This is excellent news.  I would definitely go "pay to play" in AO if this overhaul takes place (I am currently a Froob).  AO has everything I want in a game and as Tabula Rasa is FTL right now, would certainly fill my Sci-Fi fix. 

I've been waiting for this news for a long time.  If the avatars also get an upgrade, I'm so coming back.

State-of-the-art graphics have always been way down on my list of reasons for playing an MMOG. However that being said, I'm really psyched that they are doing the graphics upgrade. I've been paying to play AO since about 6 months after the first year they did Froob accounts, although I did try the game out a few times before that. Dated graphics were never the issue that stopped me from playing. I do hope they update avatar and equipment art though, and effects as well. I agree that with the new world graphics the old avatars would look rather out of place and clunky.

Well AO was my 1st but i left because of the archaic mission system.I never left because of the graphics i left because they started the "instancing" era of gaming but never evolved it.

Improve the questing and "mission" system and i might consider it.Funcom did a lot to AO that hurt it.The notum wars imho was a near perfect ad on to the game but everything else after was just not done right.

I wont come back unless they make it zoneless.  And I know I wont be missed.

There is just too much innovation packed in this old war horse to get wasted. What killed the fun for me was the shadowlands and the way they were originally implemented.

I've resubscribed recently (to find my old characters in tact after what, 4 years?) and so far I'm having some genuine fun. With all the latest "games" I sure have forgotten how it feels to play in a "world" again.

After all these years I'm still looking for a decent sci-fi MMO world (I really wanted to like EVE but I don't think I will). AO surprised me by being decent after all these years.

This really brings a smile to my face and is very positive for sci fi mmo games. There is a ton of content for new players. I really think this will breathe new life into AO. And I am excited for the AO community in a major way. I can't wait. 2008 has some good things for existing sci fi mmo upgrades-

Originally posted by Darkholme

State-of-the-art graphics have always been way down on my list of reasons for playing an MMOG. However that being said, I'm really psyched that they are doing the graphics upgrade. I've been paying to play AO since about 6 months after the first year they did Froob accounts, although I did try the game out a few times before that. Dated graphics were never the issue that stopped me from playing. I do hope they update avatar and equipment art though, and effects as well. I agree that with the new world graphics the old avatars would look rather out of place and clunky.

If graphics weren't important, we'd all still be playing AC.  I will try this if the avatars get an upgrade along with the environment.  I have to say that the videos look pretty good, and there's sure to be a ton more content available than anything a newly release MMO will have.

That's why I said my and not our, or some other all-gamer encompassing pronoun. I am human, pretty graphics attract me, however gamplay is what keeps me, and AO has gamplay in spades... My main reason I want AO's graphics update to be well done is more for the games sake than mine. It will help them attract new players and remain competitive.

Well, I've said it before and I will say it again.  I'm a graphics whore, and if a game don't look good, it just will not hold my attention.  I'm one sad individual

The new graphics engine will help with hooking people new to the game in the important, early stages.  The game already has a ton of content - and they have been adding a -lot- this past year, much of it back on Rubi-Ka, where the freebie players can get involved.  There was a time a couple of years ago when I knew without referencing any database, everything that buffed every skill and what every encounter or quest accomplished.  Now there is so much new stuff that I don't begin to have to time to examine/quest/explore.  The current population is good and stable but FC has put in enough new stuff to keep 4x the ppl very busy.  OFC there is still the usual crowd who gets in the game and their only goal is to hit 220 and acquire by any means the best gear eBayed credits can buy, then still get their butts kicked in PvP by the vets, and then become bored and quit, having missed 90% of the games' content.

This is very very nice.

I am looking for a sci-fi MMORPG to play when I break from WOW. I tried AO couple of weeks back but I really cannot get pass the really dated graphics.

This will definitely make it back on my list to play. I hope the ETA is soon.

How's the UI and character movement?  I came back to AO a while back after playing WoW a long time, and was shocked how clunky AO's movement interface was.  Perhaps Funcom's fixed that the past few years?

UI will stay the same, player model movements also.  The player textures will probably be a lot better.  The UI is, imo, one of the best out there and almost no complaints about it in the forums so don't expect FC to touch it.  Player models could be better and ppl would like but that is very time and money intensive to do.

