So, before I bought this game a week ago I came to MMORPG.COM to see what the fuss is about.  I read the professional reviews and checked out the MMORPG user's ratings.  Here and there I noticed quite a few complaints about the graphics.  Hell, I've even read a few loyal fans of the game say things like "if you can get past the graphics, the gameplay is awesome". 

I was turned off.  I read that the graphics engine was made by some small, unknown company and that the engine is dated.  I was sad to see this.  Being someone with a 42 inch LCD and a nice rig, along with a full surround sound system... I was loosing interest real fast!  Now I know I know... graphics are not everything but it sure is sad to see a sexy setup like mine not getting to use it's full potential, especially when the game just came out!  Well, they say you shouldn't believe everything you read.

Well, what the heck.  I'm just not interested in many other MMO's and I need something unique, sci-fi, and involving.  So, I've given Fallen Earth a chance.

I installed, patched up, grabbed a cup of coffee along with a fresh new pack of smokes and devoted an evening to this so called "bad graphics" and "good gamplay" MMORPG... Fallen Earth.

So, what do I think of the graphics?  

:::::THE GRAPHICS DO NOT SUCK::::::::

No, i'm not some in-denial fanboy thankyouvermuch.  I'm a realist and sometimes a pessimist.  But when I read the following quotes from MMORPG's Rating section on this here game, I get confused:

wolf11223 writes:  Graphics are horrible.

markt50 writes:   ... it's graphics look dated...

Getalife writes:   If you can get past dated graphics...

Well... I figured I should try to figure this problem out.  Maybe it's just a perception issue. 

To figure it out I took screen shots off of MMORPG from 6 of the most popular/top-rated games and put them all into one big PNG file.  Here are the games I chose:

1.  Lord of The Rings Online (Voted #1 here on MMORPG)

2.  Atlantica (Voted #2 and I've seen it #1 a few times)

3.  Fallen Earth (Voted #3 Currently and #2 most popular based on the number of hits)

4.  EVE Online (Voted #4 but has been as high as #1)

5.  Aion (Voted #5 and #1 most popular based on hits)

6.  WoW (The most finacially successful MMO ever made)

So... we have some of the biggest, best, most successful, newest, and highly beloved games.  Have a look at them all together, side-by-side like a bunch of bimbos at a beauty pagent and you tell me that Fallen Earth's graphics are an epic failure sitting right next to the super-stars.

HERE is the Flickr link to the 2.83mb PNG file showing all 6 MMO's.  I highly recommend you download the full sized image and take a good hard look...

I know it's really, just a matter of opinion but FE looks fantastic next to the others.  Aion looks great, but for me it's not realistic looking and the style is not to my taste.  WoW is horrible, nuff said.  EVE looks great, but in it's own kind of way.  Atlantica doesn't impress me... are his feet floating above the ground? Seems like the character models don't meld well with the ground textures to me.  LOTRO looks "good" and you can't go wrong with Tolkien's imagination.  As far as realism goes, FE wins.  As far as detail and style, FE / EVE / Aion win.

Either way, even if you think a couple of the other games have better graphics... I see no validity to the complains about OMG HORRIBLE GRAPHICS!!  FE looks great, and on my 42ihnch LCD, I'm truly in the grand canyon, and the world I'm in is a beautiful, disgusting, real, and gritty world!

AoC had some nice graphics, and it's not even in that list.

So I'm guessing those games in the list are there for other reasons than graphics value.

And I agree with you, FE graphics are good enough. It's not the game's strength, but not that bad to leave the game :)

I was actually surprised how the world changed when I put settings on max and enabled AA in nvidia control panel.

I just wish they would make some specific animations more attractive, like the pause after a jump, and the jump itself.

I tend to ignore the folks who complain about an MMo based on how good the graphics are.

Simply put, those that decide whether a game is worth playing based on Graphics alone, well, they get what they deserve, (AoC anyone?)

Personally, I chose game play and mechanics over "Prettiness" anyday. Then again, this game is set in the Desert regen of the Grand Canyon...what can anyone expect from dirt and rocks??

