Is space legs coming with a graphics overhaul?

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
Seems 2019 is going to be a step up (finally) in terms of graphics overall.

Given the amount of time being taken on space legs, and the new consoles, what are the chances of elite also getting a graphical upgrade for elite? I wouldn't guess it impossible, as 2+ years is a very long time to invest in a project that will launch only to feel like ps3 games do today. Many of the ship interiors now are already starting to cross that boundary, as well as certain types of atmosphered planets (admittedly the recent graphics tinting made this a million times worse).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReDDgFfWlS4

Would be hard to come back after this level of upgrade.

On the chance that frontier are upgrading elite.. that would be awesome!!

EDIT: I mean 2020!
 
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Jukelo

Jukelo
I for one hope they focus their efforts on something other than flashy graphics for once. ED already looks more than gorgeous enough, what it's lacking is in other departments.
 

Kzak

Kzak
Graphics aren't nearly as important as gameplay, in my opinion. We have enough pretty games with terrible gameplay out there already. Fix bugs, add new features, make the game fun and engaging to play. Then see about getting the graphics improved.
 

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
Jukelo said:
I for one hope they focus their efforts on something other than flashy graphics for once. ED already looks more than gorgeous enough, what it's lacking is in other departments.
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Yeah many parts do, but many times are really starting to age, specifically the level of detail in ship interiors (except last years). They are from not even the current generation.

Maybe its just from the generation i was so fortunate to grow up in, but being inspired by jumps in graphics is a huge part of why im still playing games.. was probably the stagnation overall that made me look to simulators in the first place :)

While bad gameplay simply doesn't work.. id be happily one of those people who'd say otherwise.. graphics are super important. Id never play a game with crap graphics for gameplay. Fair enough if you're still experimenting.
 

DMC831

DMC831
While the first and second generation of ships might benefit from a bridge refreshening to catch 'em up to the Krait and Mamba, I really don't mind them not dealing with that for now (or ever, if it ends up that way). Their older style can be a part of the history of the game and I got no idea how thin spread the artists are as they work on the update.

The graphics and art has seemed to be consistently ahead of the folks working on the content and mechanics, so maybe they got time! If there's anything they gotta fix in the older bridges to make it work for Space Legs, that could be all the impetus they need to update them. Plus if some of the screens that look like they're meant to handle some ship functions found in the Krait and Mamba will become a standard thing found in all bridges (like a Galnet screen, ship status stuff, etc) then maybe they'd at least do that.

I have no idea how long it'd take to touch up the textures though, so I ain't speaking from a place of know-y-ness.

While having actual content updates is priority A1 and needed for the game, stuff like the visual updates to the landable planets went a long way for me. The rubbery beigeness of most/many planets was a bummer, and I think they look real nice now. I'd love some more dramatic landscapes (more Pomeche type planets even if not that extreme), but that stuff is out there as it is so it ain't like it's not in the game. I'd just like more extremes.
 

Hooplah

Hooplah
Space legs walking to where? A lot more graphics and programming are needed. Look behind the back cockpit wall of a ship (possible with VR) and it is just basic polygons. Same for the internals of all those fancy looking station buildings. Even deploying an SRV while docked at a planetary station goes to a cut-screen after entering the same hangar. Then there are lots of hard points needed so a player does not walk through another player, bulkhead or exit a station into space without a RemLoc helmet.

There also needs to be a use for space legs such as going to a bar in an atmospheric city (still awaiting that), meeting other players and/or NPCs and accepting a search quest hand-coded mission requiring walking around. Also adding a few mods to enter/exit ships although I suspect a cut-screen will also be used. All of this while we can already look around with the free camera. Will we also be able to go to free camera while walking around? Add another binding for that one.

That's a lot of graphics and programming that needs to be added. Will adding all the graphics just to a ship require a much more powerful graphics card to keep the FPS usable? Maybe a Sidewinder OK but a Beluga or a Cutter with lots to explore within the ship? I'd love space legs but I'm not going to be in shock if they never show up. I hope that I'm wrong.
 
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Dutchman141

Dutchman141
There's nothing wrong with ED graphically imho, it looks and sounds fantastic.
I'd rather see them put some more effort in bugfixing and making sure the big cahuna in late 2020 will actually be something well done, not half baked like so many other features right now.
 

Klarg

Klarg
CMDR Karrde Sun said:
Seems 2019 is going to be a step up (finally) in terms of graphics overall.

Given the amount of time being taken on space legs, and the new consoles, what are the chances of elite also getting a graphical upgrade for elite? I wouldn't guess it impossible, as 2+ years is a very long time to invest in a project that will launch only to feel like ps3 games do today. Many of the ship interiors now are already starting to cross that boundary, as well as certain types of atmosphered planets (admittedly the recent graphics tinting made this a million times worse).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReDDgFfWlS4

Would be hard to come back after this level of upgrade.

