Elemental: Evolution of the game’s graphics already

from JoeUser Forums

The game’s graphics engine (i.e. the MAIN graphics) won’t go into beta until January 2010.  But to give you an idea of how far things have gone already let’s take a look:

 

 Fall_Human_Environment  
2006: Society rendering engine.

 

image
2007: First Engine port from Society .

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Kingdom_Scout_City  
October 2008: Mock Up of Elemental

 

Elemental_1189169652
November 2008: Engine Test

 

Epic_Map_2
Elemental in March 2009

 

 

 

 

 

Elemental_1244235040
June 2009

 

Elemental_City_GreenRoofedHamlet
August 2009

 

Elemental_1251919228
From PAX 2009

Next on the plate: Consistent shadowing. Look closely at the above screenshot and you’ll note that some things have shadows and some things don’t.  While the engine has improved greatly in the past year, it still has a ways to go.

85,316 views 33 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Wow, that looks awesome! I just love the art style, too bad those wont be in the Beta, but hell I still want to give it a whirl! Thumbs up Frogboy! :grin:

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top

RIP Society <3

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Society's not dead right?

I thought it was just on a back burner?

 

Anyway I just can't wait to see the final engine. It looks great already :)

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top

Society is still coming. Just after Elemental.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Verry impressive progress. But the greatest thing of all is that it will probably run on my computer. (athlon 3000+, 2.5 gb memory, ati HD3570 512 mb)

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

I don't know, they did amazing work with GC2 and it's expansions. Twilight of Arnor's graphics are waaaaaaayyyyy better then the original GC2. I can't wait to see the graphics of elemental 2 or 3 years from now.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 4
Society is still coming. Just after Elemental.

 

Really? I thought this followed Duke Nukem's footsteps.

 

Btw How long has Elemental been in development? I just discovered it this past summer.

Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Awesome. I really like the art style. Hats off! :d

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

It's definitely getting that mature look to it.  I cannot wait for the "not fun Beta"!!!  I have my paper and pen ready to make suggestions /  bug reports.  Bring it on!

 

R,

Nacho

 

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 4
Society is still coming. Just after Elemental.
Considering how long has taken for Elemental and how awesome it seems, Society will be truely amazing! You were creating a second team for an unnanounced RPG title (man, don't get me started on that... I want to regain my faith in RPGs and altough Bioware and Obsidian have somehow delivered, I really need some new winds), fans want a Gal Civ 3 but won't be any time soon so..., Political Machine 2012 (or so) in the middle?, Elemental expansion packS... Pretty busy in Stardock offices (gaming branch) for a little while it seems. ^^

Joe Worker FTW. He should be made a character. Really.:smitten:

 

Edit:

In the Epic Map pic... that city doesn't seem one. Just some... er.. blocks put together. I know, I know, still very early but I just wanted to mention that it seems odd. Some people would say "inmersion breaking" but I'm beyond such things in a TBS. (RPgs tough...)

Reply #11 from Elemental Forums Top

I really liked the screenshot from June of 09 it kind of reminds me of Kohan...

Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Frogboy, reply 4
Society is still coming. Just after Elemental.

I WILL PAY ANY AMOUNT OF MONEY FOR SOCIETY.

Reply #13 from Elemental Forums Top

I noticed the river outlets all have a cave that the river goes through. Is that a temporary measure? It might look funny if all the river mouths on the map have a cave over them.

Reply #14 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wintersong, reply 10
Edit: In the Epic Map pic... that city doesn't seem one. Just some... er.. blocks put together. I know, I know, still very early but I just wanted to mention that it seems odd. Some people would say "inmersion breaking" but I'm beyond such things in a TBS. (RPgs tough...)

I know what you mean, and i think it's largely due to the lack of roads. A city isn't much more than an assortment of buildings interconnected with roads to form neighborhoods, city block, etc. The problem is that the cities in the screenies don't seem to be interconnected, reducing it to an assortment of buildings that just appear to be standing next to each other. (the city wall does something to group them together, but not enough imho)

If you compare the October 08 mock up screenie (where the city has less detail and the ground is largely obscured) with the PAX09 screenie you might reach the same conclusion. (the first city appears, to me, as a better cohesive whole) Adding a distinctive city centre and some roads going to and from it would greatly enhance the city apparent cohesiveness, but i can imagine automatically placing proper roads might be hard with all the moddability and such.

