Graphic Update.

As sure isn't the main thing to do right now, but i saw you spoke about interest in VR and such.

So simple question,

Can we expect a graphic update before 2020?

Cry engine 2 really get old, and i do think appealing and VR wise it would be a great move.

And after it a twenty item event = new golden age

This is by far the best looking MMO I have ever seen still. What MMO looks better?

Sure it isn't up to par with single player games, but no massively multiplayer game looks good, graphics must be dumbed down.

Venture Bros said:

This is by far the best looking MMO I have ever seen still. What MMO looks better?

Click to expand...

Black desert Online, teso, sc .. etc etc

The idea isn't to compare to other games anyway, if entropia did awesome graphics 8 years ago or so with a 10years old graphic motor runing on dx9, imagine what they could do today with new motor graph, runing on dx12 !

E.U is a virtual world, i do think it match with graphics (in my opinion imo), more then that when they say being interested in VR.

I do think also that good graphic is a good way to attract new players in this universe, and if they do good job like they did back in the days with last update, it will for sure put some lights on the game.

HaKuRa said:

I do think also that good graphic is a good way to attract new players in this universe, and if they do good job like they did back in the days with last update, it will for sure put some lights on the game.

Click to expand...

and it'll surely knock a good half of the population of Entropia offline in the game as their current hardware won't support it... When CE2 hit Entropia the same thing happened. History has a way of repeating itself. Many in the community aren't on the bleeding edge of hardware so when massive changes happen that require upgrades in technology, a good chunk of em simply give up, log out, and don't play as they can't afford to keep up. Game would still be ok on pre-ce2 game engine in the opinions of many... pretty graphics are nice, but lets face it, this game's main attraction ain't the pretty scenes. It's the RCE... If you take actions to remove a good chunk of the population from playing, that goes downhill fast.

I don't think many have 10 years old+ set-up though..

Of course they must not ask a gtx 1070 as minimum hardware either, but as long as a 40$ graphic card can run it (at least in minimum quality) i think it's fine.

If we think like that the games will not ever evolve, cause i'm sure u still can find people on a windows 95 PC ^^

E.U must remain good looking to appeal new people, more then that as a virtual universe.

To note: i do enjoy play retro games in general, and i can't classify E.U in that, but all i'm saying it's for relaunch the economy witch have been a total disaster these last years. Again there without to want be offensive to anyone, i don't think it's the ones that couldn't afford to change a computer in 10 years+ that make lives the economy.

Anyway all this, is my personal opinion doing a suggestion, we can all have different ones.

Obviously some gameplay side are more important right now, but i do hope they plan to do something in the near future.

HaKuRa said:

I don't think many have 10 years old+ set-up though..

Of course they must not ask a gtx 1070 as minimum hardware either, but as long as a 40$ graphic card can run it (at least in minimum quality) i think it's fine.

If we think like that the games will not ever evolve, cause i'm sure u still can find people on a windows 95 PC ^^

E.U must remain good looking to appeal new people, more then that as a virtual universe.

To note: i do enjoy play retro games in general, and i can't classify E.U in that, but all i'm saying it's for relaunch the economy witch have been a total disaster these last years. Again there without to want be offensive to anyone, i don't think it's the ones that couldn't afford to change a computer in 10 years+ that make lives the economy.

Anyway all this, is my personal opinion doing a suggestion, we can all have different ones.

Obviously some gameplay side are more important right now, but i do hope they plan to do something in the near future.

Click to expand...

Hm, would be cool to have grafic cards, how can handle VR and only cost $40
You need a good powerful grafic card to run oculus. At least todays.

trance said:

Hm, would be cool to have grafic cards, how can handle VR and only cost $40
You need a good powerful grafic card to run oculus. At least todays.

Click to expand...

Right, but i'm guessing some with the right gear could use the VR content, and the ones with graphic card not VR compatible would just play in lower settings without VR.

Also if they do the update in 2-3 years times, these new gen graphic cards (1k series) will be more affordable by then too.

HaKuRa said:

Right, but i'm guessing some with the right gear could use the VR content, and the ones with graphic card not VR compatible would just play in lower settings without VR.

Also if they do the update in 2-3 years times, these new gen graphic cards (1k series) will be more affordable by then too.

