Graphic Engine update possible? Dated graphics especially in core game zone for 2020 - [Merged]

[Valento.9852]

That's my biggest concern that pushes me from the game tbh. It's been a long journey, lots of mismanagement and I'll never truly understand (aside from jokes) what ArenaNet priorities are. A graphics engine is costly but it's much much needed.

[crepuscular.9047]

@"aspirine.6852" said:Is the Unreal engine any good for fights like in WvW? Or for MMO in general? I know some free asian mmo's use the engine but I wonder if they have fights like this.

from what I recall, UE3 was not an engine meant to MMO, LazyPeon basically said he had never bad good experience with any MMO on UE3

The challenge with MMO engines is the amount of non-predictive calculations it needs to handle, even with all the cash Blizzard have they still cannot make WoW running buttery smooth when there's a massive siege happening at capital cities.

 

 

to OP's question

@Vishnok.7059 said:Some games are converting their engine to other newer one like Unreal Engine 4,is this possible for Guild Wars 2?

If the game was built on UE3, yes, it can be upgraded to UE4, otherwise no

1. UE4 is a successor of UE3, I would assume the core architecture of the two engines are very similar or UE4 has an enhanced core architures, but not so much that it's a totally new one
2. Epic had already done the hard work of creating a migration tool for it.

if it could have been done, Square Enix would have ditched their Luminous Engine for UE4 for FF15, but they did not which may indicate to do it they may have to scrap all the work they had done and start fresh

[Lumikki.1725]

If they can do the engine update so that they also supports for older computers, then that would be great.

How ever, I think a lot of people (casual players) here plays this game with little older computer. They don't gonna upgrade they computer just because some mmorpg would require it, they would have allready done it by now. So that means alot of lost players. While they may not be the best gem store customers, they do fill the game world. "Empty" game isn't good for anyone, just because game engine. I'm pretty sure Anet knows what kind of computers we have and can make they own decissions when it's good time to do engine upgrade.

[Shiyo.3578]

GW2 graphics are great, improving them is a waste of time and resources better spent in other places.

[Faenar.8036]

@"aspirine.6852" said:Is the Unreal engine any good for fights like in WvW? Or for MMO in general? I know some free asian mmo's use the engine but I wonder if they have fights like this.

Short answer: Yes.

Long answer: MMORPG "Lineage 2" - another MMO owned by NCsoft company who also own Guild Wars 2 merchandise - is using Unreal Engine 2. I was personally participated in fights 250 v 300 v 300 (rough guess based on numbers viewed in different "command channels" total-counts - L2 ppl know what is this), and game was runing relatively well, with slight lagging which can be perceived similarly like "micro-stuttering" effect. No skill-lags at all, no 5+ seconds lags , just slight "stuttering". That means something around 850 players total (in words: yes, eight hundred + players, thats not a miss-typo, thats true). So the answer to your question is: Yes, Unreal Engine is very good for big fights with enormous numbers of players fighting together in one location. Look at youtube, there are many videos with 500+ ppl fights.

[Luthan.5236]

As long as it isn't "forced" - I might be okay with it. I'm not playing any other games that are newer. And I think the low hardware requirements make it possible for a lot of people to play GW2. Enforcing higher requirements could mean less players playing. if you only have to buy a better computer because of 1 game when usually not playing a lot of modern stuff.

Tbh I still like the graphics. WoW probably still would look boring too me. It is more about the "style" and less about "putting tons of hardware resources into it".

[Vindold.1057]

@"Luthan.5236" said:As long as it isn't "forced" - I might be okay with it. I'm not playing any other games that are newer. And I think the low hardware requirements make it possible for a lot of people to play GW2. Enforcing higher requirements could mean less players playing. if you only have to buy a better computer because of 1 game when usually not playing a lot of modern stuff.

Tbh I still like the graphics. WoW probably still would look boring too me. It is more about the "style" and less about "putting tons of hardware resources into it".

I can't say that GW2 sys req are low, actually they are high.On low settings game looks bad, ppl will prefer WoW visual over GW2.On highest settings GW2 looks okayish, but most of the time your fps will be around 25-30fps at best, even some strong PC's are struggling to run GW2 at stable 50-60fps.Nowadays WoW visualy is way better than before and Shadowlands is even better + sys req. are lower, stable fps.Just compare image quality of GW2 and WoW(BFA\SL).

