MMORPG.com Lord of the Rings Online Correspondent Andrei Harnagea writes this look at the different factors that make Lord of the Rings Online a visually appealing game.

The term "graphics" has been widely identified with a number of aspects of a game's engine and game play since the creation of the first coin-operated arcade machines. In the 21st century, the era of MMOs, we can identify some specific traits which correspond to a concise definition of what makes a game look good.

Modelling is the first step of creation and that leads to the general sculpted shape of sets, characters and weapons. The rigging and texturing allows for the characters to have a "skeleton" and a skin through which they can be manipulated into moving. Finally, the animation allows the movement, fighting and interacting between players and makes the game immersive. It is necessary for a development team to master all of these steps in order to make a game aesthetically pleasing to the public and, so far, LOTRO has done a tremendous job at keeping Tolkien's legacy not just in the storyline but also in mood and visual impact.

Read A Look at the Looks of LotRO

It certainly is a nice looking game - the dwarven halls realy caught my eye in beta and as you say its come along since then.

I have to say that this game has by far been the most immersive games i have ever taken part in. I can play the same areas everytime and still find something new. The way the sun sets over a hill and as you reach the top of that hill its brightens up a bit. the game is awesome. only thing i wish for is a little bit of flowing of hair, so it isnt so stiff when you got a male hobbit with longer hair.

Wonderful article i would say. Coming from a 3D industry background, you relay your article with good points. I am actually amaze on how Trubine turned simple technology and making it impressive without the hiccups. Next in the list, i would say is the adaption of displacement maps into LOTRO in near future, something that is really worth looking into.

Agreed, the dwarven have the best visuals among all 4 races in LOTRO.

For the system requirements it supports, the turbine engine is a masterpiece in terms of fidelity.

Side note for the author, LOTRO does use bumb maping, and normial maps, just not to the over extreme you normally see it used, subtly is the key, as your article pointed out.

Client wise they have no peer when it comes to graphics.  While other MMO's have given us great graphics their clients have suffered from poor performance on non high end computers.  Seems every time I get to a new area and have to just stop and admire the view.  Turbine has some truely gifted people working for them.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

 

For the system requirements it supports, the turbine engine is a masterpiece in terms of fidelity.

 

Side note for the author, LOTRO does use bumb maping, and normial maps, just not to the over extreme you normally see it used, subtly is the key, as your article pointed out.

 

Also, those maps are only used if you're on the highest texture setting.  Many users don't have that set -- usually because the game didn't think their computer had sufficient video memory and so chose a lower setting when first launched. 

Because every bump or normal map is a second texture, that's twice the data that must be loaded into memory as you travel through the world.  Fortunately, most modern video cards do have plenty of memory that you can successfully adjust this setting upward even if the game didn't select it by default.

Originally posted by Ozmodan

Client wise they have no peer when it comes to graphics.  While other MMO's have given us great graphics their clients have suffered from poor performance on non high end computers.  Seems every time I get to a new area and have to just stop and admire the view.  Turbine has some truely gifted people working for them.

I'm sure we'll hear shouts here about how "Age of Conan looks better!"  Which is true, up to a point.  The visual look certainly is more impressive in AoC.  However, that comes at a price. 

As you mentioned, there's the poor performance that AoC is known for.  I've been told that this has been improved dramatically since launch, so whether that continues to hold true or not I don't know. 

The second price is in the fact that AoC had to be MASSIVELY instanced.  Tortage is one instance.  The undercity or whatever it's called (I don't remember anymore) is another shared instance underneath.  The ruins outside of town are another instance.  White Sands Isle yet another instance.  I won't count the volcano, beach or keep because those are private for storytelling purposes, just like LotRO uses private instances. 

The third price is that the game uses invisible walls and other tricks to keep players from traveling to a lot of what you can see.  The Bone Fields are a great example of this.  When you first enter the zone you think it's massive.  But as you travel through it you quickly discover that there's a huge portion that simply cannot be reached.  The scale is an illusion.  Well done, but also too easily seen through.

By comparison, in LotRO you can go from Needlehole in the Shire all the way to Moria without ever zoning.  The artistic style of the zones flows together in a very natural way (one that should embarass WoW).  And while there are many places that you cannot reach, the barriers are done so that they feel a natural part of the environment rather than an arbitrary invisible wall that you can't pass.  A good example is if you stand on the bridge between Lone Lands and the Trollshaws and look NE.  There's a forrested plateau in the mountains that I'm pretty sure you can't get to.  I think that the mountains and cliffs surround it in a way that make it inaccessible.  But I don't know for sure because there's just no reason to go up there and I've never had the desire to go so far out of my way as to try.  In AoC I was constantly seeing interesting stuff that I wanted to go to -- only to discover that I couldn't.

