Planet zoo's stylized choice and what it means to you

[Swjosdotschka]

If this would be a life simulation, I would complain. If this game wouldn't gibe me unlimited creativity options, I would complain.
BUT Planet Zoo is resource heavy and it will ever be, because of the freedom we got. Every freedom has its price. And I don't look much at the peeps, but I do look a lot at the animals. And while there are one or two models I'd like to see improved, the majority looks absolutely awesome to me.

I really don't know what people think current PCs can handle. I mean, I would call my own machine high quality, yet I know it's not a NASA computer. It has it's limits and that is fine. We want realistic animal behavior, we want guests that have a good path finding, we want keepers that function perfect.... all that is "work" for a PC. Can we not keep it realistic in our expectations and not compare apples to oranges?

And to mod support: If you want to mod, mod. EA has never given official mod support and the modding community is HUGE and thriving. All the fuzz about "why do they not allow it?!" I don't get as an (ex) simmer.

 

[stdape2011]

I do have to agree some Animals do look Cartoony. Must say interested when you say you added a Mod, how did you do it?
The Speed of the Game annoys me so quick days go by in Seconds!! I have been playing a little of late but still same annoying things annoy me, why i stopped before.
I admire way some are Brilliant Designers, but can achieve good results from more Basic Zoos.
Still not bought Australian Pack, one not sure i want it, two still too many Game adjustments needed.
Still the Game is good, and hope they one day fix Management Better

 

[Danny_zoo]

That is rollercoaster Tycoon World, not RCT3, and not developed by Frontier.

Rollercoaster Tycoon World is probably the worst game I ever seen/played, if you could even call that abomination a game.

Your picture is just an artist impression, which for this game always looks better than the game itself.

Have a stroll through this to have a laugh, and realize how bad the game is so you don't have to buy it.

Leaving The Game For Now

Hello everyone. I'm a casual RCT player, having played all the RCT games, expansions and RCTW updates and beta. I've followed and lurked this forum since it was first made back in 2014; it looked a lot different then, and decided to register recently. Today after playing the current latest...

forum.rollercoastertycoon.com

I had only browsed the pictures superficially, since my interest was to see what the visitors looked like. It is incredible the difference between the concept art and what the final product in that game looked like. I'm with you, just looked at the link you provided, it is absolutely horrible, and to think that it came out as direct competition to Planet Coaster, what were they thinking? Thank you for pointing out that in the case of video games, the concept art usually looks better, it is very interesting, and in my opinion it does bring Frontier even more merit for coming out with a game that is visually stunning in most regards.

 

[Danny_zoo]

Many companies do have employees using random users' accounts to promote their products and counter criticism in social media/forums. And honestly I'd expect the gaming industry not least in this regard.
It's also funny to see how some people get salty even when constructive, respectful and probably the most comprehensive piece of feedback/criticism to the game in this forum is given.

Back on topic, and to keep it short, personally I'm not too bothered by the look of the visitors, keepers, etc. in PZ but I ofc I wouldn't be against a revamp to make them more realistic. Regarding animals, some look a bit too cartoonish indeed, particularly the male lion. I hope they revisit the model of at least this one. Also I want to point out it's impossible to know whether there's a majority or minority of people who'd prefer a more cartoonish or realistic look of things in the game. However, nobody can deny that this same thing has been raised before in several other topics/posts in this forum. Even some content creators have expressed a somewhat similar opinion too.

Excellent points, it does seem that if adjusting certain elements of the game hurts the performance, then anything like this would of course be prohibitive. Honestly, I would not want it myself, since I'm totally with you that performance comes first as it should. Never the less, you do make an excellent point that knowing what percentage of the players would prefer one or the other is almost impossible to gauge. One thing that always strikes me, is that when someone watches the game for the first time, they usually make mention of how beautiful and realistic it looks, and that could mean that it is indeed realistic enough for them and that the chosen style is appealing to them. As I have said before I do think the scenery, lighting and most things for that matter in this game are superb.