On the chance that frontier are upgrading elite.. that would be awesome!!

EDIT: I mean 2020!
Click to expand...
That game looks flashy but boring. They haven't even put weapons on those ships and they only showed one boring planet.

I'd prefer FD concentrate on gameplay. Graphics are the least important part of a game and elite already looks great.
 

CMDR Karrde Sun

CMDR Karrde Sun
picommander said:
my expectations are currently close above absolute zero and will keep at that until they come up with something tangible.
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Im actually quite optimistic, only because my expectations are really low. For the current game we have, being able to walk around look out of windows on our current ships is all that is missing. Any basic maintenance pretense will do.

If you look at the score from 2.0 at least (when I started), everything frontier has done well has been of sandbox mechanics (excluding the fss which is a cookie clicker). Every time frontier has introduced tradition gaming mechanics every.. single.. time they’ve come out well below expectations. And I don’t mean for meeting dreams, to basic gaming industry standards. Eg, why would you have a headline a feature for a patch and have it the exact same thing as an existing feature but in another menu? I assume they take themselves seriously inside frontier.

Anyhoo. Apologies. I think I’ve stuck around elite staying in a safe puddle of sandbox mechanics and exploration... and not wanting to quit I think space legs would be great in that.

Can you imagine what frontier would come up with for an FPS gearing system?

My op was just a drop of awareness given the realities of next year we’ll be seeing. No idea how it will turn out!!
 

Watcher

W
Kzak said:
Graphics aren't nearly as important as gameplay, in my opinion. We have enough pretty games with terrible gameplay out there already. Fix bugs, add new features, make the game fun and engaging to play. Then see about getting the graphics improved.
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See, this is why I play Dwarf Fortress..

I still love ED though too :)
 

Phoenix_Dfire

Phoenix_Dfire
The 2020 update, I'm personally hoping that we kind of get Elite: Dangerous does a better version of NMS/Pulsar. Running around the ship/repairing things or performing or dealing with boarding actions like pulsar sounds fun.

Adding environments for populated woulds might be too big a task IMHO but they could add a piece of lore to say that pilots are restricted to certain parts of stations, banned from entering settlements or landing on populated earth like worlds to stop the transmission of disease. That would allow more development time to allow us to visit all other unexplored planets where we can fly, drive and walk around and maybe Base Build.

To be honest, I've been quite taken by plant side of things NMS of late. However, Elite does space so much better which is why I'm still playing.
 

Vardaugas

Vardaugas
Let's just put it on the list of expectations we can be disappointed about when it's not done to the extend we wished for it to be.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
picommander said:
If it's actually space legs that is in the pipe, I wonder why they still keep silent about it. It only could mean that they're still unsure if they can pull it up (which would be a reasonable reaction after the disappointment their anticipated but never delivered new ice planets created). Everyone can imagine what this possibly means for what's coming (or not) in end of 2020. If it turns out they can't pull it up, then all we can possibly expect is something spectacularly underwhelming (like a new form of 'innovative' CGs or similar crap). Anyway, my expectations are currently close above absolute zero and will keep at that until they come up with something tangible.
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That's too binary. It won't be yes/no, but to what extent they can implement something.
 

Alien

Alien
When you have games like Papers, Please and Do Not Feed The Monkeys being released in an age where games like Fallout76 and Anthem are trying to be the best graphically pleasing games they can be, I'd be inclined to argue the graphics are not as important as the gameplay.

X4 has shown me that just having walking around in a spaceship game is ok, but if you don't fill it with things to do, there's no point having walking around in a spaceship game. Frontier realised this from day one of the kickstarter. CIG are trying to gloss over it, but you only have to spend a little time in Star Citizen to realise there's actually not much to do and it's just a slightly better graphical version of X4.
 

Ian Skippy

Ian Skippy
Alien said:
X4 has shown me that just having walking around in a spaceship game is ok, but if you don't fill it with things to do, there's no point having walking around in a spaceship game. Frontier realised this from day one of the kickstarter. CIG are trying to gloss over it, but you only have to spend a little time in Star Citizen to realise there's actually not much to do and it's just a slightly better graphical version of X4.
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I'd take X4's ability to disable another ship, go eva while giving the helm to your NPC co-pilot, repair the engines from outside, break open the hatch and add it to your fleet while flying it to a station over Star Citizen's 'roleplaying' the same due to a lack of actual mechanics. :p
 

Bob McBobblehead

Bob McBobblehead
The price of mainstream GPUs is starting to get silly. Polaris is being replaced with Navi, now AMD is chasing Nvidia's prices. Think I'll go with an Xbox Anaconda next.
 
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