SCS: State of the art graphics?

[r66 0]

Additionally to the - for me personally not understandable - change in the game play of SimCity Societies I wonder whether the new Simcity is using state of the art graphics. It looks like an years old game to me if I compare it to other release announced for autumn

e.g.

http://thesettlers.uk.ubi.com/teaser/

which looks like really exciting graphics for me.

[The_Dalai_Llama 15]

I'm not worried about the graphics engine that much... and some people don't want a major graphics update if it compromises gameplay. The art style Tilted Mill is going for is what will concern most SC fans... some say it's too cartoony.

I will gladly take 2003 SC4 graphics and more content over 2007-8 graphics and less content.

[r66 0]

Well, I agree with that, but so far any Simcity release had also the "Whoaa" effect for me  as soon as screenshots appeared. I can not say this for the new version, in fact, besides the new concep also the graphic is disappointing .... the Settlers (my link above) have a Whoa effect for me.

[megalopolitan 0]

Originally posted by: The_Dalai_LlamaI will gladly take 2003 SC4 graphics and more content over 2007-8 graphics and less content.quote>

 

100% ITA.

In fact, I'd rather have less cpu time on graphics and more cpu time on other things in this type of game anyway.  That's easily done with today's average hardware.

[Karybdis 34]

Interestingly, its probably feasible to make SC4 look photographic real with some fairly minor changes.

A) Expanding the available list of photoreal buildings being made in the community.

B) Retexturing the networks from aerial imagery.

C) Retexturing the terrain with aerial photographed terrain, and using a complex terrain set to imitate randomization in the landscape.

D) some effect edits like darkening water etc.

E) An atmospherics layer to the play area would do wonders. Mute colours at noon. More natural at other times. Haze and contrast bleed towards the horizon, etc.

What we'd be missing at that point is the non-orthographic view of the landscape, and the ability to free rotate the viewpoint even though the game is already 3D.

Simcity 4 engine is still pretty close to real, its just that we haven't Really tried to pull it off yet by getting some people with aircraft to go take pictures for projects.

[SimFox 800]

Major problem with SC4 look is very poor lighting.

This could be easily fixed nowadays. I'm actually have been pushing for this for quite a some time now and glad to see Global Illumination solutions taking hold on crowd using MAX for Bating. Another major problem is the Reflection/Refraction of various bits and pieces in the game. If refraction could be achieved, reflection couldn’t. And I mean honest reflections and not fakes. But realistically fakes would do just fine most f the time.

Another great visual improvement would have been geographically fixed sun. This could be done but it would hugely inflate the size of all the buildings etc., so it isn't really practical.

[George_101 0]

I'm not really looking forward to the graphics on SCS either... ;; Although the other components I'm highly anticipating.

The graphics on SC4 are plain awesome.. If only they retained that and went for the full 3D camera like on the sims 2...

[LivingInThePast 364]

The SimCity Societies graphics are not bad, but I'm not really worried about it. Why I hate SCS is they are destroying nearly 20 years of what made SimCity SimCity for some cheesy "societies" aspect.

[smstevenms 7]

The only thing that I truly like to see is the grid squares divided by 2 or even 4. This would allow for more custom lots and transportion grids. Cities could then be built to look alot closer to the real thing (if building a true to life city).