 

[Danny_zoo]

I do not really mind it that much. If it was not dependent on the performance then yea, if I had to choose I would choose the more realistic guests, but I would rather have better performance.

Some animals are stylized a bit, especially the carnivores, to add some cuteness to them I guess. I do not think this stylization was nessecerry because of children, because if you look at the internet, young adults and even some older folks are obsessed with cute things. Ever seen those adults on twitter or youtubers with unicorns all over the place? Yea, that is reality these days. So I think the majority of players do not mind. People who work with animals or are more knowledgeable about animals probably care, but the majority of players are still casuals or laymen, that are happy to just watch cute things on their monitor.

I think it is clear that Frontier´s artists, animators and everyone working on animal models are more than capable to create fearsome carnivores as it is seen in JW:E, but in this case they went with the lighthearted and cheerful stylization that was also used in Planet Coaster. I am pretty sure they will never change that. At least not in this game.

You make an excellent point there, and I could be out of touch in that department. Current/newer generations do have an inclination for this type of things (nothing wrong with it of course, definitely not trying to make this a negative, I can think of much worse things) 100% agree that the team behind the game could have created anything they pretty much wanted in this context, they are beyond talented, as I mention in previous posts, it seems to be a matter of choice or direction in this case.

The exception here would be the fur issue. If you remember the first trailer for the game (The one showing just concept art) the bear fur looked amazing, it was one of things that blew my mind when i first saw it. The way that fur moved and its density, just beautiful. To their credit, they were completely upfront about it, and they did state early on, that while they did want to capture that realistic look of fur, because of how it would affect the game it was something that would not be included.

In the case of the bears I can live with it, it is not ideal or as realistic, but I have learned to cope with it. The Orangutans are still a breaking point for me, mainly because not only their long thick hair (an iconic feature, in the same category as a lion's mane) is missing, but their behavior and mobility is completely wrong.

 

[Danny_zoo]

If this would be a life simulation, I would complain. If this game wouldn't gibe me unlimited creativity options, I would complain.
BUT Planet Zoo is resource heavy and it will ever be, because of the freedom we got. Every freedom has its price. And I don't look much at the peeps, but I do look a lot at the animals. And while there are one or two models I'd like to see improved, the majority looks absolutely awesome to me.

I really don't know what people think current PCs can handle. I mean, I would call my own machine high quality, yet I know it's not a NASA computer. It has it's limits and that is fine. We want realistic animal behavior, we want guests that have a good path finding, we want keepers that function perfect.... all that is "work" for a PC. Can we not keep it realistic in our expectations and not compare apples to oranges?

And to mod support: If you want to mod, mod. EA has never given official mod support and the modding community is HUGE and thriving. All the fuzz about "why do they not allow it?!" I don't get as an (ex) simmer.

You make a great point, in my case since I can only speak for myself, I do not know much about the technology behind video games and what it takes to run it. Honestly, this game is the only reason why I have even ventured in the subject, so I could be completely misguided as to what is possible and what is not. I do try to receive a lot of feedback from what you guys explain and break down here in the forum, and I have learned a lot from all of you. I made a bad assumption to think that changing certain visual aspects of the game or slightly improving them would not affect its performance, when in fact it seems this is right now the biggest contention point, as it should be.

 

[xTosca]

I do have to agree some Animals do look Cartoony. Must say interested when you say you added a Mod, how did you do it?
The Speed of the Game annoys me so quick days go by in Seconds!! I have been playing a little of late but still same annoying things annoy me, why i stopped before.
I admire way some are Brilliant Designers, but can achieve good results from more Basic Zoos.
Still not bought Australian Pack, one not sure i want it, two still too many Game adjustments needed.
Still the Game is good, and hope they one day fix Management Better

It's actually fairly simple once you get the hang of it. All that's possible to do right now though is alter existing animals or change behavior code via Main.OVL. Main.OVL mods do not work in Franchise, but as far as I'm aware, animal aesthetic replacements do(which makes sense, given Main.OVL mods can give people a gameplay advantage, while animal replacements/variation mods/etc cannot and are just for aesthetics purposes.)

