Elite:Dangerous Visuals

[Captain N]

Nasa have a white theme goin on, should all ships be white lol, not exactly a trading ship nore industrial in my opinion but a fabulous picture all the same including the right kind of feel I think your after, matt ships I also agree on, real ships and cars dont very often come with a matt finish

NASA doesn't use white and reflective surfaces just for the giggles, it's to keep the maximum amount of sun's heat from being absorbed into the spacecraft. Cooling is a big issue in space, as vacuum doesn't conduct heat.

That kind of colour scheme makes sense because it has practical reasons. Of course Elite doesn't need to follow reality in any sense, but that's one possible way to make it look different from other space sims.

 

[Styggron]

Stars only twinkle when looked at through an atmosphere, due to the movements of little pockets of air/gas called atmospheric cells. The appear to be smaller than these cells, and the twinkling is caused by different cells moving in front of the star, with slightly different properties. The planets appear to be much larger than individual cells, so they don't twinkle.

So in space. stars don't twinkle.

As for the ship designs, I'm all for a mixed bag... a lot of chrome could be very tacky !

You beat me to it.

 

[tricky]

Nasa have a white theme goin on, should all ships be white lol, not exactly a trading ship nore industrial in my opinion but a fabulous picture all the same including the right kind of feel I think your after, matt ships I also agree on, real ships and cars dont very often come with a matt finish

It all boils down to heat build-up (no pun intended). The problem with being in space is not freezing but over-heating. Cutting down on the absorbtion of external heat makes it easier to regulate the internal heat build-up.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

Shiny ship!

I would be mightily disappointed for all ships to be the same matte grey, even if the majority are. Variety is the spice of life.

 

[wayne nicoll]

i personely hope that there will be a wide variety of ship skins to choose from including matt, metal, glossy, rusty, etc. that you can "paint" onto your ships at a shipyard, that you could change (for a small ingame fee) anytime you are in dock! i would also like to see some pictoral designs for the ship too! (i remember seeing a viper mk II with a shark motiff somewhere once!)

 

[MadDogMurdock]

In a dangerous universe ships would tend to be as unreflective as possible to avoid detection.

 

[Perseus]

i personely hope that there will be a wide variety of ship skins to choose from including matt, metal, glossy, rusty, etc. that you can "paint" onto your ships at a shipyard, that you could change (for a small ingame fee) anytime you are in dock! i would also like to see some pictoral designs for the ship too! (i remember seeing a viper mk II with a shark motiff somewhere once!)

Pimp my Cobra! I agree peoples personalities would be expressed with their ship. The basic shape would exist but there would be a variety of paint jobs, vanity trims, overboard lighting etc. I also love the idea of wear and tear to the hull; scorch marks, dints, missing panels. Valeting at the space ports could be big business and it could generate money for the game.
Another point on the visuals is your ships HUD and if there would be options for the representations of targets. Maybe you want things represented realistically or symbolically. There may be no solar wind screen to look out of at all, especially on the big ships. Instead, a control room full of sensors or screens.
Just a thought!

 

[Dung Beetle]

Visually, I think Elite: Dangerous needs to stay with a more stylised look rather than a "realistic" look. When you look back at older games, it's usually the more artistically attractive ones that stand the test of time, rather than ones that just throw in as many shader effects as possible. I've always liked the aesthetic used in the artwork for Elite games over the years, and it looks like FD can stick to that aesthetic closer than ever with today's technology. It's not what technology you use, it's how you use it.

 

[Com.Vickers]

I be more cautious.

Because i think that we have not seen much enough to judge about or give hints how it should be. I would like to see the "nearly-finished-result" first, or more "this-might-be-it" Ship designs/Pictures/Videos.

For me it is just to early. Also the result maybe is that only the DDF guys get the very first look, or the "Alpha Test" guys and girls.

 

[Knarlfin]

I'm in favour of variety.

Look at the variety in terms of vehicles in our world today, I can't think of a reason why it should be any different?

It could also be a game dynamic, as has already been discussed around stealth/heat, but also certain types of paint (even colour) will weigh more than others - this could have an effect on ship performance.

BUT. What I don't want to see if we get customisation is the ability to import any old bitmap. I don't want to be seeing loads of ships with 21st century celebs/adverts/products plastered all over ships. That would break immersion for me.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

BUT. What I don't want to see if we get customisation is the ability to import any old bitmap. I don't want to be seeing loads of ships with 21st century celebs/adverts/products plastered all over ships. That would break immersion for me.