Click to expand...

thats all fine, but not so easy to make cry engine 2 running VR.. and other wise to rebuild a whole game for a new engine version, or new engine.

It was a desaster for us all, if they changed to cry2, so no thanks, i dont want wait 5 years to get all systems back, like it was with VU10.

trance said:

thats all fine, but not so easy to make cry engine 2 running VR.. and other wise to rebuild a whole game for a new engine version, or new engine.

It was a desaster for us all, if they changed to cry2, so no thanks, i dont want wait 5 years to get all systems back, like it was with VU10.

Click to expand...

Yep they would have to use new motor graphic, well i agree on that, if they do so, they must make it right...

I sit on the rookie channel and see that at least a third of newcomers struggle with the current requirements and are forced to play at low/safe mode. Someone might say that whoever can't afford a modern PC has no business to play EU, but the community is not only about high grinders.

HaKuRa said:

I don't think many have 10 years old+ set-up though..

Click to expand...

It doesn't have to be 10+ years machines. When they switched to CE2, I had been using a year-old top of the line Mac Pro (which did come with 8800gt; gaming never was a forte of macs) and was forced to use safe mode for few months until I found a mac-compatible (reflashed) gtx285. And a friend with a Macbook Pro had to stop playing because the safe mode didn't help her, nor she had an option to replace the gfx card. The situation with mac hardware has become even worse since then, I even switched back to PC 2.5 years ago after 15 years on macs.

HaKuRa said:

I don't think many have 10 years old+ set-up though..

Of course they must not ask a gtx 1070 as minimum hardware either, but as long as a 40$ graphic card can run it (at least in minimum quality) i think it's fine.

Click to expand...

If as you asked earlier, if it's around 2020, gtx 1070 should be possible as a minimum target I think. I expect there will intergrated GPUs which are VR capable by then.

But again, the last time we got a graphics engine, alot of functionality went *poof* from months to years. And we lost alot of players. I don't think EU can afford another big cut in the number of players again ......

if we only ran a directX from this decade we could do a lot more using the same hardware imo

the-unknown said:

If as you asked earlier, if it's around 2020, gtx 1070 should be possible as a minimum target I think. I expect there will intergrated GPUs which are VR capable by then.

But again, the last time we got a graphics engine, alot of functionality went *poof* from months to years. And we lost alot of players. I don't think EU can afford another big cut in the number of players again ......

Click to expand...

I am not sure this big cut was mainly due to the graphic update, but rather to the change in gameplay, and in the subsequent "decreased loot pool"... But I agree that a new step in graphic update is not the right time.

However, unless a new technology emerges in a near future, VR is the next stage in gaming. And MindArk should, at least, plan on a support of this technology, but which at the same time would not need a complete new rig to be powered.
Imagine that a new RCE VR capable and enough stable and interesting will be relased soon ? Many would quit EU, especially the gamers with expensive and strong machines. Only the "poor gamers" would stay here. This is hard but this is "RCE"...
I don't think this actually would happen, considering the advance and unique position of MindArk in this kind of game. But they should think about it and prepare the future.

And BTW, I have met few players who tried VR successfully with EU, with Oculus if I remember well. Results are not fantastic as the game is not optimized for VR, but it works.
And few others who run EU under Linux (Arch) using Wine Yes, it works too !

johan roadkill said:

if we only ran a directX from this decade we could do a lot more using the same hardware imo

Click to expand...

agreed

the-unknown said:

If as you asked earlier, if it's around 2020, gtx 1070 should be possible as a minimum target I think. I expect there will intergrated GPUs which are VR capable by then.

But again, the last time we got a graphics engine, alot of functionality went *poof* from months to years. And we lost alot of players. I don't think EU can afford another big cut in the number of players again ......

Click to expand...

I totally agree on that, yet again the main objective of this suggestion is to : Increase player base, Give people trust back into this RCE, attract new investors and so on

We all know this universe have so much potencial, it's need they exploit it better..

But i do understand why they are slow when i see this :

"MindArk Group averaged 34 employees" in 2015. In comparison, in my firm we are 40+ and we only busy about 8 sites (most of the people being on the main site, (devs, marketting and so on). I do think for a game this big they should be way more, of course it comes at a cost, but fiability it's the most important thing they should show to make a healthy economy. Sorry i deviate a bit from the main idea, but my main goal here is to give feedback as i really love Entropia Universe and i want them to use the potencial of it.

