Funcom has sent us four new screenshots of the new Anarchy Online engine in action. Things are looking pretty snazzy! The screenshots are of the before-and-after variety for the purpose of comparison.

Check out the new shots in our Anarchy Online gallery.

Ehh...

Honestly, I've been waiting so long for a graphics update I wont be excited until they actually release the damn thing.

I've already seen similar screen shots show us some damn character models.

I remember when AO first came out, the water you see in that screenshot was toxic.  If you landed in it, youd take damage.  During this time period the latency, lag, performance was so bad you could barely walk across the bridges to get to the inner part and would fall into the water regularly.  Finding your way out before you died was next to impossible.   Needless to say, they changed the water very soon after release so you wouldnt take damage if you fell into it.

and now days if a game has a server queue when it goes live, its deemed a failed release

Easily one of the best and more original MMORPGs to date, the only thing that's ever hurt AO is its lack of polish. From the lack of any melee sound effects to the absolutely beautiful music, for the intermittent and random 5-10 seconds that it actually plays, and the now-aging graphics (don't get me wrong, when it came out, it was amazing; I still remember first entering the subway outside Omni-1 and thinking "holy crap, I'm playing Deus Ex as an MMORPG, due to how similar the engines were combined with the music and clothing styles, if not the same engine), they desperately need to finally release this overhaul, and hopefully it'll be combined with overall polish improvements as I mentioned above. It's the only thing I've been waiting for to reactivate my account.
 

The music plays fine all the time now, though most ppl seem to turn it off and listen to something on their headsets.  Last patch they even snuck in some new audio material and are going to revamp the music in the clubs to be instrumentals of some (as yet to be announced)  well-known artist.

Engine looked like that 8 months ago, they just at that point decided to dump the Open Source Orge engine they had been adapting to AO, and switched to their Dreamworld engine that runs AoC as it had more flexibility and capability.

Main improvements are that the engine will use DirectX 9 calls, not DirectX 7 calls, which the video card drivers are starting to drop.  New water, grass and trees (not yet in place), shadows, bump mapping, anti-aliasing, smoothed out avatar bodies and redone heads.

AO was a good time, was differently different than anything out then and now...however, they have been saying they are revamping the graphics engine for years now, and if or when they actually get it done, I might return to Rubi-Ka myself again.

hmm i hated AO.. i always felt like i needed spread sheets and scientific calculator to play. implants, nano mumbo jumbo was all to confusing in its implementation.

Originally posted by TribeofOne

hmm i hated AO.. i always felt like i needed spread sheets and scientific calculator to play. implants, nano mumbo jumbo was all to confusing in its implementation.

Yes complexity and multichoices are bad.. Simple so a child can understand it and no choises at all are good. I see where you are coming from and all respect to you. You can be glad that most MMOS today caters to you. Us with a brain though, we would be happier if they were closer to AO.

Originally posted by burmese

Engine looked like that 8 months ago, they just at that point decided to dump the Open Source Orge engine they had been adapting to AO, and switched to their Dreamworld engine that runs AoC as it had more flexibility and capability.

No, the Ogre engine version looked twice as good as these shots. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRmk0hZam7A

Originally posted by TribeofOne

hmm i hated AO.. i always felt like i needed spread sheets and scientific calculator to play. implants, nano mumbo jumbo was all to confusing in its implementation.

Just a simple calculator will do the job. twinking is probably the best thing about Ao, I played several MMO's and SIngle players games but Ao gear equipment system is probaly the best I ever found. You get to choice Equip a gear when you have the stats req or just twink until you gets the stats you need. I love/hated Implant Laddering to get a 1 ability score you need.

I loved to equip the Cure of Baldness on a level 1 doc:)

I don't like the new graphics. I like the flair of the older graphics.

Everything looks so clean and clear on the new engines, even if you turn all details and the best textures on. I also don't like games to look real. AO and some 3D MMOs from that time have a style which isn't "realistic" (okay, todays graphics aren't either, but...) and not that (most of the time bad) comic graphics. I really like that. I also like these old Halflife/Quake-like graphics like in Deus Ex or Face of Mankind to name an MMO.