But basically- some people in the community developed a tool that can unpack and inject into the OVL files, and a Blender plugin that can import .mdl2 files(mesh files.) All I had to do was unpack the animal's OVL, import the model into Blender, reshape it, export it back to mdl2, and then inject it back into the OVL.

Doing this, I was able to redo the models for a bunch of animals, including the lion, both wolves, hyena, AWD, cheetah, grizzly bear, tiger cub, and jaguar.

 

[Danny_zoo]

It's actually fairly simple once you get the hang of it. All that's possible to do right now though is alter existing animals or change behavior code via Main.OVL. Main.OVL mods do not work in Franchise, but as far as I'm aware, animal aesthetic replacements do(which makes sense, given Main.OVL mods can give people a gameplay advantage, while animal replacements/variation mods/etc cannot and are just for aesthetics purposes.)

But basically- some people in the community developed a tool that can unpack and inject into the OVL files, and a Blender plugin that can import .mdl2 files(mesh files.) All I had to do was unpack the animal's OVL, import the model into Blender, reshape it, export it back to mdl2, and then inject it back into the OVL.

Doing this, I was able to redo the models for a bunch of animals, including the lion, both wolves, hyena, AWD, cheetah, grizzly bear, tiger cub, and jaguar.

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Excellent work, absolutely love the male lion, will look for it today, as I lost all of the ones I was using. Great job, and exactly what has been discussed here. I do second for those reading this and interested, that it is fairly easy to add them and so far I have encountered no issues with any of them. xTosca if I might say, that the Hyena could maybe use a minor readjustment, it could of course be angle of the picture, but both models look a bit exaggerated on the rump area. I can see that you might have been trying to emphasized their well develop neck it just somehow looks off, in contrast to the forequarter. It is a difficult animal to capture as their underdeveloped hindquarters do present an aesthetic challenge. I can only imagine working on something like this within a virtual platform, it must be a tedious process. I have worked on many hyenas out of clay thru the years, and while I have studied their anatomy meticulously, it is a rigorous challenge to capture their semblance. Really liking what you did with the Jaguar, how you trim down the excess stylized body mass, while still maintaining a solid body composition, clearly emphasizing its muscular predominance.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Urufu1997]

It's actually fairly simple once you get the hang of it. All that's possible to do right now though is alter existing animals or change behavior code via Main.OVL. Main.OVL mods do not work in Franchise, but as far as I'm aware, animal aesthetic replacements do(which makes sense, given Main.OVL mods can give people a gameplay advantage, while animal replacements/variation mods/etc cannot and are just for aesthetics purposes.)

But basically- some people in the community developed a tool that can unpack and inject into the OVL files, and a Blender plugin that can import .mdl2 files(mesh files.) All I had to do was unpack the animal's OVL, import the model into Blender, reshape it, export it back to mdl2, and then inject it back into the OVL.

Doing this, I was able to redo the models for a bunch of animals, including the lion, both wolves, hyena, AWD, cheetah, grizzly bear, tiger cub, and jaguar.

View attachment 187686View attachment 187687View attachment 187688View attachment 187689View attachment 187690View attachment 187694View attachment 187696View attachment 187698View attachment 187699View attachment 187700

Even though I don't use Mods for Planet Zoo and most likely won't use them in the near Future, I must say that this male Lion looks way better than before. I'm still hoping for a official Lion re-design one Day

 

[shirandhak]

They all do look much better than the PZ ones.

