Prelaunch characters > Actual characters

[Kain067]

[shot]http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/2488/highpolycharacterwj5.jpg[/shot]
So essentially all they need to do is do a minor patch-up to the engine to enable the High Res models for in-game use.

Theoretically. No computer would really be able to handle it. I have no idea why they flat-out lied and released screenshots with these high-detail models in-game.

The models still look excellent in-game, but they look nowhere NEAR as good as all the screenshots and movies. Yet another case of developers releasing flat-out lies to the community in order to hype their game. Then they defend themselves by saying the screenshots were from an "early build" of the game and they didn't know how it was going to turn out. Yeah, right. Funny how "early builds" never look absolutely terrible and then the real game turns out looking much better. Reminds me of the Killzone trailer fiasco. Funny how quickly the fickle gaming community forgets.

[sekazi]

Makes me wonder if there is a console command to enable this for a screenshot. So you can enable all the high resolution characters and vehicles and then take a screenshot.

[richcz3]

....The fact that they're highpoly and look great is no big deal, really. Any experienced modeller can make one of those and render them out in nice poses. The actual MAGIC that I was expecting from UT3 is how they will get such awesome characters to also run smoothly on our PCs. That was the dissapointment...

I can agree with this as Epic showcased these models almost two years back and continued to update screens just prior to the beta release. Had Epic said those high resolution models were intended for cinematics, no one would have cared. We would all want to see what we would be playing with "In Game". That's what mattered.

With that said, I did some screen grabs with the Scythe characters and I have to say that the level of detail including the dynamic light and shadows was pretty impressive while keeping the frame rates up.

Theres a balance on visuals and frame rates and I'm sure they considered the wide range of PC hardware out there. Mark Rein rails against Intel's integrated video chip sets every chance he gets. They do represent a high margin in the market. The irony in that though is Epics decision to continue to market scenes that would buckle even higher powered rigs.

[Lulzy]

I have no idea why they flat-out lied and released screenshots with these high-detail models in-game.

They lied because it works, and also because the game industry as a whole has been doing this for years without any significant negative impact. To summarize, they know that you will most likely not reconsider buying a game because they did this.

I'd even go as far as saying that video game companies now HAVE to do it unless they want their game to generate less hype than all the other ones that do "improve" their screenshots.

The problem is where is the line between just taking a screenshot with very favorable game conditions and starting to tweak lighting etc. specifically for that screenshot, or using high-resolution models and textures even if the framerate becomes implayable.

At which point do you consider a screenshot as fake? I know for sure that marketing people are so used to bend the truth that they're willing to depart considerably from the actual game in a screenshot. As long as it's the game engine rendering it, they'll never believe that claming it's ingame would be a lie.

Here's a little story to illustrate how warped the concept of truth can be for marketing people.

Back when I worked at some MMORPG company, they once released a screenshot with some giant, ten foot tall humanoid monster that could be seen between some trees. On an internal mailing list, some coder found this cool and asked what was the GM command to spawn that guy.

It turned out that the marketing guy who took the screenshot simply spawned a regular humanoid monster then scaled it up to gigantic proportions with another GM command.

When we pointed out that it made the screenshot a lie because in the actual game there was no quest or location where this gigantic guy would actually spawn, he never understood. All he could say was : "well, it's IN the game since I've been able to see it in the game".

[richcz3]

I think people need to consider that Epic switched gears during UT3 development over the past four years. they dove head first into the next gen console market with Gears of War. They made a kings ransom and in the process spread themselves thin (80 Employees) supporting all the UT3 game engine licensees.

Now Rein is promoting UT3 PC/PS3 compatibility. I'm more a little suspect of that and the motivations to skew the PC version to stay in line with the PS3 capabilities. How levels and characters made for the PC will port directly to the PS3Gamasutra

When you also consider that Rein has been vocal in saying that the Console market "dumbs down" the visual standard for the PC market. Link

[Modulus]

Here is what the high-poly characters look like in-game. They ARE there. The game just disables them for some reason once you actually start playing. But they are fully viewable in the character editing options. My computer runs it at 5 fps, mind you, so I couldn't handle them in-action anyway. But I don't know why the game doesn't even let you try.


