EU media bulletin, avatar update

[billairboy]

http://www.heraldonline.com/2013/01/18/4553016/mindark-introduces-dramatically.html


ENTROPIA UNIVERSE ALL PLANETS MEDIA BULLETIN

By Entropia Universe

GOTHENBURG, Sweden, Jan. 18, 2013 — /PRNewswire/ -- /Entropia Universe/ – Entropia Universe AB, the largest Massively Multiplayer Online Real Cash Economy (or MMORCE) game, announced today that MindArk has released a brand new avatar system. This new system will bring Entropia Universe to the forefront of graphics technology in an MMO with highly detailed and fully customizable new avatars. The new avatars can be seen at www.tractionpr.com/EU.

The new avatars are significantly enhanced with over twice as many polygons as their predecessors for surprising fidelity. All character textures have been heightened as well, with faces becoming four times more detailed. Bilateral asymmetry is now a key factor in making distinctive creations as tattoos, scars and makeup no longer need to be even on both sides; and even hair has been improved so that it now moves and bounces naturally. Additionally all avatar animations have seen improvements so they move more fluidly, with clothes and armor redone to better fit the new models. This all allows for a much richer user experience as players' in-game representations will now be much more engaging and realistic.

To add to the gameplay the avatars not only look better, but they have been optimized for better performance on all machines as well. While overhauling the creation system to introduce the high-fidelity models the developers also took the time to work on the basic user interface. They made it far easier to customize a unique character so players can explore the world as anyone they wish. The new system also improves the handling of different races to better represent players and their backgrounds. The team also included pre-set appearances to allow for faster entry into the game if a player doesn't want to spend the time on their avatar. Upon release of the new avatar system all existing users will get a chance to re-customize their look for free.

Entropia Universe is the largest Massively Multiplayer Online Real Cash Economy (MMORCE) game in the world. Players have no monthly costs, but deposit and withdraw real funds for their adventures on any planet in the Entropia Universe. For more information on Entropia Universe or to download the free game please visit www.entropiauniverse.com. To download the new app please visit the Google Play App store at

About MindArk Based in Gothenburg Sweden, MindArk is one of the city's largest video game publishers contributing the to the thriving development community. As the publisher of Entropia Universe, a game space that encompasses multiple planet partners, each with their own unique setting and gameplay style, MindArk focuses on the development and maintenance of the platform. This allows other companies to create unique content for their planets in the game universe and provides an environment in which a real cash economy can flourish.

For more information on MindArk please contact us at the email below or go to our website at http://www.mindark.com.

 

[Serica]

Pics from Traction PR site:

...Upon release of the new avatar system all existing users will get a chance to re-customize their look for free....

This was expected, but nice to see it confirmed.

 

[xian]

Nothing about facial animations ?
They looks so sad in the pictures and so I am:/

 

[sakuraqueen]

The new system also improves the handling of different races to better represent players and their backgrounds.

So, we will have races like humans, aliens, nords, bretons and elves?

 

[KlowN]

-Asymmetrical stuff, very cool .
-Free re-customization, sucks but expected so whatever, small price to pay
-Races...hmm lol, well if we can pick cool different alien races, hopefully we can try our clothes on during the re-customization, need to make sure my clown mask will fit on my big alien head lol
-Those male avatar pictures look just like Jason Statham - The Entropia version

 

[Konvicted]

Man this is a huge difference we have between the old odd avatars and those from the preview, looks way more realistic! good job

 

[aia]

Man this is a huge difference we have between the old odd avatars and those from the preview, looks way more realistic! good job

To a degree it depends on how much time you spend on the fiddling and time spent taking the screenshots
When I did the re-creation it took hours, but mostly because of extreme lag and occasional crashes. Beleive me, no "beautician" would have had patience with me in VU10 until I got a new computer... And taking good screenshots is frustrating because the sun (shadows) tends to move




It might seem odd but one thing I've waited for has been (way) longer hair. Sort'a between knee-long and the calamusoid length.

 

[Talania]

So we will have much prettier avatars to put our clothes on that players in SecondLife do a better job making.