 

[Danny_zoo]

Even though I don't use Mods for Planet Zoo and most likely won't use them in the near Future, I must say that this male Lion looks way better than before. I'm still hoping for a official Lion re-design one Day

I had a similar stance, and honestly during many months never even looked into it, it was a personal choice, since my preference has always been to get the official content from Frontier. Add to that, being an animal sculpture I tend to be extremely difficult when accepting this animals, and while I had compromised with Frontiers work and adapted to their style, I was not sure that I would or could do the same with mods. Everything change for me, when a mod to exchange the current animal signs within the game was introduced, as while this was a very limited form of what I had been craving for since the beginning of this game, it was a step towards finally being able to create realistic thematic exhibits (it is still extremely limited not only in quantity but in available canvases) When I downloaded this particular mod, I was intrigued by a black and white ruffed lemur, and felt it was a safe mod to download since there was no significant deviation from its real life counterpart. I absolutely loved it, now I was able to built a walk thru exhibit with not only ring tailed lemurs, Red Ruffed lemurs, Aldabra Tortoises but this species as well. From this point on I tried other offerings, the Gaur in particular I loved, it was heartbreaking to lose it when the last update was rolled out. I have to admit that not all of it is good or for everyone, there are a lot of mods that I would not download, but some were quite good. The ability to finally have majestic looking predators was one of my most priced possessions and one that I was sadden to lose, especially when Frontier might never truly do them justice. Based on the response of many within the thread, it might not even be of great concern to many, and that is just heartbreaking. When you look at a lion, that is a mighty proud and stunning creation and to have a cartoon version in its place is truly a major letdown at least for some of us.

 

[FoxyDee]

I really like that reworked hyena but otherwise, I think I prefer the Frontier interpretation of other animals.

 

[Danny_zoo]

I was so heartbroken about the loss of my beloved Gaurs (I had even named them, two brothers) after the last update, that as exited as I was about the update and DLC, it was too many mixed feelings at the time to count. Everyone I think expected that they would actually create separate files (truly making the animals unique) and then we would have even had more possibilities. Since every new mod animal has to take someones place. Since then I have created this 1:12 scale sculpture of a Gaur in memory of those lost during the purge. Hopefully one day in the years to come, Frontier either creates a Gaur or makes it easier for mods to appear within the game.

 

[FoxyDee]

I was so heartbroken about the loss of my beloved Gaurs (I had even named them, two brothers) after the last update, that as exited as I was about the update and DLC, it was too many mixed feelings at the time to count. Everyone I think expected that they would actually create separate files (truly making the animals unique) and then we would have even had more possibilities. Since every new mod animal has to take someones place. Since then I have created this 1:12 scale sculpture of a Gaur in memory of those lost during the purge. Hopefully one day in the years to come, Frontier either creates a Gaur or makes it easier for mods to appear within the game.

View attachment 187706

That is amazing sculpture. Is there a place to see more of your work?

 

[xTosca]

Excellent work, absolutely love the male lion, will look for it today, as I lost all of the ones I was using. Great job, and exactly what has been discussed here. I do second for those reading this and interested, that it is fairly easy to add them and so far I have encountered no issues with any of them. xTosca if I might say, that the Hyena could maybe use a minor readjustment, it could of course be angle of the picture, but both models look a bit exaggerated on the rump area. I can see that you might have been trying to emphasized their well develop neck it just somehow looks off, in contrast to the forequarter. It is a difficult animal to capture as their underdeveloped hindquarters do present an aesthetic challenge. I can only imagine working on something like this within a virtual platform, it must be a tedious process. I have worked on many hyenas out of clay thru the years, and while I have studied their anatomy meticulously, it is a rigorous challenge to capture their semblance. Really liking what you did with the Jaguar, how you trim down the excess stylized body mass, while still maintaining a solid body composition, clearly emphasizing its muscular predominance.

Keep up the good work.

I believe it's just the pose they're in in the shot- when standing still, it's not nearly as exaggerated.

 

[Danny_zoo]

That is amazing sculpture. Is there a place to see more of your work?

