World War II Online

The year: 2008.  Here's a word worth saying here..Upgrade..for the love of God.

Upgrade what? My computer? Nay, it handles WWII Online very well I think.

I meant the game engine/graphics. I fail to understand why so many people settle for products way behind the curve; and continue to pay for it. Game strategy, realism, community...all great things here. But the rest? <crickets>

It's actually ahead of the curve. At least as far as a non-instanced, real-time war simulation can be - technologically speaking.

The reason you hear <crickets> is that most folks who play this game understand the technical constraints of a game this size. This topic has been beat to death on these forums already, but I'll explain it again...

"Shoebox Shooters" - FPS games like the BF series, CoD, MoH etc..- can have very detailed graphics because they use small, closed maps. High polygon models and heavy duty textures are major cp process hogs. On a small, arena style map this isn't so much of an issue. On a map the size of a U.S. State, with multiple pitched battles going on both on the ground and in the air with millions of calculations being made...it's a very big issue.

The games I mentioned above are great, action-packed, tactical shooters. I love em. But I don't play WWII Online for the eye candy - and I think I can speak for most players here - neither does anybody else.

What The Rats have created here is so mind boggling that the graphics (which I find to be perfectly adequate) are actually a non-issue in the overall scheme of things.

Not asking for COD graphics at all becuase I understand the tradeoffs required. How about Day of Defeat level gameplay/graphics at least?

again day of defeat is small maps.

simulations (google some and see how limited the graphics are) take a hell of a lot out of systems in the first place.  a trade off for the great game play, seamless world and opportunities (like having several battles going on at once that have real time consequences for example) is always the graphics.

havent played WWII online but i see no one has thrown up planet side so idk...maybe that will help your judgement on graphics?

I do believe CRS has a graphics update in the pipeline at some point, but it's not a priority right now. We modelers and texturers are an expensive lot to have onboard, and CRS doesn't have a Sony-sized budget.

BTW, I used to play TR in Planetside, had some very memorable battles.  At the time, it did indeed have better graphics - although it had no towns, just bases here and there. I can remember thinking it would bump off WWII Online at one point...

While it was fun in it's own way, Planetside's system was much simpler from a calculations standpoint. For instance, vehicles took the same amount of damage no matter where they were hit - there was no physics for damage modelling at all. Same for infantry. Hitting somebody in the foot was the same as hitting them in the face. It all came down to "Armor worn" vs. Type of Gun Used".

Then there was the whole "Cone of Fire" thing. Your aim was never truly true. Certainly not true enough to take a man down at 200 yards with a single shot.

It did look good though. I particularly liked the animations when getting in vehicles. You don't have that in WWIIO, but the vehicles are fully realized (they have interiors, engines, fuel and ammo storage, etc.).

The thing that requires such a huge hunk of processing is shown here:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/34/view/videos/play/1231

If ww2ol had standalone graphics such a CoD there would be no machine capable of playing it. 3k distance model for each round fired..tracked till it has zero velocity or traveled 3k. Mimiimum view distacne for infantry is 3k..tank and planes see up to 8k if I remember correclty. CoD standalone..have 200 meter by 200 meters maps. That can be the size on one Army Base in one small town and there are over 400 towns and cities last count. Maximum view number is 128..that is in view..look left..128..right 128..and even thos you cant see someone their rounds and presence is modeled. What you cant see can easily see you.\ and kill you. It is the depth of gameplay that keeps poeple playing for 7 years, it has never been the eyecandy.

This is in another thread..The video won a contest several months ago...who thinks the graphis are so poor as to overshadow the depth of hte gameplay?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOoS0AVQIAo