If they want to do it right they needs to fix all the mistakes and bugs with the clothes or it is more or less a waste of MA's time doing something that could have waited until other things like Taming are back.

 

[billairboy]

I'm looking forward do seen how we will look like after the avatar update. Maybe we should have at least three free "redoing" of our avatars, because with more details it will probably more tricky to create a look that you are satisfied with.

 

[Nor Alien]

I'm looking forward do seen how we will look like after the avatar update. Maybe we should have at least three free "redoing" of our avatars, because with more details it will probably more tricky to create a look that you are satisfied with.

Yeah that would help will be spending a lot of time again to get that right look!

 

[GeorgeSkywalker]

I'm looking forward do seen how we will look like after the avatar update. Maybe we should have at least three free "redoing" of our avatars, because with more details it will probably more tricky to create a look that you are satisfied with.

I hope they have all options available/unlocked to us for redoing. It's the only sensible way to do it.

 

[Teiwaz Storm]

The new avatars are significantly enhanced with over twice as many polygons as their predecessors for surprising fidelity. All character textures have been heightened as well, with faces becoming four times more detailed. Bilateral asymmetry is now a key factor in making distinctive creations as tattoos, scars and makeup no longer need to be even on both sides; and even hair has been improved so that it now moves and bounces naturally. Additionally all avatar animations have seen improvements so they move more fluidly, with clothes and armor redone to better fit the new models. This all allows for a much richer user experience as players' in-game representations will now be much more engaging and realistic.

To add to the gameplay the avatars not only look better, but they have been optimized for better performance on all machines as well.

I'm not optimization specialist but it seems herd to believe that you can more than double polygons and make textures four times more detailed while improving performance...
If MA really achieved that (given that hey tested it on average machine, not super gaming computers) then they did really great job!

Interesting that clothes and armors are redesigned as well...

Can't wait till tuesday

 

[billairboy]

Interesting that clothes and armors are redesigned as well...

I was noticing that too, i wonder if that is the case for all armors and cloth, or only the ones they used in the media bulletin.

 

[Teiwaz Storm]

I was noticing that too, i wonder if that is the case for all armors and cloth, or only the ones they used in the media bulletin.

I would expect that all (or most).

Additionally all avatar animations have seen improvements so they move more fluidly, with clothes and armor redone to better fit the new models.

 

[Joat]

I was noticing that too, i wonder if that is the case for all armors and cloth, or only the ones they used in the media bulletin.

Probably so that since most clothes are mirrored too they will just not work on a object
with asymmetric texture.

 

[Teiwaz Storm]

Probably so that since most clothes are mirrored too they will just not work on a object
with asymmetric texture.

I'm not sure if that's the reason. There are armors that are asymmetric, like Martial, Aurora or eMine to mention just few.
I think that it have nothing to do with asymmetric or not of model, since clothes and armor are simply another layer.

 

[billairboy]

I would expect that all (or most).

Ah, i missed the text line about where they said that they had redone cloth and armour, sounds good.

 

[Joat]

I'm not sure if that's the reason. There are armors that are asymmetric, like Martial, Aurora or eMine to mention just few.
I think that it have nothing to do with asymmetric or not of model, since clothes and armor are simply another layer.

Martial e.g has objects that are different yes, but if you look at this picture
http://www.tractionpr.com/EU/Old avatars/OldGroup5.jpg
you'll see that the texture is blended with avatar object, if you put that shirt on a asymmetric
object there will not be any texture visible on the other side that is mirrored today.
EDIT: Well, guess I should say if it isn't properly textured there will not be any texture
visible...

 

[Nikto]

Man this is a huge difference we have between the old odd avatars and those from the preview, looks way more realistic! good job

Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see any "huge difference" between my avatar from 2009.09.08 and MA Promo one from 2013.01.18 (from visual point of view):

Unless they did those screens on Very low settings, but I don't see any reason to do that in Press Release.

After 3+ years of development I was expected something closer to images, we seen in CryENGINE 2 demo (I think all seen them, if not, it's easy to find).

Also looks like clothes broken now?

 

[MIND]

Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see any "huge difference" between my avatar from 2009.09.08 and MA Promo one from 2013.01.18 (from visual point of view):

Unless they did those screens on Very low settings, but I don't see any reason to do that in Press Release.

