I have noticed talk of AO getting over hauled in its graphics.

WHEN does this happen?

I found the answer.

It is still "months" away according to the June Update letter on AO's main site.

Game is dead funcom is headed to bankruptcy. Maybe SOE will buy funcom and do it.

Originally posted by Ankor

I found the answer.

 

It is still "months" away according to the June Update letter on AO's main site.

the graphics update will bring a lot of people back; however, they are not doing character graphic updates. They will stay the same :(

I loved AO. Still do

Damn kids, who really cares about graphics at the end of the day. Content is 90% of what matters.

The new graphics engine is still being worked on (now for about 16 months with the Alpha code shown as a nice video back in January).  No date set other than they intend to get it out this year.

From Game Directory Silirrion back in June:

"Lastly, but by no means least, we are still working on the render engine upgrade. As I also mentioned in the previous letter we are currently in a lengthy part of the process where we are stripping out the old engine entirely and integrating a new one, and testing that all the game’s key features still work! The development continues to be good, though, and we will be sure to keep you all up to date as we progress. It’s quite a formidable task and we won’t rush it out."

Originally posted by digitydarkman

Damn kids, who really cares about graphics at the end of the day. Content is 90% of what matters.

True, but in this case, there are so many graphical problems in AO that they have to update it.  The whole graphics engine is a mess, the collision system is bad, etc.  If my Adventurer character is in wolf mode, I can see through walls and it's hard to get through doors because you get close and the walls all vanish.

Heck, a couple of weeks ago, I was fighting a dyna boss at the top of a cliff in Newland Desert, I killed him, he fell over the cliff and got "stuck" about half way down the sheer face.  It took me a good 10 minutes to figure out a way to get down there and loot him.  Walking out of the rhinoman valley in Newland is laughable, watching all the rhinomen stuck in the walls.

When it affects gameplay, it's time for an update.

It's great that they plan on updating graphics, but I think it will take MUCH more work than they are actually doing to spark my interest again. The character designs are terribly dated for my tastes anymore (I started playing in 2001 btw). Who knows? Maybe they will surprise me!

You can safely assume the character models won't be changed.  That sort of graphical work is an order of magnitude more time and money and labor-intensive than doing the graphics engine update is.  Personally, I don't have any problems with the character models - they have a level of freedom, in terms of emotes, that virtually no other game has; and the graphics update should improve some aspects such as skin tone.

I assumed as much. I have several other issues with the game that override this one, so I doubt I will be going back for quite some time.

Well, if the engine is updated, so too shall the character models be updated. They won't be changed necessarily, but their textures will change for the better. Shaders will be applied and the overall model should be smoothed out. Animations won't be touched on, I would think; that would take quite some time with a skeleton crew.

Knowing how great Funcom is, I think they'll do such a deal that will really satisfy their customers. Meaning, I'm sure if they're making everything else uber, I'm sure they'll make the models look uber :)

They said they were completely re-doing the engine, so it should bring good news to EVERYTHING -- terrain, objects, cities, NPCs, sky and atmosphere, virtual effects (ex. things like engines), item icons, etc.

Originally posted by Cephus404

Originally posted by digitydarkman

Damn kids, who really cares about graphics at the end of the day. Content is 90% of what matters.

 

True, but in this case, there are so many graphical problems in AO that they have to update it.  The whole graphics engine is a mess, the collision system is bad, etc.  If my Adventurer character is in wolf mode, I can see through walls and it's hard to get through doors because you get close and the walls all vanish.

Heck, a couple of weeks ago, I was fighting a dyna boss at the top of a cliff in Newland Desert, I killed him, he fell over the cliff and got "stuck" about half way down the sheer face.  It took me a good 10 minutes to figure out a way to get down there and loot him.  Walking out of the rhinoman valley in Newland is laughable, watching all the rhinomen stuck in the walls.

When it affects gameplay, it's time for an update.

 

 

Ok, thats issue i will agree with, that gets really annoying.