Dark Avatar: The Graphics difference

Ooooooh... shiny!

Do starbases differ between races in DA?

While the textures are nicer and the edges are more smooth, this seems really overwrought. I haven't seen most of the new graphical enhancements, having not played the beta, but judging on the media screenshots, all of the textures for ships and starbases seem more than slightly busy. I rather like the style of the old starbases and components, with their clean, unfettered design.]

It's a lot like someone decided to see how many little polygonal shapes they could draw on to each component. I hate to be critical, but now you're two cents richer.



With that in mind, it obviously won't stop me from buying Dark Avatar, which I await eagerly.

Tastes will always differ, but I LOVE intricacy in art design, so this will be a welcome change for me personally Between these subtle yet detailed changes and the ship templates we will be able to create, I foresee many hours lost to designing and screenshot taking.

hmmm, one thing I reallly really want to know is if the starbase designs will differ from race to race? Eye Candy sure, its awesome, but its cooler to know that design could differ from group to group like ships do

They're similar from race to race.

Starbases are still by type: mining, military, economic and influence and not by race. I like the new detail - I think it's more realistic - not that I've seen many "real" starbases, but I still think its better.

The ships are really cool too. There's this one new tiny style for the humans and it looks just like a ... opps, better not ruin the surprise, but its really cool looking, I think.

As I recall many more of the parts from the starbases are also included for use as ship jewerly. Which means more choices for all those lost designing hours

I was thinking always since Dread Lords that ok ships are nice, making your own is nice, piece by piece and.. I think it remembers me Lego?
Well will be possible to see in future a sleak design? eg. Amidala's ship from Star Wars.. which is my favourite design I have ever seen..
or like ships we see here from mods. They are pre-made but some basic sleak designs that will differ completely from those old fashioned ships?
We could still attach pieces and perhaps the points which we attach will lock and they will take a smooth shape depended on attachment..
Ok I suppose my idea takes too far it could be in the expansion DA but its too late now. But maybe in GC 3.

It's purty...

Seriously though, its nice and I'm glad to hear the texture have been optimized a bit.

I wish you could research whole new starbases. You could first start with a basic starbase that does nothing except be there and watch over the area. Then you could research the different types that would be far different than the same old deck of three.

EX starbases: range, sensor, inverter beam*, trade, production, attrition**, cultural, espionage, carrier starbase***, Terrorstar****


*A starbase that would lock parts of the map with a starbase until you can counter research it

**A starbase that would slowly damage enemy ships that pass through its influence.

***By carrier starbase, I mean it would make ships. IE: The Homeworld mothership.

****OOPS! I shouldn't of said that one!

Moreover, because of improvements in how we did the textures, they actually use less memory.

How did you guys manage that? Usually the better the graphics, the slower your machine will run...atlest THATS how I thought it worked. Will these new textures be implemented to the ships,planets,ect?

I would guess that it involves better texture compression techniques which makes the files smaller and more "optimized".

I would guess that it involves better texture compression techniques which makes the files smaller and more "optimized".

The problem with that idea is that the more compressed an image is, the more time it takes to uncompress it. I'd also really like to know how they sped up the graphics, but I guess we'll probably have to wait until Monday for a response from any one from stardock.

The biggest change was in the way we utilize textures. In Dreadlords, we were unwrapping ships as you'd unwrap a character...each ship using it's own 256x256 texture (with some of the larger ships using their own 512's).

In Dark Avatar, we realized it was better to make a 512x512 texture that could be used by multiple ships, raising the amount of detail but lowering the amount of memory used.

The end result are ships with more intricacy and artistic consistancy.

I would like to see a Starbase-design generator, which would actually randomly generate a new kind of Starbase/game/specie, making them unique everytime.

Variable starbases sound good, but I can understand the decision to make them only differ across types. Else you would have a hard time recognizing starbase types on the map. However, if there would be a starbase editor or something like that, I would immediately start designing all kinds of starbases!

Have the graphics changed since the beta?

Not to sound negative but when do you ever zoom into a starbase? Ive never found the need to do that.

Also Ive noticed in Dreadlords that the ships/starbases in the combat screen does not look as good as they do on the main screen (when zoomed in). Is this because youre more zoomed in on combat screen that you are on the main screen?

I zoom into the star bases.....

I always thougt that the old starbases were too smooth and blank to represent the massive structures they're supposed to be.

So..er...w00t

Also I'd like to point out that that is an "example" of the graphics improvement. they have improved everything.

Can you imagine if they updated everything but the star bases?
It would look quite out of place.

i may be in the minority here, but better graphics have been one thing i'm looking forward to most. and now i learn that they use less memory? awesome.

alongside the template designer, i'm really excited. one thing i'd suggested to Kryo a while back is hardpoint caps: blank jewelry pieces that could be used to 'cap' hardpoints on a ship design, so that if and when the computer used the design it'd have far fewer options of where to put its components. i also use his hardpoint cluster and offsets frequently when designing ships.

anyway, the days are passing slowly. i can't stinkin wait.

one thing i'd suggested to Kryo a while back is hardpoint caps: blank jewelry pieces that could be used to 'cap' hardpoints on a ship design, so that if and when the computer used the design it'd have far fewer options of where to put its components

I don't recall anyone suggesting that in the past, but that is an intersting idea. I might well add that when I update for DA.

one thing i'd suggested to Kryo a while back is hardpoint caps: blank jewelry pieces that could be used to 'cap' hardpoints on a ship design, so that if and when the computer used the design it'd have far fewer options of where to put its components I don't recall anyone suggesting that in the past, but that is an intersting idea. I might well add that when I update for DA.

Wait. So if I understand you correctly, the AI design the ships dynamically? That's awesome! I thought they just used preset designs (including components) sort of like the presets you get when you start a new game.

The AIs use templates including just a hull and jewelry, and adds its own parts from there as it sees the need and technology allows. In DA you can easily customize which templates it uses, selecting from those you've made yourself in past games.

The trouble is the AI doesn't have any concept of aesthetics, so it just tosses parts on the hardpoints however it may--so even if you give it a pretty template to start, it can look pretty odd when the AI is done with it

This is also why players really need to design their own ships as well--the AI designs its own, so if you use only the core ships you're crippling yourself.

I don't mean to sound negative: I love looking at the screen shots. The problem is that I only ever get to see the pretty new graphics in those very screen shots-- I can no longer play this game using textures...

In order to avoid my game coming to a crawl, I had to turn all textures off. I didn't used to have to do that for GalCiv2:DL, but for DA, I find that the game is unplayable on my machine with textures on. If the game is now handling textures better, why am I unable to use them?