Diablo 3 art direction

[RGE]

No, that's just you amusing yourself by moving the "hate" from the glowing weapons paragraph to the fuzzy screenshot paragraph. While informing me that they make their screenshots look extra sucky on purpose, because people like suck.

 

[Risine]

At last, a developer who uses 3D smartly, not against gameplay as most publishers do !!!
I'd love to see RPG games using this kind of engine, Fallout3 should be done this way, ( upcoming?) BG3 too, not speaking of Dragon Age, supposely BG successor ( cough ) which seems as awful as NWN2 ( ok a little better, just average ).
But I agree, I miss Diablo1 uncomparable atmosphere, that was not really there in D2 ( which was more about gameplay ), and is not the direction taken in D3.
Anyway, that could be worse, they could have Bioware/Beteshda mentality, and have made some kind of 1st person FPSRPG.

 

[J1M]

No, that's just you amusing yourself by moving the "hate" from the glowing weapons paragraph to the fuzzy screenshot paragraph. While informing me that they make their screenshots look extra sucky on purpose, because people like suck.

You said hate weapon look and then said screenshots look worse.

Playing semantics is boring.

You don't like AA? Turn it off. You think they will release screenshots with as many jaggies as a PS2 game in 2008? Not going to happen.

 

[Araanor]

Noone dislikes AA, blockhead. AA is all about improving image quality, not increasing "fuzziness".

 

[Jasede]

Hey, I dislike AA because it makes games slower and I can't see the difference between no AA and 16x AA, but I really have awful eyes for graphic details.

 

[RGE]

You said hate weapon look and then said screenshots look worse.

I didn't specify what I was comparing the screenshots to, but you seem to have gone out of your way to make it the glowing weapons rather than graphics that I didn't remember disliking. Doesn't it seem more reasonable to compare screenshots to graphics, rather than to a single detail such as glowing weapons?

Playing semantics is boring.

Maybe you should go read webcomics then? They have pictures that help you understand the words.

 

[Lyric Suite]

In case nobody linked it yet (cba to read the thread):

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/di ... ternet.php

Diablo's color palette but was actually very deep, it had nothing of the pastel quality used in the Warcraft games, hence the difference in tone. The article is fail for trying to built up an argument over a fallacy.

 

[J1M]

You said hate weapon look and then said screenshots look worse.

I didn't specify what I was comparing the screenshots to, but you seem to have gone out of your way to make it the glowing weapons rather than graphics that I didn't remember disliking. Doesn't it seem more reasonable to compare screenshots to graphics, rather than to a single detail such as glowing weapons?

Playing semantics is boring.

Maybe you should go read webcomics then? They have pictures that help you understand the words.

I figured since you were moaning about glowing weapons it was a moaning list. Why would I expect you to be reasonable after you complained about glowing weapons?

 

[RGE]

A list? Consisting of two items? And it's suddenly 'unreasonable' to complain about glowing weapons? It's a universal taste now, is it? Or I should just have let people think that cheery outdoors graphics is my main pet peeve about the game, when it's really something else?

 

[The_Pope]

The glowing weapons really do suck. It takes away from the hack and slash experience when you're using a neon glowstick instead of an axe. Rave accessories are not weapons.

 

[ushdugery]

You said hate weapon look and then said screenshots look worse.

I didn't specify what I was comparing the screenshots to, but you seem to have gone out of your way to make it the glowing weapons rather than graphics that I didn't remember disliking. Doesn't it seem more reasonable to compare screenshots to graphics, rather than to a single detail such as glowing weapons?

Playing semantics is boring.

Maybe you should go read webcomics then? They have pictures that help you understand the words.

I figured since you were moaning about glowing weapons it was a moaning list. Why would I expect you to be reasonable after you complained about glowing weapons?

It's like a 15 year old trying to argue absolutes in philosophy class.

 

[DoppelG]

I have a dislike for the art design change in D3 from the second i saw it, it was instant and the fact people are still trying to deny it is much of a change is beyond me but not very surprising considering we're on the interwebs, a dimension where none wants to be wrong, nomatter what the cost.

Anways, i can handle the fact people like it and others don't, infact we currently have come to the point where either liking it or not is the only thing to do, "Diablo" itself isn't even relevant anymore, asmuch as the current art design isn't relevant to Diablo, but very much so to "Blizzard". (and i'm not a Blizzard loyalist or hater, so i don't care arguing that way)

So apart from the fact that art design has asmuch to do with Diablo as it does with WoW, what is so wrong with it?

Firstly, the lightening is horendous, this cartoony "make green to arise the feeling of dark, without actually making it dark, wich would then impede visibility" is idiotic, either make a dimly lit dungeon dark, or don't, don't thow in sourceless green neon light wich does nothing more then speak to my innate "been there done that" feeling. Same with night, don't turn it into a "blueish rainy misty sort of day" because you don't want to impede visibility, thats retarded.

Apart from the fact that they've gone for "stylization" instead of that typical Diablo gothicism.