Just my 2 cents.

Reply #15 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Wieke, reply 14

Quoting Wintersong, reply 10Edit: In the Epic Map pic... that city doesn't seem one. Just some... er.. blocks put together. I know, I know, still very early but I just wanted to mention that it seems odd. Some people would say "inmersion breaking" but I'm beyond such things in a TBS. (RPgs tough...)
I know what you mean, and i think it's largely due to the lack of roads. A city isn't much more than an assortment of buildings interconnected with roads to form neighborhoods, city block, etc. The problem is that the cities in the screenies don't seem to be interconnected, reducing it to an assortment of buildings that just appear to be standing next to each other. (the city wall does something to group them together, but not enough imho)

If you compare the October 08 mock up screenie (where the city has less detail and the ground is largely obscured) with the PAX09 screenie you might reach the same conclusion. (the first city appears, to me, as a better cohesive whole) Adding a distinctive city centre and some roads going to and from it would greatly enhance the city apparent cohesiveness, but i can imagine automatically placing proper roads might be hard with all the moddability and such.

Just my 2 cents.

 

Yep Bingo you nailed it no roads thats the problem - roads should start as dirt and form over to stone as trade increases - which would make sense with negibhoring same kingdom/strong alliance tied kingdoms whereas no roads should run to your enemies - and if you goto war with someone who you had stone roads perhaps destroying said roads would be a good immersion factor?

 

 

Reply #16 from Elemental Forums Top

Argh double post NOOO!

 

Reply #17 from Elemental Forums Top

The game’s graphics engine (i.e. the MAIN graphics) won’t go into beta until January 2010.  But to give you an idea of how far things have gone already let’s take a look:

You left out one of the screenshots...  what about this one:

https://www.stardock.com/stardock/elemental.jpg

 

 Old Pic of Elemental

:w00t:  

Reply #18 from Demigod Forums Top

The latest screeenies look so dark and gloomy. Is that standard or did you at SD just pick dark and gloomy ones for some reason.

Reply #19 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Hyrim, reply 18
The latest screeenies look so dark and gloomy. Is that standard or did you at SD just pick dark and gloomy ones for some reason.

The last 2 pictures have lighting effects and shadows in - They make the pictures look much darker when you are comparing screenshots. Seeing it in person (and in motion) is much different.

Reply #20 from Elemental Forums Top

its interesting to see some of these different UIs.  not what I'm used to seeing from screenshots and PAX.

 

I certainly feel that its been moving in the right direction.

Reply #21 from Elemental Forums Top

You are a horrible, horrible tease, mr Frog. You know we don't even have the cloth map beta yet, and you're already doing a 'making of' piece? ;p

It's amazing to see how much the game has changed from one month to the next. I'm very impressed with the work, though there are elements of the Oct and Nov 2008 screens that I wish had made it into the current build. The Nov one is horrible zoomed in but looks very painting-like zoomed out, and the Oct one looks almost too simple and abstract but certainly beautiful in its own right.

I have to agree with the comments regarding cities, particularly that the Oct 08 city is the only one that looks like a proper city, whereas the others look like either a collection of generic prefab modules (Nov 08, Mar 09) or a jumbled nonesense of buildings with a wall around them. (latest build) The June 09 build seems the best in that regard, I remember some other screenshots from around that time looked much more city-like than some of the latest screens.

The more I look at it, though, that last screenshot is kind of a bad example. The bizarre layout of the town is really quite confusing. This city, which I think may be the same city but later in the game, looks much better:

https://www.elementalgame.com/Screenshots/Screens_8-28-09-7.jpg

 

Reply #22 from Elemental Forums Top

Dude the engine's come far. Hopefully continues to keep growing for a long time.

 

You have my money for Society, (Stardock RPG), and Galciv3! Just wanted to let ya know cause those games are a must! :grin:

Reply #23 from Elemental Forums Top

That's REALLY coming along nicely :)

Reply #25 from Elemental Forums Top

Fun to see the progression, and how much it changes in just a few months. Basically, I approve of this post. :thumbsup: