Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Suggestions & Feedback More realistic graphics

Anyone feel we are still waist deep in that <cartoony> bright and colorful PG-13 look for the game? It seems to have gotten worst with this last patch.
An example of what I would of expected my BG3 character to look like...after 2 years in EA. <sad> I guess this will be for BG4...?

Unfortunately yes, many bad decisions with Patch 8 when it comes to visuals.

I sure hope that the changes to visual quality (lighting, colors, contrast and so on...) are just temporary unrefined system implementations rather than something intentional, because it really looks terrible and inconsistent. Apart from how the game looked amazing before, I also used to be able to create so many unique characters and even races from other games... but now I can't even properly make an in-lore character with which I'm fully satisfied.

but armor and weapon style are great in BG3

There is another thread complaining of the change in colour/brightness since patch 8.

Personally the thing bugging me the most is the Underdark now feeling like a nightclub out of cyberpunk 2077.

I hope indeed next patch would bring back the darkness!

I agree that I would prefer more realistic graphics but...
Lmao what even is that armor? It's like... anti-realistic.

This is my personal opinion and I don't mean to offend anyone's tastes, but I find glittering skin and bikini breastplate armor on the right screenshot absolutely disgusting. Would prefer what we have now for an RPG 99 times out of 100.

Yes, it's awful.

Example aside, I question what is so unrealistic about the left picture - real life is very colourful. Larian went for a more sun bathed visualization of Sword Cost, which will bring out more colour. What, one can't wear a nie dark green overcoat? BG1 especially had a pretty vivid colour palette. Sequel less so.

On a side note, BG should be PG-13 like - if anything, I feel the game is too "adult" in a very cringy, teenage phase kind of way. Baldur's Gate's were very much a kid's game. The edgy bits in BG2 were few and far inbetween - Opening dungeon really. It's straight up, fun adventure romp after that.

Honestly, I think the game is at a fine level in the graphical fidelity department. There's already a thread about how the color saturation has gone overboard with the current patch and I agree it should be tuned down to what it was in prior patches. It was realistic, but also natural in a colorful, vibrant sense. There are certainly somecartoony elements to the graphics, but I'm not sure the picture you gave as an example really portrays them. To me the BG3 picture you showed looks perfectly grounded and reasonable. Frankly, I think it's the story elements and occurences in game that threaten to be too cartoony, moreso than the graphics.

A big nope to the right Armor. That is one of the most atrocious things in video Games, I have seen in a while.
And for lighting and color there is already a big thread.

I am not talking about the armor art style or boobs. I had to find an image of similar proportions…

I mean the general color, lighting and resolution of the image.
I feel BG3 is way too vibrant with NO hard shadows (like 90% of games nowdays…). Light looks peachy and dull; everything is brighten up syndrome.

While I agree, there already is a big thread about this topic ...

Yeah, I get that.

I think the reason why I might disagree might the picture you chose to represent BG3, and therefore your expectations for it. When I think of BG3 I think of:
not a zoomed up doll from a character creation and lvl up screen. A top down view requires clarity and certain amount of simplicity is welcome. There is of course, an issue of game putting those dolls in heavy close ups with cinematics. I don't think one can pull of both well. It's needs will be differenet from First or third person game. No top down game will remain looking good once you zoom in and scale things up. Thank goodness BG3 IS a game meant to be played from top down view. Cinematics remain a misguided effort.

I'm of two minds - on the one I get the desire for a hi-fi hi-rez figure as mimetic as possible and hyper real, on the other I want it to look more idealized D&D illustration vibe. I particularly like the Jeff Easley and Keith Parkinson aesthetic. That sort of palette or general tone. Elmore and Caldwell is more punched up chroma and closer to BG3 I guess, but even there it's like not quite consistent enough to pull off a total vibe like painted panels. I wish there was just more variety in general or a way to color up what's already there at least. Or even some kind of global visual/lighting setting to dial down the saturation and set a different overall look somehow. I'm more invested in my face in BG3 than most games, and so would like a lot more there, but it's also the get ups. Since most times I'm looking at the back of my character, it needs to work well on that level. If we could color our outfits with different fields that would help a lot I think. There should also be different backgrounds and lighting conditions during char creation phase to play around. Like have one be at nature at night, one urban city, or dungeon with torchlight? Just something to mix it up. Perhaps it could attach to one of the less interesting but more important fields like Character Name and Background? That way the player doesn't skip over it, but chooses a char creation 'scene' with a certain lighting or little background elements similar to the current natural whimsy looking one.