Yes, let Frontier's artists design the parameters. Even with variety, it's important to hold an aesthetic line. I don't think that 'chrome' should be a paint job that you can apply to an Anaconda - merely the base layer for a single high-end ship model that's small and sleek in design.

Personally I don't feel the need for purely aesthetic ship-customisation, but I guess it's something that will have to be done to please the kids (including the one's in their 40s).

 

[Cosmo]

I think the artistic direction of Elite Dangerous is very impressive.

The in-game prototype footage looks dated.

The graphical quality should be like this EVE tech-demo which uses DirectX 11 Tessellation and PhysX fragmentation technologies.

 

[ak-73]

To all the people who said they are for variety - I am also for variety but realize this: your regular matte finish will be in by default without any special effort by the graphics programmers whereas if you want hi-glare chrome in the game, it will need to be coded.

As for the EVE tech-demo, it needs more bloom.

Alex

 

[Zak Gordon]

variety for me too, you have various different companies producing ships in the Elite world, and like with our cars, that will produce a variety of appearances.

I'm quite positive on the visuals actually. I think even at this real early stage FD have done a great job on what we have seen so far, and if you extrapolate from the mock-up art we have also seen, i think the graphics guys at FD have a good art eye, one that will certainly be good enough for me to enjoy the game and focus all my attention of the more important gameplay.

 

[Philip Coutts]

I think the ships are looking very nice. Remember what we have seen is pre-alpha so far, it was really just to attract people to pledge on the Kickstarter. I think you will be able to pick different colours, finishes etc as part of the in-game options, personally I would love to see a spray shop in every space station where for a price you can paint your ship any colour you want. I think the important thing at the moment was that the shape of the ships looks right and they do to me.

 

[Kerrash]

I think the ships are looking very nice. Remember what we have seen is pre-alpha so far, it was really just to attract people to pledge on the Kickstarter. I think you will be able to pick different colours, finishes etc as part of the in-game options, personally I would love to see a spray shop in every space station where for a price you can paint your ship any colour you want. I think the important thing at the moment was that the shape of the ships looks right and they do to me.

Agree. It's a very good sign that at this early stage the ships already have detail such as interior corridors and ladders for human access. It shows a lot of fore-thought by FD.

+1 for custom spray jobs too

 

[Davor Granic]

I think you folks worry too much about visuals. Let the FD designers do their job then its up to programers. They can always update graphics year or 2 down the line if needed. If core game is sound and well thought thru we have nothing to worry about , after 10 years it will still be played. Maybe we should discuss visuals that enhance gameplay like motion blur when you pass close to a starship at high speed going at opposite direction or concusion blur etc.

 

[Slawkenbergius]

I think the artistic direction of Elite Dangerous is very impressive.

The in-game prototype footage looks dated.

The graphical quality should be like this EVE tech-demo which uses DirectX 11 Tessellation and PhysX fragmentation technologies.

The in-game footage we've seen isn't a very good measuring stick. The models are works in progress and it's not even running with today's graphics technology... By the time it comes out, it will hopefully look fantastic.

As you say, that EVE video looks nice graphically. I don't like the artistic direction though. That's not what asteroids look like. Scroll down beyond the weird first pictures here (http://cseligman.com/text/asteroids/pix.htm) and you'll see that the ones in the Elite vids are more realistic in terms of shape. They could do with tessellation and better shading, but aesthetically I prefer them.

I also don't imagine they'd shatter on impact!

 

[Caribou]

Camouflage?

As for the ship designs, I'm all for a mixed bag... a lot of chrome could be very tacky !

Me too - In fact depending on where the ship is going to fly and what it is going to do I would like to change it's colour. E.G. When I'm mining on an asteroid I might want to be as similar as possible to stop unwarranted attention.

Camouflage on planets might be good if I'm evading capture by some high and mighty bounty hunters....

 

[ak-73]

I think you folks worry too much about visuals. Let the FD designers do their job then its up to programers. They can always update graphics year or 2 down the line if needed. If core game is sound and well thought thru we have nothing to worry about , after 10 years it will still be played. Maybe we should discuss visuals that enhance gameplay like motion blur when you pass close to a starship at high speed going at opposite direction or concusion blur etc.

Extreme lighting contrasts, as has been suggested here, has utmost game implications.


Alex