After 3+ years of development I was expected something closer to images, we seen in CryENGINE 2 demo (I think all seen them, if not, it's easy to find).

Also looks like clothes broken now?

old one looks better xD

 

[Konvicted]

Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see any "huge difference" between my avatar from 2009.09.08 and MA Promo one from 2013.01.18 (from visual point of view):

Unless they did those screens on Very low settings, but I don't see any reason to do that in Press Release.

After 3+ years of development I was expected something closer to images, we seen in CryENGINE 2 demo (I think all seen them, if not, it's easy to find).

Also looks like clothes broken now?

Face looks more realistic, BUT OMG these clothes i didnt notice on first sight, daaaaymn

 

[billairboy]

Unless they did those screens on Very low settings, but I don't see any reason to do that in Press Release.

The big difference is that it looks less plastic/"doll" like. Also, i think we will get at better impression after seeing more avatars in game, it's hard to judge after seeing only two avatars on screenshots.

 

[Shard-Angel]

Hmm... those pix dont seem much of a difference - a little scrub and polish on the meshes and texture is all I can see so far.

You know... its not hard to acquire realistic skin textures these days... at the end of the day a texture stored clientside is simply a file called up locally - and can be adjusted for performance via personal options too. Has zero impact on server performance.

Perhaps the new UI is better and has more options?

Hmm.... let's wait and see....

 

[remontoire]

-Asymmetrical stuff, very cool .
-Free re-customization, sucks but expected so whatever, small price to pay
-Races...hmm lol, well if we can pick cool different alien races, hopefully we can try our clothes on during the re-customization, need to make sure my clown mask will fit on my big alien head lol
-Those male avatar pictures look just like Jason Statham - The Entropia version

I think what they mean by races is that there will be races in presents. So you can start from a number of presets for avatar looks and then customize from there.

 

[Foxypilot]

http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/new-avatar-system-preview.8608/

Posted my latest pic on this thread. I am not impressed by what I see based on what I did with my existing look.

 

[aia]

Something that would be nice and an apparent improvement would be more styles, like new hair styles, more choice of noses, lips etc. Besides from hair movement I don't think there has been much new since the "wet hair" was released (nr 31 or something like that).

I hope the possibility of assymetricy doesn't make things more expensive and complicated for players (eg if you want longer arms, you *have* to stretch both left arm, then stretch right arm, then when you get outside you notice your right arm is 5cm longer than the left arm because you didn't see the difference in the machine).

Changes looks interesting though.

(I have to add, unless I'm taking screenshots I use "low" avatar quality and most of the time "low" item quality, so 95% of the time I won't notice any minor differences.)

 

[Joat]

Something that would be nice and an apparent improvement would be more styles, like new hair styles, more choice of noses, lips etc. Besides from hair movement I don't think there has been much new since the "wet hair" was released (nr 31 or something like that).

I hope the possibility of assymetricy doesn't make things more expensive and complicated for players (eg if you want longer arms, you *have* to stretch both left arm, then stretch right arm, then when you get outside you notice your right arm is 5cm longer than the left arm because you didn't see the difference in the machine).

My guess is that body object is probably symmetric, while hair object and textures aren't...

 

[xaph]

http://www.entropiaplanets.com/threads/new-avatar-system-preview.8608/

Posted my latest pic on this thread. I am not impressed by what I see based on what I did with my existing look.

Haha like me time to set an appointment with the sculptor

 

[Menace]

That chronicle armor looks HORRIBLE! Faces more realistic and different ethnic backgrounds will probably be welcomed as well by many.

IMO our current Avatar/Armor was pretty descent. That being said.... maybe the re-design will reduce lag in heavily populated areas... if it does... it's worth it no matter how minimal or epic the visual changes may end up being.

Menace

 

[Aandar]

(OFC the only thing i can comment on now are these pictures on the PR site.)
Well... i expected MUCH more, i know some offline and online worlds (not SL) in which avatars and their clothes look WAY better than that - almost life like.

Waiting until i see the new avatar system ingame and in highest GFX settings to form a real and final opinion.