Hi FoxyDee, I had a site during many years where I updated my work regularly, but it was too much to maintain in addition to my day job. I do have plans to start an Instagram Page to showcase a new project in relation to Planet Zoo, I want to recreate a variety of selected pieces along with their logo, and their full animal line, to honor the game and the happiness it brings us all. Most of my work is now scattered thru private and non profit collections exhibited in museums. If you ever make to Naples Florida, The Baker Museum of art has a 1:12 scale Florida Everglades Diorama, and all the animals along with the trees and plants are my work. I'm uploading a few pictures of a carnivore collection I worked on, it took quite a bit to get it done, and not every animal was able to fit in the display, but I came close to reproducing every carnivore species living today.

These were not part of the Carnivore collection, but showcase a variety of other work. All of it is in scale 1:12 scale, so they are fairly large sculptures, the female Hippo weighted around 6 pounds when completed. The Male Hippo in contrast I made as a shell, so it requires a lot less material.

 

[Urufu1997]

Hi FoxyDee, I had a site during many years where I updated my work regularly, but it was too much to maintain in addition to my day job. I do have plans to start an Instagram Page to showcase a new project in relation to Planet Zoo, I want to recreate a variety of selected pieces along with their logo, and their full animal line, to honor the game and the happiness it brings us all. Most of my work is now scattered thru private and non profit collections exhibited in museums. If you ever make to Naples Florida, The Baker Museum of art has a 1:12 scale Florida Everglades Diorama, and all the animals along with the trees and plants are my work. I'm uploading a few pictures of a carnivore collection I worked on, it took quite a bit to get it done, and not every animal was able to fit in the display, but I came close to reproducing every carnivore species living today.

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These were not part of the Carnivore collection, but showcase a variety of other work. All of it is in scale 1:12 scale, so they are fairly large sculptures, the female Hippo weighted around 6 pounds when completed. The Male Hippo in contrast I made as a shell, so it requires a lot less material.

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Wow, that's absolutely amazing and also sounds like a fun Job. Sadly I do completely lack of artistic Talent. I would really like to see more

 

[FoxyDee]

Wow, that is amazing, thanks for sharing!

 

[Danny_zoo]

I believe it's just the pose they're in in the shot- when standing still, it's not nearly as exaggerated.

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Those are fantastic shots, excellent job, thought that it could be the picture, but knowing first hand that this particular species is challenging, was not too sure. Definitely will be looking for your great work. After the last update the general mood was that this was no longer possible, so I assume that most operations had ceased. Glad that you guys have found a way around the current limitations. Would love if someone updated the African Flamingo, since the male and female are virtually the same, so having an American Flamingo variation would be awesome.

 

[Danny_zoo]

Wow, that's absolutely amazing and also sounds like a fun Job. Sadly I do completely lack of artistic Talent. I would really like to see more

Urufu1997, It was more of a hobby, even though i did take many commissions for private collectors. The work found in the Naples Museum of Art as an example, was donated by me on request from a friend. My primary job was within the Zoo&Aquarium planning and design industry, and that was quite fun as well. Working on the miniature models is very calming, and helps with anxiety and everything else. May I say, that I'm sure you have artistic talent, especially if you are playing this game, it is most of the time as painting a virtual portrait. Human beings have the ability within them it just as to be nurtured, and it does manifest differently in each case. I have taught a limited number of seminars back in my day, and it is really not all that difficult. The biggest difficulty is getting the proportions of the animals to match their anatomy in scale, I have always used a wire skeleton inside each figure, since I use it to guide me. I sketch and scale everything on paper before molding the clay. Another challenge, and it really does not require great artistic disposition, but lots of patience, is adding the fiber that creates the coats of the animals, I use a variety of materials, but grinned alpaca fur is usually my go to solution. Something like a bear takes a very long time to create as it takes multiple coats of fiber to create anything that looks remotely realistic. I actually just finished last week an Asiatic Black Bear.