Anyway, I think that LotRO is the best overall achievement in MMO graphics within the current generation of games.  I think it's right at the edge of what 32-bit computing is capable of.  We're probably about another two or three years from seeing a game hit the market that blows it out of the water visually without sacrificing performance.  Keep an eye on Red 5 Studios (http://www.red5studios.com/en/) which is developing an MMO using the Offset engine (http://www.projectoffset.com/).  This is a 64-bit game engine, built to use the large amounts of RAM that are possible on those operating systems.  The results are pretty unbelievable.  And by the time Red 5 actually launches their game it's a pretty good bet that most gamers will be running 64-bit systems.

Originally posted by kingbloop

I have to say that this game has by far been the most immersive games i have ever taken part in. I can play the same areas everytime and still find something new. The way the sun sets over a hill and as you reach the top of that hill its brightens up a bit. the game is awesome. only thing i wish for is a little bit of flowing of hair, so it isnt so stiff when you got a male hobbit with longer hair.

I absolutely agree with this. I'm in love with the game, immensely. Everything is absolutely beautiful. It keeps me going, unlike other mmo's..  There's so much going on which is good. Most things looks so realistic.. but the characters isn't. it should. More expressive (not emotionless with a blank-stare) , hair bein blown by the wind (like the person I've quoted has mentioned) , and more indepth customization and everything would be so PERFECT. Just a thought.

Love the game though!

Originally posted by wh0astar

Originally posted by kingbloop

I have to say that this game has by far been the most immersive games i have ever taken part in. I can play the same areas everytime and still find something new. The way the sun sets over a hill and as you reach the top of that hill its brightens up a bit. the game is awesome. only thing i wish for is a little bit of flowing of hair, so it isnt so stiff when you got a male hobbit with longer hair.

 

I absolutely agree with this. I'm in love with the game, immensely. Everything is absolutely beautiful. It keeps me going, unlike other mmo's..  There's so much going on which is good. Most things looks so realistic.. but the characters isn't. it should. More expressive (not emotionless with a blank-stare) , hair bein blown by the wind (like the person I've quoted has mentioned) , and more indepth customization and everything would be so PERFECT. Just a thought.

Love the game though!

Just an FYI, all emotes for the most part animate the players face, try using one of the "Moods". LOTRO is one of the few MMO's that animate the face in such a wide range. As for more customization, the game has dyes, and a costume system unlocked for all your toons at 20.

Why is this listed under news?

I've always said the landscapes are amazing.  I think adding more faces, facial features and hairstyles would improve things greatly though.  In particular the human female, but they could all use some more options.  I think some of the npcs in the game look great though.

That being said, I am satisfied with how my human male avatar looks.  I just wish he would stop making all those wierd faces. 

No matter the other aspects of LOTRO, it is IMO the best looking MMO. Not so much that is has the most detail, other MMos have that too, or more. AoC or VG have way more detail. But only in LOTRO you have both the open world where you can roam free and the beautiful atmopsheres. That has a lot to do with the usage of light and shadow, with color palettes, use of placement (!!!) and other stuff which all too often is neglected. As a visual world LOTRO is really a piece of art that stands IMVPO way above all other created worlds of MMOs so far.

Certainly, LoTRO is a beautiful looking game.  However, the avatars don't interact with the game world as realistically as I'd like.  They have a 'paper doll' feel to them (to me).

I would rather downgrade the graphics and have the avatars really 'be' in the game world.   Jumping, climbing, walking... I almost feel like my avatar has no weight.

Games that do this well?  City of Heroes/Villains, World of Warcraft, EQ I.  Most FPS games too.

It seems that many of the games with 'better' graphics (EQ II, Vanguard, LoTRO) have this 'paper doll' feel to them.

Do you think it's a trade off between realism and verisimilitude?   Can we have both?  is there a game with both (I haven't tried WAR or AoC)?

Originally posted by Alcuin

It seems that many of the games with 'better' graphics (EQ II, Vanguard, LoTRO) have this 'paper doll' feel to them.

Do you think it's a trade off between realism and verisimilitude?   Can we have both?  is there a game with both (I haven't tried WAR or AoC)?