Yep. Most folks who state the graphics are horrible and that they are 1990s graphics haven't actually looked at and compared them side by side. Sure, aesthetics or beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I can agree with those who say they don't particularly like FE's graphical style. I personally don't like WoW's or Aion's. That's not to say they "suck". They just aren't to my liking. FE's graphics are certainly above average and in fact good. The multiple times people (including myself) have posted up comparison pictures on this forum it usually finds those making the 1990s graphics claims and that they are outright "horrible" backing off those claims and instead saying that they personally just don't like them.

Sure, somethings are universal truths. FE's graphics being horrible or outdated just isn't one of them. They just aren't rounded off, bright and shiny full of butterflies looking like a rainbow bright meets carebears meets my little pony mosh pit.

I think sometimes graphics come down to a matter of taste of and art direction.

That being said, I simply don't like worlds that work from a majority gray and brown palette. Sure, it suits post-apoc, but it isn't visually appealing.

You look at all those pictures you put together and you will notice one thing about Fallen Earth. Limited color range. It's like they used a sepia filter.

--

I really don't mind the graphics either way. I am really irked about the animation (Strafing and Jumping)

--

I make my judgments on MMOs based on a variety of factors. Graphics carries some weight, but aren't the end all be all.

Originally posted by jazz.be

AoC had some nice graphics, and it's not even in that list.

So I'm guessing those games in the list are there for other reasons than graphics value.

 

And I agree with you, FE graphics are good enough. It's not the game's strength, but not that bad to leave the game :)

I was actually surprised how the world changed when I put settings on max and enabled AA in nvidia control panel.

I just wish they would make some specific animations more attractive, like the pause after a jump, and the jump itself.

Guilty as charged.  I took the top games from the "voted" list and "most popular" list.  I could of spent days making a better image with a dozen or so games but I went with the top-picks and most clicked here on MMORPG.

Feel free to download and update my image with any game you choose! ;)  I'd love to see it!

Originally posted by Hypodermica

Originally posted by jazz.be

AoC had some nice graphics, and it's not even in that list.

So I'm guessing those games in the list are there for other reasons than graphics value.

 

And I agree with you, FE graphics are good enough. It's not the game's strength, but not that bad to leave the game :)

I was actually surprised how the world changed when I put settings on max and enabled AA in nvidia control panel.

I just wish they would make some specific animations more attractive, like the pause after a jump, and the jump itself.

 

Guilty as charged.  I took the top games from the "voted" list and "most popular" list.  I could of spent days making a better image with a dozen or so games but I went with the top-picks and most clicked here on MMORPG.

Feel free to download and update my image with any game you choose! ;)  I'd love to see it!

No problem!

I wasn't expecting screenshots of AoC, I was making a point ;-)

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

Yep. Most folks who state the graphics are horrible and that they are 1990s graphics haven't actually looked at and compared them side by side. Sure, aesthetics or beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I can agree with those who say they don't particularly like FE's graphical style. I personally don't like WoW's or Aion's. That's not to say they "suck". They just aren't to my liking. FE's graphics are certainly above average and in fact good. The multiple times people (including myself) have posted up comparison pictures on this forum it usually finds those making the 1990s graphics claims and that they are outright "horrible" backing off those claims and instead saying that they personally just don't like them.

Sure, somethings are universal truths. FE's graphics being horrible or outdated just isn't one of them. They just aren't rounded off, bright and shiny full of butterflies looking like a rainbow bright meets carebears meets my little pony mosh pit.

Precisely, I agree and you said better in fewer words what was on my mind.

Originally posted by neoterrar

I think sometimes graphics come down to a matter of taste of and art direction.

That being said, I simply don't like worlds that work from a majority gray and brown palette. Sure, it suits post-apoc, but it isn't visually appealing.

You look at all those pictures you put together and you will notice one thing about Fallen Earth. Limited color range. It's like they used a sepia filter.

Neo, it's a Desert type setting....what, you expect Purple flowers and bright Red roses??