Stylzation =\ soft cubes, oversized armor pieces, bulky clear lines, stone gargoyls wich look like you can win them at a carnival, pastel outdoors wich would fit well in a new Zelda game, basically not everything thats stylized needs to look like fucking WoW, or you are retarded when it comes to stylization.

Those are the two main gripes, if you disregard the fact it looks nothing like how Diablo should, wich is considering i'm a fan of Diablo, more so because of its style, big enough of a reason to dislike the current art design.

 

[shihonage]

The common excuse for this from the supporters of this new visual style is that this was the original vision all along, but Blizzard didn't do it because of hardware limitations before.

That is of course complete bullshit. Warcraft2, Starcraft and Diablo all required exactly the same hardware, ran in exact same resolution and color depth, and yet they all looked different from one another.

The irony here is that Blizzard's new universal cartoony style is more likely to be of hardware limitations of TODAY, or rather the ones they self-impose, to make sure the game runs on integrated low-power video cards.

 

[Ahzaruuk]

http://www.curse.com/articles/details/12426/

The plot thickens!

 

[Ahzaruuk]

In case nobody linked it yet (cba to read the thread):

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/di ... ternet.php

Diablo's color palette but was actually very deep, it had nothing of the pastel quality used in the Warcraft games, hence the difference in tone. The article is fail for trying to built up an argument over a fallacy.

I thought it was fail because it came from SA.

No other reason is necessary

 

[Gerrard]

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/08/ ... ns-tables/

All this kinda reminds me of that new not-Gothic EU/US palette retardation.

 

[DraQ]

I thought it was fail because it came from SA.

No other reason is necessary

I kind of liked some of their game reviews. For example their review of Unreal II.

 

[shihonage]

When you have 30 creatures on screen — and four or five different types — target prioritization is a factor,” he said. “You need to be able to tell those things apart fast, and you can’t do that when your world is gray and your creatures are gray.

Way to be purposely obtuse, Diablo guy. We rely on you, the designer, to figure out the contrast issues.

After all, they were figured out in Diablo and Diablo II just fine, and as you said in another interview, previous games had to brighten the monsters to stand out from the environment.

ALL OF THIS is about the environment. Less color does not mean less brightness. Less color does not mean reducing contrast. Less color does not mean Schindler's List. Defensive strawmen and obtuseness - very mature behavior there.

Yeah, rainbow — gone. I think our artist just put [the rainbow] in there because they knew that’d be controversial. And I’m sure they were like, “Well we’ll see how far we can push it.”

Is this really you, Blizzard ? Are you now in the business of trolling the Internet ?

Blizzard ain't what it used to be.

 

[Raapys]

Interesting to see that even the developers originally intended a darker setting and style too, though.

But personally I don't buy many of his arguments for changing it. For instance he says that the fan-made alterations would make everything look 'samey' and thus boring after some time, but to me that's just what the current visuals look like they're gonna be. Yes it'll be harder to make things out if the game is darker, but that didn't make the previous games any less fun; if anything it made them more fun because of improved atmosphere.

And it looks like the reason we wont have any light radius thingy is just to keep the system requirements low, which is probably also true for the blockyness.

Anyway, I'm just gonna hope that the game plays better than it looks, and that they'll keep it very moddable so we'll see some visual changes through mods soon after release, because if over 50,000 petitions aren't enough to even make them consider changing the style, then nothing likely will.

 

[hpmons]

Anyway, I'm just gonna hope that the game plays better than it looks, and that they'll keep it very moddable so we'll see some visual changes through mods soon after release, because if over 50,000 petitions aren't enough to even make them consider changing the style, then nothing likely will.

Q: Diablo is not a mod-friendly game. What about UI mods, will you allow it?
A: We're specifically not going to allow player mods in D3. they're necessary in WoW, but we think such things can make a simple to control game very complicated, so we're not going to let them into D3.

You say "keep it very moddable", but its third-party programs that allow modding in D2. I do wish Diablo was more of a moddable game - Ive been playing the Median mod for D2 and its great.

 

[Gerrard]

http://kotaku.com/5034244/blizzard-look ... t-director

Art Director
Blizzard Entertainment is currently looking for a talented, motivated, and experienced art director to lead the Diablo III art team. For this position, you must be highly organized with outstanding communication skills and proven experience in management. We're looking for a proven track record of shipping AAA products in an art director role. Experience modeling and texturing assets for a diverse visual range of environments and a solid grasp of form, color, and light for both 2D and 3D art assets are also essential. You must be experienced at mentoring a team, able to work well in an environment of artists who are passionate about making great games, skilled in another art task (illustration, modeling, texturing, animation, or concept drawing), and well-versed in related tools (Maya, Photoshop, etc.).

Well, this could mean a number of things.

 

[Raapys]

Yeah, that's interesting. What happened to the previous art director?

 

[Fez]

Blizzard have had a lot of staff changes in recent years.

 

[Raapys]

Fair enough, but might not be a coincidence that this change( specifically that the previous art director either quit or got fired ) happened in the middle of all the art direction complaints?

 

[shihonage]

Maybe they merely used the art director from WoW before, but now he's busy working on the next WoW expansion , "The Re-return Of The Lich King", so they need a separate art director for Diablo III.