I don't say i got all the solutions, but economy need a boost in a not to long therm periode, i'm sure i'm not the only one feeling the downside since a while.

cWal said:

However, unless a new technology emerges in a near future, VR is the next stage in gaming. And MindArk should, at least, plan on a support of this technology, but which at the same time would not need a complete new rig to be powered.
Imagine that a new RCE VR capable and enough stable and interesting will be relased soon ? Many would quit EU, especially the gamers with expensive and strong machines. Only the "poor gamers" would stay here. This is hard but this is "RCE"...
I don't think this actually would happen, considering the advance and unique position of MindArk in this kind of game. But they should think about it and prepare the future.

Click to expand...

I agree and on that, perso i do wait a lot from VR, even if the tech isn't totally ready in my eyes yet


Oh, and sorry for my poor english, i'm not english native, i do my best so you guys can understand what i'm saying.

EU is indeed a massive, massive game...


right now, basic integrated graphics on newer intel processors are more than capable of running the game at 1080p on Medium settings...

However, you can lag even with a i7-5960x and GTX 1080. If graphics are to be updated, a primary focus should be put on optimization...

EU could look even better... and it could even perform better if optimization was done well. However, the game is MASSIVE and it might be a bad use of resources to spend all that time optimizing the graphics.

Really, the engine looks great... the updated models and textures for some caly areas and mobs are all that's necessary. the engine has excellent physics and post-processing effects. The problem is some textures are locked at 256x256 or lower, which is unacceptable in 2017.

Rocket192 said:

EU is indeed a massive, massive game...


right now, basic integrated graphics on newer intel processors are more than capable of running the game at 1080p on Medium settings...

However, you can lag even with a i7-5960x and GTX 1080. If graphics are to be updated, a primary focus should be put on optimization...

EU could look even better... and it could even perform better if optimization was done well. However, the game is MASSIVE and it might be a bad use of resources to spend all that time optimizing the graphics.

Really, the engine looks great... the updated models and textures for some caly areas and mobs are all that's necessary. the engine has excellent physics and post-processing effects. The problem is some textures are locked at 256x256 or lower, which is unacceptable in 2017.

Click to expand...

Also that yes.

But "However, the game is MASSIVE and it might be a bad use of resources to spend all that time optimizing the graphics." better to spend it there then in other places then have been lately, won't say any examples to don't bring thunderstorm from people.

mastermesh said:

and it'll surely knock a good half of the population of Entropia offline in the game as their current hardware won't support it... When CE2 hit Entropia the same thing happened. History has a way of repeating itself. Many in the community aren't on the bleeding edge of hardware so when massive changes happen that require upgrades in technology, a good chunk of em simply give up, log out, and don't play as they can't afford to keep up. Game would still be ok on pre-ce2 game engine in the opinions of many... pretty graphics are nice, but lets face it, this game's main attraction ain't the pretty scenes. It's the RCE... If you take actions to remove a good chunk of the population from playing, that goes downhill fast.

Click to expand...

Yeah, it would be harsh on some but I doubt it's half of the player base. The state of technology is in a place where soon we will play the game on our phones (not talking about Tycoon). The ones that can't afford to upgrade their systems in weeks or months, will probably not afford the game either so they aren't and shouldn't be in the focus of the game much, it's still techonolgy and every time the game upgrades visuals, some idle players come back to the game for a while or for while longer but the game also gets new blood, which is always good. Both this categories contribute to the game more than the category mentioned at first. Never forget the game to run there are costs involved... and these costs wold be harder to pay if the game would go back to look like it did in 2004.

In other words, the fans pay up the band... otherwise the band starves to death

Sorry for the slight necro, but just read this thread...

An upgrade from CE2 to the latest version with DX12 should not affect game functionality one bit.

The lost functionality when changing from GameBryo to Cryengine was due to the scripting methods being different, as far as I am aware.

A change to the latest version of the same engine should simply be a small change to each script to keep up with whatever new aspects have been included from C# or C++

Would it be of a benefit? Dunno. Perhaps if it was announced 6 months in advance of implementation to allow players to ensure they have the hardware to handle the new engine?