GW2 desperatly needs some engine updates like multicore threading + some shadows\lighting update cause it's glitchy and improving render quality won't hurt either.

[fatihso.7258]

Only some tweaks and takes been going on such as new renderers for more recent LWS and IBS episodes.Besides that Anet could adopt Destiny 2's engine for an upgrade. It can be better than writing one from stratch and would not destroy GW universe art and style.Take a hike in European Dead Zone in D2 and then go to Vloxen Mine in DWC in GW2. Compare rock formations, textures, trees, ground and you will see the it would work.

[Vindold.1057]

As far as I know, GW2 engine is modified GW1 engine which was developed by Anet, so no, Anet couldn't just switch engine to Destiny 2, completely different engines, too much work...improving GW2 engine is the best they can do.

[Dawdler.8521]

@fatihso.7258 said:Compare rock formations, textures, trees, ground and you will see the it would work.None of that has anything to do with the engine. Well maybe the ground at best if they are doing something more fancy than a planar map.

[Astyrah.4015]

@Nerthus.3592 said:As far as I know, GW2 engine is modified GW1 engine which was developed by Anet, so no, Anet couldn't just switch engine to Destiny 2, completely different engines, too much work...improving GW2 engine is the best they can do.

too much work aside, afaik Destiny 2's engine was based on Destiny's engine which in turn i believe was a heavily modified Halo: Reach engine, so there's likely a lot of limitations on it as well (such as not being optimised for very very large scale fights such as what we have in GW2).

also using Destiny 2's engine is very very unlikely due to the fact that Bungie probably wouldn't even let Anet license it, there aren't any other non-Bungie games using it as far as im aware of.

improving GW2's engine by optimising it for modern hardware is a much better route to take.

[Daishi.6027]

What GW2 needs is what PSO2 is doing with PSO2 New Genesis.

Practically an entire new game, New engine, New progression and way to play, everything vastly upgraded as the story continues.However: Characters transfer over. All skins and account unlocks transfer. All gear is accessible although you will restart the "character level progression" meaning you may have to go through the new system before you can put on your high end gear. Only premium currency transfers essentially resetting the economy with a larger savvy player-base.

The last one might put people off but if we had a "new genesis" for GW2 there would be ample opportunity to fix more than just the graphics. We could actually balance the game and skills from scratch and rebuild everything with the hindsight we have now, while also making more efficient for GPUs and less CPU intensive; all while not screwing over players long term invested characters and investments.

As for the earlier content. I don't think there is much you can do, nor do I think it's a good investment to waste resources on it. It's dated sure, but it's a relic of 2012; it's not unexpected and I don't think it detracts enough from play to warrant it. What matters more is the future.

[coso.9173]

the best approach is probably improve gw2 engine, again. like they have already done.IMO if you ask me if we didn't get any more new maps for the rest of the year, but we had all the vanilla maps improved to current levels, AND added hours long storyline for continuattion of IBS, using all availalble maps (plus some small instances for new bosses) I'd be veyr pleased, even I that love new maps in general.

[OutOfOrder.3719]

Didn’t ANET recently list job posting for Unreal Engine experience? It’s probably for another game entirely, but could in theory be used to Upgrade Guild Wars 2

[Tony.8659]

Anet if your reading this I would love if going forward we can have DX12 and multi core support, maybe include the updates in the 3rd expansion? I just came across this:https://www.overclock3d.net/news/software/solid_state_storage_is_now_a_baseline_requirement_for_wow_-_shadowlands_system_requirements_are_now_available/1

I mean the game is 16yrs old and supports DX12 and multi cores. This was an engine that was most likley written a few years before 2004 and yet it can support DX12, and multi cores. So really they can put these features into the engine. I don't know why they don't comment about it. That's crazy the next expansion recommendeds a GTX 1080 and a 2700x/6700k.

[Ayrilana.1396]

And yet WoW has a larger player base and requires a subscription. They have the resources to pull off something like that.

