Vanguard... Whats up?

[Tygerwoody]

So I figured I'd put aside my "elitest ways" :p and give Vanguard another shot. I'm downloading the updates as we speak. What server are you guys on, what classes, and are you having fun?

Right now, My guild is halfway set on playing the "Woefeather" server but we arent 100% decided just yet.

[Xion X2]

I'm 30+ hours in and loving it. :D

I'm on Woefeather.. I think most of us are. My handle is Xionn and I'm a Level 8 Dark Elf Sorcerer. I'm still in Hazoth Zhi.

The game is just awesome, and it looks incredible.

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2103/vgclient200702160633194zu0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2162/vgclient200702160450009np3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/465/vgclient200702160505526ra9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5703/vgclient200702160515525ep4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/4406/vgclient200702160522534kr7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[|MaguS|]

Think im still lvl 11, Haven't played much recently.

[Roadhog]

is there grass in that game? lmao. It looks horrible imo.

[|MaguS|]

yeah there is but not much in the desert.

[Roadhog]

oh.. I thought that was snow. :|

[Xion X2]

oh.. I thought that was snow. :|

It is. You expect grass to grow in snow?

Yes, there is plenty of grass in the game.. where it's warm. In fact, it has the best looking grass of any game I've ever seen with the length and the way it blows around in the wind.

http://img443.imageshack.us/img443/3811/vgclient200702162024155yu7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img300.imageshack.us/img300/6839/vgclient200702162024240ej4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

And how can you say the game looks horrible? Look at the rocks in the pictures in my prior post. They look about as real as real gets.

Sometimes I wonder if you just like to be negative, roadhog. You never have anything positive to say about anything.

[Odral]

Iam wanting to try this game but really don't want to shell out $50 before trying it. If anyone has a spare trial key that would rock. Iam currently playing EQ2 but this games looks promising. Thanks in advance :)

[|MaguS|]

And how can you say the game looks horrible? Look at the rocks in the pictures in my prior post. They look about as real as real gets.

Sometimes I wonder if you just like to be negative, roadhog. You never have anything positive to say about anything.

Dude no offense, the game looks good but it could look ALOT better. Models are pretty poor in detail and the world looks generic at times. I do think the foilage is the best in a MMO to date but it has room for improvement. I gotta say though, the trees are just awsome looking sometimes.

[Orsenfelt]

Id like to play, but I dobut my PC could run it anywhere near any settings that would make it enjoyable.. lol. I'll get it when I upgrade.

[Xion X2]

Dude no offense, the game looks good but it could look ALOT better. Models are pretty poor in detail and the world looks generic at times. I do think the foilage is the best in a MMO to date but it has room for improvement. I gotta say though, the trees are just awsome looking sometimes.

Everyone has their own opinion, but I don't agree with that at all. I mean sure it's not perfect, but what game is? I can't recall playing any game where I didn't think to myself "I wish this or that would look better." I think the game looks great like it is. I've played some of the best looking games on the PC to date: Oblivion, Fear, Fear XP, Chaos Theory, Condemned, Prey, etc and overall, on the whole, I think this beats any of those. The part you get to past the Queens Gate in Hathor Zhi where all of the tree monsters are walking around is just phenominal looking.

Are you sure that you have all your settings turned up all the way? I've noticed that whenever I make any sort of change it wants to bump everything down. Make sure that you have your Rendering Quality turned up all the way, especially. It offers quite a performance hit, but it makes everything look much more detailed--especially the mountains.

I have shadows down to 50% and environmental shaders down to 50%. I've found this gets me over 40fps most of the time on my setup.

There's no reason at all to classify the game as "horrible" looking, such as someone so eloquently put it. That's just being extreme. There's no way a sane person can say that the rocks on this game aren't detailed to the extreme and that the grass doesn't look exceptional when it blows in the wind. It's the first game I've seen to use volumetric clouds like Crysis, too. So it's just being stupid to say that this game doesn't look good.. especially when you don't even have it and haven't played it.

I agree that some parts of it could look a little better, but for the most part everything is very detailed. I'd like the models to look better myself, but I think that may be a tad unreasonable when you factor in that the game is unlimited as far as character models are concerned. You can't program exceptionally detailed characters on an MMO because you have no idea how many people are going to join on a server. It could drag the engine down. You have to give yourself a buffer there, and aside from the character models, I think they've created a very detailed world for you to roam around in.

