Blizzard Evaluating WoW Graphics Overhaul

[Creole Ned]

The producer on WoW said on eurogamer (story on Shacknews (http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52732)) that WoW will likely get a graphics upgrade by the next expansion (this probably puts any upgrade a little over two years out). A lot of hay has been made that one of the great things about WoW is that its bright, cartoony look is also conveniently low poly, meaning the game plays at high framerates on all kinds of systems, so some might worry that any update would result in lower performance.

Here's what I'd like to see and how I think it'll be handled:

- higher resolution textures. A lot of the textures in WoW look pretty good but others are a smudgy mess, so low-res they become unidentifiable close-up as anything other than smears of color. I can see them adding high-res textures for everything in the game, adding sharpness and detail while preserving the overall stylized look. This would be a separate option players would enable.
- more realistic lighting and shadows. Again, these could be turned off and players could keep using blob shadows if they wanted to. I'd also imagine shadows would be split into several categories: players, environment and so on.
- some "textures as objects" replaced with actual polygon objects. An example of this would be a rope bridge where the wooden planks are currently just textures but in an upgrade would be changed to actual objects. Most of the newer zones have bridges already like this.
- possibly a water revamp, with more complex shaders, although I suspect they may decide the water is fine as is.

What I don't see them doing is any sort of mass polygon upgrade. It's possible they may offer higher-poly character models as an option but I think hi-res textures is a lot more likely.

So, uh, let's check back in 2010 or 2011 and see what happens!

[jackrabbit]

I love this game, but if I'm still playing it in 2011, find me and kill me, k?

[Circuit]

I would be really happy if they just added higher res textures and bump maps to the game. A lot of armor looks fine on, say, a human model while the same armor texture looks like a stretched mess on the larger Draenei or Taurens. And since they constantly reuse creature models in the game at higher levels and just scale them up, the same thing happens since the textures remain exactly the same.

Lighting, for the most part, is pretty good, but having real shadows would add a ton to the look of the game.

And yeah, I really doubt they'd overhaul any of the geometry at this point

[Creole Ned]

I love this game, but if I'm still playing it in 2011, find me and kill me, k?
You'll never get to the level 100 cap with that attitude!

[Patton]

I know I read or heard somewhere that they were planning on updating some or all of the player models with higher poly counts and better animations. You can even see some of the new graphic work on the new Isle of Quel'Danas, the fire around Brutallus being an excellent example.

[Kermit]

WoHooo! Higher detailed dancing.