[shot]http://img476.imageshack.us/img476/2488/highpolycharacterwj5.jpg[/shot]

You guys are ignoring those of us who are telling you that the models DO in fact look that good in game... Don't assume that because YOU are not seeing them that no one is. It's not true... I play with everything maxed and I see these high poly models in game, while playing online.

It's the feature that throttles back detail to maintain your min. desired framerate that's doing this to you... It's not Epic, it's the way you have the game configured.

[MikeHunt]

some people are never happy

[Demon Guardian]

****, did someone really expect to play with such heavy graphic in game? It was obviously a marketing trick.
Just remembered how optimistic many people were, because of all those hypeshots. Here, some history.
Gameplay or hype screenshots ?

My post from that thread was:

Don't delude yourselves people. May be it is UT3-engine graphic, but you definitely won't see it in the game. If you dont wish to play with 0.01 FPS of course.

[Obscurite]

You guys are ignoring those of us who are telling you that the models DO in fact look that good in game... Don't assume that because YOU are not seeing them that no one is. It's not true... I play with everything maxed and I see these high poly models in game, while playing online.

It's the feature that throttles back detail to maintain your min. desired framerate that's doing this to you... It's not Epic, it's the way you have the game configured.

Perhaps you would like to clarify what this feature is as I cannot find it. Have everything maxed out and have edited the UTEngine.ini but not getting the model quality that is desirable.

[richcz3]

There is a feature in the UTEngine.ini for this

Default settings are
[Engine.GameEngine]
bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE
MinSmoothedFrameRate=22
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=62

Lowering the two can help maintain the detailed visuals.
Of course, if your system is already taxed with the current load, changing these variables may not do much.

[Rhykker]

Looking at the user-made UT Wallpapers thread, I'm seeing some really great character models...

[Obscurite]

There is a feature in the UTEngine.ini for this

Default settings are
[Engine.GameEngine]
bSmoothFrameRate=TRUE
MinSmoothedFrameRate=22
MaxSmoothedFrameRate=62

Lowering the two can help maintain the detailed visuals.
Of course, if your system is already taxed with the current load, changing these variables may not do much.

Thanks for the reply, unfortunately that didn't cut it for me

Looking at the user-made UT Wallpapers thread, I'm seeing some really great character models...

That is essentially how my game looks. Looks great non the less.

For those who are having a hard time distinguishing between the different quality of textures between the different character models, here's an easy way to help.

- Lauren, Akasha, Barktooth, and Harlin tend to be the easiest to compare
- Select any of these characters with their faces showing
- Start a Game
- Go into the command console and use the "playersonly" command, use feign death
- Your character should be standing up right in combat stance with your camera having the ability to go right up against the face.
- Now you can clearly compare the two

And no this is not when I started noticing it. I started noticing it when using the sniper rifle in a medium/close range situation (don't ask why), and a lot of times walking over their body while looking down after a few shots with the enforcers.

[embryonic]

You guys are picky.

[richcz3]

You guys are picky.

I think its more about getting the most of what one can get with their rig setup. It's the nature of PC gaming tweak modify tweak modify tweak until we get the visual and FPS performance just right

[Kain067]

You guys are ignoring those of us who are telling you that the models DO in fact look that good in game... Don't assume that because YOU are not seeing them that no one is. It's not true... I play with everything maxed and I see these high poly models in game, while playing online.

It's the feature that throttles back detail to maintain your min. desired framerate that's doing this to you... It's not Epic, it's the way you have the game configured.

No it's not. I have minframerate set to 10, yet I still get average 40 fps with boths graphics bars at maximum. And it does NOT look that good in game. How do I know this? One, from looking at the mdoels while the game is paused. Two, because character creation displays only one model yet runs at 5 fps while playing in-game displays several models and runs at 40 fps.

Do this yourself--- turn all settings to max and then play a game. Check your fps. Now leave those settings at max and go to character creation. Your FPS will drop bigtime.

The problem is you just can't pick out the lack of detail when you're playing online.