Deserts=Sand, Rocks, Dirt and Shrubs...not a kaliedescope of colors...

Are you seriously saying that Color choices turn you off this game? Have you gone beyond Sector 1?

Originally posted by neoterrar

I think sometimes graphics come down to a matter of taste of and art direction.

That being said, I simply don't like worlds that work from a majority gray and brown palette. Sure, it suits post-apoc, but it isn't visually appealing.

You look at all those pictures you put together and you will notice one thing about Fallen Earth. Limited color range. It's like they used a sepia filter.

Good point, it's funny how nature/natural environments actually lack color.  Having lived in Colorado I can attest to that.  I'd spend nearly every one of my lunch breaks sitting in the cafataria starring off at Pike's Peak or Cheyenne Mountain.  Green, grey, and brown is all you get.  If it's winter, you get white with small hints of brown, nothing else.  Driving through the desert you get brown with brown weeds.   But you could go to Colorado in the spring time and find the right place where you'd get a mega-rainbow of colors from blooming flowers, reflecting lakes, swirling white clouds in bright blue skies.  But, last time I heard Colorado wasn't suffering through an apocolypse or massive drought.

From what I have seen from screenshots, I think FE looks okay.  I've seen better and I've seen worse.  I'll reserve final judgement until I get to play the game myself.  Just checked out Best Buy today and no copies on the shelf.  I could download it but I'm not too keen on downloading games; I like a hard copy.  Plus I have the remainder of my free month with Aion.

In judging FE's graphics, I really wouldn't compare them to other games, but rather on their own merits.  Each of the other games you showed in the screenshots above have their own strength and weaknesses.  Sometimes you trade graphics for performance and I think that's a pretty fair trade much of the time.  Honestly I think some people have rather unrealistic expectations of what mmo graphics need to be.  Sometimes people forget that the greatest graphics engine of all time is the human imagination.

If you have any cool screenshots of your character or some cool characters you come across I'd love to see them.  Or if you capture some nice landscape shots, that would be good too.

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

Yep. Most folks who state the graphics are horrible and that they are 1990s graphics haven't actually looked at and compared them side by side. Sure, aesthetics or beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I can agree with those who say they don't particularly like FE's graphical style. I personally don't like WoW's or Aion's. That's not to say they "suck". They just aren't to my liking. FE's graphics are certainly above average and in fact good. The multiple times people (including myself) have posted up comparison pictures on this forum it usually finds those making the 1990s graphics claims and that they are outright "horrible" backing off those claims and instead saying that they personally just don't like them.

Sure, somethings are universal truths. FE's graphics being horrible or outdated just isn't one of them. They just aren't rounded off, bright and shiny full of butterflies looking like a rainbow bright meets carebears meets my little pony mosh pit.

First impressions are always right. FE has bad graphics compared to the competition. There is no denying that. You're only deluding yourself if you're saying they are good or even average. Thats a whole different ball game if you say they are sufficient - but they still suck. When do you people realize that theres no smoke without fire. The reason why there are so much critisism is that the game really has bad graphics. I'd even go as far as to say the game animations and characters look a bit amateurish.

I wonder how many of the badmouthers have actually tried to tweak up their graphic settings, the game automatically starts at low settings no matter how good a rig you got and you have to manually set the settings up to a lvl your computer can handle.

I got a 2.67 Ghz I7 with a GTX 260 card and a 32 bit XP (for 3 weeks more) and still it set my settings to low, but once everything was maxed to 100% and all turned on, all of a sudden you had dynamic shadows playing across persons and any surface, the light was amazing, the visual range much longer than most other MMOs and the details damn!

The only MMO I have ever played that have had better graphics is AoC, anything else is behind FE in quality (and no I haven't played Aion).

Edit: Check out this vid if you badmouth the animations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6tHgLWMMc

Originally posted by afoaa

I wonder how many of the badmouthers have actually tried to tweak up their graphic settings, the game automatically starts at low settings no matter how good a rig you got and you have to manually set the settings up to a lvl your computer can handle.

