Friday with Means - April 9th, 2010 - New faces, Old faces

[Stigman]

Blast, that was last weeks gag?

Looking forward to my new NM head

Stig

[Reacon]

Ok - to Means: I have a brilliant suggestion.

Since at least half the heads have only slightly different skins and hairstyles, why not go with a traditional MMO style face and hair chooser, maybe along with some decals, etc.

It would save loads of work to do it that way, (if you don't take into account the amount of time it'll take to implement it lol...)

[PhoenixOfAges]

Ok - to Means: I have a brilliant suggestion.

Since at least half the heads have only slightly different skins and hairstyles, why not go with a traditional MMO style face and hair chooser, maybe along with some decals, etc.

That or the more current nearly 100% customizable char creation method comes up in pretty much every FWM where they talk of the new heads. Means has said before that it's not happening. Likely the thing is that it's not as easily done as the people suggesting it think. Now when a char is shown in game the thing that specifies the head would just be a related ID number. If it is X this head is shown, if it's Y that one is and so on. With customizable options there'd be a whole collection of new variables to deal with, the client, server and databases would all need to be changed to deal with that.


Another thing about the supposed Asian look of some of the new very early head models shown is that this game is set thousands of years off in the future. In just a couple hundred years or so marriages between people with different ethnic features would surely result in many to most people in largely populated areas with features from a mix of origins. By the time we get to the point AO is set in everyone will have some degree of eyes, ears, noses and so forth from various ethnic origins, the only difference would be the degree for each.

[MartekO]

We all look forward to witty "vaporware" jokes....but it won't stop us from working on it....even link the word "vaporware" to Wikipedia if you like. Funny stuff.

I'd not call it vaporware, but maybe "slowware".

And that's fine with me - it sounds as if you are making slow but steady progress. It's hard work, from a small team. That's worth a kudo and I look forward to its eventual roll out.

[Notcrattey]

Let's hope we see MstrBstrd's hot opifex head in there with the crazy pink mohawk.

[Wrangeline]

I wanna see a head with afro
Like notcrattey's avatar.

[shadowgod]

heh... yes, there's clearly an asian influence on the heads, but it's not completely ruining it for me.

They are Chinese; artists create what they know and have experienced, so can you really blame them for creating what they see on a day to day basis? lol

And Flaptoot is there to supervise, I suppose he's art directing them. I think we should let them finish up and tweak before we start heavily criticizing it. They don't even have textures on them yet, just meshes... sheesh lol

I for one am happy to see some stuff happening.

honestly, i think everyone is suffering from a placebo effect.

the chinese have been doing this kind of stuff for decades (if not longer). not always on computers in a rendering fashion, but things like cartoons, etc. have been drawn there, for "western" markets. they know how to draw damn near anything.

[Thorneee]

AO is about to go from looking dated to looking like a cheap Asian MMO.

I feared that a lot looking at the heads ! Please do not allow this.

I am really disappointed with the atrox one. This atrox is def asian.
One thing that I found weird : big lips on opifex ? Well it could be ok, but I never thought opis had big lips.

To me, the best one is the nanomage male 1. It looks pretty much like the old head actually

[Klanbear]

There are only 12 models

[AryannaCK]

honestly, i think everyone is suffering from a placebo effect.

the chinese have been doing this kind of stuff for decades (if not longer). not always on computers in a rendering fashion, but things like cartoons, etc. have been drawn there, for "western" markets. they know how to draw damn near anything.

Heh, it's not about that, and it's Koreans that are known as the outsources for American and English animation; not that the Chinese don't do their fair share.


From my experience, and this is more from a concept art (painting/draftsman) than 3d rendering p.o.v., asian art is much more asian styled (including characters). I think the same thing goes for any culture, really, as kind of a "yeah, duh" moment.

Anyway, I'm still happy about progress. :P

[Technogen]

They sent Flaptoot out there to supervise I don't think we're going to have problems with the end product.

[majere]

Means, I am disappoint. Those heads look horrible across the board. Please inform your farmed out labor that females in AO are supposed to be pretty.

Seriously mate.... how many women do you actually think are pretty when bald, have no eyes, contours that outline the lips, no nostrils and pigment?

Sometimes I wish people in here had some ability to think outside the box. Person 1: "This coke is horrible!!" Person 2: "Well maybe you shouldn't drink out of the syrupcontainer and wait for the finished product before deciding. That stuff aint even coke yet!"

[Theotus]

tbh people need to realise and accept some truths.

If you want a new engine, without any model or texture changes, the game isnt going to look much different, will just perform better and have nicer environment.

if you want a new engine and updated everything else, you going to have to accept some changes are going to take place.

when the new engine comes out (if ever) expect the game to feel slightly alien for a while. it wont take long tho for it to feel the same (when EvE re did all there ships at first i hated it, now it just looks normal to me).

anyhow, heads look decent i am looking forward to the progres tbh. really wish FC would ditch the secret world and put more resource on AO :P

/Theo

[Alternity]

tbh people need to realise and accept some truths.

If you want a new engine, without any model or texture changes, the game isnt going to look much different, will just perform better and have nicer environment.

if you want a new engine and updated everything else, you going to have to accept some changes are going to take place.

when the new engine comes out (if ever) expect the game to feel slightly alien for a while. it wont take long tho for it to feel the same (when EvE re did all there ships at first i hated it, now it just looks normal to me).

anyhow, heads look decent i am looking forward to the progres tbh. really wish FC would ditch the secret world and put more resource on AO :P

/Theo

Here is another truth, the faces look asian even with the non asian textures.
Or are you implying that any gfx engine update without new textures will look asian by default?

[Junttius]

WTB more asymmetric faces, team china!

[Junttius]

Epicantic folding in most of the eyes, configuration of the lower part of the nose (opening of the nostrils), rounded heads. It looks like asian models where used as base models. All good and fine. Just that a little bit more work and attention to detail could give a greater identity to each species. Right now they look like members of the same species and even of the same race. Considering that we have distinct anatomical features on existing human races and plenty of proof of even more differentiation on extinct species, it seems to me that the configuration of the heads should have bigger variations.

In simpler terms, it means that it isnt enough to stretch the ears of a slim european face to make an elf. Neanderthals where obviously humans but they had a distinct configuration of the face, head and body. This kind of difference should exist between the diferent species.

I agree to some extent, but I must remind that many original breed models weren't that much different to each other either. Yes there were some that had a very original look, but not all. For instance there were lots of slim sapiens.. ehm solitus looking opifexes who only had a grey skin. And we have seen very little at this point i believe We haven't seen the new bodies yet either!

[Mastablasta]

If noone had mentioned the heads were being made in china, none of you would now be whining about them being asian looking. People are seriously groping around for things to critisize in the wrong areas. New batch of heads look great and really represent the old ones in an updated version.

[Alternity]

If noone had mentioned the heads were being made in china, none of you would now be whining about them being asian looking. People are seriously groping around for things to critisize in the wrong areas. New batch of heads look great and really represent the old ones in an updated version.

Right! Glad you're not responsible for anything related to customs and boarder crossings.



I hope

[Superflare]

Means and the crew giving heads on a friday. Me likes!

[erozc]

Means send some pics of yourself and the team to the chinese so they stop making asian faces.

Yeah we sorely need new heads - with mullets!