New updated animal models... when?

As we know recently Frontier decided to make two awesome updates to animal models - binturong and dhole. They look much more realistic now, and people went crazy about it - so I guess the community wants even more species with improved anatomy and textures.


In my opinion devs should focus at our old, base animals. For example the giraffe - their legs have too strong bone (they are too wide) and it makes them look like a plastic toy. Same thing with bactrian camel, Thomson's gazelle, okapi, pronghorn etc. They look too much stylized and simple while people want them realistic.

I have seen many complains about lion model - the same reason but the problem is mostly about it's head. Females looks good but the male is too cartoonish. (anyway I don't think they will change them because this model is the icon of PZ game cover)

Another one - cheetah - in my opinion they are too "round". This species is know from a very angular, sharp body shapes, so our PZ cheetah looks like an obese animal compared to them... also their movement looks really strange and unnatural, especially while running. And I think something is wrong with their face but I can't say what exactly it is. The overall makes me never putting them in my zoo's.

Bear models: to me, they need more differences between each other. The grizzly and himalayan brown bear looks almost exactly the same. They could make the second one more "cute" with bigger ears to make it more unique and accurate. The polar bears also looks bad. Their head should be longer, more aero-dynamic and the ears should be smaller, placed even lower. To me polar bears looks just a reskin from brown bears while in real life their anatomy is completely different.

And the final problem is the variety of horns and antlers. Every reindeer's "crown" looks identical and... it's too small! I would say they are literally TINY comparing them to the real life ones. It's not like I want them to make every gazelle having unique horns, I'm thinking about the more spectacular ones like cape buffalo, reindeer or dall sheep.


That's all from me for today. Let me know what you think about it and share your opinions on previous said models and the other ones! (and sorry for my bad english like always lol)
 
I think when an animal is completely wrong - like the Malayan tapir is and the binturong was - it is important to make changes.

I can see that some other models might be better in some ways, the Himalayan bear for example, as well as being a bizarre choice for the base game, isn't a very good model and doesn't look much like a real animal and I just ignore it.

However they aren't going for photo realism. They have their own specific style and that means things will never be perfect from a point of realism and I think it is important to bear that in mind.

I think you are very harsh on the polar bear, personally I think it's great.
 
The only animal that needs an overhaul is the malayan tapir. Most of the animals you mentioned are fine and those complaints are plain nitpicky. You are also being overly dramatic with the polar bear, it looks completely fine. And regarding the antlers, the amount of work is just not worth the effort, not only that but it would require a whole new system to make them work, and only for like 4 species? Lol seriously. Lastly, while not my favorite option, the antlers on the reindeer are accurate as they are based on the domestic reindeer variant, because you know, there are more reindeer types than just the caribou. Cheers :)
 
I'd say the Malayan tapir and the lion are the most urgent. The others are flawed but can be remedied with simple edits to the mesh.

I know this because a good number of modders have done so with fairly limited tools.
Thus, Frontier could do so in a snap
 
The Malayan tapir is certainly the most pressing issue I think, followed by size upgrades if possible on the bison and Bactrian camel, but beyond that I don't think much else is too bad.
I second that. To be honest, I needed some tapir fans to notice the malayan tapir looks wrong, but now I know they do.

The wrong size of the bison and especially the camel though is that obvious to me (the camel sometimes even smaller than the people), that I am currently using a mod to fix that. And you should never be forced to use mods to correct mistakes.

A lot of other animals mentioned aren't mistakes for me though, like the Binturong was, but questionable style choice.

At the end of the day I think we should limit our requests on that part a bit, as I see them never correct animals anymore when they feel like they open the box of Pandora.

Plus, I'd prefer their very few animal artists still working on the game concentrate on new animals.
 
I third this. The binturong was wrong out of the gate. It got immediate reaction and fix because there was immediate and a fairly large amount of negative reaction to it. The Malayan tapir is a priority now but I understand why it was not over the binturong. At least's it's indentifiable. Sizes on the camel and bison are important I agree and I feel like the lion's mane has been talked about since the game launched.

Also fix the otter. (that's a joke not everyone will get it, but I know some who will!)

I think though overall they've done incredibly well at animal design. If anything I'd like to see them review animal sounds rather than the looks.
 
I don’t really expect anymore updates to in game models with the exception of possibly the Malayan tapir or other SEA animal. It was a surprise to me they touched up on the dhole model which look terrific btw. I really don’t see any major problems with any of the other models before the SEA pack. The lion has been a pretty popular animal in most remodel threads but I really don’t know if frontier will tackle it or not.
 
The tapir fixes would be nice, so would the size adjustement of bison, bactrian camel and maybe gapagos tortoise. Anything other than that seems more like a stylized choice and I am fine with that.
I would personally give spotted hyenas more bulk as they seems too thin atm, but honestly I would rather have new animals instead.
 
The tapir fixes would be nice, so would the size adjustement of bison, bactrian camel and maybe gapagos tortoise. Anything other than that seems more like a stylized choice and I am fine with that.
I would personally give spotted hyenas more bulk as they seems too thin atm, but honestly I would rather have new animals instead.
What's exactly wrong with the Galapagos Tortoise? I do almost never keep them in my Zoos. Are they too small or too big?
 
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