I got a 2.67 Ghz I7 with a GTX 260 card and a 32 bit XP (for 3 weeks more) and still it set my settings to low, but once everything was maxed to 100% and all turned on, all of a sudden you had dynamic shadows playing across persons and any surface, the light was amazing, the visual range much longer than most other MMOs and the details damn!

The only MMO I have ever played that have had better graphics is AoC, anything else is behind FE in quality (and no I haven't played Aion).

Edit: Check out this vid if you badmouth the animations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6tHgLWMMc

  Can you post some screenshots? I'm not trying to prove you wrong, I just wanna see :).

Now that I think about it, if the most common complaint about FE is Graphics(more likely, color scheme) then FE is doing pretty damn well compared to the complaints of other games released in the last 2 years.

Originally posted by marinrider

Originally posted by afoaa

I wonder how many of the badmouthers have actually tried to tweak up their graphic settings, the game automatically starts at low settings no matter how good a rig you got and you have to manually set the settings up to a lvl your computer can handle.

I got a 2.67 Ghz I7 with a GTX 260 card and a 32 bit XP (for 3 weeks more) and still it set my settings to low, but once everything was maxed to 100% and all turned on, all of a sudden you had dynamic shadows playing across persons and any surface, the light was amazing, the visual range much longer than most other MMOs and the details damn!

The only MMO I have ever played that have had better graphics is AoC, anything else is behind FE in quality (and no I haven't played Aion).

Edit: Check out this vid if you badmouth the animations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6tHgLWMMc

  Can you post some screenshots? I'm not trying to prove you wrong, I just wanna see :).

Coming right up, gimme a min ;) not even the best scenery but it's coming up!

Originally posted by marinrider

Originally posted by afoaa

I wonder how many of the badmouthers have actually tried to tweak up their graphic settings, the game automatically starts at low settings no matter how good a rig you got and you have to manually set the settings up to a lvl your computer can handle.

I got a 2.67 Ghz I7 with a GTX 260 card and a 32 bit XP (for 3 weeks more) and still it set my settings to low, but once everything was maxed to 100% and all turned on, all of a sudden you had dynamic shadows playing across persons and any surface, the light was amazing, the visual range much longer than most other MMOs and the details damn!

The only MMO I have ever played that have had better graphics is AoC, anything else is behind FE in quality (and no I haven't played Aion).

Edit: Check out this vid if you badmouth the animations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yj6tHgLWMMc

  Can you post some screenshots? I'm not trying to prove you wrong, I just wanna see :).

Here is a screenshot

 I'll be posting a number of in game photos on my blog... (shameless plug) 

But seriously, the majority of players that would and do complain about the graphics are probably those that don't have a great computer to run the game in the first place.  Not putting them down.. but honestly, I run the game on medium settings and in towns it can be like watching a slide show.

The game does a fairly decent job at deciding what settings are recommended.  Mine were set for low.(on my 8800 GTS.. kinda an outdated card now) . and my PC can run most MMOs on all high settings.  (I run on medium for screenshots for my blog)

Anyways, all that aside, when the game is on low settings.. yes this game looks like it was from the mid 90s.  When its on medium you can see a major difference in character models.  At High settings mounts look crisper and character models are textured very nicely.

I've never tried to run it at the highest settings as its obvious my Pc can't handle it... but the graphics are more then adequate.

I'm noticing things in the screenshots that look crappy in the screen shot, and not so bad in the game.  Like the buildings in teh background look blocky but in the game they look smooth.   Also, the game's screenshots are real low res while simply hitting PRINTSCREEN on my keyboard gave me much better quality. 

Screen Shot 1 - Odenville (low-level, low-population town)

Screen Shot 2 -  Close up of my face with armor on it.  (yes, breathing mask is armor lol)

Screen Shot 3 - Sunset over the desert

Screen Shot 4 - town with the sky in background and the moon above

Well, that's my little show.  I think textures dont' render right as you approach them.  that's my complaint.  You get close to something and you see the detail so well, but not even far away.. and it's not so nice looking.