The best comic graphics were available in Seed. It's sad it doesn't exist anymore.

You can definitely see the AoC influence in the water and shadows... its about time!

I can hear it now:

"You know guys, if AO ends up having more subs than AoC we better make it snazzy"

I really hope they get it together. As an old AO'er myself there simply isn't any other sci-fi mmo that's really competing as of yet (7 years down the line). Quite strange, considering how many fantasy games there is competing for the same audience.

Sure the Ogre shots looked great, but it's the correct decision to use 1 engine in 3 games (AO, AoC, TSW) to only have 1 set of bugs and updates needing to be done. :)

What these screenis show is that they've basically caught  up with the old ogre work, meaning they've redone the previous 2,5 years of work in 6 months. That bouds (sp?) well for the future.

/Y

I don't see how anyhone could like older graphics,they are the same thing but less detailed,witch i can never see as being a good thing,more detail is always better.

Now when you compare the change from DX10 capabilities from DX9,that does not auto mean better looking.It is because things are done differently,so in some cases graphics will look a slight bit different but not altogether better depending on your preference.However anything pre DX9 is always improved upon by higher shader tech and more physics.

The purpose of DX 10 was to create much more total bandwidth to allow developers to put a ton more detail into their maps/zones.So many especially those early criers for AOC to have DX10 confuse dx 10 with meaning it is automatically going to look better,i doubt the average user would notice the difference at all,only when you compare two screens side by each can you notice the difference.

The biggest noticeable difference in gaming right now is using hi res textures /shaders and the PhysX engine to create some real cool effects in gaming.

Originally posted by Athaba 

The best comic graphics were available in Seed. It's sad it doesn't exist anymore.

*sniff* I miss the look and feel of Seed, though the gameplay certainly never worked out.  Hell I miss the storyline of Seed, too.  Ah well.

On topic:
I've done my time in AO more than once over the years.  I'd love to see it get a serious overhaul though it's pretty hard to get far in the game these days without an active guild behind you to explain all the tricks and help twink you into gear that if you don't have people laugh you off. :)

I love AO.. there's no game quite like AO out there, alot of memories and it requires more brains than most mmos out there combined. I hope and pray that this overhaul will be executed soon.

Wow way to go Funcom. What has it been 2 years since the release of that "New Engine" video and now in that time span you've spent the years trying to find a perfect angle to snap a screen shot. Fuck you game devs. Gargle my balls.

Personally, as much as I think the game needs the graphics update, sadly it won't do anything to increase it's playerbase size if the clunky default UI, texturing, awful animations, spell effects and lack of a decent quest and crafting system remain the same.  It will still feel anti-quated and grind-tastic.  And just like its offspring, Age of Conan, its developers won't be in a hurry to bring it up to date.

Don't get me wrong, Anarchy Online has the foundation to be excellent with a revamp.  Its use of implants and its mission generators are fantastic elements.  The game is a good contender for a complete revamp.  But it looks like the devs have no intention of doing that.  Which is a shame because Funcom could use it to boost overall profits.

Therefore, I predict the graphics update will be appreciated by those who currently play it, but those who don't will be indifferent to the upgrade. 

Having played AO for nearly 6 years now,I still luv/hate the game.The hate part is that FC seems to now spend all its energies,AND all our payments,in to AoC,which I trried for a week and found it a lost cause as did mostly everyone else that I know that tried it.AO's new engine was SUPPOSED to be online in the middle of LAST YEAR,now we ar at the end of this year and its still not up and running.You got to wonder as to how much of the true-blue AO players money is now being channeled in to FC's new game;Dark Demons,The Secret World.  They will of course deny that this is happening which also leaves me to wonder WHY they dont spend some of OUR money in fixing up the lag issues,that AoC didnt have.It seems they do know how to fix this major issue which only ever gets worse,especially after a new patch,and the patch after that to fix the faults in the one that they gave us yesterday(and so it goes on) AND we still dont have our new engine.MERRY XMAS everyone.

Why are all those screenshots from a zoomed out camera view? Would like to see what it changes on character and world textures up close.