[|MaguS|]

The game is in some serious need of enviroment shadows.

[nV`andrew]

ANYWAYS. i really wnat to get this game. how much is it a month? hoping its $15 or less

[|MaguS|]

$15

[nV`andrew]

$15

thank you sir :captnkill:

most likely ill be getting this tomorrow or sunday

EDIT: more questions

is there any beta or anything. i here there are free trials/buddy keys?

[Xion X2]

The game is in some serious need of enviroment shadows.

:eek2:

Are we playing the same game? There are shadows all over the place. So many that I have to cut them down to 50% to get a decent framerate.

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7805/vgclient200702160510181sn3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/7762/vgclient200702160649159ge3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[lognoronon]

Well I decided to give the game a shot post beta. It's starting to grow on me but the big issue is performance and lag. Despite my system being dated I think at low settings it should still be performing better than it is. I have a level 13 Vulmane Shaman.

[|MaguS|]

:eek2:

Are we playing the same game? There are shadows all over the place. So many that I have to cut them down to 50% to get a decent framerate.


Those shadows are generic low quality shadows... I want realtime shadows much like how EQ2 had. Sure EQ2 didn't have the greatest graphics but I loved its realtime shadow system.

[Xion X2]

What are "realtime shadows?" I'm not just trying to be argumentative; I'm sincerely curious. Do you mean that they react to lighting and grow/decrease in intensity throughout the day?

Also, have you taken a look at some of the rest of the game here: www.joinvanguard.com ? The forested areas remaining on the game look just amazing to me for an MMO. Heck, for any type of game.

I think the shadows look good, myself. Everything has soft edges and reacts to things in the environment like swaying trees, etc. :)

[|MaguS|]

What are "realtime shadows?" I'm not just trying to be argumentative; I'm sincerely curious. Do you mean that they react to lighting and grow/decrease in intensity throughout the day?

yes and shift their angle depending on where the light source is coming from. In Vanguards the only shadow that is dynamic is the character shadow, all world shadows are static...

Would be nice to see a huge looming shadow of the gates during sunrise or sunset.

Heres an example, see the tents? No shadows...
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/1779/vgclient200702171003345md2.th.jpg (http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vgclient200702171003345md2.jpg)
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/9963/vgclient200702170957543da5.th.jpg (http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vgclient200702170957543da5.jpg)

I gotta say, the most impressive thing about the game is its draw distance... far better then Oblivions especially since it doesn't have that LOD Issue when maxed out.

Heres me standing at the top of a tower.
http://img295.imageshack.us/img295/8332/vgclient200702171000315np2.th.jpg (http://img295.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vgclient200702171000315np2.jpg)

EDIT: Xion are you using AA?

[Xion X2]

Nope, not using any AA. Didn't think it was compatible? It'd be nice to have, but Vanguard's not as rough around the edges as some games without it. I have my control panel set to application preference for both AA and anisotropy and have anisotropy set to 8x in-game. Everything in-game is completely maxed except for shadow detail (50%) and environmental shaders (75%).

I see what you're talking about w/ the shadows. It'd be nice if there were a few more around the tents and stuff, but I hadn't really noticed it until you said something. Guess I haven't been in many cities yet where I would have.. most of my questing so far has been in the desert and snow lands.

Magus, have you been here yet? :)

http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/5267/vgclient200702171215337ee1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/6530/vgclient200702171219029vd0.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2801/vgclient200702171225463gb3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

[|MaguS|]

Yeah but im not too impressed with the water in the game either... EQ2 really spoiled me, it has the best water in a game to date.

[Xion X2]

ROFL. You and I couldn't have more different tastes when it comes to graphics.

Wow.

[Edit: Out of curiosity I went looking through some EQ2 screens over on Gamespot since I've never played the game. In some shots the water does look good, I'll give you that. Half the screens of that game looked really good and half of them looked like crap. Which does it look like most of the time?]

[|MaguS|]

Depends on the settings you can run the game on. I think EQ2 for the most part looks amazing, just the armor and character models all look very similar, the world though is awsome. Water in it is some of the best I have ever seen but you gotta see it in motion to really appreciate it.

[Xion X2]

Cool, I might check it out sometime.