The Art Direction of Project Zomboid

[Guest]

  Over the course of its development Zomboid has seen many styles come and go, from its cartoony beginnings to the 2.5D system we have now, and while there are things like double sized textures which I think we can all agree were a good thing for the game, I'm somewhat apprehensive regarding some of the more recent changes. This mostly involves what Yuri is currently working on, but I think there may be other places where you can see this. In particular, I find the disparity in quality between the animated effect-based water, as well as the fire, and the area around it to be quite dramatic.

These are my screenshots from within the game of the water on the highest and medium settings. And don't get me wrong, the water is beautiful and I think whatever technology they used to achieve this effect is very impressive. And so is the regular game environment. But I don't think they're compatible. I still think the old water needed improvement, it looked like a big pool of frothy saliva, but I don't think this is ideal. I don't know the conversation that went on behind adding this, but it feels like they figured using a more modern and advanced method for enhancing the graphics would automatically make the game look better, but I don't think this is the case. Games like Stronghold HD or Age of Empires II HD have a dated appearance but still manage to look good, especially in the water department.

I think the reason they still manage to look good is that visual consistency has a beauty of its own that is more important than being jaw-droppingly stunning, which the new water is. 

 

Ditto for the fire as far as I'm concerned.

 

So what's the solution here? I would like it if the same methods that were used to draw the terrain were used to draw the fire and water, and maybe some slight, subtle use of animations sort of like the ones you see in pixel games to accentuate it. Of course maybe nobody would agree, as a lot of this is up to personal taste and maybe mine just doesn't line up with everyone else's.

 

Nevertheless I hope I have represented the developers' work here fairly and presented my position clearly, I know that all of this takes a lot of work so please don't take this as me trying to rip it apart. I have very high hopes for this game, so forgive this passionate post from an enthusiastic fan. And thank you.

 

tl;dr consistency with the visuals should be a more greatly emphasized  point of concern in the developers' artistic process for zomboid

 

 

 

[ZombiesLoveBrainiacs]

Agree, adding a pixelation shader might be worth giving a try here:

 

 

[YellowExxhy]

Better graphics would be dope, but I don't think this would ever be achievable due to dev's vision of the game

[Guest]

20 hours ago, YellowExxhy said:

Better graphics would be dope, but I don't think this would ever be achievable due to dev's vision of the game

I don't see why the devs would be averse to that?

[hrot]

Yeah, i really dislike what they are doing to graphics, Zomboid had/has it's unique and beautifulstyle. Effects like those don't fit this graphic style at all.

If anything at least give us an option of old water or something. Fire is not that bad but still looks out of place too.

[Guest]

On 3/2/2020 at 12:06 PM, hrot said:

Yeah, i really dislike what they are doing to graphics, Zomboid had/has it's unique and beautifulstyle. Effects like those don't fit this graphic style at all.

If anything at least give us an option of old water or something. Fire is not that bad but still looks out of place too.

FWIW I think you have the option of old water if you put the water on the lowest setting. I don't like the old either, but the new one certainly isn't my cup of tea.

 

All of the new effects look great and I'm sure a lot of work has been put into them, but when you put them alongside the normal pz style I feel like they just clash. It doesn't look right to me.

[Geras]

I agree that more pixelated look would be better, as in one of the comments here.

[EnigmaGrey]

If you’ve noticed, the trend with Pz for the past 9 years has been a slow move away from highly pixelated graphics. It’s quite possible this’ll apply to the base textures at some point (ai upscaling, underlying 3D for lighting), as well.

 

I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of this, but it’s hard to judge what fits and doesn’t fit when it keeps progressing.

[Guest]

On 3/6/2020 at 5:22 PM, EnigmaGrey said:

If you’ve noticed, the trend with Pz for the past 9 years has been a slow move away from highly pixelated graphics. It’s quite possible this’ll apply to the base textures at some point (ai upscaling, underlying 3D for lighting), as well.

 

I’ll admit I’m not a big fan of this, but it’s hard to judge what fits and doesn’t fit when it keeps progressing.

Apologies for my late response, I didn't get notifications from this thread for whatever reason. I'd just like to clarify I'm not advocating for pixel-based graphics, my only mention of them was a possible option for an effect. Above all else, what I'm saying here in my big post is I think consistency in the visuals is paramount for a nice looking game.

 

So to your point, as it keeps progressing, I suppose what I would hope for is that said 'progression,' is done with a vision for what this game should come together to look like. While its all well and good to add new systems that add visuals to the game, there ought to be some rationale -an art direction- in mind, so that you don't wind up with large disparities in visuals.

 

I can only speak as a fan playing the game, but it seems like having a plan for what you want to accomplish on the graphical side of your game will save the developers lot of time and energy when pursuing it, rather than adding some visuals here and there and then squaring them together afterward. I'm not saying we need to pull up a Viktor Antonov (although that would be fabulous) but I would like to see more regard for this side of things.

 

Nevertheless, thank you for giving my suggestion some attention, especially in the wake of the much larger changes undergoing PZ that would probably overshadow this.