blue, but white? Come on you guys, it has been like this for ages and it has always worked, why would we need to change that for RE? Whether some colors are better visible than others and would give advantages to some not only depends of the player colors, but also of the background color. For example, blue is more vulnerable in the new map Colony because of the red/brown rocks... You get to choose your secondary color as well, this allow enough personalisation and if you want to go for stealth you can always choose grey to make it less visible.

And after all... when you're good enough it doesn't matter which side you're on

What about changing how reflections work? They don't look quite right at the moment imo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbtr5ubRtmc

rocknroll237 {l Wrote}:What about changing how reflections work? They don't look quite right at the moment imo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbtr5ubRtmc

Didn't this get fixed? I remember seeing this exact same vid a while back.

No it isn't fixed (just checked on v1.2).

Sorry to bump this, but will this bug ever be fixed?

Any updates?

What are some other /addpostfx options? I looked all over google but couldn't find a list. Could anyone point me in the right direction? Thanks.

-fts

So nobody's going to comment on this?