Do you think DDO would loose something if it was upgraded graphically?

[Dandonk]

Maybe doors and mushrooms would become mixed up again.

 

[Lacci]

I don´t think the game would loose anything by having modern graphics.
I also don´t think that it would have an impact on people running older computers. It doesn´t have to be "Cyberpunk 2077" level of graphics, and most average PCs can run most modern games quite well.
Modern graphics certainly didn´t hurt Baldurs Gate 3 sales.
Is it strictly necessary to upgrade the graphics ? No. But I would definitely enjoy DDO more if it had BG3 level of graphics. (And I started my gaming career on an Atari 2600 as well)

But honestly, updating the overall feel and UI of the game to a modern standard is in my opinion much more important than upgrading the outdated graphics. By that I mean that some of the splash screens are still made for 4:3 aspect ratio monitors, icons are mostly unreadable on 4k screens, etc.

 

[LeslieWest_GuitarGod]

I started with an Atari 2600 too, but my heart moved to the Commodore 64, 128 and then the ultimate. The Commodore Amiga.

I LOVED DUNGEON MASTER. It influenced almost EVERY RPG after it.

 

[Arthuvin]

I'd be happy if they optimized the graphics in some of the newer content. There's places in DDO where a 4090 will drop to below 40 frames it's designed so poorly.

The anniversary party has a huge fountain at the ballroom. Its the same ballroom from the quest "Partycrashers".

It makes the frame rate drops significantly.

 

[Titus Ovid]

Just like to hear what ppl think about this.

For a game that is this old it doesm't look all that bad imo and if we say that the whole game was to be redone graphically to be state of the art graphics for the latest hardware out there I actually think it would loose some of it's charm.

Although it would look awesome (obviously) it might loose that "special" feeling or at least to me. Would I play it? Yes I would. Would it still be great? Yes, if the gameplay wasn't altered from now I think it would. If they changed the actual feeling of the game I think I would loose interest after a while (unless it somehow became better).

To stay on topic - nvm if it is happening or not or even possible or not - I would welcome a graphical overhaul. There are areas in the game that are breathtaking in comparison to most of the game, Stormhorns for example. So yes, if it would go that way, more detailed, more atmosphere, I am all for it.


Cheers,
Titus

 

[Aelonwy]

Mostly I think the graphics are fine but a few races could use some graphic/aesthetic changes:
PdK could use an entire overhaul. I'm talking face and full body cosmetic surgery. They are mutants.
Dwarves and humans could use some texture and shading improvements mainly facially. A few hairstyles are too angular? They have sharp creases and some look like wigs made from mops.
Aasimar unique female hairstyles have looked awful since inception. Very strange since Gnome came before and theirs are not only more appealing, more creative but also they were given 2 or 3 times as many unique options. Whoever created Gnomes for DDO loved their work, whoever made Aasimar phoned it in.
Tiefling needs only to have a few small horn options, and a few pupil/iris options like Aasimar. Maybe someone can smooth out the forehead a bit on a couple horn options that leave a buttocks like crease there. I mean, that's just gross. I wouldn't nay-say a few more color options for Tiefling skin either such as green and/or hot pink.

Other than that... I know there are some ground textures and old rock textures that could use a facelift. They re-use too many of the same "paintings" for wall art. They should create a suite of new ones from more recent adventures so not every place shares the exact same "paintings."

 

[Lazuli]

I was impressed when they aesthetically improved The Black Loch. That was a great job. There's a real three-dimensional feel there. I was disappointed when they said they weren't going to give the same treatment to other areas of the game, because The Black Loch looks really good.

Seeing that they have no intention of going to those extremes, I would settle for an improvement to some of the avatars (others have already mentioned before what needs to be improved, I agree), and above all, an improvement to some textures: lava and sand, above all, which I think are the two that fail the most. In some parts the lava looks like orange marmalade, and I don't think it took many resources to improve it. Sand needs a little love too.

Removing that, fix the graphic bugs and please, please, start thinking about an overhaul of the storage system. I don't think we can expect much in terms of graphics.

 

[Lagin]

unfortunately there is no "simple" answer to this. I use AMD's upscaling, which is a mixed bag of results for DDO. That being said, prior to building this rig the game always looked washed-out. Now, I enjoy seeing the game in it's full glory. (it's kept me here).
My bigger question; "Is SSG working on DLSS? FSR? Ray tracing isn't a big deal to me, but the benefits of these new techs don't end at RT. There's things a game company can do in 2024 which weren't possible 2 years ago. But how viable is it for SSG to invest $ in any of these new tech's?
The other end of this spectrum is players being able to afford investing in a 2K or 4K rig? **If SSG did everything they could, how many players would be able to spend $ on capable gear?

 

[Lacci]

My bigger question; "Is SSG working on DLSS? FSR?

