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Were Neverwinter Nights, Dungeon Siege, and other early 3D RPGs considered to have good graphics?

Old Hans

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Oct 10, 2011
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I always though the NWN character models were poorly done, but I loved the real time shadows. Some of the monsters looked nice though. Dungeon Siege I thought looked great back in the day, and no load times was really impressive.
 

pippin

Guest
aribeth was the last 100% cute girl bioware ever made. but the voice acting for her is so bad. she shares va with faye from cowboy bebop.
 

Maggot

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
I don't remember NWN looking as bad as in those screenshots, they look like either the texture quality isn't maxed or maybe they scaled bad to some really high resolution or something. I remember NWN textures as pretty sharp back in the day...

Anyway, it's artstyle was as painfully generic and boring as possible. NO charm whatsoever. I do remember the torch throwing light that would be blocked by stuff and the shadows would move as you moved (do I remember that right?) in the academy at the beginning for example.
IMO it was too early to go full 3D if the goal was lovely visuals.
Game had big issues unrelated to the graphics anyway. What a total downer after BG2. Tough to believe the same people(?) made it.

Dungeon Siege graphics were hyped up like crazy by the gaming press here, but other than the seamless world imo they weren't too nice either. NWN looked better sometimes, sometimes worse. Also suffered from the meh artstyle problem.
Also a shit game mostly.

I played NWN not to long ago and the texture were definitely sharper which leads me to believe they're just cherrypicked screenshots. Paging Lilura to post aesthetic NWN tilesets.
 

luj1

You're all shills
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Textures in Nwn weren't that bad. On the other hand meshes were horrid. Particles were above average at the time.
 

Old One

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I like Gothic's 2001 graphics better than the 2002 graphics of NWN. They have a superior, more consistent style, which is why they've aged so much better than those from NWN.

Not to mention Gothic 2's late-2002 graphics...
 

Neanderthal

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NWN always looked like a spanked arse, I were amazed by how pretty second game an Witcher were in comparison, comin from that fuckin abortion. Heard they improved graphics a bit in NWN oer years along wi addin cloaks an shit, but when it came out it'd make your fuckin eyeballs puke.

Dungeon Siege were pure graphic porn though, pretty then an still pretty now, though character models were a bit lackin.
 

Maggot

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire
NWN always looked like a spanked arse, I were amazed by how pretty second game an Witcher were in comparison, comin from that fuckin abortion. Heard they improved graphics a bit in NWN oer years along wi addin cloaks an shit, but when it came out it'd make your fuckin eyeballs puke.

Dungeon Siege were pure graphic porn though, pretty then an still pretty now, though character models were a bit lackin.
NWN2 looks like vomit. Witcher 1 looks really good though for the engine.
 

FeelTheRads

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I don't know if most people considered NWN good-looking, but a lot of Infinity Engine fans who liked 2D must have felt like they were being gaslit about it. Awesome graphics, incredible particle effects, 10/10! It traumatized a hell of a lot of people and probably drove more than a few out of the hobby entirely.

There's probably some truth to this. I've seen 10/10 ratings for this garbage with my own eyes. And indeed they were praising the graphics and the OC.

I was never the same after.

WRONG.

Another WRONG.

Nope. Gothics are superior in every way.

It seems NWN is great for people who are easily entertained by pretty shiny lights.

they look like either the texture quality isn't maxed

Probably. Thing is each map had the same texture repeated all over it. And there's no maxing out details to fix that.
 
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Jimmious

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Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
The only thing I remember about NWN's graphics is that they almost fried my GPU back in the day when I initially tried to play it.
When I did get a new one, I realised that... well... the game sucks, so I stopped after some hours.

Still though, the graphs of NWN were pretty nice back then, especially the lighting and shadows etc
 

Riddler

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Bubbles In Memoria
I think some of the disagreements stem in part from different definitions of what graphics means.

Is it a beautiful texture or tech for implementing shadows and lighting? Especially in the context of a game that is more or less a construction set?

I mean, i think few would argue that the art direction of the OC was amazing but that's hardly the point, in my view anyway. The textures were a mixed bag with some good and some bad (mostly subpar) but serviceable while the particle effects were good. The underlying tech was solid enough that it could support really good artwork which says more of the graphics of the game than the art direction of the OC.
 
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Keldryn

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Dungeon Siege looked damn good for the time. Incredible, actually. It also had a far more powerful and flexible modding toolkit than did NWN -- and also far more complex and difficult to learn, which accounts for the vast number of NWN mods compared to the small number of DS mods.