Originally posted by Oyjord

How's the UI and character movement?  I came back to AO a while back after playing WoW a long time, and was shocked how clunky AO's movement interface was.  Perhaps Funcom's fixed that the past few years?

They've tweaked it a little bit here and there so it's not nearly as "clunky" as it used to be. Still, when I used to play WoW and come back to playing AO it would take me a while to get used to AO's interface and movement again. Of course the UI is customizable with 3rd party addons, so you can pretty much make it as streamlined as you want. IMO once you get used to it it is really not a bad interface, and I've definitely seen much worse.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/setview/features/loadFeature/1718/gameID/10

Interview with Silirrion about the new AO graphics engine

the linked video is a puny one, though...wtb more links to the 40mb version

so any new info on this?

Originally posted by rage9000

so any new info on this?

Apart from a few things posted(new heads...), not much. Apparently they sacked the old code, and moved to ogre(or ocre...) it's going on, but will take a while still...

Okay few snipets:

Friday with Means - February 6th, 2009

Q - "How is the new Graphics Engine progressing? I know you hesitate to give an exact release date for it for obvious reasons, but do you expect it may be ready by Fall 2009 or End of 2009 perhaps?"

A - I really can't give a specific date. What I can say is that the engine is close to being "feature complete" meaning everything is in place. That being said there are a great number of effects that need replacing and a great deal of performance tuning that remains to be done. I think we can all agree that the new engine should be smooth, stable, fast and beautiful. Until those criteria are met we are going to keep working on it. Don't worry, when we get even close I imagine the video previews will be coming out of our ears.

Friday with Means - March 13th, 2009

The Engine:

I haven't spoken about the engine for awhile...as it is difficult to make code optimization interesting...I only listen in those meeting because I have to. The coders are working hard at optimizing the new engine..as currently it is an "all features on full" affair that provides all features...but poor framerate. Optimizations that were missing from "old" AO are being looked into..like mesh instancing (load that tree once with a single call...and populate it out at no real framerate loss) was one aspect of the coder work this week. They were very excited to have 500 Turbine mesh's on the screen at once without significant issues. I'm going to assume this is a good thing...I sometimes don't always get those "coder moments". At any rate, an effect system is now working and we can begin to start producing some new effects, everything is being rendered...now optimization and the grunt work of producing a great number of effects can begin. Both these are going to take time...but we'll keep at it.

There will of course be some graphical updates with the new engine...the full extent of which isn't fully decided. New trees to freshen up the outdoor environments are definitely coming. Character bodies are going to be "smoothed" and better optimized for animation to lose some of the nasty poly issues. One test in progress at the moment is new character heads...AO has a huge number of these...so we are currently working on a "work in progress" opifex female head as a test case for possible production of new heads. I imagine it is unlikely we will simply replace all the heads in game as all of us have some attatchment to these...but more likely offer a choice to move to a "new" head if we want...and remove the old ones from character creation so all new characters will get new heads. Like I said...this is in the early phases...and not final yet...but exciting so I wanted to share an image with you for this week.

Have a great weekend!

Friday with Means - March 20th, 2009 Some more stuff and new heads.

The problem is, they've been talking about the new engine for a long time, but so far it's all been just talk.  I won't believe it until I've actually got it running on my system.  The other issue is that apparently, the engine is just eye-candy, it's not going to fix a lot of the edge-detection problems, you'll still have rhinos hanging out of walls in Newland Desert, etc.  If you're going to redo your engine, why not fix the issues with the old one?

Yes, it looks spiffy, but I don't mind what they've got now, I'm in it for the gameplay, not the eye-candy.

      Yeah I remember when the upgrade was slated for summer of 2008 lol..........Supposedly it was almost ready then too......... While AO is a great game for those of us that have played it a few years it does not appeal to most of the modern gamers (ie the WoW generation).........WHile many of us enjoy the depth that AO offers, most of the WoW generation looks for the eye candy and animations for their enjoyment........While upgarding the visuals in the world is a nice start they will ahve to overhaul the avatars to lure in very many new players........The graphics update the way it is now might interest some of those that have left AO in the past but probably not entice many to cancel their WoW accounts and come play.