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#386565 23/09/09 04:44 AM
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Hello all. My name is Crumbling Pyramid. How are you?

Now that I've introduced myself, let me just say that I'm a big fan of the original Divine Div. from back in the day (still got my hardcopy on 3 cds). Been waiting for a sequel for probably as long as most of you.

Oddly enough, I heard about Div. 2 from IGN.com. They put up a "PC Games of Fall" article and some users were upset that they hadn't listed Divinity 2 as a "contender for December." So I did some research and watched some youtube videos of German-version gameplay. I love the look of it! I'm amazed at how fun the game looks.

But one thing concerned me...the particle effects. Now, I have recently acquired a pretty high-end PC, and I'm hoping Divinity 2 (as a game released in 2009) will really push my system. I think the architecture and tecture work in general look great...but...alas...the particle effects look...ummm... "wonky." I don't mean to be overly critical, but if you watch some of the gameplay videos, even simple things like destroying an antique vase produces this unsatisfying, slow-motion, low-graphic shattering effect. This took me by surprise because, like I said, the rest of the game looks great (even the glow of candles and such). But, I examined the smoke effects too...and they do the same low-G slowmotion thing. Perhaps I was watching some gameplay videos taken by someone who has particle effects turned all the way down (which is what I'm really hoping). Can anyone who has played Div. 2 (german ver. or the ver. at PAX) confirm that the particle effects look this way? It just kinda ruins the awesome atmosphere created by other aspects of the game. I can cite some specific examples if you'd like (via the gameplay videos). If this is indeed the case, I'm hoping the particle effects might be addressed at least in part by the polish the game recieves before release in the U.S. Right now, according to the videos I've watched, the effects look similar to those found in games of yester-year, when 3d was just catching on (think Die By the Sword or that viking game, Rune. )

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The recent second patch (which will be included in the English release), improved the graphics quality and added more graphics options. I recall textures and frame rates of certain animations being mentioned as improved (I believe the latter includes breaking vases, etc, but other than that don't know about any changes to particle effects). Someone who has played the game should be able to give a more definitive answer...


Welcome to the forum. wave

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Most of the videos that go around in youtube are from the 1st version of the game, recently a 1.2 patch was released that fixed animation speeds, increased the graphical quality, etc.

About the particle effects in particular i'm not realy sure it was improved sorry, but there are good chances they were.

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Not sure what you were referring to about the smoke. If you can post a link to the video in question, that would be great.
As for the animation for "barrel destruction" it was indeed very slow and unnatural before 1.02. With patch 1.02 this has been largely ramified. There are now faster and different looking animation for the destruction of "barrels." (vase, crates etc.)

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not to bash you or anything, but I'd rather not have my games push high-end pc's all the way. It's costly enough keeping one's PC up to par to play all the recent PC games, I'd rather not see games come out that can only be played on less-than-a-year-old desktops. I like pretty graphics as much as the next guy, but I'd prefer to be able to keep my PC as-is for a couple of years at a time. I'm going to wait and see whether it is plausible for me to play ED without having to buy a new graphics chip, or whether I have to shell out some dough for the update. I've no quarrels about playing on low detail, as long as it's smooth enough.

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Nowadays its realy cheap to have an updated PC, if you get some basic understanding of overclocking and what brands offer good value for money in diferent PC components.

For example, there are some high-speed DDR2 still in the market, now that DD3 is "fashion" but completely non-necessary.

Another example is a graphics card, there are a lot of ATI 4870 out there with more than enough performance for every game out there, in a completely insane price (lower than € 100,00)

Another fine example is to buy a very very cheap Core2Duo CPU with a good stepping, overclock it with minimum effort and stock cooling up to 3,2Ghz or more and you are set to go.


In the past you had to get € 300 graphics or € 250 CPUs or even € 200 memory sticks to have some upgrades, but now for a third of the price you can get a very very decent upgrade.


With this i am not ofc saying that you are all wrong and games shouldnt take into account people with lower specs and 3 year old computers, because its still an important market (and developers know that), but i also think that the days now are much easier to get good PCs and thus the graphics realy need to step up faster into a new generation of directx 10 quality.

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The question is; do I buy an ATI 4870 now and another graphics card next year, or do I spend quite a bit of money on a high-end GTX when I can afford it, and do I buy another 2 Gig of DDR2 RAM now or do I buy DDR3 when that gets more affordable.

Sheesh, my most prized possession is a Gibson Les Paul, and even that came cheaper than my PC, even though it'll still be top of the line 50 years from now. My PC is only 2 years old, I shouldn't have to look for replacement parts already.

I could play WoW, Guild Wars, Drakensang etc. at top settings without any issues ever coming up, without any framerate loss. I can understand that PC games, as they get better 3D animations, engines, textures, etc.. require more from your machine, and I fully support the right for high-end PC users to get the most out of their graphics... but shadow detail and anti-aliasing are not things I will rate a game by. They aren't important for me, so allow me to turn them off and still run the game without having to upgrade along with the graphic nuts.

Yes yes, I still play Warcraft II and Thief :p

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Hey all, thank you for the thorough replies.

"Most of the videos that go around in youtube are from the 1st version of the game, recently a 1.2 patch was released that fixed animation speeds, increased the graphical quality, etc." -Adomingues

Adomingues, this seems to make the most sense. Perhaps what I saw was an earlier version of the game. I was hoping the animation speeds would be increased and so would graphical quality, and that sounds like that's exactly what they focused on. Good stuff.

"Not sure what you were referring to about the smoke. If you can post a link to the video in question, that would be great.
As for the animation for "barrel destruction" it was indeed very slow and unnatural before 1.02. With patch 1.02 this has been largely ramified. There are now faster and different looking animation for the destruction of "barrels." (vase, crates etc.)"