NWN can't even have one walkable area pass over another. Lame. But it's map building tools were designed for speed and accessibility. Dungeon Siege's were NOT, as I could attest to after building Verity Isle for the initial Lazarus alpha demo.

I was in attendance at E3 2001, when both DS and NWN were being shown. And TORN as well, for that matter (also: Morrowind, Pool of Radiance 2, Arcanum, BG2: Throne of Bhaal). Even then, Dungeon Siege looked like a boring game, but the engine was very impressive. The graphics blew away any of the other 3D CRPGs being shown, with the possible exception of Morrowind. NWN looked like ass then, too.

TORN did sound interesting, but the demo was underwhelming to say the least. I remember talking to the lead designer and hearing a lot of really cool concepts -- unfortunately, 16 years later I don't actually remember any of what he told me.
 

Neanderthal

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Aye some o Siegelets were bloody impressive, an multiplayer campaign were arguably a much better campaign than single player un. Always seemed to me that Dungeon Siege were a massive waste o potential, think I might reinstall an hav a gander at it again.

Might be bein a bit harsh on NWN but I honestly thought it looked like shit, perhaps it were just cos I were playin Severance: Blade of Darkness from year afore regularly, that had much better graphics, lighting an shadows. Or Rune from year before that were another fuckin pretty an cock on game. Then you had ugly angular, lumpy NWN wi strange third edition crappy armour design wi stupid pauldrons, an in comparison it just weren't right good. Though I also remember bullshittin articles fellatin game, especially one by that Rhianna Pratchett in PC Zone, that were just blatant fuckin shillin.
 
Self-Ejected

Lilura

RPG Codex Dragon Lady
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I played NWN not to long ago and the texture were definitely sharper which leads me to believe they're just cherrypicked screenshots. Paging Lilura to post aesthetic NWN tilesets.

I guess ppl can just check out the modding thread or my blog if they want to see screens taken by a non-retard.
 

Iznaliu

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be_on_my_side_aribeth_and_morag_by_ebelar-d80btgu.jpg
Why does the Codex like girls that look high?
 

Rpgsaurus Rex

Guest
I bought NWN on release. It felt and looked clunky compared to BG2 and that's something, IE combat already looked like special olympics that got away with it due to the abstraction 2D allowed. My first impression on NWN visuals was - why make it 3D if it adds nothing to gameplay? All this low-poly clutter looks uglier than the 2D of old and serves no gameplay purpose. Secondly - story sucked and combat with one non-controllable companion sucked. I don't know how people can derive enjoyment from NWN modules; no matter how good the story/setting is, the base game is fucked.
 

MrBuzzKill

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Aug 31, 2013
Messages
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NWN looked terrible, especially after BG2. They made a bunch of horrible design decisions, starting from going with barebones 3D to designing a "functional" Windows-like GUI that looked just about as boring as you could possibly make it.
Just compare the two:
maxresdefault.jpg


319332-bg2gs_012.jpg

Who the fuck made the decision to make the dialogue window so small and in the corner? (maybe you could move it as you could with most windows and panels, I don't remember, I'm talking about the default position)
And why is all the GUI drawn with strict thin lines? It looks ugly and boring! I'm playing a game, not working in a 3d modelling software.
Just compare the main menus:
1114981717fullres.jpg
Did they come up with this in the last 5 minutes? It looks like it was very quickly slapped together?
Compare to BG2, where it looks like an old book or some sort of lavishly carved ancient device:
_resize.php


The only part of NWN I remember looking good and actually being impressed with, is the way they graphically animated the characters parrying each other's attacks in combat - with cool sounds and sparks flying. Oh, and some portraits/2d plates, like the portrait of the dryad. That's about all I can remember looking good and not like greyish goo.
It didn't help that the story was just as forgettable and boring. I guess NWN's main claim to fame is that it introduced the Aurora toolkit, but I never used it so I can't speak to its merits.
 
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Gord

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
7,049
I found NWN to be a big step back from BG2 and such. Not only due to clunky early 3D, but especially because the art direction simply sucked.
About the only thing it did a bit better was effects (magic, lighting, etc), but that wasn't enough to salvage it in terms of graphics.

I guess a game like Dungeon Siege might have been received better because it didn't have to compare to a better looking 2D predecessor. Also at least the level of detail of the vegetation (for the time) and seamless world were technically impressive.
 

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