Even bigger question: What for ? What computer (that would support either of these technologies) struggles with performance in this game ?
You´d sacrifice picture quality to get 300 instead of 200 FPS ?

 

[FaceDancer]

I unfortunately kinda get the impression that they're patching the hull of this vessel to just keep it afloat at this point. I really hope I'm wrong! They seem to be more focused on the mechanics of the game and less so the visual aspects. The UI should be a pretty high priority IMO and has been mentioned from time to time, but nothing as of yet.

A Q&A with Severlin in 2023 had this commentary:

-UI scaling pushed back to work on VIP, will be worked on with ui art revamp *and were still waiting on this one...*

-Character model revamp incoming to modernize looks (Q4 2023 or later)
Severlin had mentioned that he would like to enable sliders to change the different aspects of character features like they have in LOTR.
If I run this time-frame through my SSG Time to Real Time Translator I get.... 2026 (or later YMMV, etc...)

 

[Hoka]

!!! DOOM !!!

 

[rohmer]

That would take dev time away from new dungeon alerts, tumble changes, and other things no one likes

 

[Ying]

unfortunately there is no "simple" answer to this. I use AMD's upscaling, which is a mixed bag of results for DDO. That being said, prior to building this rig the game always looked washed-out. Now, I enjoy seeing the game in it's full glory. (it's kept me here).
My bigger question; "Is SSG working on DLSS? FSR? Ray tracing isn't a big deal to me, but the benefits of these new techs don't end at RT. There's things a game company can do in 2024 which weren't possible 2 years ago. But how viable is it for SSG to invest $ in any of these new tech's?
The other end of this spectrum is players being able to afford investing in a 2K or 4K rig? **If SSG did everything they could, how many players would be able to spend $ on capable gear?

I forget who said this -- might have been Cordovan during one of the Friday at Four streams. Basically, there's a large number of players who still play DDO on the equivalent of a toaster today. So anything that would require a hardware upgrade, or even a change to the minimum version of DX, would affect a large portion of the playerbase.

 

[ACJ97F]

You can improve the models without drastic resource hogging. It's not so much a question of boosting the pixel count and redoing the engine,
as opposed to changing the shape of the model cages. Basically, rounding off corners to lessen the "blocky" appearance slightly. They also have
many areas that suffer terrain overlap that change appearance when you turn your head. That's just lazy design, and boils down to money.

 

[FaceDancer]

The texture overlaps are a bad one IMO. Even if they didn't do anything else, these should be fixed @ a minimum!

 

[Aelonwy]

The texture overlaps are a bad one IMO. Even if they didn't do anything else, these should be fixed @ a minimum!

Ah yes the Z-fighting textures of headache-inducement. I love Ravenloft but the castle is so full of these its almost nauseating.

 

[Eme]

by the time we reach L40 3D as we know it will be moot, and AI passes will be the thing with custom AI models for however you prefer your game to look- you want the game to look like Lord of the Rings - sure, you want it to look like a watercolour fantasy painting - sure, etc.

 

[deuxanes]

Personally I think the graphics are OK. Should SSG update the graphics then I will probably configure it for better and smoother gameplay (i.e. tone it down).

I'm not into graphics programming but following IT press maybe you don't have to do much as the hardware is improving. They use "AI" (or rather lots of linear algebra/ artificial neural networks) to rescale and smooth the images. In the best case a hardware upgrade would do half the job. Dunno what SSG could/should do additionally on their part.

 

[Teh_Troll]

I forget who said this -- might have been Cordovan during one of the Friday at Four streams. Basically, there's a large number of players who still play DDO on the equivalent of a toaster today. So anything that would require a hardware upgrade, or even a change to the minimum version of DX, would affect a large portion of the playerbase.

My system was a near top of the line in 2021 (5950x, 6900XT) and there are parts of this game where it crawls. During the Judge and Jailer fight in R10 tower last night I was sub 40 frames, had to move to my 13th Gen I9 Laptop for it to even be playable.

How does a toaster even function? Serious question. I remember playing the same content in 2010 and it never performing that badly. How has this been screwed up?

Could be something on my end, does this game just not like AMD GPUs? My laptop is 13th Gen I9 with a Mobile 4080, Graphically benchmarks about the same as the desktop, but it blows away the desktop in DDO performance. I'm suspecting it's the single-core CPU speed but I'm not sure anymore.

 

[cursedblessedone]

Ahhh NOSTALGIA

I too started here Eventually upgraded to a DOS 3.0 PC and a Dot-Matrix printer. I remember on the Atari we ended up having to wrap rubber bands around the controller plugs and the switches just to keep everything connected.


but, as to the OP... The game would certainly lose something if they upgraded to modern graphics. They would lose a not insignificant percentage of the players. Those who run on older rigs. If they haven't upgraded them yet, they won't just for one game.

Yeah thats why i no longer play several other games cause I refuse to be forced to upgrade to windows 10 or 11.