Lethial, this is actually great news. Sounds like 1.02 was a fix-all for a lot of stuff. Even if the animations were just sped up, I would be content with that. As far as a link showing the gameplay in question (for the smoke and lighting particles), I'd be happy to post it. I just hope no one views it unwittingly thinking that it contains NO spoilers. As far as I know, it doesn't contain any major plot points (there is a little dialogue, but it's in German, which I don't speak or understand). It's just a cool looking dungeon (but I believe a minor one). As I said in my previous post, the architecture and overall atmosphere is totally sweet, except for some odd particle effects.

link to the video example of what I've labeled the "green dungeon"(I guess watch it in "HD" to get a good look at what I'm talking about): -----> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH8G6em40Qw

Let me draw your attention, for a moment, to the little details like the motes of dust in the light and cool things like the creeping mists on the dungeon floor. Some serious thought was obviously put into making the architecture as foreboding as possible. Even the player character textures look fantastic. Then, to contrast this, look at the inferior texture quality of the tome/book "prop" on the stand in the main antechamber (which gets a close-up while the player character reads it), the destruction of several vases (what I'd label as the "poofing" effect), and examine the oddness of the green-flame rising from the pedestal at about 3:14. Further, take a gander at the orange-ish glowing light between the batwings of the statue at 3:36....that particle effect looks almost like forced software detail (something the game is making), as opposed to a graphics card. The slow-moving smoke animations can be seen throughout the rest of this chamber. Man, even the shadow effects look great...it's just this other stuff doesn't match up. I guess that was my point. But it sounds like 1.02 addresses some of this. I know the game is due sometime in December, but I would almost rather have it in February or March if Divinity 2 can be polished to a soft sheen. It looks to be a major RPG contender.

"not to bash you or anything, but I'd rather not have my games push high-end pc's all the way. It's costly enough keeping one's PC up to par to play all the recent PC games, I'd rather not see games come out that can only be played on less-than-a-year-old desktops."

swordscythe, I totally know what you're saying. Usually developers make PC games able to run on a variety of systems (thus capturing a larger audience/market), but also look great on high-tier systems. Since Divinity 2 will be released on Xbox 360 as well, I don't think you have anything to worry about. Remember, the X360 graphics infrastructure has been around since 2005 (or earlier), so it'll run on just about anything. Personally, I just want some aspects of this game (mainly particles) to match the artistic detail of the rest of it. The above video shows a sort of "patchwork" of graphical enhancement.

-Crumbling Pyramid

p.s. Watching these videos is just making me salivate even more for Divinity 2. It's quite heart-wrenching actually. =)

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Okay I just watched the video. I have good news and bad news.

Bad news first, that looks to be Divinity 2 with 1.02

And if you really look, the shadow has problems right now. Notice that weapons didn't cast any shadows (and that is on highest setting for shadow). Also, as I mentioned in my post, your summons does NOT cast any shadow either. frown
Also, the "zoomed" in version of the books does look pretty blurry.

Now, the good news.

That video does not look like it is recorded on higher graphic settings.

I just ran my character through similar location, and I can tell you that the smoke particles has much "softer" effect in my game. (Also, in my game, the fire that comes out of gargolyes has a much more extend and "rolling" effect, giving you are in a freezer kinda vibe).

Textures in my game are more detailed, also they react to lighting much more. For example, my character's equipments are shiny and the shininess depends on the lighting.
Also, the "zoomed out" view of the the books have much more detailed textures too.

TBH, I am very picky when it comes to graphics, and I don't think that video did a good job to showcase the graphics of the game. Maybe I should record something...

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Originally Posted by lethial
Also, the "zoomed" in version of the books does look pretty blurry.

Now, the good news.

That video does not look like it is recorded on higher graphic settings.

I just ran my character through similar location, and I can tell you that the smoke particles has much "softer" effect in my game. (Also, in my game, the fire that comes out of gargolyes has a much more extend and "rolling" effect, giving you are in a freezer kinda vibe)...

TBH, I am very picky when it comes to graphics, and I don't think that video did a good job to showcase the graphics of the game. Maybe I should record something...


That is good news Lethial! Very encouraging. After watching the youtube I posted, the sophomorish shadow work didn't bother me as much as the other glaring issues. So if those are still entact during the english version of the game, it's not a big issue for me. I'm glad to know there are other graphic connoisseurs out there.

and if you get around to posting a gameplay recording of your own, on max graphics/detail, that would be AMAZING!

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Eternal dilemma - some people complain about performance issues and low FPS, some - about low quality.
>_>
<_<
Ideal is unreachable I guess.

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Originally Posted by Kein
Eternal dilemma - some people complain about performance issues and low FPS, some - about low quality.
>_>
<_<
Ideal is unreachable I guess.


Not necessarily an "Eternal dilemma," Kein, only a situation that highlights the differing needs of gamers; sort of like a snapshot of the current player demographic. As I have recently assembled a cutting-edge system, it would be nice if a game finished in 2009 could adequately take advantage of the limits of my rig. Years from now (seeing as how I never seem to "future-proof" enough), I may have similar anxieties about a newly-released game running like these other fellows, though I will likely keep in mind that most games are created to run on older systems - and it'll only be a matter of time before I can afford (at that point) to build a new one. It's inevitable. It's the decade-long game we play as pc-gamers...like a hardware arms race.

BTW, this thread was originally created to address questions about particle effects, not to wax philosophical about desired features in an already completed game (from the developers' perspective).

And actually, it appears that larian has come close to attaining the "unreachable" in that Divinity 2 will run on a variety of systems and graphical infrastructures (like the Xbox 360, which is about 4 years old now, as I stated before). Now a real feat would be if those crazy kids could get Div. 2 to run on a netbook with shared video memory. heh game would be ugly as hell!


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