Looking Better?

[ClericBob]

Did graphics on Wednesday's (3/8) Live Stream look better then the previous ones?
I think they did, especially the tutorial. Maybe it was because it was at night and the glow and fire effects looked better in contrast.

Or was it just me?

[BleakPanther]

I was thinking the same thing but came to the same conclusion. Maybe there's something to it if we both saw it?

[GT3000]

Looked about the same. A little cleaner presentation and if I remember correctly Ego looked a little different. Certainly was running much smoother but they did mention it was the in-house dev build. Probably worth comparing to the leaked videos floating around.

[ClericBob]

Glad to see it wasn't only me.
Well, if that means the graphics are even better on the final product, that makes me happy.

[Isfeld]

They did say that during BETA, the tutorial area was pretty much a work in progress. They had already improved it significantly from BETA 1 to BETA 2.

You saw (pretty much) the final version of the area during wednesday live stream, so hell yeah it looks better... We can only hope that every other area goes through the same polish process before release. But i've faith in Trion because i know their attention to details is impressive.

I think that's part of the reason why NDA is still in effect because the open world looks so much better after they're done with polishing it that it would be a pity if players judged the game before it could be accomplished.

You can compare with this video (http://fr.twitch.tv/trion_de/b/372641563) taken from the german twitch channel in which the community manager start from scratch as well and see the modifications to the area (that video is dated Friday March 1st, so the Trion team must be very hard at work ! You can see they changed quite a few things, and for the better !).

[Shadow2400]

I think that's part of the reason why NDA is still in effect because the open world looks so much better after they're done with polishing it that it would be a pity if players judged the game before it could be accomplished.!).

Graphics have been a concern for me. I think your reasoning is sound but i have a hard time believing the graphics should be so sub par this close to launch ya know?

[Isfeld]

Graphics have been a concern for me. I think your reasoning is sound but i have a hard time believing the graphics should be so sub par this close to launch ya know?

Yeah i agree. Same logic applies to the fact that Trion are developping the social aspect of the game (like clans) so close to release although it is what makes a game a MMO. I guess that's why some people from Trion already said in interviews that they're not considering Defiance to be a "real" MMO. But i won't judge them for that, they can do whatever they want, and in whatever order they see fit, and i will make my own opinion on the final product when it releases.

In fact, my biggest fear is not related to Trion but to the fact that Defiance is also developped for consoles and that could have an impact on the quality of the game. You know, many games have been dumbed down for PC because of consoles, especially when it comes to the UI (i'm not in the alpha, but you can clearly see in the livestreams that sending a group invite is a pain in the ***...).
That's why Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn which is developped for PC and PS3 features 2 different interfaces each exclusive to one of the 2 platforms. Frankly i think this is the best way to go but it's a bit too late now for Defiance to go down that path...

[Halcyon]

View Distance on the Texture Filtering has been improved tenfold. If you notice the textures look higher res because of the filtering and they improved the starter area as well as the UI. Seems about right.