[Linken.6345]

@"Tony.8659" said:Anet if your reading this I would love if going forward we can have DX12 and multi core support, maybe include the updates in the 3rd expansion? I just came across this:https://www.overclock3d.net/news/software/solid_state_storage_is_now_a_baseline_requirement_for_wow_-_shadowlands_system_requirements_are_now_available/1

I mean the game is 16yrs old and supports DX12 and multi cores. This was an engine that was most likley written a few years before 2004 and yet it can support DX12, and multi cores. So really they can put these features into the engine. I don't know why they don't comment about it. That's crazy the next expansion recommendeds a GTX 1080 and a 2700x/6700k.

As Ayrilana.1396 says its all about the money the game generate, wow dwarfs gw2.

[Tony.8659]

That I know but, they can at least do some engine optimization with the 3rd expansion coming they can at least try :/

[Dawdler.8521]

@"Tony.8659" said:Anet if your reading this I would love if going forward we can have DX12 and multi core support, maybe include the updates in the 3rd expansion? I just came across this:https://www.overclock3d.net/news/software/solid_state_storage_is_now_a_baseline_requirement_for_wow_-_shadowlands_system_requirements_are_now_available/1Fluff, I've barely even even seen a platter HDD for a decade, lol.

What's next, removing the requirement for a CD drive?!

[jokke.6239]

I think Guild Wars is a beautiful game, but I feel like one thing that doesn't look so great is things like grass, flowers, bushes and so on ..I mean i'm playing Lord of the RIngs online. Very old game, and a lot of things look really old, but one thing that still looks really good and much beter than in GW2 (not sure if it's a late addition) is grass and flowers . . And they are really great at hiding ugly dated looking ground textures.Not sure if adding new improved grass in much higher density all over the world would be great for the performance that's already rly bad in dx9 though, but I sure feel it would help a lot visually to the game.

[Josiah.2967]

It is always possible. They are doing it for Blade and Soul. I would easily pay to be on a optimized multicore build.

[kharmin.7683]

@Josiah.2967 said:It is always possible. They are doing it for Blade and Soul. I would easily pay to be on a optimized multicore build.

Not sure B&S was based on really old spaghetti code of it predecessor.

[coso.9173]

@kharmin.7683 said:

@Josiah.2967 said:It is always possible. They are doing it for Blade and Soul. I would easily pay to be on a optimized multicore build.

Not sure B&S was based on really old spaghetti code of it predecessor.

that doesn't make it for GW2 impossible, just more unlikely. Only anet knows if it's worth it, and if it is (for most MMOs is IS at some point) when is it better to do it.

[Goettel.4389]

I'd love a graphical update, but all things considered GW2 still look better than most if not all MMOs.

[uberkingkong.8041]

Careful what you wish for.Better graphics means, your computer needs to be up to date as well. Does all 495 people in your guild have good computer?

Look at these two games, Quake Champions and Diabotical, Quake Champions is 2016 game, it has better graphics than Diabotical 2020 not yet released game. People are going to be playing Diabotical because its easier to run on pc, doesn't require hi end CPU.

Look at these popular games right now.FortniteDiaboticalApex LegendsWorld of Warcraft

Do these popular games use Unreal 4 Engine? Do they have amazing graphics?

It's not much about how crystal clear the graphics is, its how good the artwork is with whatever you have available. Are they making the skins you really want, or they just making stuff you don't even consider part of your wardrobe?You can have amazing graphics game, but if they don't have the right cloths, right weapons, right armor, appearance, etc. Its not that amazing anymore compared to an older game now is it?

Think of it like this, you have two choices to follow someone on instagram, someone who is attractive and dresses well and all the images are in 1080px. Vs someone decent attractive decent well dressed, but all the pictures are in 6000px.Everybody going to follow the person with 1080 pictures because better quality. Not the image pixel quality but the image itself quality.btwRight now, having a 1TB SSD, 4.0 or higher quad core CPU, 4GB GDDR5 or higher and 32GB RAM, isnt cheap. If it isnt cheap or not too expensive that's when you should make a game better graphics wise because people have it or can upgrade to it easily. Only time this wouldn't be the case is in a Single Player game or maybe a First Person shooter.In an MMORPG, you maybe able to handle new graphics update, but you didn't consider the other hundred thousand player base.