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by Khalathwyr

Yep. Most folks who state the graphics are horrible and that they are 1990s graphics haven't actually looked at and compared them side by side. Sure, aesthetics or beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I can agree with those who say they don't particularly like FE's graphical style. I personally don't like WoW's or Aion's. That's not to say they "suck". They just aren't to my liking. FE's graphics are certainly above average and in fact good. The multiple times people (including myself) have posted up comparison pictures on this forum it usually finds those making the 1990s graphics claims and that they are outright "horrible" backing off those claims and instead saying that they personally just don't like them.

Sure, somethings are universal truths. FE's graphics being horrible or outdated just isn't one of them. They just aren't rounded off, bright and shiny full of butterflies looking like a rainbow bright meets carebears meets my little pony mosh pit.

 

First impressions are always right. FE has bad graphics compared to the competition. There is no denying that. You're only deluding yourself if you're saying they are good or even average. Thats a whole different ball game if you say they are sufficient - but they still suck. When do you people realize that theres no smoke without fire. The reason why there are so much critisism is that the game really has bad graphics. I'd even go as far as to say the game animations and characters look a bit amateurish.

**cough** troll bait **cough

I haven't played since beta, so I'm not sure how much has changed.  With the settings cranked up, the game didn't look too bad, but it was FAR from smooth.  Hell, even on LOW the game was FAR from smooth.  Animations just seemed a bit out of whack and city lag was horrible.

Also, most of the Male character faces looked a bit too caveman-ish, no matter what.

Cosmetics aside, I had fun playing up to Sector 3, most of it solo.

 I think FE's graphics suit it very well for its setting and style. Plenty of detail where it counts. I have no problem with it at all in that dept.

Something I *would* like to see more of is some more variation in weather/atmosphere. The game's got a great day/night cycle... but there's never any fog or even the effect of dust/sand lingering in the air, etc. Having lived out in West Texas (Midland) for a couple years - desert climate not unlike that in FE - I can tell you that you see plenty of both. Maybe something to imply a lot of wind... something else you get a *lot* of out in those areas, debris and shrubbery rolling by...

As far as graphics, color palette and overall style are concerned, though... I think FE's designers did a great job.

You are right, the graphics don't suck at all. The engine is horribly unoptimized, though. I was lucky to get 10-15 FPS during the open beta, and it stuttered horribly even on the lowest settings (the latter may have been caused by server lag though). I run DDO and LOTRO with everything cranked up to max (or very near) and still get 40+, even in groups with particle effects flying everywhere. Heck, even AoC ran alright most of the time with everything on high. Got a bit choppy in towns, sure, but I don't mind that.

Point is that, when you look at the power needed to render them (compared to to other MMOs of similar graphical quality), they aren't all that impressive. Luckily for myself and others with less-than-optimal rigs, this is a repairable problem which will likely be rectified in the coming months. I will be patient. Or, God forbid, I'll somehow obtain the money to upgrade this old goat of a PC.

Ok, I know the game requirements are high of you set all GFX on Max, plus allow FSAA and 16x Aniso (externally, as game FSAA does not work). My 1MB HD4890 squeals like it was raped and my PC heats the room (seriously, no need to switch on the heater when I play FE LOL), and all 4 CPU's are hard at work - but trust me, it's WORTH it.

You have no grounds to judge FE's graphics until you have witnessed a sunrise on full settings in Oilville :)

DB

So, with absolutely all settings on max (external 8xFSAA 16xAniso), at 1280x1024, I'm getting 15-40 FPS in towns, 50-70 in the desert, and up to 120 in dungeons. I'd say, it' bearable :)

The low town FPS is due to those horrible, horrible amount of people, all rushing to try this game :D. Damn you, guys :D

Seriously, the memory handling is excellent, I might get low FPS in crowded places, but at least there are no 1-2 seconds stops for loading textures/meshes, that most other MMO's have (including my longest ever played MMO, Lotro...)

DB