 

 

You are more than right relating to the animation of the characters and the lack of persona they have. MMOs generally put everything in a “cycle” so your walk just repeats itself once the legs go through a complete turn. This usually makes everything very monotonous especially when you only have one style of walking and a possibility to jump every now and then. The facial animation and the other emotion tabs give some choice yet nothing that would differentiate one player from another that much. I would love it if the game had a simplistic animation tool in which you could create your own moods and emotions and be able to run them in-game. It wouldn’t be any harder than making music sheets for instruments.

Originally posted by Alcuin

Certainly, LoTRO is a beautiful looking game.  However, the avatars don't interact with the game world as realistically as I'd like.  They have a 'paper doll' feel to them (to me).

I would rather downgrade the graphics and have the avatars really 'be' in the game world.   Jumping, climbing, walking... I almost feel like my avatar has no weight.

Games that do this well?  City of Heroes/Villains, World of Warcraft, EQ I.  Most FPS games too.

It seems that many of the games with 'better' graphics (EQ II, Vanguard, LoTRO) have this 'paper doll' feel to them.

Do you think it's a trade off between realism and verisimilitude?   Can we have both?  is there a game with both (I haven't tried WAR or AoC)?

 

 

I couldnt agree more. I played LOTRO for almost 2 years and grew tired of the game in general. Although the graphics are great I always felt for a game that was supposedly the most immersive game out, the world itself has very little interaction. The homes for example are useless except for storage. LOTRO has great potential but its really just another MMO with some slight diferences. I'm personally waiting for a company to launch a totally different MMORPG. Wheres the creativity gone? *taps foot*
 

I personally think Turbine focused too much on graphics and not enough on content. Moria was horrible IMO. End-game content alone is enough to drive someone away from the game, like it did myself. I'd like to see a different company try their hand at Middle Earth but its very unlikely that will happen in my lifetime.

If I want a LOTR fix I read the books and enjoy Middle Earth the way it was meant to be. LOTRO for me was an upset unfortionately. I'll return if a Mordor expansion comes out to see how it looks but graphics alone arn't enough to keep me interested in an MMO.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by wh0astar

Originally posted by kingbloop

I have to say that this game has by far been the most immersive games i have ever taken part in. I can play the same areas everytime and still find something new. The way the sun sets over a hill and as you reach the top of that hill its brightens up a bit. the game is awesome. only thing i wish for is a little bit of flowing of hair, so it isnt so stiff when you got a male hobbit with longer hair.

 

I absolutely agree with this. I'm in love with the game, immensely. Everything is absolutely beautiful. It keeps me going, unlike other mmo's..  There's so much going on which is good. Most things looks so realistic.. but the characters isn't. it should. More expressive (not emotionless with a blank-stare) , hair bein blown by the wind (like the person I've quoted has mentioned) , and more indepth customization and everything would be so PERFECT. Just a thought.

Love the game though!

 

Just an FYI, all emotes for the most part animate the players face, try using one of the "Moods". LOTRO is one of the few MMO's that animate the face in such a wide range. As for more customization, the game has dyes, and a costume system unlocked for all your toons at 20.

lol, yeah, not many people are aware of the moods.

I discovered them accidently as I really am not an emote user.

But I was looking for some sort of flip emote and found "scared" (or something like that).

It was hysterical. Unfortunately I couldn't really figure out how to stop it as we were going into the treasury. So I went through that instance with this big scared look on my face. Thought it was funny.

Got to agree with the others that this is a great looking game especially when you grab the high res client and go DX10.  Not all eye candy either, the quest system, particulary the epics are very well done drawing you right into the story.  This is one of the few MMORPG's where I do not feel compelled to get to the highest level as fast as I can.  I actually want to take the time to enjoy the game as I go and the graphics and story make it this way.

The landscapes of LOTRO are excellent but the character and creature models and animations are terrible which ends up bringing down the entire look and feel of the game. The human characters all walk and run like someone has jammed a pole up their backside.

All that finely crafted land is spoilt around every turn by a clunky mis-shapen human or animal walking like a robot - a real shame.

Originally posted by donaldduck

The landscapes of LOTRO are excellent but the character and creature models and animations are terrible which ends up bringing down the entire look and feel of the game. The human characters all walk and run like someone has jammed a pole up their backside.

All that finely crafted land is spoilt around every turn by a clunky mis-shapen human or animal walking like a robot - a real shame.

Say it like it is, They look like they got a pole jammed up their ass! The landscape designers all should have gotten raises and the character designers gotten a pole up their backside.